April 6, 2016

April Is The Magic Month Of Know Return

To get the usual routine matter out of the way, here is the latest at I Are Writer! (topic du jour is how to spend your book money smart).

With that out of the way, we turn our attention to the month of April, which is the topic of conversation amongst those who blog. Because unless you've been doing your very best impersonation of Clumsy from B.C. for this year, last Friday (4/1) was the official start of the 2016 A-Z Blog Challenge. In a tight peanut shell, it means for the next 26 days, bloggers will post 26 almost consecutive posts (sans Sunday) that will feature the Alphabet Song. Some will have themes, some will not.  Personally, I participated in 2014. Had a blast, skipped a year, then gave serious thought about participating this year.

No, really. Honest and for true. Alas, poor Yorrick I did not know Horatio, life got in the way of the modest plan I had, which was cherry picking my seriously large (425 and counting) c.d. collection. Oh the fun I would've had sharing it with everyone: the modest info dump, the spotlight, the research, the occasional review.

Alas, poor Horatio I did enjoy Hornblower, it was not meant to be. The time needed to prep for this modest undertaking would've taking me weeks, nay kind sirs and gentle madames, months to get everything together. From reorganizing three large c.d. racks to taking copious notes on just exactly what I had for music, for I had at least one representative from roughly a baker's dozen of genres, to deciding which of the twenty-three letters of the alphabet a c.d. should represent (sadly, no Q, X or Z).

Thus,for the month of April, this blog will not be participating in the 2016 A-Z blog challenge. Instead, we will spend the 13th, the 20th and the 27th, doing exactly what we've done for today: pepper a post with pop culture obscurities from my childhood, adolescence-hood, and adulthood (but not victimhood as I need to leave that to the "professionals" and you know who those are, now don't you?), in the sincere hope that for at least thirty seconds, you searched your memory banks to figure what in the world of Carmen Sandiego did I just sample?

For those who are curious, here are your two freebies: part of the post title contains a reference to the 70's group Kansas, and one sentence contains a partial reference to the show Bewitched.

(c) 2016 BOOKS BY G.B. MILLER. All Rights Reserved.

19 comments:

  1. I hope to do an A-Z Challenge some year too, but not until I retire. It's just too time consuming and demanding.

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    1. Exceptionally so. I did it two years ago, partially to see if I could it and partially to see if could drum up some interest in my writings.

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  2. Don't worry, G. B. there's always next year.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by. That is definitely the plan, which I want to start implementing this coming summer. I figure a nine month jump should work out quite well.

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  3. It does take time to plan. Took me three hours to put together each letter.

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    1. Now that, is a lot time spent planning and researching. I actually was mentally planning mine through the fall and winter of last year, but life simply got in the way.

      All things considering, when I did it in 2014, each post took me about an hour or so to research & compose.

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  4. I did the A to Z challenge in 2012 and enjoyed it, but with my format, I couldn't think how to do it again. So it's checked off my bucket list. :) (I did three good things beginning with the each letter - I have a simple format, but it was still somewhat labor intensive.)

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  5. It was a blast for me as well when I did it in 2014, and I still plan on doing it in the future. My format is down to the basics again, so it would be a snap to do it. The writing part, at least, would be a snap. Everything else, at least an hour gather everything needed per post.

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  6. Yes, far too much going on for me at the moment as well to do the challenge

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  7. I considered taking the challenge this year...for about three seconds. Whew, it requires a real commitment.

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  8. General comment this time. The time commitment required is not for the faint of heart. Thus, the main reason behind calling it a challenge. Most people, like myself and those commenting here, can write some very cool in-depth blog posts. But to do something like this require ratcheting our game up to who other level that sadly we don't have the time to do. Life sometimes can take precedence, and this is one of those times. And a star for the little lady who gets the Kansas reference. I haven't yet explored Kansas since all I ever hear is their two most popular songs killed on radio these days.

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  9. I miss having CDs. iTunes certainly does save a lot of shelf space in my small condo, but I miss physically being able to hold an album in my hand.

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    1. iTunes definitely helps with the space issues, but the larger question is, are they truly yours? What if you decide to close out your account, do you still maintain access to them?

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  10. I like the concept of your proposed theme about the CD collection. I might have to consider that myself for some future April Challenge.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Tossing It Out

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    1. Thanks. It really was a no-brainer concept, but like I said, it would've taken me so much time to get everything together that I would've been late to the picnic.

      So, we'll probably start working on it this coming summer.

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  11. The "I Are Writer" title made me laugh! A-Z = no fucking way.

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    1. You're very welcome. And the challenge is most definite a time commitment to the nth degree.

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