Hello and Welcome

I’m Carol:

and this is my own little world. I drink frozen margaritas and various types of beer, my favorite season is autumn, I like green olives, drive a very dirty RSX hatchback, listen to Clapton and Coltrane a lot, am hopelessly addicted to British TV, and live with a mostly black half poodle dog named “Chase.” But, enough yada yada about me, this is about NaBloPoMo, or “National Blog Posting Month” for those not in the know. Some of my regular readers (*waves*) might be wondering why, after so long, I’ve decided to finally introduce myself, and I’d be happy to explain.

You see, today is November 1st, and it marks the start of something my new visitors like to call NaBloPoMo, or “National Blog Posting Month.” The way it works is simple: all of those participating in the event need to post once a day for a month. If, at the end of the month, we’ve posted 30 posts in 30 days, we get to display a banner on our sites. Here at Carol’s Little World, we have an added challenge, an extra task if you will. An “anonymous” friend of mine (actually a rock band) has agreed to (once again) make a sizable donation to a local Austin women’s shelter if I can complete the NaBloPoMo challenge. This year, there’s a lot of money at stake for women in need if I can somehow manage to wrangle up 30 blog posts in as many days. So, to those of you who are new, and just stopping in for the first time, I say, “welcome” and won’t you please help me along. For my regular readers, welcome back, and welcome to the madness that is NaBloPoMo. There’s a lot riding on this, it’s all for a good cause, so let’s hope I can get it done without sounding like a complete idiot (a tall order, but, you know, one I feel I must attempt nevertheless.)

This year, since a lot is riding on this challenge I’ve decided that I would call in a bit of help. I thought I would give myself a kind of “loose theme” that I could fall back upon, should I happen to need some help, and run out of topics to blog about. (If you recall the last time I participated in NaBloPoMo, I actually finished the challenge, though even I have to admit, by the end of the month, my posts were getting quite lame, even for me. This year, I hope to avoid all of that by enlisting in a bit of help.) For this year’s NaBloPoMo, my theme is going to be “driving towards December” or things loosely related to driving, racing, riding, cars, or otherwise moving about. If it helps you get from here to there, it can help me get from here to December. (That’s my tag line and I’m sticking to it.)

For this challenge too, I am enlisting in a great mystery man to help me should I get into a jam. Now, he may be the strong, folded arm, white helmeted wearing silent type, but I’m going to call upon him to help me get through the next 30 days. Yes, snowflakes, this year, I’m going to complete my NaBloPoMo challenge with help from none other than The Stig himself. Though he’s not actually going to post here (he can’t, as far as we know, work a computer keyboard) and I can’t really say I’m connected with him in any way (much to my dismay, as I do dearly love him and want to marry him, though I’ve no clue to his real identity) he’s going to help me out by being introduced. You read that right, whenever I fall short of a blog posting, run out of things to say, or, you know, the clock strikes midnight, in order to complete the challenge, I’m going to bring you: “Stig-isms that Weren’t.”

Now, for those not familiar with Top Gear, allow me to explain. The show features, as one of its “anonymous” presenters, a “tame racing driver” they call The Stig. The other presenters of Top Gear (that would be Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, for those not in the know) usually offer up funny introductions for The Stig, saying things like, “Some say he’s befuddled by clouds. Some say he’s afraid of cats. All we know is, he’s called The Stig…” To complete NaBloPoMo this year, I’m going to “borrow” (ok, maybe “blatantly steal” would be a better choice of words) that format. The Stig-isms I’m offering up are not actual Stig introductions that are used on the show itself (no, you’d recognize those-those are actually funny) rather mine are sort of Stig-isms that weren’t. Introductions that would never fly ’round their track and make it to the finish line, to actually make it onto the show.

So, for the next month, apart from “yapping and snapping” away about cars, racing, driving, and all of that, I’m going to offer up a month’s worth of “Stig-isms that Weren’t” in order to complete my challenge.

Zoom Zoom. Wish me luck.

Until tomorrow, I hope, this time…

PS Oh and, in case you’re wondering, yes, there will be a prize in it for you too. Watch this space (or, you know, one just like it) in the coming days for an announcement regarding a prize I will give away, should I happen to make the 30 day mark.

And, we’re off….