The end of November

Today marks the end of 30 days of consecutive blogging for myself and thousands of other dedicated idiots bloggers around the world participating in NaBloPoMo 2007. Another group of idiots extremely dedicated writers aimed to complete a 50,000 word novel for NaNoWriMo. An extremist splinter group of masochists A few brave souls were attempting both and are probably looking around, recognising children grown a month older, and a winter pelt of hair on legs or face when they glance in the mirror (or both, if extremely unlucky or hormonally challenged). Whether they manage to re-integrate into mainstream society successfully remains to be seen, and may be the subject of a future Stanford University study...

I didn't manage (nor attempt) to write a novel this November, but I did a number of other things.

I wrote, every day. It's been a long time since I could say that, and I'm proud of it. My output wasn't prodigious, nor particularly brilliant or illuminating, but the creative part of my soul appreciates that the rest of me joined in and allowed me to be whole for a little while every day. I've been side-lining my creative side for too long.

I made new friends - I've banged this drum a few times already this month, so I won't labour it. You know who you are (at least I hope you do!). I hope we can keep reading, commenting, sharing and caring. It's been a great pleasure sharing the journey with you all.

I read some amazing blogs and personal stories. Really, some of you just knock my socks off. The power and resilience of the human spirit can be read through the cyber-pages of a sample of blogs I have read this month. What some of you have dealt with, and continue to deal with every single day, is awe-inspiring - and then you turn up and blog and laugh and worry about the next person. Good on you! Reading blogs restores my faith in the human spirit on a daily basis.

I have learnt so much about blogging, social net-working, online marketing, the Internet in general. More then I ever expected, and once again down to the incredible resource which is the blogging world. Computers always fascinated me by the way they shaped simple code to store vast amounts of information; the process was at once alien and fascinating. Bloggers are the human side of computing; they, too, offer vast amounts of information, but they offer it with a personal voice, an accent, a viewpoint, an opinion, a smile. No wonder more people than ever before are going online. Learning will never be the same again. Even a passionate reader like myself can understand and embrace that idea.

So, was doing NaBloPoMo 2007 worthwhile? Hell, yes!

Will I be back again tomorrow?

Wait and see...