Monday, February 21, 2011

Happy 300th to Us

    Today is the 300th post in the TA blog.  It's also President's Day, so some of you will be reading this tomorrow.

      For the TA's, this is National Toot Your Own Horn Day. At three blogs a week (with an occasional vacation) we have lasted longer than a lot of TV shows. (Anybody remember Supertrain?) This is no small feat.

     Back in the Paleolithic Age of the Internet (1996), when Alta Vista was my search engine of choice, and a site with graphics was  a rare treat, I first ran across this thing called a "blog." After  determining that "blog" was a combination of "web" and "log", and had nothing to do with Star Trek--my original thought--I checked out a few of these early blogs. After two weeks I was blogged out because so many of these early entries had a lot in common. Not good things.

    Lots of the blogs were intensely personal, like reading someone's diary.   Someone's really boring diary. I could not imagine that anyone could possibly be interested in every soy latte I consumed, or how many pounds I had lost that week.  The bloggers seem to have the same problems;  many of the bogs I read were "one-hit-wonders---especially the weight loss ones. The blogger would eloquently describe
the woes of obesity (which in itself varied by definition), describe their new diet, vow to post every week and lose X number of pounds by (Christmas, Hannukah, 10th class reunion). There might be a post or two more...then silence, leaving me to imagine that the writer had returned to the Land of Many Calories.

   There were the ranters (usually something involving governments and/or conspiracy theories). Movie review blogs that I enjoyed, but like everything else, fizzled out after  few weeks or months.  Later on I discovered personal author blogs, which to me, the unpublished author, was a glimpse of the Promised Land with descriptions of book signings and school visits. I was so envious that I would have to read a weight-loss blog to calm down.

     When our Fearless Leader, Carmela, suggested doing a group blog of authors who also teach, I thought it was a great idea. I  was also skeptical, remembering all those one-entry-self-indulgent blogs I'd read. Learning I would have five other partners in crime helped me decide to join in. I knew I couldn't carve out time for a weekly blog, but every two weeks was something I thought I could manage. I think this is where some of my fellow bloggers fell by the wayside...underestimating the amount of time it takes to write a blog, overestimating what you have to say that someone would want to read or find helpful.

    Hopefully, in these 300 posts, we have provided some of you with something interesting or useful some of the time. We all hope we have been of some use to you in both the classroom and personal
writing.

   So here's to another 300 posts (helpful, hopeful, useful ones)...and now I'm going to Starbucks for a soy latte to celebrate.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

6 comments:

Amy L V said...

Happy 300 to all of you! I am one of your grateful readers and learners, looking forward to the next 300. Cheers! A.

Carmela Martino said...

Raising a home-brewed soy latte to toast with you, MA, my blogging partner.
And Amy, thanks for the good wishes. We're happy you've found our blog helpful.

Bruce Frost said...

Congratulations! I look forward to every wonderfully written and insightful post. Here's to the infinite posts to come.

Irene Latham said...

Congratulations on 300!! Keep 'em coming. xo

Sandy Brehl said...

Congratulations! An indication that you all are truly writers- persistence striving for excellence! I wish I'd found this blog at the start, but now that I'm along for the ride, keep it up. Always helpful, and great links, too, which I often share with others.

Carmela Martino said...

Thanks Bruce, Irene, and Sandy. It's great to know you're enjoying our blog!