On July 15th, 2011, I challenged myself to complete a specific writing assignment nearly every day. Because I'm prone to bullshit amounts of needless organization, this challenge originally included a ridiculous amount of detail that actually worked against progress. I learned and simplified. I will write at least 500 words a day. Every day I succeed in reaching this goal, I will donate $1 to the . Every day I fail in reaching this goal, I will donate $1 to . *shudders*
The Rules:
No working ahead. I can, of course, jot down ideas and such as they come to me, but those notes don't contribute to the daily 500 word goal.
Up to four "free days" are allowed each month, in which no assignment is required, to account for sickness, travel, conventions, etc...
Really boring posts that talk about how I met my 500 word goal will be posted here roughly once a week.
Donations will be submitted to the applicable organizations at the end of each month, and proof of donation will be posted here.
Frequent visitors of the blog may notice the conspicuous lack of Challenge Donation Totals in the right-hand menu. I am officially calling the challenge off, for a couple of reasons:
1 – Between school, the blog, various essays, a possible book in the works, and volunteer efforts, I have absolutely no problem writing every day. In fact, writing has become such a habit that I can’t shake the nagging feeling that I’m forgetting to do something on the few days I take a break from it.
2 – I have imminent plans to become significantly more poor (I’ll write more about this when it’s appropriate), and I simply can’t afford to donate a dollar a day at this point.
Essentially, the challenge has served it’s purpose and it won’t be long before I won’t have the cash to support it anyway. I hope Answers in Genesis enjoyed spending my dollar – it’s the last one they’ll ever see from me.
Shocking, I know… only I’ve just realized it, and there are a number of events that correlate with my turning to the next page of my Goats in Trees calendar:
1 – The writing challenge is back on! Yes, I’m still mildly depressed. No, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be going away any time soon. It isn’t debilitating by any means; this time around it’s mostly presenting itself as a sometimes overwhelming feeling of Don’t Wanna’. Years of dealing with the swings of mild-to-moderate depression have taught me that the Don’t Wannas have to be powered through rather than waited out. Finding the willpower to force myself to go against the depression can be a bit rough, but it gets easier with every act of defiance.
On a related note, I have realized that I forgot to make my donation for the month of December. I’ll make that donation and post the evidence in the challenge blog.
2 – REASON RALLY!!! I’m pretty excited about this thing. It’s going to be a whirlwind, for sure, but it’s a whirlwind I’m looking forward to being swept up in. The speakers and performers are awesome, and I’m certainly looking forward to experiencing them, but what really has me pumped up is that hordes of fucking heathen are going to congregate in Washington DC. The quiver of terror in the voices of end-timers ALONE has me trembling with anticipation. Striking fear into the heart of the monster I used to be? That’s fucking priceless.
3 – American Atheists National Convention!!! The speakers list for this thing is INSANE and I’m going to love every atheistic minute of it. I’m especially looking forward to thanking Aron Ra in person for inspiring me to go ahead and start working for that degree. Oh, and hearing Greta Cristina’s new speech, “Coming Out: What Can the Godless Learn From the Queers”! Ooo! Victor Harris’ performance is a big Don’t Miss for me too! I could go on… but there’s no point, there isn’t a bad speaker in the lot.
4 – It’s Birthday Month! March is a busy birthday month for my family – My mom and uncle share the 10th, mine is the 14th, and my dad’s is the 28th. We’re all past the stage where every year is a big production, and pretty much only make a big deal of major decade markers… but it’s still kind of cool to have a birthday to look forward to nearly once a week.
5 – University Crap I Hate! FAFSA priority deadlines, scholarship deadlines, blah, blah, blah…
It’s nice to be back. I feel less like me when I’m not pounding out my opinions on the keyboard. :)
Daisies and Shit : December 28, 2011 9:58 am : Challenge
It would appear I’ve fallen a bit behind on the challenge updates, eh? Here’s what you need to know – I’ve used up all of my sick days this month, started a couple essays that are going to take me some time, and written a few blog posts. I thought winter break would help me write more, but it’s actually been a bit of a hindrance simply because I’m off schedule. No matter, I’m still keeping up with it and AIG hasn’t earned any more of my money.
Daisies and Shit : December 5, 2011 11:21 am : Challenge
This last week was pretty steady; didn’t accomplish anything astonishing, but I didn’t fall behind either. I did, however, manage to lose around two hours worth of writing thank to a minor bout of stupidity. Save your work, friends… frequently. Still, all-in-all, it was a pretty good week and since we’ve shoved yet another month into the can, here’s proof of November’s donation to the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science:
Apparently, the folks at Answers in Genesis haven’t been praying hard enough to make me fail. They didn’t get squat. :)
Daisies and Shit : November 28, 2011 10:17 am : Challenge
I had a fairly deep, but impressively short, bout of depression Monday, so I took the day off. Bit of blogging Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by Thanksgiving day which I also took off (that’s 3 days out of 4 if you’re keeping track). Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I wrote utter crap. Blech.
