On relative failures
I signed up for Iron Noder 7 because moeyz urged me to do so. Last year I didn't even considered it because of my duties fo ML for my NaNoWriMo region but for some reason I believed this year would be somehow easier than last.
Of course, it wasn't.
I didn't even come close to becoming an Iron noder, writing only 8 nodes (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). That said, this November has been one of the best so far in the last few years.
Sometime in the first week of November I took up a GiveIt100 challenge of filling an unused journal I have lying around. I realized that, even though I keep many writing projects and many notebooks (both physical and digital) for writing, I don't have a regular proper journal, writing the small thoughts I have before going to sleep. I made a promise to myself to write at least one page in it for 100 days. Since it's a small journal (3.5 x 5.5 in) I don't have to write a lot to achieve my daily goal, even on those bad days when all I have energy for is a "today was a bad day" entry.
For some reason, I couldn't see my "NaNoWriMo veterans" groups since October 2013 and I missed them terribly. This year I had both weird schedules and recurring depressive episodes, which led me to believe "they" were actively putting me aside for any and all activities. We finally met on late October and we did some serious talking. It turns out they thought I was ignoring them, I explained myself and we all made amends. Since that day, we've met several times this month alone, despite all of us having jobs and hobbies to attend. It feels like a new friend group, but it's still familiar.
I had a brief but intense discussion with a manager (not mine, but a Big Cheese in the company), where I argued that I wouldn't make any more work-related travel without having some kind of travel expenses before I depart, citing the case of the previous travel that cost me over a month's worth of wages in just a week. The manager got angry, as usual, and escalated the discussion to his superior, the CEO. He ruled in my favor and delayed the travel for a few more weeks "so we have the money and an actual schedule before sending Andy over". It felt like a major win.