It's the Season for NaNoWriMo

It's that time of year again... NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, begins today. The challenge, in a nutshell, is to write 50,000 words of fiction -- roughly the length of a very short novel -- in one month. (It sounds mad, but this will be my sixth time doing NaNoWriMo, and hopefully my fifth time "winning.") You can track my progress via the little wordcount bar on the right.

Towards the end of November, my life might look something like this (which I consider a fine use of the Thanksgiving holiday, for the record):

So, friends (Romans, countrymen), forgive me for being a little antisocial and non-responsive for the next thirty days. I haven't fallen off a cliff, I promise.

If I Used Twitter

my post for the night would be:

Helping my sister with an English project on Julius Caesar -- haven't had this much fun with Shakespeare since college! #EnglishMajorArmadillo

That is all.

A Journal of the University Years

Here is a slightly fictionalized account of my evolution as an English major, illustrated entirely using armadillos:

The dark days of pre-med... ("Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore!'")

Upon overhearing my former classmates:

"And how much reading do you have?" (See, I remember exactly how much chemistry homework I used to get.) 

Or, in my case...
Everyone else: working on group projects in Gates (Stanford computer science building) until 2am
Me: holed up alone in dorm room, on the floor, open books spread out in concentric circles around me, writing papers

I look back at my blogging history from last year and cringe at the truth this armadillo speaks.

And then...

3am? That's cute. It was more along the lines of: peers blearily at the mess of paper (no longer neatly arranged in concentric circles), peers blearily at the small army of tea-stained mugs invading said papers, wades through the detritus of the all-nighter to find a printer as the first rays of sunlight illuminate the room.

But wait! Right before I hand it in...

Cue a second mad dash for the dorm printer, followed by a mad dash to my professor's office (possibly still in my pyjamas).

P.S. -- Don't deny that you laughed at the post title.

English Major Armadillo, or, Memes I Wish Would Catch On

I started reading this tumblr recently...

http://fyeahenglishmajorarmadillo.tumblr.com

I am so very amused. Now, should the question arise, I can tell non-bibliophiles that I am an armadillo (not this kind of armadillo, mind you). If not a separate species, certainly we're a tribe unto ourselves, at least on the internet(s). Exhibit A: Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog.

Someone please make one for history majors. How about History Major Kangaroo? Or History Major Hippopotamus (which has a nice alliterative ring to it)? (If there already is one, please do send it my way! One can never have too many nerdy web-humor sites bookmarked.)

Edit: There is one! It's called History Major Heraldic Beast, which is much cleverer than either kangaroo or hippopotamus.