Day 365: Mission Accomplished! Looking Back At PostADay 2011 Challenge

This has been an amazing challenge! Thanks for joining me!

“Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.’ John Wooden

With a great sigh of relief, I’m posting my 365th post this year!  I’ve imagined this day many times.

In mid-January, I was ready to quit posting when WordPress spurred me onward.  They highlighted my blog so that I gained new friends and followers.  My audience is not large, but they are patient and encouraging.  Knowing that someone reads my daily posts keeps me writing.

Setting goals makes life fun, but knowing what goals to set is most difficult.

Here are my reflections (as suggested by WordPress) of completing these 365 days and my reasons for doing it:

• Why did you start the Post a Day/Week Challenge?  I was looking for a challenge last December when I happened upon the daily challenge by WordPress.  They suggested we get a blog (which I didn’t yet have) and tell the world that we would be posting every day.  That’s how I started.  I told the world that I was starting what I have found to be a very long, but exciting, challenge.
• Describe the state of your blog at the time you started the challenge.  As I mentioned, I had never created a blog but did have a website when I began the challenge.  I didn’t even understand posting at the time.
• How did your blog evolve over the course of the challenge? Initially, I wanted my followers to join me in creating something every day.  I tried to challenge the readers to do an activity with me.  Over time, I simply posted about things I had noticed with my camera or during the day’s activities.
• Did you post as often as you had hoped? Why or why not?  Yes, I posted every day.  On a few occasions, I posted something very simple because of my schedule that day.  Generally, I tried to write a post that connected something tangible with something intangible.
• What type of blogging strategy works best for you?  I fell into a pattern which helped.  I would first look at a picture and choose my topic.  Then, I would search for a quote about the topic and include it in my post.  From there, I could compare my topic with my thoughts.  I often looked for related links to put into the post.
• If you could go back to the beginning, what would you do differently? I’m sure my first few posts would be more in line with my other posts.  As it stands, I’m happy with how it went and wouldn’t change it.
• What are you most proud of accomplishing this year?  I’ve met some great people this year.  I’ve learned to post, and I’ve enjoyed other blogs.  Finally, I completed this daily task all year long.
• Name 3 great blogs you discovered through the challenge.  I have enjoyed Fruitful Words, Julia’s Place, and Savoring Today.  I felt especially connected to Susan and Julia.  We’ve befriended one another during this process.
• What surprised you about the challenge?  I found that this daily post made me look more closely at my day-to-day activities.  I started taking pictures of interesting things, and I noticed more of the little details I often overlook.
• What advice would you give to others who want to blog regularly?  I highly suggest the PostADay initially.  If you can make yourself commit to that long length of time, it will change your daily thinking pattern and make you more vulnerable.
• What are your blogging goals for 2012?  Basically, I have no blogging goals this year since I thoroughly blitzed myself out in 2011.  I’m in the process of putting together a BrainCaviar for Educators site.  It’s just starting up.  I will not commit to posting daily, but will post at my own pace.

Now, I must thank many of you!

• Thank you Julia, Ruth, Susan, Cooky, and Brad for being my top commenters this year.
• Thank you to those who have “followed” my posts.  It made the journey worthwhile knowing that someone was reading!
• Thank you family for putting up with me during this crazy year when I would have to rush home to finish my post of the day on many occasions!
• Thank you to the readers who put up with my ramblings and who laughed with me all year long!
• Thank you  WordPress.  You supported me daily, sent weekly photo challenges (which helped a lot), gave me this free place to post my thoughts, and connected me to a wonderful blogging community.

If you’ve stopped in this year at BrainCaviar, please leave a comment!  I appreciate each one!

Goodbye to this PostADay 2011 Challenge!  I promise never to take another one, but I will pop in at BrainCaviar from time to time and share my latest thoughts…just not every day!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Self-Portrait

Say "Cheese!"

“Every man’s work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.” Samuel Butler

This week’s photo challenge was quite a stretch, and I thought I wouldn’t participate. Thanks to Photoshop, I came up with something.

This year, I’ve snapped pictures more than ever trying to find something original for my daily posts.  These pictures do represent me.  I like art, hence the Marc Chagall handbag, and I like having fun.  The portrait is from my night out with a bunch of girls at the Hairspray Sing-along.

What would you include in your own self-portrait?

Day 266: You Don’t Send Me Postcards Anymore

Hey, Hey, Wait a minute Mr. Postman!

Remember postcards? I didn’t even know they still sold them, so I had to snap this picture when I saw a stand full.

Think about it, though.  Why would we send a postcard?  We buy them for the picture that we didn’t take ourselves.  Then, we write a note on the back and pay for it to travel around and be read by whoever wishes to read it.

It’s not much different from this digital post.  Anyone can read it, but will they? As opposed to the postcard, we want people to read our digital posts.  So how can we accomplish that?

We could take a few lessons from the old postcards:

1. Seal it with a kiss.  If I were a postman and a postcard came by with lip prints on it, I’d need to read that card.  I wonder how a virtual kiss might look? We need to think of ways to add our virtual kiss to each post.

2. Have a catchy picture. Unlike postcards, I don’t like to use other people’s pictures, because I’m a little lazy to learn the legal aspects. If I take my own pictures, I know they belong to me.  It also forces me to observe things more closely.

3.Write something juicy.  I guess that tags and titles would be our equivalent to postcard words that stand out.  I know I haven’t learned all about the power of tags, but I do know that an interesting title can help.

Though I don’t have a high traffic post, I sure have enjoyed getting to know people through this experience.

If you’ve thought about sending a few virtual postcards, I suggest you join our Post-a-Day or Post-a-Week groups at WordPress.  It’s free, fun, and a supportive place to share your digital postcards.