let’s wrap this up

We can even pretend to wrap it up in a blanket because it’s cold and there was a blizzard this morning. I was going to take a picture of the blizzard but I don’t really need to because I took a picture of a blizzard a long time ago and the thing about blizzards is that they are not all that original in appearance. If you’ve seen a blizzard, you’ve seen all blizzards. But in case you were wondering, it’s pretty much like this. You’re welcome.

Anyway, hi. Here it is. The end of NaBloPoMo. I know I don’t have the archives from years past to back me up on this, but I believe this year was probably the easiest for me, in that I never once contemplated blowing up my blog and moving into a cave. This is probably thanks to the fact that I don’t have a job to distract me from the important work of posting about Cosmo (and oh my god, you guys, I can’t even tell you how many searches I’ve been getting every day from people trying to figure out that o-face article, but it’s some ridiculously high number, and it causes me to entertain thoughts of writing an extended o-face treatise, which is perhaps one of the dumbest ideas I have ever had, though that never stops me). I’m not sure that my posts were any better in terms of writing, but at least it was never like “Man, I had to work all day and now I have to think of something to write? Damn!” because instead it’s more like “Man, I have nothing to do so I might as well update my blog.”

So at least there’s that.

My main goal for the month, other than posting every day that is, was to post about Ulysses every day and be done with it right now. I failed on both counts. I did not post about the book every day nor did I finish it, despite the fact that I invented a clever reading plan for myself. It was just that I didn’t want to read it every day, and as much as I tried to make myself conform to my schedule, I couldn’t do it. My will was stronger than my will. Or something. I should probably finish it in a week or so, and I will, because there’s no sense in having read this much only to give up now, but I have to say that I’m not enjoying it very much. You may ask what’s the point in reading something I don’t like just so that I can write about it? If you ask that, you obviously never took a lot of English classes.

While I think it’s unfair to the book for me to judge it before I’m done (and this is why I have avoided reading any criticism of it or guides or anything because I want my opinion to be entirely my own) I’ve made a lot of progress and my thoughts about the book continue to solidify. In the meantime, despite the fact that I know it’s some literary darling, I hold fast to my belief that Ulysses could’ve benefited greatly from some harsh editing.

Anyway, I didn’t make it through the book this month. I couldn’t make myself enjoy it enough to do so. That’s either my fault or James Joyce’s fault, but either way, I’m not going to post about it here anymore. I’ll let you know when I finish it and have done the final write-up over on LitKicks, because I’m sure you’re just dying to know what my ultimate verdict on it is.

And that’s that. Since I’ll still be unemployed tomorrow I may post again or I may not, and we’ll both find out then. In the meantime, I guess I’ll start in with the Christmas spirit by putting up the Christmas tree and then watching the greatest holiday movie ever made: Die Hard. Yippee ki yay, etc.