A-Z 2013 Reflections

Apologies for posting this late. 

I will be traveling all day as my vacation finally comes to an end. ): I'm sad to have to leave the States, but mostly dreading the trip back home. It starts at 4am, then a 12 hour drive back to Orlando, getting on a plane for 8 hours, waiting for a connection for 3 hours, getting on another plane for 1 hour, then driving another 4 hours to get home. Three cheers for traveling on the cheap. The only thing missing is the camel ride and a stiff drink. (; 

The Good

Visiting New Blogs: This really goes without saying. I read many interesting/pee-in-your-pants-funny/inspiring and all out fantastic posts. Wish I could name them all.

Ninja Minion: I enjoyed helping out as one of Alex J. Cavanaugh's  Ninja Minion. Being assigned to a small portion of the list allowed me to give back to the massive bloghop and still meet bloggers along the way.

Daily Posting: As opposed to last year, I came into this years challenge better prepared with short pre-written posts through the letter S. That took a lot of pressure off my shoulders for the first two and a half weeks of the challenge. After that, I was a complete stressed out mess trying to get posts written and published on time. (;

Most Popular Post: This year my theme was to write about the odd, obscure, fascinating, and bizarre things people study in this world by highlighting different 'ologies. With the exception of the A post, R for Rumpology was one of my most popular posts. And I have to admit, I got a kick out of writing it but the comments were by far what made it that much more hilarious!

Comments: Last year I averaged 9 comments per post. This year I averaged almost 40 comments per post. You all spoiled me and were on of the best parts of this challenge. I'm grateful for every single commenter and I did my best to visit and comment back.

Followers: I gained 30+ followers and followed back almost everyone. The only bloggers I didn't follow back were bloggers I had trouble finding their blog links in their profile.

Re-connecting with Bloggers: I didn't get the chance to visit as many blogs as I wanted this year. However, I did forge new connections with several bloggers already in my GFC list. THIS WAS AWESOME. Getting a chance to re-meet and learn more about these bloggers/writers was great and it added a new dimension to the challenge experience for me this year.

The List: I'm happy the list is available so I can continue to visit blogs for the next couple of months. 

The Not So Good

Time: The whole point of this challenge is to visit blogs, meet new people, and support each other during this crazy and difficult blogging challenge. Unfortunately, I had less time to visit blogs this year and that was damn frustrating. I know I missed out on many awesome blog.

Comments: I didn't have the time to reply individually to comments like I normally do. Again, this was a time issue on my part.

Blog Labels: I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of labeling blogs. However, I can see how in a bloghop with so many participants, category labels (codes) can be useful and a time-saver for many bloggers. Unfortunately, I saw some confusion with the codes, specifically concerning the Adult Content label. Though most labels were self-explanatory, the AC label could have benefited from a brief and clear definition set by the organizers before the challenge (maybe there was one set, but I missed it and it seemed I was not the only one). People have varying opinions as to what they consider to be Adult Content or Mature Content. It really bothered me, on many levels, to see so much anger unfold with regard to the AC label and who should or should not have had it attached to their blog. I hope a suitable solution can be found for everyone for next year.

Going on Vacation: Crazy I should put this under The Not So Good category but, here it is. For personal and financial reasons, I planned a family vacation at the end of April. Trying to keep up with a blogging challenge while catching two international flights and working on my beach tan is not easy. *read impossible* I have over 100 emails to sort through when I get back home. YIKES!

Overall

Overall, I had a good experience this year despite a few frustrating moments along the way and will most likely do it again next year. What can I say, I'm masochistic. :P 

A huge thank you to Arlee Bird, the hosts, and organizers for stepping up to the plate and making this another successful A-Z Challenge:

The Madlab Post (Nicole Ayers)

Tossing It Out (Arlee Bird)

Amlokiblogs (Damyanti Biswas)

Alex J. Cavanaugh (Alex J. Cavanaugh)

Life is Good (Tina Downey)

Cruising Altitude 2.0 (DL Hammons)

Retro-Zombie (Jeremy Hawkins)

The Warrior Muse (Shannon Lawrence)

The QQQE (Matthew MacNish)

Leave it to Livia (Livia Peterson)

No Thought 2 Small (Konstanz Silverbow)

Breakthrough Blogs (Stephen Tremp)

Spunk on a Stick (L. Diane Wolfe)