Argh.

Well the Giftmas season is officially underway. Having participated in “Buy nothing day” was particularly rewarding. On the other hand, I did walk into Best Buy (it was on the way home) to look AT things to purchase, so I don’t know how well I acted in the spirit of the protest.

I did, however do my good deed for the year. I helped some parent find a video game for their child. Then again, their child asked for a DragonBall Z based game, so I don’t know if that counts as a good deed or not.

In my heart of hearts, I wish that the child had asked for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This is so I can tell the parent what the ESRB is and what the game is about. When I worked in retail, I lived for those moments. Educating a parent and crushing a teenager’s video game dreams at the same time? It almost makes me want to work at store 176 again.

Almost. Actually, no. What the hell am I thinking? Oh yeah, the miniscule discount. So. . . No. Never again.

Thanksgiving was spent in the company of friends, if not family. I’m thankful for them.

NaNoWriMo has been a complete disaster. Two years ago, I had an outline of a story that had been in my head for years. This year was a cold start. In all, I think I managed about 12,000 words of scenes of this novel. Which isn’t bad, but it’s still far, far short of the 50,000 needed to make it to the goal line.

Ah well. There’s a lesson here, which is write with a plan in mind.

The other lesson is don’t play lots and lots of video games to “clear your head.”

I’ve beaten Halo 2, Half Life 2, and have two characters up to level 12 in World of Warcraft.

That’s a lot of head clearing. And headshots.

On the other hand, it’s not like I haven’t accomplished anything.

What?