First of all, I'd like to point out something that's been bugging me for a while now:
It occurred to me about three days into my lenten blogging experiment that calling it "a blog a day" makes no sense - it's a post a day on the same blog. I don't want to go back and change it now, but the English minor side of me will always cringe when I read that phrase.
Anyway, blogs are tricky, because when scrolling through, the posts appear backwards. Unless you're checking in every day, it's virtually impossible to easily read one in chronological order. Therefore, I offer my lenten posts with a list of what I wrote for easier access.
Here's the forty posts, from Ash Wednesday to Black Saturday, with the main topic and title:
1) introducing the fast (a blog a day for lent)
2) nicknames (fire ant bites)
3) Facebook (facebook-stalking people you knew in elementary school)
4) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley (getting it together)
5) celebrity sightings (normal here vs normal there; or, a lesson from batman)
6) In-n-Out Burger (why is it called in-n-out when the lines are so long)
7) spirituality (if all my posts are lame, then none of my posts are lame)
8) Austin Johnson (the muse from bowie)
9) my songs (#1) - awkward parties (on the wall at the junior high dance)
10) dentist appointments (deep cleaning)
11) hymns (good old fashioned hymns)
12) earthquakes (the big one; or, a choice between living and pancakes)
13) Lance Berkman (why lance berkman will always be a houston astro)
14) my songs (#2) - "The Dead" by James Joyce (would you walk away from me)
15) 1943 copper penny (a conversation with an american 1943 copper small cent)
16) Diplomacy (diplomacy; or, how to have an enjoyable day with your friends and almost lose them in one fell swoop)
17) caffeine addiction (hello, we are those people whose orders still psychologically traumatize former baristas years later)
18) teaching English (the abcs of teaching oral english)
19) Andrew Johnson's impeachment (peachy keen)
20) Audio Lessonover? by delirious? (take me away - ruminations on audio lessonover?)
21) wanting to quit a fast (phoning it in)
22) my songs (#3) - Calvinism (in which andy, perhaps unwisely, declares a side in the predestination debate)
23) Once Upon a Time (you say you want a resolution)
24) the Robert F. Kennedy assassination site (walk and gawk)
25) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (because the world needs yet another blog post about the ninja turtles)
26) greeting cards (words that strangers put in our mouths)
27) Revelation (revelation, not revelations)
28) Funzone Freddy (welcome to the funzone)
29) Trayvon Martin (trayvon)
30) my songs (#4) - the 2005 NLCS (feelings of despair wrought by a ninth inning home run in game 5 of the 2005 national league championship series)
31) Unicru test (why introverts don't get job interviews)
32) Allie the guinea pig (allie: a eulogy for a guinea pig)
33) Breckenridge, Colorado (those wild and crazy colorado nights)
34) the 110 Freeway (my first time on the 110 freeway; or, i see death fast approaching in my rear view mirror)
35) Communion (a failure to communi[on]cate)
36) Funzone Freddy (again) (welcome to the funzone [#2])
37) youth ministry (why i shouldn't be a youth pastor; or, why i should be a youth pastor)
38) Maundy Thursday (thursday maundy thursday)
39) The Seven Last Words of Jesus (stare into the void)
40) my songs (#5) - the Prophet Jeremiah (in spite of all cruel odds)
Incidentally, I love statistics. Perhaps that's one reason I'm such an avid baseball fan - no other sport features such copious and rigorous keeping of records. (I doubt sabermetrics would ever have developed first in football or basketball.) So I was intrigued to see what I would discover if I looked at the stats behind my blog a day experiment. Here's the quick overview:
- 40 posts
- 28,496 total words
- 712.4 average words per post
- longest post: take me away - ruminations on audio lessonover? (#20) - 1,309 words
- shortest post: in spite of all cruel odds (#40) - 315 words
If I'm not mistaken (and I may be), that's roughly equivalent to a 95 page research paper (assuming 300 words per page).
I'll admit here that a few posts were actually composed in part before my lenten posting experiment. #3 and #20 were unfinished posts I finally fleshed out, and #30 was adapted from part of a chapter for an unfinished book I was working on several years ago. (Of course, #39 was the homily I gave at a Good Friday service, as I mentioned in the post.)
I am surprised at the extremes in terms of word count. Apparently I had more to say about delirious? than Trayvon Martin, introversion, or any biblical topic. Granted, I included several wordy quotes from band members in that post, so that ramped up the word count. I am also surprised that the very last post was the shortest, but most of the posts where I shared songs were brief by design.
As I look back, I am also aware of many typos and grammatical errors in my posts. I want to go back and fix them all, but I'll try to refrain, simply because of the nature of the practice. The whole point of posting consistently during Lent was to present my ideas and thoughts unpolished, and I think going back and correcting every error would undermine that purpose.
So, what next for this blog?
I've enjoyed sharing random stories and memories, in addition to occasional responses to media and current events. I'm going to shoot for an informal goal of a post per week, but I won't be too rigid about it. My wife has been gracious with me on the nights when she's been getting ready for bed and I've been frantically typing away, trying to finish my daily post. I think she'll appreciate not being put through any more of that.
31) Unicru test (why introverts don't get job interviews)
32) Allie the guinea pig (allie: a eulogy for a guinea pig)
33) Breckenridge, Colorado (those wild and crazy colorado nights)
34) the 110 Freeway (my first time on the 110 freeway; or, i see death fast approaching in my rear view mirror)
35) Communion (a failure to communi[on]cate)
36) Funzone Freddy (again) (welcome to the funzone [#2])
37) youth ministry (why i shouldn't be a youth pastor; or, why i should be a youth pastor)
38) Maundy Thursday (thursday maundy thursday)
39) The Seven Last Words of Jesus (stare into the void)
40) my songs (#5) - the Prophet Jeremiah (in spite of all cruel odds)
Incidentally, I love statistics. Perhaps that's one reason I'm such an avid baseball fan - no other sport features such copious and rigorous keeping of records. (I doubt sabermetrics would ever have developed first in football or basketball.) So I was intrigued to see what I would discover if I looked at the stats behind my blog a day experiment. Here's the quick overview:
- 40 posts
- 28,496 total words
- 712.4 average words per post
- longest post: take me away - ruminations on audio lessonover? (#20) - 1,309 words
- shortest post: in spite of all cruel odds (#40) - 315 words
If I'm not mistaken (and I may be), that's roughly equivalent to a 95 page research paper (assuming 300 words per page).
I'll admit here that a few posts were actually composed in part before my lenten posting experiment. #3 and #20 were unfinished posts I finally fleshed out, and #30 was adapted from part of a chapter for an unfinished book I was working on several years ago. (Of course, #39 was the homily I gave at a Good Friday service, as I mentioned in the post.)
I am surprised at the extremes in terms of word count. Apparently I had more to say about delirious? than Trayvon Martin, introversion, or any biblical topic. Granted, I included several wordy quotes from band members in that post, so that ramped up the word count. I am also surprised that the very last post was the shortest, but most of the posts where I shared songs were brief by design.
As I look back, I am also aware of many typos and grammatical errors in my posts. I want to go back and fix them all, but I'll try to refrain, simply because of the nature of the practice. The whole point of posting consistently during Lent was to present my ideas and thoughts unpolished, and I think going back and correcting every error would undermine that purpose.
So, what next for this blog?
I've enjoyed sharing random stories and memories, in addition to occasional responses to media and current events. I'm going to shoot for an informal goal of a post per week, but I won't be too rigid about it. My wife has been gracious with me on the nights when she's been getting ready for bed and I've been frantically typing away, trying to finish my daily post. I think she'll appreciate not being put through any more of that.
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