What Have We Learned?

OK, it's been a few days since the conclusion of Blogathon 2002. I've tried to catch up on my sleep, but my schedule is still kind of out of whack. Granted, this probably has a lot less to do with the event, and a lot more with me having a screwy sleep schedule to begin with.

And as I predicted, Rosencrantz called me Monday night to tell me that I was insane. She had been out of town for a few weeks and missed the whole thing. She had a good laugh reading about all the silliness that went on while she was away.

Paisley is coming into town in a week or so, so I'll be able to thank her personally for her support and for naming our Blogathon Mascot (Ignatius, the Dead Guy in Drag). We're also trying to get a group together to go to Buca di Beppo again while she's in town, although it will be hard to top the last time we went there en masse. Maybe this time we can all play harmonicas and write a blues number about pasta.

So now that I have partially recovered from the madness of the weekend, I figured today would be a good day to tidy up the mess I made of my template and compile a few dos and don'ts for next year's event. I think that Zappagirl and I managed pretty well for our first year, but we learned from our experiences, and there will be a lot of things we will do differently in future years.

DO have a kitchen timer that can be reset every half hour. There are points where you may get involved in other things, like checking your email, reading someone else's site, making dinner, or just chit-chatting. Having a loud audible DING! is a good reminder to get back to the task at hand.

DON'T forget to set it. There was more than one occasion when Zappagirl looked at the timer and muttered various profanities under her breath because after posting, she'd forgotten to reset the timer. There's less of a chance of it dinging that way. We still managed, but towards the end, we were having a hard time remembering if we had made that half-hour's post or not.

DO have several "contingency" post items. While the idea of "posting on the fly" sounds good, it doesn't always work out. No matter how clever you think you might be, there will come a point at 5:00 a.m. when your brain has turned to tapioca and you will have no clue what to say anymore. Make a list of subjects you can write about or interesting links you can refer folks on to. Otherwise you will find yourself gibbering like an idiot about childhood toys and making very little sense.

DON'T spend 25 minutes looking for a decent link about the aforementioned childhood toys. It cuts down on the amount of time you'll have to actually write something, and as a result you run the risk of sounding like a moron. And no matter what search engine you're using, the old adage holds true: you never can find what you need when you actually need it.

DO consider having a theme to tie all of your posts together. Whether it be a new song an hour, a new photo, a serialized short story, or a bunch of related facts relating to your charity, it helps to have some continuity. Spontaneity can be a good thing, but... see above comment about gibbering like an idiot.

DON'T have too many themes or ideas. Zappagirl and I had all kinds of great ideas. We could make brownies! We could post pictures! We could play dress up and post the pictures! We could make mix CDs! We could... we could... we could sit on our butts and be completely indecisive about what to do next.

DO have something to do in between posts. Toys are highly recommended. Indulge your inner child. We had a blast dressing up a toy skeleton in Barbie clothes Zappagirl had packed away in her basement. But then again, we're weird like that.

DON'T do anything too involving that demands your total concentration. Now is not a good time to play that game of Risk or challenge your blogging buddy to a game of chess.

DO make brownies or cookies or something sweet. It will keep you occupied between posts, and the sugar rush is a good thing.

DON'T preheat the oven and then forget about it for 45 minutes. The brownies cook better when they're actually in the oven.

DO hide the decaf so you don't accidentally make it. Learn from my mistakes. Nothing makes you feel dumber than making a pot of coffee, drinking it, then wondering why you're still half-asleep.

DON'T put too much Bailey's (or Kahlua or Frangelico or whatever alcoholic beverage you may prefer) in your coffee. Keyboards are very uncomfortable places to pass out, and drooling is bad form.

DO keep your email account open in a separate window. It's good to have a link to the outside world, whether it be for the latest news from the mailing list, words of support from readers, or complete strangers that drop a note to say hello or help you out with some with some coding questions.

DON'T let the emails from the mailing list accumulate. Clean it out frequently, or you'll end up with 150 or so messages from people clogging up your inbox.

DO take pictures if a digital camera is available. A picture is worth a thousand words, and adding the visual element livens up a post.

DON'T take pictures that you will regret later. If some of your readers have never seen you before, do you really want their first glimpse of you to be while you've got green goop all over your face and your hair up in a big clippie? Yeesh. (I swear we'll actually take pictures the next time we're dressed up, in an attempt to erase the frightening images we presented everyone with that night.)

DO take a shower if you feel like you're going to pass out. I personally recommend having the temperature of the water a bit colder than usual, to snap you out of your stupor.

DON'T take a hot bath. While hot baths are wonderful, you run the risk of becoming too relaxed and falling asleep in the tub. Save the bubble bath for afterwards, while you're waiting for the Tylenol PM to override the massive amounts of caffeine in your bloodstream.

DO play nice with the other bloggers. Check out your fellow participants in the webring and send them an email to let them know you like what you see. Talk to people in chat and IM. They'll help you stay awake, provide moral support, and you might make a few new friends.

DON'T join the webring and then not participate. There was a bit of a problem with this. I don't know if they were folks who had dropped out and forgot to let anyone know, or if they were just in it for the free publicity. Whatever the case, there was a lot of grumbling from the other folks who were blogging their hearts out, and I didn't blame them. Although I didn't participate in the online grumbling, I was thinking about it. The word "poopyhead" came to mind a lot.

DO get up every once in a while a stretch your legs. Otherwise, ouch.

DON'T forget to thank all of your sponsors and mark your calendars for the next year!