Mission Completion!

Well it's been a week since the end of the April A to Z Blogging Challenge.  It's probably a good thing that it ended when it did because it's now the end of the semester and time for finals!  As part of the challenge, however, it is... suggested that everyone do a review of the experience today, so here's mine!

I originally signed up for the challenge as a way to get me blogging on a regular basis, and yes it certainly worked for the month of April.  Unlike a lot of the suggestions on the main page for the challenge, I neither wrote a full list of my chosen topics, chose a theme to write around, nor wrote any posts ahead of time.  That probably made my life a little more hectic than it necessarily had to be, but it worked out so I guess I'm okay with it.

I did have some topics before hand, but as the challenge progressed I actually became quite picky with them and most of the pre-picked topics were thrown out in favor of ones that I thought of on the day.  I really liked doing this because it made the blogs a little more spontaneous, I think, and more enjoyable for me to write.  Take my D post, I thought up that one in the shower and typed it up in about 20 minutes!  The hardest thing about that post was tracking down all the pictures.  And everybody LOVED that post, myself included.  So yes, some of my best work is definitely spur of the moment.

The thing I probably enjoyed the most was the response from my new reader base (and my old one).  Yay!  It's always reassuring to know that people actually enjoy what I'm writing, especially when I don't personally know most of them.

I started the posts with a very tenuous theme, that being things that related me to other people.  Avatar: The Last Airbender = roommate, Binturong = colorguard instructor, Chickadee = Grandma Kenney, MCKD = Dad and friends, etc.  But right around 'I' was when I started to deviate.  'I', 'J', and 'K' can be tricky letters if you ask me, and my inspiration only went so far.  I did try quite hard to stick to my 'theme' but some posts just got away.

All in all I enjoyed the Challenge, as it certainly was challenging in the way I went about it.  At this point in time I have every intention to participate again next year, and maybe then I'll have a bit more structure to my posting.  And then again, maybe not.

Z is for...

?????

Well we've reached the final post on the Blogging A to Z Challenge, April 2012! Woo! I can't believe it's the last day of April, though... where did the month go? Anyways, in celebration of the final day of the challenge, the topic is... Zoot Suit! 

What is a Zoot Suit, you may be asking?  According to the free online dictionary, a zoot suit is "A man's suit popular during the early 1940s, characterized by full-legged, tight-cuffed trousers and a long coat with wide lapels and heavily padded, wide shoulders"

Cab Calloway

The style originated in the Jazz Age of the 40s in Harlem and spread through ethnic communities across the country, primarily worn by Mexican- and African- Americans.

Blogging from A to Z

Well everybody, I just signed up for a blogging challenge.  Say what?!  Yes, it's true.  For any of you who have participated or heard about NaNoWriMo, it's kind of like that.  As you can now see to the right side of my page I have signed up for the Blogging from A to Z challenge.  This is the third year of the event, which runs the length of April.  The challenge is as follows:

"Can you post every day except Sundays during this month? And to up the bar, can you blog thematically from A to Z?

Most of the time if you subtract Sundays from April, you then have 26 days--one day for each letter of the alphabet. When April 1st lands on a Sunday you begin on that day which will be the only Sunday you would post during that month's challenge.

Using this premise, you would start beginning April First with a topic themed on something with the letter A, then on April second another topic with the letter B as the theme, and so on until you finish on April thirtieth with the theme based on the letter Z. It doesn't even have to be a word--it can be a proper noun, the letter used as a symbol, or the letter itself. The theme of the day is the letter scheduled for that day.

To provide an example: My "A" topic in the first year's challenge was a debate using April Fool's Day. In 2011 my "B" topic was Blog Boggled--a regular feature on my blog. For the letter "C" one could use candy or cake and post a recipe. D could inspire a post about the letter grade "D" as you might receive on a test in school. Maybe F could be represented by FE, the symbol for iron. "  (courtesy of the Blogging from A to Z page)

Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it?  Well, we will find out!  In two months!  I don't know if this decision is a good one as I don't know how busy my life will be in April, but I am determined to at least try.  So if any of you people out there want to participate in this personal challenge you can check out the details here- Blogging Challenge.  I hope to have some fun with this challenge, and I hope everyone out there will support me as well! 

Now, who's ready for April?