"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." ~George Bernard Shaw

"Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time." ~Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn


Thursday, May 01, 2014

A-Z 2014 Reflections



Wildlife Safari  April 29, 2014

Q= Did I accomplish my goals?
A= I am not sure if I really had any "goals"
other than to thematically blog each
day and to answer each commentor by
visiting and commenting on their blogs.
I had fun chosing what Spanish word 
I would use each day!

Q= Did I post every day?
A= Yep-I did. I managed to post each day
early enough in the day to enable 
visiting blogs I had chosen to follow
without being online too long.

Q= Did I make new friends?
A= Yep- I did. I enjoyed talking back and
forth with a few bloggers I discovered
during this years Challenge, plus a few
that I had gotten to know last year that I
had continued to visit since then.
This year I added a sidebar on my blog
that listed what A-Z'ers I was following.
At the end I did delete those blogs that
ended up not appealing to me or that
stopped blogging before the Challenge
had ended.  

Q= Did I enjoy the Challenge?
A= I sure did! I enjoyed last years Challenge 
which is why I participated this year. 
I think though that I'd like to read more blogs,
 but not am sure how I could do that without 
spending more time online...and I am not willing
to do that. I do have a busy life!

Here are a few suggestions for my fellow bloggers:


1. I am not interested in "commercial" blogs.
If you are selling/advertising etc I am not
going to read your blog. I am not 
talking about books that bloggers are 
writing, but rather hard goods that
are being sold. When I go on sites like that
I make note of the site name and will
not access that site again. I also do not
need that vendor to use my email for
commercial use. I mark those as spam.

2. If someone makes a comment on your 
blog, try to take the time to visit them and
leave a comment. It's a two way street
and also it's good manners. A large part
of blogging for me is the community
 one builds by personally interacting with
other bloggers. I have learned so much about 
life in other places. What's the point otherwise?
I myself do not like blogging in a vacuum.

Last but certainly not least- blue ribbons to 
all our hosts who worked so hard to bring
us such a great A-Z 2014 Challenge.
Thanks to all of you!





Dogwood Blossom, Weed, CA , April 2014


8 comments:

  1. Thanks - just glad you enjoyed it!
    We remove most of the commercial blogs, but some actually post the A to Z - so we let them be. Might be something to consider for next year though.
    And so right about returning comments. And follows! I did my best to return everything.

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  2. Congratulations on successfully completing this worthwhile goal.

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  3. Hooray, you did it!

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  4. Anonymous6:12 PM

    Yea for You. You did it. I'm not sure if I will next year or not. This was a great post, too. Well said.

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  5. Anonymous5:25 AM

    It was nice to meet you through the Challenge. It was a great experience and I hope to be able to do it again next year.
    Your reflections mirror mine as well. By mid-point in the month, I started to feel a little overwhelmed by the time I was spending writing, reading and responding.

    I appear to be following you now through a Blogger account. Not sure what that means yet. Something new to learn about :)

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  6. I know you posted everyday because I visited you everyday. It was fun. I keep saying I'm going to participate, but I never do.

    I agree about returning the visits and the commercial blogs I'm not going to visit. They are doing these challenges for the sole purpose of selling stuff.

    Have a fabulous day honey. Big hugs. :)

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  7. I agree with your wrap-up across the board. I didn't get to visit as many new blogs as I would have liked, and rarely found time to do enough commenting and return visits. I'm away from home ten plus hours a day and have to squeeze everything in at night and wherever I can steal a few minutes. I so appreciated you dropping by my blog to visit, and I'll for sure be catching up on yours and a few others. This was my third round of the A-Z, and although it's a challenge, it's fun! :-)

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  8. Congratulations on completing the challenge.

    I agree with you on the commercial blogs. There were a few that I came across during the challenge that were interesting enough for me to read the posts on, but so many of them were just great essays that didn't seem to have any link to the challenge that I clicked off them.

    Like you I'm working at being better at connecting with fellow bloggers. I spent April trying to get into the habit of responding to comments on my blog as well as commenting on other bloggers' blogs. I definitely think it helps build community.

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I love comments and will attempt to reply to each one. However, lately I have been getting "Unknown" comments that are linked to some sort of web page. I will never open this sort of comment and will immediately mark as spam. I am not interested in opening something that could be detrimental to my blog security etc. Never have enjoyed hackers! Thanks!