Blog of the Month

It's been a long time since I've blogged the information superhighway – almost a month – and I apologize. I'll be honest: I've occasionally had the proverbial time but have spent it doing other things, often Modern Warfare 2, which holds all the addictiveness of a quality RPG.

I've also skipped over at least a handful of good blog topics, some of which I might get to in the near future. But, for today, I want to write about my blogging during this semester. Blogging about my own blogging might seem egocentric, and it is, but writing about my own writing is one of my favorite ways to improve as a writer.

But, I'm going to be lazy about it and steal the formatting idea from my most recent entry, "Movember Madness."

So, here are 10 things I learned about my blogging this semester:

1. I blogged less than most of my students. I ultimately set their semester quota at 20 blog entries (a bit shy of what I predicted in "A is for abacus"). In that same period of time, I've only written 12 blogs, which is still more than a handful of my students. Instead of my "of the Week" feature, I could have used an "of the Month" feature and been more accurate.
   
2. Matthew will respond to my blog even if I don't blog for weeks. I'd guess he thinks it motivates me. It'd probably motivate me more if he seriously picked back up his blog. As our annual Thanksgiving night Balderdash showed, Matthew has some interesting things to say.
   
3. Random people continue to find and comment on my blog. One is less than random, since he's a friend of a guy I knew in college – a guy who Adam Lucas says doesn't exist (but he does). The other may not be a person. I don't know; it's a little suspect. So, I guess this thing I learned may not be all that true.
   
4. I rely a lot on litotes (understatement) in my writing. This is something I've either purposefully or accidently copied from Penny Arcade, which is full of it.
   
5. I like to write about my classroom discussions. When I'm not teaching, I write about sports, video games, and TV, but that all seems to take a backseat when I'm captaining the ship of basic studies – BS – English classes.
   
6. I hate but still make fact errors and typos, the most frustrating of which came in the "Honor Roll" entry. But there are others.
   
7. Lists are an easy way to avoid transitions. See.
   
8. Football teams are much more forgiving of football players than I would have imagined. During my blogging this semester, I prematurely concluded the careers of two troubled running backs: LeGarrette Blount and Larry Johnson. Both have since played football again.
   
9. Metaphors.
   
10. Blogging when I'm up-to-date is better. Remember that glorious summer where I tried to blog about current events and subsequently read about current events. I really do think it improved my blogging, but those plans deflated like Balloon Boy's hopes for a reality show when my life busied itself with teaching and such. There may be a glorious winter break (between December 15 and January 6) when I can get back to those habits.
    

Or I may just play more Modern Warfare 2 and try out my new PS3.

Question of the Week:

What do you want for Christmas?

My take: Mostly video games. My wish list isn't very creative this year.