Sunday, May 3, 2015

Reflections from A to Z

R.a.n.t. for week of 05/03/15
Now that April has passed, I can go back to my regular schedule of r.a.n.t.ing away on a weekly basis. It also means I will begin working on my short story collection again. Does that mean more work for me or less? Your guess is as good as mine. But it is good to reflect on the previous month, so I'll incorporate that as my r.a.n.t. for the week because working on this project has given me plenty to complain about. Well, not really, it's actually given me more to appreciate. With a few small complains.

First the appreciation. April was a great month because I had many visitors. I love writing, but I love writing more when it's appreciated. In April I also received the highest amount of traffic ever (if you discount the two months I was being spammed). Also, instead of receiving a stray comment from time to time, I received daily comments. For a writer such as myself, it means a lot. It felt like my writing was finally being appreciated. On top of all that, I discovered many great blogs and bloggers. The various topics amazed me. Anything from Cornwall to Outer-space were discussed. Tales of the Twilight Zone or a brave lizard were related. Writers gave helpful writing tips, or discussed motorcycle trips. Some wonderful information about Florida was presented and some not so wonderful disasters were described. Musical info and movies to watch. Yes, I think there was a fantastic assortment of things to read about this month. I enjoyed it, did you?

As for things to r.a.n.t. about, I will always find something. It's what I do. There were so many participants, I was not able to find time to visit everyone. I really would have liked to do that, and if I had the time, I would. Some of the blog postings were quite long, but I can't really point the finger at anyone because there would be three more pointing back at me. I tend to go on, if you couldn't tell from this post. Finding the blogs of others who visited me was sometimes nerve racking when they used Google+ to comment, but never posted links to their blog in Google+. It baffled me. Also, I found myself visiting more blogs where the blogger replied to comments or visited my blog. There where a few I visited and I didn't feel welcome so I didn't go back again.

But this was my first year. I learned a few things. I learned I was probably at fault for using Google+ to post comments. I would always forget to check boxes giving me the option to sign comments using my name and blogger page. I also discovered I didn't visit many people at first, even when they left comments. I shall endeavour to do better next year. What next year? Yes, I shall be back. I did it this year, and I can do it again next year. Maybe utilizing a few of my blogs. So, in closing, I had lots of fun. So glad for the people I met and I hope we continue to be blogging pals.

Now for a few honourable mentions.
Chrys Fey - I actually found her blog before the whole April challenge started. To be honest, if it were not for her banners posting the challenge, I would never have know about it or participated. Additionally, she stopped by every single day, left comments and replied to all the comments I left on hers. And I have a bad habit of leaving long comments, so props to her for putting up with all my nonsense and Titanic chatter. (Well, at least we didn't die on the Titanic).

Spacerguy - Besides being a Star Trek guy with a great blog, once he found my blog, he stayed through till the letter Z. And that's a challenge, I know. I posted some out of control posts. But that's me. He saw through my spoof posting. In case anyone else missed it, Spatula City is not a real store. It was a humorous parody and the tags listed that. Again, thanks for visiting!

Alex J. Cavanaugh - I guess we all know who this guy is. I was honoured he came, he read, he commented right up till the final letter. How does he do it? His postings each day were such fun. How was he able to find such diversity for each letter every day? I'm just amazed.

Additional visitors stopping by were Roy, Lisa, Jennifer, Tammy, Hilary, Arlee, Bish, Liesel, Stephanie, Kim, Mary,, Stephen, Bob and Hannah. They all stopped by frequently and left comments. I appreciated every single one. I truly wish I had time to go on about how much I loved visiting their blogs.

28 other bloggers also stopped in to say hi as well. In total, 45 people visited and were kind enough to leave a comment. I tried to return to every blog, but as I said above, I think I fell short. I shall rectify that in the next few weeks. A total of 173 comments were left during the month. I know some bloggers receive that in a single day, but coming from my world where receiving five comments a month was about it, it was a big deal.

In closing. I had a lot of fun this month. I found other bloggers I can connect with and believe I found a few more people I can rant away too. I'll see you next year. Or, the next time I stop over to your blog for a visit.

21 comments:

  1. I never got a chance to visit your blog during the challenge but am doing so now! I will keep checking back on many of the blogs that participated in the challenge. I am also a newbie and learned a lot in the process! Good luck to you, in the remaining year, with all of your blogging and other projects!

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    1. With all the wonderful blogs out there, it was too difficult to visit everyone. Thanks for stopping by.

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  2. I'm still stopping by! My only complaint about any blog hop is that so many people sign up and never read any other blogs. You usually find that if you go around and read as many as you can (not always easy, by the way!), you'll get a LOT of new followers out of it. I didn't sign up for reflections since I can't post until Friday and that would be useless. But I'm going to start visiting sites on the list today to see if I can meet a few more!

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    1. I agree, what's the point if you don't reach out to other people as well? And like you, now that the challenge is over and things have quieted down, I can read at my leisure all the blogs I discovered.

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  3. Haha! Thanks for mentioning me! And what you said made me laugh. I had no idea that the banners for the Challenge that I posted got you to join. That's awesome! I like long comments because it lets me reply back with a genuine response, and I had just as much fun as you did with all of that nonsense and Titanic chatter. Yay for not dying on that fateful ship! ;)

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    1. I'm uncertain which of your comments to reply to, so I'll reply to this one. :)
      Well, now you know posting banners is effective. Even when you don't think they mean anything to anyone. I was also impressed with how much you do for the challenge. Just replying to every comment is daunting enough. Whether you do the A-Z next year or not, you know I'll still keep tabs. See you around the blog-spere.

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  4. Glad you had such a good experience and so many visitors. Making friends is what the Challenge is all about. We discovered that the very first time and I still have great friends from that first Challenge.
    Thanks for the mention! How do I do it? Sheer determination. And lots of clones.

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    1. It was a lot of fun and I'll be back next year.

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  5. Thanks for the high five, Jeffrey! The challenge generated lots of great spirit, bloggers, fans just ordinary folks who wanted to have a good time and we did! didn't we! The fun and humor aspects to blog posts in my mind, create a more enjoyable and relaxed reader friendly atmosphere which you definitely know how to do, so keep doing it! Spatula City, me eye. LOL

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    1. I agree, very fun and enjoyable. Thanks for your kind words.
      So have you shopped at Pitch Fork Plus yet?

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  6. R.A.N.T. away - I hope to get by here more often and here the menu of insults!!

    dcrelief

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    1. Thanks for stopping. Checked out your blog. Looks very interesting. X-Ray stud finder caught my eye immediately.

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  7. Hi Jeffrey - I'm really just getting back into things now .. so pleased to have met you and found you enjoyed your 'ranting' visits to Cornwall ... I shall be around ... and yes as Spacerguy says it's great to develop friendships via the blogosphere .. and the A-Z has been an incredible help in that respect.

    Chrys, Spacer Guy and Alex are great bloggers - with fun themes .. and thanks so much for the mention .. I'll be around your rants in the year ahead ... and as you say you never know which subjects you're going to come across in the A-Z .. amazing learning curve ... Cheers and see you soon - Hilary

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    1. As always, thanks for stopping by. I have some exciting things planned for next year A-Z already. So yea, stay tuned!

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  8. Just now getting around to visiting the blogs in the challenge. April was a busy month for me. Congrats on completing the A to Z Challenge! Looking forward to next year! See you on the Road Trip!

    Mary www.JingleJangleJungle.net

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    1. You truly amaze me. I don't know how you blog every single day. And such great topics. As always, thanks for stopping by. :)

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  9. This was also my first year with the A to Z and my blog visits more than doubled. Like you, I didn't visit very many people at first, but now I have signed up for the road trip, lol. But I'm going to take it slow and enjoy the ride. Thanks for visiting my blog :)

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    1. Do you think you'll be doing the A-Z next year? I think I will. Already started to prepare something.

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    2. I am planning on it. I already have some theme ideas, and it's going to be hard to pick which one I use.

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  10. Hello there.
    Congratulations on completing your first challenge! G+ commenting drove me nuts too! I didn't get to visit your blog during the crazy month of April so I'm popping over today from the Road Trip/Reflections linky.

    Entrepreneurial Goddess

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    1. Thanks for stopping by. I'm looking forward to next A-Z month.

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