A-Z Challenge 2012: Reflections and High 5s

First, I want to thank all the hosts for making this A-Z Challenge possible!

Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out,

Alex J. Cavanaugh,
Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs,
DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude,
Elizabeth Mueller,
Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report,
Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie,
Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain,
Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small
Matthew McNish at The QQQE,
Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse,
Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs,
Tina Downey at Life is Good,

I'm traveling all day today: planes, trains and automobiles, and not necessarily in that order. But I'll be visiting blogs as soon as I get back. Now, bring on the 6 hour jet lag!  


25 Random Reflections: A personal analysis and stuff I learned about myself as a newbie blogger

1. Meeting new bloggers/writers was by far the best part of this experience.
2. After seeing so many fantastic blog designs, I hate mine even more.   
3. I only got spammed twice. 
4. The challenge sparked two wip ideas. One through a FF piece for my N post and the other by goofing around with commentors in my J post.
5. Two of my FF pieces gave birth to Billy & Roach. Surprisingly, I got a lot of positive feedback from those sketches and it got me thinking that maybe Billy & Roach could have their own page or blog. What do you think? Problem is I'd need illustrations to accompany B & R, but it is with much regret that I was born with the artistic capability of a drunken monkey. 
6. I lost 2 pounds during the challenge. Went to the States to visit family for a week and gained them back. :/ Curse you philly cheese steak with loaded fries!
7. Sometimes it only took one positive comment to brighten my entire day. Truly.
8. I started with 46 followers, ended with 79. I fell short of the 100 mark, but considering I spent a whole month talking about insects, 33 new followers in about one month is actually great for me imo. 
9. Mid-way through the challenge I started a Sunday food post that got me 2 more followers after a two day drought. Coincidence? Maybe.
10. Until about halfway through the challenge, I was averaging 8 new blogs a day (not counting the regular blogs I visit daily). I thought I was doing pretty well until I calculated percent total and realized at that rate, I would have only visited ~13% of the A-Z list by the end of the challenge. This made me sad.  So, I bumped it up to at least 10 new posts (some nights I got in a few more). I wanted to reach the 20% mark, but only achieved 15% total visited by the end of the challenge. I wish I could have done more but coming into the challenge unprepared left me with little time to visit. This shall be rectified for next year, I'm going to start writing my posts tomorrow. :D
11. I'd buy an "I survived the A-Z Challenge" t-shirt if there was one. (; 
12. Hitting the publish button stresses me out. Every. Single. Time.
13. I can preview my post 100 times but will only find the typos after I hit publish. *shakes fist at monitor*
14. Writing post everyday, on the fly, was exhausting. But, I learned I can still function a whole month with an average of 6 hours of sleep/night. 
15. My self-imposed deadline of finishing my wip by the end of May took a swift kick in the teeth. I'm now hoping to get it finished sometime in July.  
16. One of the first things I do after reading a post on a new site is look for the “about” link because I want to know, who is this person? When no information about the author is provided, I'm actually a little disappointed and less likely to follow spontaneously.
17. I loved the A-Z buttons, the surprise me one in particular.
18. I can’t write a short post about something I’m passionate about. My average post word count was 422.
19. On average, I got 9 comments per post (not including my replies).  Comments in my comment box = I get to keep my blogging card for one more day. (;
20. I appreciate bloggers that take the time to reply to comments, whether directly in the comment box, via e-mail or by stopping by my blog and commenting. But I understand for some, especially bloggers who receive over 100 comments in a single post, replying can be difficult and time consuming.
21. Near the end of the challenge I tried increasing comments on my posts by leaving questions or prompts at the end. This proved difficult for I greatly lacked inspiration. Somehow, I didn't think people would respond well to:  "So, anyone ever contracted an insect born disease? Ever had a insect infestation in your house? Ever eaten wood?" Actually, I did use the last one. lol.
22. I tend to gravitate towards people/blogs that generate humorous and positive vibes. I also enjoy good sarcasm but that can be tricky over the internet...
23. As a commenter I’m always trying to find something positive to say, but there were a few blogs that I just didn't know how to comment (commenters block?). Plus, I’m not the kind of commenter that can leave a generic message like “nice post, thanks for the info...” even if it’s sincere. Yet, I saw a lot of those kinds of comments.
24. I hopefully followed back everyone who followed me during the challenge. If I missed anyone let me know, it was not intentional just a screw up on my part.  
25. After posting 7 FF pieces and parts of my wip, I can’t call myself a closet writer anymore (a good thing), but I do feel naked without my lamp shade on. Lamp shades are quite comfortable and warm.  

To all who stuck with me during the challenge, 
and to everyone who followed, thank you. 
You made this challenge worth it.  


High 5s to all of you!

Z for Zebra Swallowtail and Zuper Duper News!

  

I've decided to end this A-Z Challenge with the beautiful Zebra Swallowtail. No Fun Facts, just beauty in the form of a butterfly. Wow. I can't believe I posted about insects for almost a month. I can't believe you all came to read these posts!

© Copyright Brian Robert Marshall and
licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/677081

If there's one thing I'd like for you to come away with after a month of  bug fun facts it's this: The insect world is a macrocosmic wonder full of life and diversity and it's not because it is small that it should be regarded as insignificant. Insects may hold the key to potential cures for diseases such as cancer or alzheimers. And if you think about it, insects were the original farmers, architects, engineers, dancers, warriors, thieves, cannibals, and Kama Sutra masters of this planet. They excel in the art of misdirection and camouflage and so much more. We still have much to learn from these amazing creatures but have only scratched the surface. Unfortunately, their habitat in many corners of the world is being cut down and destroyed before we have the chance to fully understand and study them.

So thank you all for letting me geek out about insects. Despite the lack of sleep, it was fun and a wonderful opportunity to network and meet awesome folks. A big thank you to everyone who helped put together and organize the challenge, I'll get out to all your blogs soon and make sure I'm following. Thanks again and I'll have more to say about that in my May 7th post.

And now for my ZUPER DUPER NEWS! No,  I didn't finish my book...but, by the time you read this post, I will have ingested debatable airline food, have crossed the Atlantic ocean and will have waited 24 hours before getting my luggage (not even kidding). Good news, I'm in the US for a week visiting my Dad and I'm thrilled! I just hate the flying bit. I used to love it as a kid, but now that I have kids, flying stresses me out. But in addition to visiting my Dad, I'm also going to meet another very special individual, someone I've known for over a year but have never met in person. She is a fantastic writer, published author, super blogger and an all around wonderful person. It will take a lot of restraint on my part not to tackle her when I see her! More on that later (;

All this just means I may be off the radar for a few days but should be able to plug back into a computer soon. So in the mean time, try not to get into any trouble, but if trouble finds you, make sure you can blog about it!

Cheers (: