Friday, May 6, 2011

The Great Tebahpla

a.k.a A Fond Look Back on the A to Z

Thar be but two days left to enter me Pirate Haiku Contest. It ends Saturday, 5/7 at 5pm.

Although the following retrospective may only appeal to me, I'm still going through with it. You know why? Because I'm me. And I like things that appeal to me.

Anyway, like many participants in April's A to Z Challenge, I started off strong, and even without eating my Wheaties. I'd written the first week's worth of posts ahead of time, so I began visiting other blogs left and right. Things were good for a while, but I couldn't keep up the pace. Halfway through, I began to tire, and soon real life interfered. By the final week, I only had one of the last six posts written, and I barely made it to any new blogs. I regret I wasn't able to visit more bloggers, but that's really my only complaint. I found new and exciting blogs, wrote a few inspired posts, and gained followers who are delusional actually enjoy what I have to say. It was a great month.

By the way, in case you missed them, here are the posts I feel were my cleverest, craziest, and Jesus-meets-Hitchhiker's-Guidiest, respectively:

First Conceived: C (A to Z Contest), Q (Questioning Qwyjibo),
V (Vampires vs. Velociraptors!)
Last Conceived: P (Primordial Pluperfect Prepositions)
Fastest to Write: P
Longest to Write: A (A Ragman's Anagrams, or how Justin Bieber = Inert Jubbies)
Done Weeks Ahead of Time: H (The Half Humphrey), R (Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic),
T (The Top Ten Things That Threaten to Topple This Theocracy)
Done Last Minute: W, X, Y, Z
Most Read: C, B, A, and for some reason, O (Oh. Em. Gee.)
Least Read: Y (The Sometimes Y), P, N (Nothing, Nil, Nada.)
Most Misplaced: K (Kurious Khemical Kompounds)

Also, since so many people asked about the letter images (technically, no one asked, but you shut up), I'll share the background on those. I painstakingly created them myself, using 24 different fonts and practically every Photoshop layer style known to man (plus a few others only women know about).

I wanted to get all the letters in one place, so you'll find them below. Hover your cursor over a letter to display the title of that day's post, and click to go to the post itself. (If you hover over the same image in the post, you'll get an alliterative sentence using that day's letter.)

So, will I do the A to Z again next year? I don't know. All I know is that if I do, I won't be nearly as creative as I was this time around. Creativity takes time, and I'll have a 9-month old in the house, so I'll be rather short on time. Maybe I'll just go for witty instead.

That, or haiku. Everyone loves haiku. (Hint hint.)

12 comments:

  1. Maybe having a nine-month-old will make the A to Z seem just a little bit less crazy...

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  2. Didn't a-z end, like, months ago? j/k good wrap-up.

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  3. I actualy WAS impressed by your fancy letters and wondered where you found them. Since you created them yourself, I'm even MORE impressed. I imagine your posts will be even quirkier with sleep deprivation.

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  4. I found myself winding down as April ended, too, mostly because I pre-wrote only about half the posts for the month . . . but I met some great bloggers!

    Cool letters!

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  5. Alex: I hadn't thought of it that way. You might be on to something there...

    Chris: The a-z ended under a week ago, but yes, j/k was so long ago I don't even remember writing those posts.

    Margo: Thanks. Though I'll admit my real reason for a retrospective was just to get all the letter images in one place.

    Mary: Thanks! I'm still impressed with some of them myself. As for being quirkier with sleep deprivation, I hope you're right. And I guess we'll find out soon enough!

    Golden: The pre-writing thing was a big part of my downfall, too. That and by the end of the month I felt the overarching need to get away from my computer. Anyway, I'm glad you liked the letters!

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  6. Hi Nate,

    I know A-Z is over, but I'm still working on visiting all the other participants. Glad I found your blog - love your quirky sense of humour and am following you now.

    My blog is at http://earthdragonhealing.blogspot.com It's quite different from most of the blogs in the challenge - stop by for a visit and leave a comment if you do. Thanks!

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  7. I am extremely impressed with the letters and your creativity in making them. Glad you made it through to the end.

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  8. Laurie: As they say, better late than never. (Not that I know who they are, but they may have been right this time.

    Chuck: I'm also quite glad I made it through. Glad you enjoyed the letters!

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  9. Geez, now I want to go back and read every letter you wrote. The titles are so darn appealing. But being the procrastinator that I am, I may wait and start tomorrow!
    You're letters are very creative and lovely!

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  10. Heather: Of course, now that the A to Z is over, I've reverted to my own procrastinatory ways. I'll make sure to post infrequently, just so you'll have plenty of time to go back through the archives. :)

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  11. Behind? No I'm not behind--I'm time traveling. My how time has gotten away from me! I'm trying to keep up with my current stuff and still trying to wrap up A to Z. Thanks for your efforts and all of the creativity involved. It was difficult to keep up and give everyone adequate visitation. Glad you could be a part of the 2011 edition of Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.


    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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