A to Z Blogging Challenge

It seems like March lasted for about five minutes.  It’s hard to believe it’s already April!  I knew March was practically over in the sense that I rely pretty heavily on calendars, but I still found myself a little surprised that yesterday was the very last day of March.

For many bloggers, April means the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  If you’re not familiar, it’s where you blog every day in April with something that corresponds to the day’s letter; A on the 1^st, B on the 2^nd, etc., and Sundays are your days off. 

I started this blog, way back in 2012, by participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  I can’t believe that was ten years ago!  Wow!  I looked through some of the old posts and saw that there are some people I still interact with regularly via Blogger, which I think is pretty cool.  I also realized that my blogging has come a long way.  We had a very slow digital camera way back then and an even slower desktop computer.  It took so long to get a post up!  And adding pictures was such an ordeal, so I very rarely had any.  That has definitely changed!

I don’t have the best track record with the A to Z Blogging Challenge; I finished successfully in 2012 and 2015.  I didn’t participate in 2013, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, or 2021.  I started but didn’t finish in 2014 and 2017.  But, the ten-year mark seems like a good time to jump back in, so here I go.

Since I’ve signed up at the last minute, I don’t have a theme, and I don’t have very many posts planned out.  I have a few drafts and ideas for things I’ve been meaning to post for a while, but definitely not 26 posts.  So, I’m open to ideas if there’s anything anyone wants to read about or see more pictures of.

So what about you?  Are you participating in this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge?  How long have you been blogging? 

A Few Random Things

This is kind of a miscellaneous post since none of these things alone are enough for their own post.  Of course, like all of my random things posts, there will be cat (and other) pictures sprinkled throughout. 

Howard

I’m trying to reply to all of the comments now.  I’ve posted about it before, and the opinions seemed fairly mixed.  I replied to comments when I first started blogging, way back in 2012, but just stopped somewhere along the way.  I’ve decided to try it again for now.  I can always stop if no one seems to read them, or if I don’t really have anything to say.  I haven’t responded to some of the comments on my photography post because they were really long when I started to, and I’ve decided to just write a post instead.  I’m hoping to have that finished soon.

Mortimer

My best piece of random news is that my dad got his first dose of vaccine last week.  My parents live in South Carolina, so my dad got vaccinated shortly after they opened up appointments for people 65 and over.  They’ve lowered the age limit now, so my mom has an appointment scheduled for next week. 

We’ve had almost a week of wonderfully nice, warm weather, even getting up to 70 degrees.  The daffodils are starting to bloom  I’ve been wishing the tree hadn’t destroyed the hammocks when it fell!  Today is the last of the good weather.  It gets rainy and colder, even going down to highs in the 50s for all of the 10 day forecast.  I hope that will be the last of the colder weather, but I’m not counting on it.  March tends to lose its ever loving mind every year and torments us with another bout of cold weather.

The company, Corel, that owns WordPerfect has absolutely terrible customer service.  We’ve been trying to contact them for over two weeks about an issue with the program. They take a few days to respond to every email, and it feels like they’ve been deliberately dragging it out.  Nick sent them all of the information they might need in the first email, but they’ve been emailing and asking for the same information he already sent, one thing at a time.  Email on Monday asking how many systems it’s installed on, email a few days later asking for a screen shot of the error, etc. 

Their latest response is that we have a pirated copy of the program and need to buy a new one.  We most certainly do not!  We bought it brand new, from Best Buy.  It’s old, but it’s not pirated or stolen.  When we first started having problems with it, I was mostly prepared to buy the new version of it since ours is old.  It seemed worth checking to see if we could get a little more life out of ours first, though.  I really, really like WordPerfect, a lot more than Word, so I wasn’t opposed to replacing the program.  Now that they’ve been so obnoxious, I’m less inclined to buy their product.  Bad customer service is bad enough, but I really don’t like being accused of stealing, which I feel is what they did when they said our program is pirated.  I use Word every day on my work computer and if the Corel people want to be jerks, I can certainly use Word on my personal computer. 

 

Caroline

I’m making mask adapters again.  One of my coworkers asked for one for his wife.  She works in retail, and had one of the ones I made early on, but it disappeared at work.  I made a few for her, and some extras for her to take to work as well.  I was really happy that someone asked for them.  I’ve been telling people to let me know whenever they need them, and I’m glad someone finally did.  My sister has handed out all of the ones I sent to her a few weeks ago, so I’m working on another batch to mail to her. 

I found a new chiropractor that I’m extremely happy with.  I hadn’t been since before the pandemic.  The chiropractor I had been going to has been open, but I won’t be going back there, ever, because of their COVID behavior.  I kept putting off finding a new one, but persistent headaches are a good motivator.  I Googled “chiropractors in my town” and then looked for Facebook pages to see what their practice was like.  I had never realized how helpful a business’s Facebook page could be!  I eliminated two from my list immediately, and found what looked like a solid first choice and a decent second choice.  I called the first choice to ask about their mask policy and ended up making an appointment for the next day.  They are awesome!!!  The practice reminds me a lot of the one I absolutely loved when I lived in SC.  I’ve been going weekly and feel so much better. 

Dogs make people smile.  Especially friendly, happy three-legged dogs.  Since almost everything is curbside or drive-thru now, I’ve been taking Duke with me almost every time I go anywhere.  He loves going for rides, and I think he misses seeing other people and going places.  He’s always so happy when I get his leash out.  And people are always happy to see him.  Everyone just seems much happier when I have Duke with me. 

Duke

So what about you?  Have you been enjoying warm weather?  Do you have a favorite word processing program?  Have you found it helpful to look at a business’s Facebook page?  

Snow Pictures & A Catch-Up Post

I seem to be sticking to a pattern of posting about once a month, so here’s the latest catch-up post, and some pictures of Duke playing in the snow.

We had a major snow storm (along with pretty much the entire east coast) on January 22^nd. Our total snow accumulation was just under a foot. We also had extremely low temperatures, and crazy high winds. Nick and Duke loved it. Emma and I didn’t venture off of the screened in porch. I actually ended up not going outside for five days straight. I really don’t like snow! So of course I’m hoping that’s it for us for snow this winter. Come on spring!

I’ve changed the comment settings on the blog to require approval for comments on anything that’s more than 14 days old. The spam on the older posts was just getting out of control. Have any of you run into that problem? Any suggestions for solving it?

If you haven’t seen the movie Inside Out yet, I highly recommend watching it. We rented it from Redbox a few weeks ago and both absolutely loved it. There was a lot more to it than either one of us were expecting, but it still leaves you with the nice happy feeling that you expect from a cartoon.

Emma is still holding her own. She has been eating fairly well over the weekend, and has been a little more active and playful. There are definitely some bad days, but for now the good days seem to outnumber the bad ones.

So what about you? Have you had any snow? How are things going for you?

A to Z 2013

I did it, I’ve signed up for the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge.  You can read more about what the A to Z Challenge, and sign up to participate yourself, here  if you’re interested.  Basically it involves blogging every day except Sunday during the month of April and going through the alphabet. 

I’ve signed up much earlier this year (I’m currently number 455) than I did last year (when I was number 11-something).  I really, really enjoyed participating in last year’s challenge, and I’ve been happy to read that many of my blog friends from last year are participating again this year.

Like last year, I am not sticking to a theme for the A to Z Challenge.  I don’t do especially well with themes.  My first attempt at blogging was with a themed blog, and that just didn’t happen.  I like variety. 

Unlike last year, I am planning to try to write at least a few of my posts (bloglets, as one blogger calls them) in advance.  I have no doubt that I will still find myself googling “words that begin with” late at least one night, but I’m hoping to minimize that.

I’m excited about the challenge.  It was a lot of fun last year, and it’s how I met most of the people that I regularly interact with here in the blogging world.

So what about you?  Have you signed up for the 2013 A to Z Challenge yet?  What number are you on the list?  Do you plan to sign up this year? 

With Or Without Your Approval?

In the course of visiting other blogs and returning comments I have noticed that quite a few blogs seem to have commenting set so that comments must be approved by the author before they will display.  I don’t remember having the option to choose when I set my blog up.  I must have, but I really can’t remember all the way back to March.  

I don’t have any sort of screening process set up.  For me it would probably turn into one more thing for me to fall behind on or mess up.  I’m not the most technologically savvy person.  

I also think I’ve been fortunate in the comments I’ve received for the most part.  You’re all very nice people!  I can honestly say that most of the comments I’ve received have been kind, helpful, or just pleasant in some form.  There have also been very, very few comments that I thought were probably spam since I turned off the word verification, so that hasn’t been an issue either.  I really hope I’m not jinxing myself here (she says as the mean spammers take over)! 

From my blogging travels there doesn’t seem to be any particular style of blog that requires comment approval or any particular style that doesn’t.  It also seems that people aren’t necessarily using the approval process to eliminate negative comments, which I think would be very tempting for me.  So now I’m curious.

Do you have to approve comments before they’ll show on your blog?  Did you change from one way to the other?  Are you considering changing?  Have you noticed any sort of pattern to blogs that require comment approval or not?  Like I said, I’m curious, so I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

A to Z Challenge Reflections Post

It’s hard to believe that it has already been a week since the last day of the challenge, yet here we are already about to move into the second week of May.

Signing up for the A to Z Challenge was one of the best things I’ve done in a while.  I’ve always said I want to be a writer, yet I rarely find the time to write.  Because I enjoy writing I’ve often treated it like a prize or reward; I’ll write when the laundry’s done, after the dishes are put away, when the house is clean, etc.  But these things are never totally done; they’re a part of life, which is ongoing.

Quote on a bench at Riverbanks Zoo & Gardens

I learned during the challenge that writing is like anything else that’s important to me; if I want to do it, I must make the time to do it.  I won’t suddenly find the time to do it.  Each day has 24 hours; I’m not suddenly going to notice that Wednesday has snuck me an extra couple of hours to write. (A girl can dream though, right?)  If I want to write, I must make the time for it, either by organizing myself a little better, or spending less time on another pursuit.  That was probably the most valuable thing I learned during the challenge.  I realize that probably isn’t very profound, but it has made a big difference for me.

I also learned a little bit about letting go of a topic, or at least shelving it for a while.  There were days that I had definite posts in mind for, yet I ended up going with something entirely different.  Sometimes my original idea wasn’t nearly as interesting as I first thought it was.  Sometimes I was just too ashamed of what I’d managed to write on a given subject; I felt that if someone was kind enough to stop by my blog they deserved (at the least) something I wasn’t embarrassed to have written.  There are some ideas I will probably re-visit at a later date, but I feel like I now have a much better handle on knowing when to move on to something else.  With limited time to write, I feel like that’s a pretty valuable lesson to have walked away with.

I also learned a little more about navigating blogger, though I still have a long, long way to go.  I will admit to being a little less than savvy (if it weren’t for my husband my blog would be even less ascetically pleasing), and I’m still trying to figure out to follow some people back, but I feel like I have made some progress as far as the logistics of posting: I can now re-arrange the pictures to my liking (most of the time) and I’ve learned how to schedule a post.

The most surprising, and pleasant, aspect of the challenge for me was how truly kind and supportive people have been.  I felt almost like I’d won the lottery when I got my first follower; each follower after that was a wonderful surprise as well.  In returning comments to other bloggers there were certainly some people whose lives and interests seem to have nothing in common with mine, yet they still managed some positive comment on my blog.  Blogger Land is filled with some really nice people, and it was nice to come into contact with some of them.

I don’t really think I can pick a favorite post; even choosing a favorite post on some of the blogs I’m following now (including the ones I haven’t really figured out how to officially follow yet) would be somewhat difficult.  But here’s a list of some of the blogs I have found that I really enjoy:

The feathered nest – She has actually come up with another sort of challenge idea, involving photo prompts that I’m very excited to be participating in.

As if by magic – I enjoy her style of writing, and her photos are amazing.

Inane Ramblings – I can never predict what her topic will be, but it has always been a pleasant read.

Writers Do Laundry, Too – I clicked on this blog because the name caught my eye; I continue to come back because I really like her style of writing.  She’s a writer and has really good insight, but never comes across as condescending.

Grits and Groceries – This is another one I clicked on because the name interested me.  Because I’m something of a procrastinator I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet, but I will.  He’s also great about answering any questions you may leave.

My Life as Lynn Proctor – Her posts are a mix of many things; humor, reflections, insights, etc that I look forward to reading.

As I said, these are just a few of the blogs that I have come to look forward to reading; it’s just impossible to name and list them all.  I am glad that the Challenge List is expected to stay up for a while, as I am sure there are plenty of other great blogs that I haven’t even gotten to yet. 

For any of the A to Z hosts reading this, I’d just like to say “thank you, thank you, thank you”.  I am so glad I signed up, and am very much looking forward to next year.  Thank you as well to everyone who has read, commented on, and followed my blog.  We made it through the challenge, and are better for it.

X-Rated Posts

I have to say that I was not looking forward to X, not at all.  It is probably the letter I have worried about the most during the challenge.  My usual fall back plan of googling “words that begin with” didn’t yield great results.  I just can’t see myself writing a post on Xanax or xylophones, or even x-rays (though I’m sure I’ve had more than my fair share). Then inspiration struck when I was visiting this blog, and read the Q post.  Yes, I realize it’s a bit of stretch to get an idea for X from a Q post, but here’s what happened.

I was tossing around the idea of X-rated posts as my topic, not in a dirty way (minds out of the gutter please), but in a “what makes you uncomfortable” kind of way.  I’m sure we’ve all seen a lot of different blogs, in a lot of different styles this month.  Some of the posts have encouraged further perusal of the blog, some have had me looking for the “follow” button as fast as I can, some have really made my day.  Then there are The Others; the ones that have had me clicking the X in the top right corner like a madwoman, the ones that have me feel like I need a shower, the ones that have made me feel like I overheard a conversation I really wasn’t meant to hear, and the ones that have just annoyed me in general. 

Don’t get me wrong; I really, really look forward to clicking on different blogs every day.  The vast majority have at least been a look at something from a slightly different perspective, or a new fun fact; something positive.  So I decided to try and figure out what it was that made me decide I would NOT be coming back to certain blogs, and here’s what I came up with:

Too much personal information – yes, we’re all sharing a lot about ourselves with a lot of people, but for me there are limits.  Hearing about your struggle with infertility is one thing, detailed posts about the state of your cervical mucus is quite another.  I also do not feel the need to know if you post naked or not.  I don’t consider myself a prude, that’s just not in the need to know category.  Bodily functions are also another topic that will send me clicking away from a blog in a hurry.

Language – yes, there are times when only a four letter word will do, and I’m no stranger to them, but when the post has more words I wouldn’t be comfortable using in front of my mom or my boss, I’m not inclined to keep reading.

Tone – this is a much more subtle one, but if a blog’s main intent seems to be to educate the illiterate masses (i.e. those of us who aren’t the author of said blog), or to preach a religious doctrine, or to promote a political ideal I tend not to come back.

Now for the fun part and the part that was really inspired by the blog I mentioned earlier, what are the things that you consider “x-rated”, that make you uncomfortable, or very unlikely to return to a blog?