There seems to be a lot of confusion going around out there about my writing deadline. Everyone seems to think that I have to finish 30,000 words today or you all win. This post is just to remind you that you won’t be getting paid any time soon.

The deadline for NaNoWriMo is midnight on December 1st. The contest allows thirty days from November 1 to November 30. To win NaNoWriMo I would have to finish my book today. Fortunately for me, when I offered you money I gave myself a two week extension to NaNo because I specifically knew that this November would be a bad month.

As you can find right here, I wrote:

Before midnight on December 16th, 2006 I will have composed a novel of no fewer than 50,000 words. The work will be composed of entirely original material (I won’t be copying anything that I or others have written before – sorry mom, no compilation). If I do NOT complete this work, I will mail each of you a check for fifty (50) dollars.

The status indicator in my left side-column is maintained by NaNoWriMo so its counter expires tomorrow. Sadly for everyone who has called or written me today, the real counter has better than 15 days left on it.

I do appreciate all the support from you guys though. It feels really good to get phone calls saying, “Way to give up, I guess I should just go spend my fifty bucks now.” Especially so when that message comes from my mom.

I think that when this is all over I am going to take the money that I would have sent to each of you and buy myself a present with it. Not one big present, but an individual fifty dollar present specially selected for each of you. Then I’m going to take a picture of myself enjoying the gift that you could have gotten, and then I will mail the picture to you along with a thank you note.

Let’s see, I’ll be getting the Superman Returns HD-DVD for/from my dad…

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Also, this video is pretty terriffic. GTtv (is that somehow related to G4tv?) interviews a Nintendo SuperFan who is first in line camping out for a Wii.

Sad to say, most of the people I ran into on launch weekend (and during the preorders) were nowhere near as cool as this guy. At least Patrone didn’t have a wicked lisp.

“Sleep is for babies! Gamers play all night!”

And a friendly Wii-related PSA: SAFETY FIRST