There Was A Party At My House!

All last month, there was a party at my house. I'm speaking figuratively, of course. My House was really my blog. The Party, was the A to Z challenge. The Invitees, were you, the readers. If you have ever thrown a party, you will most likely understand why I relate the challenge to a party.

1.) THE DELIVERY
Like a person having a party, there is a lot of prep work that takes place. You have to provide entertainment and/or refreshments for all your guests. From the comments I received, I think everyone had a good time last month. My theme, (retro TV and vintage commercials) sparked interesting conversations, much nostalgia and some great fun.

2.) THE HOSPITALITY
When one throws a party, you must be a gracious host. This means, making sure everyone, (to the best of your ability), are enjoying themselves and no one has any questions or comments that need addressing. In the blogging sphere, we do this by checking out the comments left by other people. If an invited guest in your house has a question, would you ignore them? If they commend you on the party or admire your Van Gogh print, would you respond? Unfortunately, not every host of a party does this. It's understandable if you have a large party, you might not be able to get to all of the guests every day. But we should make an attempt. I made it my goal to make sure everyone felt appreciated for whatever comment they left me.

3.) LEAVE THE PLUNGER OUT
There is no worse feeling in the world than using a toilet and watching the water rise UP. But when that happens, you know what you need to do. Grab the plunger and get rid of the crap ASAP. But what if you can't find the plunger? Ever visit a blogger where the comments are abusive or spammy? Fortunately, I did not have a problem with that, but I hear some did. For whatever reason, the host of the party failed to get rid of whatever crap was on the blog. No one wants to visit a party if they are going to be abused, accused or made fun of. About the only cleaning I really had to do was deleting double postings.

4.) SEND OUT THANK YOU'S
Any time a person visits my blog, I consider it a treasure, a gift. Depending on the type of party we host at home, people may bring you a gift or present. How can we in the blogging world show we appreciate a visitor? Well, if we receive a party invitation form them, wouldn't it be a nice thing to do to visit them as well? Sure, their 'entertainment' might not be to our liking, but wouldn't it be nice to at least let them know you stopped by? You would be surprised how appreciative that would be. I made it my goal before I returned any comments on my blog, to make sure I visited their blog and see what kind of party they were throwing.

5.) THE AFTERMATH
After any party, no matter how successful or not, you feel a little relieved. Party's can be stressful for the host. It's a time to clean up and catch your breath. At times, you think to yourself, "This was fun, but I am never doing this again", only to find out you are suddenly planning the next party. Which is kind of what I am doing. I was stressed out this year because I had a lot going on. A few days in New York mid-month meant I started to fall behind. By the end of the party (challenge), I was exhausted. And yet, I've got a few ideas for what I want to do next year.

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
Did you enjoy my party?
Did you have a favourite day?
Which of the following ideas for next year appeals to you most?

1.) Introduction to Milwaukee
2.) Board Gaming (I literally own this many board/card games.
3.) Introductions to my unpublished 'Writer's Block YA series (characters and locations)
4.) What's in my CD library? I own over 500 CD's.
5.) What am I watching? I also own a large DVD collection of TV show and films. 
6.) Group Participation Flash Fiction (I write a short story flash fiction. One short paragraph a day. At the end of the paragraph, everyone votes on how the story should proceed.
I.E. Should Ray call his shy friend 'B'etty, or his wild and crazy friend 'B'randon?
7.) PS - I'm not hard wired into any of these ideas 100% So if you have a suggestion, I'd love to hear it.

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.