As I look back on the month of April, I'm so thankful for the A-Z Challenge and those who organized it. Thank you for the challenge and the encouraging online community!
Participating in the A-Z Challenge was a valuable experience that taught me several things:
1. I respond well to structured deadlines.
Having the daily goal of writing a blog post motivated me to write everyday. Now that the challenge is over, writing a weekly or monthly post should (in theory) be easy in comparison to the daily deadline.
Have any of you kept up the daily posting after the challenge? If so, kudos to you!
2. I have a love/hate relationship with technology.
At my worst, I use my lack of technical savvy (or interest in it) as an excuse not to write or blog. At my best, I persevere and try to learn how to use the new programs that are constantly upgrading and changing. For example, Blogger upgraded to a new look and feel at some point during the challenge. At first this caused me to seize up with terror because nothing looked familiar, but I went through the tutorials, learned new navigation, and managed to complete the challenge.
Are any of you "secretly" Luddites who have nostalgia for typewriters, letter writing, and books made of paper and glue? I tend to idealize these old school forms of communication, but in comparison the speed and benefits of current technology are overwhelming. I mean, if an EMP hit and the internet went bye bye, would I actually have the patience to write pen and ink letters in calligraphy? I'm so spoiled by speed now. Which brings me to my last point...
3. The slow speed of my desktop computer threatened to turn my hair white.
For some reason, my computer liked to initiate McAfee updates whenever I sat down to write or comment on posts. Even after I clicked "update later," it managed to override the system and start scanning which slowed everything down to a snail's pace. This is a mea culpa to all those who visited and commented on my blog. I'd planned to reply to every comment and visit everyone back, but my time ran out (as well as my patience with sitting at my computer watching the screens freeze). So I plan to continue visiting A-Z blogs during the month of May. On the blogs I was able to visit, I was amazed by the creativity and inspiration that was shared. It was thrilling to have a window into the lives of people living all over the USA and beyond!
Did any of you stumble across bloggers living halfway across the world? I had a comment from someone living in England that made my day! Or maybe you learned of a fellow blogger that lives in the same city you do?
Overall, I was encouraged that people from different walks of life could relate to the feeling of nostalgia. I hope reading my A-Z posts made you reflect on happy childhood memories and inspired you to make memories right now that you'll look back on fondly in the years to come.
5 comments:
I, too, was distressed when Blogger changed the dashboard and create post format, but I managed to switch it back, at least for the time being.
I thoroughly enjoyed your themed series, and I've found myself waxing nostalgic on more than one occasion lately because of it. Keep up the great work!
Congrats on finishing and on adjusting to the new format!
I am still going with the daily posting with NaBloPoMo!
New follower, liked your reflections post. Nice to meet you.
One of the plus factors of participating in a challenge is we discover works and doesn't work for us.
Hope you'll pop by my blog when you have time.
http://dghudson-rainwriting.blogspot.ca/
Congratulations on making it to the end of the 2012 Challenge. I know what you're saying about the tech things. I have that same McAfee thing--what a hassle! My computer can be pretty fast much of the time, but still if it were faster and my internet was consistently fast, I'd get a lot more visiting and commenting done.
Thanks for the Reflections post.
Lee
A Faraway View
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