Maybe it is just an addiction, like so many other things.

That is the only logical answer.  As November changes into December, we scramble; trying to finish, trying to complete.  Some will finish satisfied, while others give up hope early.  Come December, there are those that swear they will never do it again.  I was one of those people.

Eleven months is a long time, making it easy to forget the pain and heartbreak.  As the first of November nears, we become giddy with anticipation and hope.  Maybe this year will be different.  The pain wasn’t too bad last year.  Just one more try…

The famous last words of an addict.

Starting at 12 a.m., thousands of repeat offenders joined by fresh blood kicked off National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo to those that compete.  Participants will attempt to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November averaging roughly six pages or 1,700 words per day.

The event began in 1999 with 21 participants and six winners.  This year, over 90,000 have signed up to try their hand at a rapid-paced novel.

“Most really good fiction is compelled into being,” says author Tom Robbins in an email sent to participants.  “It comes from a kind of uncalculated innocence. You need not have your ending in mind before you commence. Indeed, you need not be certain of exactly what’s going to transpire on page 2. If you know the whole story in advance, your novel is probably dead before you begin it.”

To find out more about my experience with NaNoWriMo, click “Read the full story.”  Please note, I will post experiences from this year’s competition in the comments of this article.
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My goals were simple when I was young.  Be a starting defender on the soccer team.  Save up the money to buy a cool car.  Talk to women in hopes of a date.  Most goals were relatively short term, and easily achieved or forgotten.

As we get older, setting goals becomes more important in shaping our lives.  We each have a set of goals or a list of things in our mind we want to do in life.  About five years ago, a friend sent me a link about writing goals and discussing with friends.  The objective of the exercise was to vocalize goals, allowing friends to help you achieve them.  Not surprisingly I was the only one in my group to make the list.

I was reminded of this Sunday, as the New York Times had an article about life lists.  These goal lists are the new fad among baby boomers and Generation X’ers alike. It had been a while since I examined mine, so I decided to pull it out.

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My mind races to my childhood, and my grandmother’s farm.  During the summer, I would often help with chores.  As a reward she would make dinner, or at least offer a treat.  A glass canister shaped like an oversized perfume bottle contained my favorite.  The name Orange Slices implies these sugar-covered candies shaped like an orange segment had some redeeming characteristics to them.

“You realize there are no natural ingredients in those things,” a classmate pointed out as we sampled various foods, including my beloved Orange Slices.

Like a child that knew in the back of his mind that Santa didn’t exist, I was probably aware that these fixtures of my youth were a creation of chemicals melded together.  Like a child, I was not ready to believe it.

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“It’s not that I don’t like you; ok, it is that I don’t like you.” A normal conversation I had with a stranger during a night out.

I call it being blunt or overly honest. Most people call it being an asshole.  Rather than fight over terminology with these bastards, I simply smile and say, “Yea, that’s me.”  I embrace my inner asshole, because I enjoy it, and well, I’m good at it.

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Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert has a wonderful post on his blog explaing his formula for success:

If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:

1. Become the best at one specific thing.
2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility. Few people will ever play in the NBA or make a platinum album. I don’t recommend anyone even try.

The second strategy is fairly easy. Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort. In my case, I can draw better than most people, but I’m hardly an artist. And I’m not any funnier than the average standup comedian who never makes it big, but I’m funnier than most people.

The more you can be good at, the more marketable you are. Read the entire article.

People often ask me as a single man how will I know when I have found Ms. Right; that perfect woman that I’ll want to spend my life with. Well, there are a couple things a woman could do that would lead me to believe she was the right one:

To start, she could be wearing these earrings when we met.

If we dated for a while and I decided to propose, she could request this for her engagement ring.

On our wedding day, she would want a cake like this one.

Thirty years ago today, one of the most influential films of a generation was released in theaters. Star Wars is still extremely popular today after three decades. Hundreds of books, comics, and fan films have been written around the world that George Lucas created. To honor the birthday of this generational pop-culture phenomenon, I’ve included a link to my short story “Geekend,” which I wrote the day after seeing Revenge of the Sith in the theater. Enjoy.