November 2010 Recap

Blech. What happened? November was our least productive month in a whole year! And after adding a seventh logger to our crew (welcome again, Brian) we should have no excuses for such a slow and sorry month. And yet, I'm alright with the fact that it was our worst month in a year. I'm alright with that because November 2010 still beat November 2009 pretty soundly. Logging may or may not be cyclical and pattern-based, but if it is, then we should have come into the month with no expectations at all. Even if it was only Sweeney and I logging back then, we only managed a paltry 16 posts. What is it about November that says "don't read books or watch DVDs or play video games?" I'm not sure. Maybe Thanksgiving? Maybe, contrary to popular belief that darkness makes for good indoor time, it's the end of Daylight Savings Time? The world may never know. But December is here now, so I expect better things; last December there were 150% as many loggings (24) as there were last November (16). I'm not saying we should expect 35 loggings this month, but I would hope that 30 is attainable, especially given all the time we'll all invariably have off. Hell, why not go for 40?

But then, why shoot for quantity (X number of posts) when it's equally impressive to complete a smaller amount of larger endeavors? Perhaps this has been a flaw as well. By aiming to finish off dozens of shorter books, movies, and games, we leave the beasts of our backlogs. And that is why this month my goals will pertain to lengthier items. But first, how did I do on my November goals? I finished 12 things and unintentionally made it a nice 4-4-4 split between DVDs, games, and books. But what matters more is that my scant one purchase on the month made for a "logress" (logging progress) of +11. Excellent! December brings Christmas, and Christmas brings backlog reinforcements, but I must say I've done pretty well in the past two months (after doing horribly for most of the March through September stretch). I still have something like 120 games, books, and movies to get through, but if I can make strides of +11 every month (and I can't) then I'll be done in a year's time (but I won't be). My one "blemish" in November was my failure to finish Season 1 of Sons of Anarchy. I'm definitely on my way though, through four and a half of thirteen hour-long episodes.

So let Sons' Season 1 be first on my list of December-specific logging goals. And let another goal be another season of The Wire. After all, I said I'd be looking to knock off lengthy items this month. Speaking of which, on the book front, put me down for Ben-Hur. It's the longest work of fiction remaining on my backlog (600+ pages) and if ever there was a month to read a story about Jesus, it'd be December. (Or maybe the running joke could be that I'll start the book now and finish it by Easter? We'll see...) And when it comes to video games, I can promise to finish off both Rock Band 3 and Ico, but neither of those is a lengthy game. Perhaps it's time for me to finally get back to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, a 30 to 50 hour game that I'm probably 15 or 20 hours deep into. Cool.

I usually end by asking my fellow loggers if they've got anything specific to log. But this time around I'm going to spice things up and risk controversy by issuing some challenges instead. I mean, we had a pretty weak month, and the six loggers besides me combined for just 11 posts. Maybe everyone else needs some motivation. So at the risk of coming off like a douche, I'll say...

Sweeney: I guess I've got nothing specific to ask of you, since I know your lower monthly totals are a result of tackling longer games than I typically do. Perhaps you'd care to join me in "endless novel" land and take a stab at Ulysses?

Webber: Five posts this month. You went from four in August to three in September to two in October to one in November. Bounce back, baby. Bounce back big.

Marissa: A post every week. You seem to have a tendency to read or watch a bunch of things and then go rapid fire at the end of the month in posting about them all. If you post about things as you finish them, you'll be much better off. And who wants to spend New Years' Eve posting to this silly blog?

Trevor: You're pretty consistent and I like the wide array of things you're logging - books, movies, games, TV shows - so I've got nothing specific for you, either. Just keep doing what you're doing and shoot for five posts if you want to.

Keith: Anything. Any post will do. A comment left on someone else's post would even be nice. We miss you, man!

Brian: Let's get some games posted, huh? Your Backloggery page says you've finished two games in the past two months. you're better than that!

Of course, anyone can fire a challenge right back at me. There's no saying I'll accept it, but we'll see. Also, feel free to state your own December goals in the comments section. Merry logging and blogging, everyone!