Having kicked off
this thing with
a daylog, I might as well close with one as well.
I said in that daylog that I had been away from e2 for eleven months. In reality, that was only the last time I logged in, and I didn't do anything at that time except clear out a couple notifications. The last time I noded before this November was April 9th, 2007. That puts my "fled noder" period at about 18 or 19 months. I don't know how long I stuck around after that node, but I doubt it was for very long.
I'm glad I joined the Iron Noders. For one thing, I've been a user since December 2004, and before this November only had 31 writeups. That means I came two writeups short of doubling that number in this month alone. I've seen people say that this quest is only an excuse to node for numbers, and maybe that's true for others, but I've been putting more effort in these ones than my older ones. The only new writeups I've seen this month that I've downvoted have been from new noders.
This return of mine has been about as triumphant as I imagined. Getting back into the rhythm of noding was made much easier because of the Challenge. I've also been talking in the catbox a lot more than I did before. I'm not anywhere near the Hall of Shame, but according to the archive, more than 60% of my catbox comments have been in the last 25 days. I'm not as hesitant to speak up anymore. Er, type up? Hm. Moving on...
I've also been reading a lot of things that I didn't before. I watched as the bulk of sam512's Ed Stories got posted, but I never took an interest in them. I finally got to reading them three days ago, all in one shot, and they were great. Another group of writeups I've neglected is poetry. Before, I wouldn't even vote on poems, just because I didn't enjoy them and didn't feel qualified to decide how good they were. I had no opinion. Until this month I'd never read anything by Aerobe, but her and Spiff's poetry have attracted my full attention. I'm still not crazy about poems as a whole, but I never miss one of theirs. I might as well say that I'm thoroughly enjoying Custo's SPECWEAPS series, while I'm namedropping like this.
After this month, I don't think I'll be leaving, at least not for a long while. Between Swap taking pictures of amorous young lovers in Estarbooks, leuryaks' constant ROROing, and the sweater biscuits thing, the catbox alone is capable of keeping me here. I certainly won't be noding every day, but I'm sure I'll be contributing. And, of course, reading along. I've got to find out what happens after PORTAL/ALEPH after all.