A To Z Challenge Reflections Post - 2013

Once again, it's time for a "Reflections" post for the April A to Z Challenge. I went about this years challenge completely different. I decided very early on that I wanted to branch out and not do Disney this year. Since my second passion was British television, it wasn't too hard to come up with the new subject matter. I have a very large collection of British DVD's and I thought there was no better place to plug the best British shows in my collection and possibly learn about new ones! I mapped my strategy months in advance, picked my shows, and even re-watched a few to remind me why I loved them. I managed to write all the posts in the two days prior to startup (which saved me from writing them every single night like I tried to do last year) and I was all prepared to sit the month by reading other people's posts and work on my "secret" stitching project!

But after the very first day, the Disney bug caught me bad. I felt like I was "cheating" on Disney and thus a second bonus challenge was born! I didn't want to do an entire full second challenge posting (since that would be just crazy), so I chose one Disney character (most days) that I personally love (even if they weren't mainstream) and went from there. Problem solved, even if I had to spend a few more days writing 26 more posts.

Each series attracted different readers (which I thought a bit strange...no one else shares my love of Disney and British TV?), but hopefully ya'll enjoyed them! And a truly massive holla out to Kate over at The Suddenly Kate Show, for helping me to come up with my British television blog title!

I've already admitted I'm a horrible commenter, both on other blogs and even responding on my own. That's the Social Anxiety Disorder "not" talking as it were. I read all the ones posted to me and new items were added to my Amazon.uk wishlist constantly (thanks everyone!), even if I didn't respond back. Maybe someday I'll wrap my head around the proper commenting protocol.

I made it completely through the list of all the A to Z Challengers, and although there were a lot of really good ones, they weren't on topics that spoke to me, so this year I only added a handful of new blogs to my follow list (and commented on even less, not because I didn't like them, I'm just not a commenter). I tended to lean more toward the supernatural and/or geek-type challenges this year. I was very surprised that I could find only one other Disney Challenge...last year there were dozens! But Cathy over at Tales Of The TCKK Family ended up being my favorite series of the whole challenge (that could have had something to do with the subject matter)! But really big kudos to her for stirring up my want to go back to Disney World (OK, so that's a lie...I always WANT to go to Disney, but I may actually get last years pictures put in DVD format before the next trip because of her wonderful pics!). I was also very surprised at the number of people who dropped out this year (including my bestie Kate...missed you girl!).

The Challenge organizers once again asked us to leave comments and put links to our blogs in the comment section, and again, as with last year, I HATE this practice and didn't do it! I comment on a blog because I want to and I sure ask heck ain't gonna use it as a marketing tool. I had numerous "Your blog is great! Read mine at blaa blaa blaa". That just guaranteed I wouldn't go anywhere near their blog, no matter how good it was. Those comments were posted en masse on every blog on the challenge list just to drum up followers and I have said numerous times, that's not why I blog or participate in the Challenge. I'm not in this to get more followers, for the challenge or just for blogging in general. I've always seen the Challenge as a way to push myself to, not only come up with subject matter for every letter of the alphabet, but to complete the challenge with my sanity intact (too late, I know). But I've never hid the fact that I see things from the "me" point of view anyway...welcome to the wonderful world of Aspergers!

For anyone who actually cares enough to go back and read both of this year's, as well as last year's posts, I now have the A To Z Challenge page updated with all of them for your reading enjoyment! The pages are listed at the top, or just click here.

Anyhoo, I think I will play it safe next year and do Disney again (to save myself the hassle of doing two separate challenges). I just have to come up with a different Disney idea! Not hard, right? I do actually already have several different ideas brewing...so watch this space!

Again, thanks to everyone for your support, welcome new followers, and welcome to the new blogs I'm now following! I'm sure most of the newbies will drop off after they see how mundane my day to day actually is (and what a horrible writer I really am), or even worse, get offended by my numerous Asper-rants, but no hard feelings when you get ready to bow out...I'm a hard person to understand (or so I'm told). I've said it before, even if I had no followers I would still be doing this because it's my world and I do it for me...therapy, if you will, Keebles style!!