What have I learned in TWO YEARS of blogging?
Well…
That’s a tricky question.
I’ve learned a lot in the last 2 years. Some of the things I’ve learned were even things I never thought I’d need to know, like how to create an image map. Some of the things have been a long, painful struggle to learn, like how to create an image map.
Sorry, I’m not very good at coding websites, and having finished creating a brand new theme for the website to start off year 3 right, I’m pretty proud of it.
Especially the Image Map…
Did I mention it was a pain in the butt to make.
But Seriously, the last two years have been full of wonderful and amazing things.
People Met
I’m met some truly awesome people thanks to the blog, both in person and online.
I’ve given you lots of chances to get to know them in the past, but I think I’ll throw them out there again today, because, hey, it’s what awesome does, right?
- mark Stratton – I met Mark in person at Planet Comicon, and I want to say, “Mark is CAPITAL A AWESOME!” Mark is also the poet that inspired Bad Poetry Day. No, this is not because Mark is a bad poet. Mark is a great poet. He did, however, challenge me to write some epically bad poetry, which, I have been told several times now I failed at. Mark writes a bloggy thing. It’s called Aggaspletch and you should read it.
- Tracy Mangold – Tracy is Inky Twig. She’s a wonderful, friendly lady from Wisconsin that has an obsessive need for pumpkins. I find that in the blogging world, obsessive needs for things are not that uncommon. Actually, it’s basically how we tell each other apart. Tracy likes pumpkins, Mark likes Bacon. I like beards. Tracy writes some poetry and tells us about her life, but mostly Tracy is just a cool lady to know.
- Stereo* – Stereo* (I always put the * because she always does) writes UncleTypewriter. She’s a twenty something from London. She’s a badass. She likes owls (see every blogger has a thing). Stereo* tells it like she sees it, and usually with some insight and wisdom that belies her age. You might think she’s seventy or eight, but she’s not.
- Brandee Baltzell – Brandee cheats. She writes two blogs. The first blog is about her life in some desert state in southwest America. I won’t tell you which state, because then you might get ideas about her being a crazy person that wants to fire aliens back to the moon. You can read that blog and realize she’s not one of the 90% of the people from her state that is completely insane. That’s Brandeewine, by the way. Her other blog is about how she’s actually insane because she wants to be a Derby Dame, and those chicks are tough! That’s Derby Dreams, for the record.
- Marshall Edwards – Marshall is another writer from Kansas City. He’s a pretty hep cat, and I’ve known him for a couple of years now. He writes about his life, his writing, and his comic book over on his blog. You should check it out. Marshall is an excellent writer and needs a way bigger fanbase.
- Jason Benoit – Jason is an amazing writer. His stories will jerk on your emotions every possible way from Sunday and you will beg him to give you more. I haven’t seen Jason on twitter recently, because I think he might have moved on to Google + and left the tweeting behind, but you can still go and read his blog, Love Letters and Suicide Notes. Pick up his ebook for a small donation (anything you can afford) and really enjoy some amazing writing.
- I’m not going to tell you about Yeti Detective again, because, I think you know.
Of course there are a ton more people to learn about, and you can pretty much go to my twitter followering page and just pick a random person and be happy. I tend to drop the people I don’t want to deal with.
Lessons Learned
I’ve learned a few lessons over the last two years, some of them more painful than others, but all of them important.
Okay, not all of them are important. It was very much not important for me to learn how to ladder tie my shoes, it just made it feel less like a lie to draw my shoes ladder tied if I laced my real shoes that way.
- From very early in the blogging process I learned that my Dad is always a great source of both advice and entertaining information. This is why there are dozens of posts that use my dad as a theme. He even wrote a post for me a long time back, so you can see his wisdom first hand.
- When someone you met through Reverb asks you to participate in a blog challenge, you say, yes. The posts I wrote as part of the Reverb and Scintilla months have been some of the most genuine, powerful, emotional and popular writing I’ve ever done. Not to mention all the amazing people I’ve met from participating in those things.
- Bounce.
- There are some things that start off as a meaningless joke but eventually flourish into something bigger, like Professional Adulthood.
- People like it when you defend a clown.
- Never mix Pinot and Merlot – Actually, since this was written my rule has pretty much been “Stay Sober.” That isn’t to say that I haven’t imbibed, or even gotten stupid drunk, but I restrain myself most of the time.
- My mom reads what I write, but has a super human ability to ignore things she doesn’t want to know.
- No matter how good an idea seems, it might not catch fire the way you wanted it to.
- Windows Live Writer is a Godsend.
- When I put my mind to it, I can knock out more than 50,000 words in less than 30 days.
- No matter how blatantly you make humor, some people will think you’re serious.
- Embrace Space Penguins.
- If all of your friends are Fan Boys, be ready for arguments both on the blog and in person when you criticize their fandom. This is doubly true if you’re right and they’re in denial.
- Spell Checker doesn’t do a great job with Grammar.
- If you put “Saturday Afternoon” in the title of a blog post, it will be read every Saturday for eternity.
- Even if it is clearly marked as “Fiction,” friends will ask you if your okay after writing about a traffic accident.
- Sometimes even if you think it was a crappy post, you can be reminded that the very first thing you wrote still has some serious meaning.
Moving Forward into Year 3
Last year on my blogiversary I did a 7 links meme and ended with a note looking forward to year 2.
Over the last year, I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’ve met some amazing people. I’ve written some fiction that might even be decent. I even wrote some poetry.
I’ve doodled. I’ve bled on the paper. I’ve cried. I’ve sweated. I’ve gotten frustrated enough to throw a monkey through a brick wall…
But I haven’t quit.
There are very few things in my life that I can say that about. Basically this blog and LARP. I don’t know what I can say to thank all of you for the wonderful encouragement and amazing sense of belonging that I have gained from your comments, your twitter messages, your Facebook friendships and even the handful of +1’s I’ve gotten.
It all means a great deal to me, and I thank you for it from the very bottom of my heart.
Now were moving into year 3, the last year of my 20s. 12 months from now I will no longer be a 20-Something Blogger. I don’t really know how to be a 30-Something blogger, so I guess I’d better spend the next year learning, right?
I can tell you now some big changes are on the horizon for me, and they will effect how my life plays out and how this blog gets written.
It is my sincere belief that all of it will be for the better.
Thanks for Reading,
M.A. Brotherton