Life Is Good: A Guest Post From Tina

       Many of you have already received a visit from Tina of Life Is Good or Shannon from The Warrior Muse as they attempt the massive undertaking of visiting all of the participants listed on the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge list of 2011.   Shannon will be my guest on August 3rd, but today Tina is joining us to tell a little about herself, her blog, and the Post A to Z Challenge Challenge.

Life Is Good

HI.  My name is Tina and I'm competitive.  And stubborn.  And not one to back off from a dare.  Let alone a triple dog dare.  But to be honest, this wasn't a dare.  It was just me being stubborn and competitive.  I'll admit that.  After all, isn't the blogging community one big group of supportive friends, no matter what we need to confess to?  That's what I've found in the last year or so.  So yeah, I decided that I was going to visit every one of the 1282 registered participants in the AZ Challenge.  Call me Julie of “Julie and Julia”.  Although she had a much tougher challenge.  She was cooking 524 recipes in 365 days.  I'm just reading and commenting with no particular deadline.

I found the original AZ Challenge sorta tangentially.  (Yes, self-professed math nerd.  But the only time I ever used that degree was for tutoring.  My eight years of 7^th grade math and English students never needed M424: Abstract Number Theory or the  M317: Calculus of One Variable notes I so carefully saved.  ((For non-math types: in that course you write proofs to show why calculus works.  Not for sissies.  In fact, most people have to take it numerous times to get the required C for math majors.  I'm just enough of a snob to tell you I got an A the first time.)) (And I over-use parentheses and even though I taught English, that isn't part of the 7^th grade curriculum and my English education was “only” a minor.)  And I just watched Inception.  Makes me realize I had parenth's within parenths...somebody teach me this!  Or take the red pill and stay in the rabbit hole with me.  (Movie quoting is an Olympic sport in our family.  Feel free to compete.)  Ok, back to the tangent thing.

So there I was, blogging to practice writing, and to get constructive feedback.  “Life is Good” is mostly me telling stories from my childhood, or crazy college antics, some tortured love-lorn poetry for prompts, and I was participating in a meme a day, just about.  So I signed up for A-Z Challenge because I'd hit some doldrums in my blogging.  I've been reading Rayna M. Iyer's “Coffee Rings Everywhere and that led me to Alex J. Cavanaugh and the challenge. (If you're with me on the tangent thing, explain it to me in the comments.  First nerd, whether math or otherwise, gets a prize.)  See, there I go.  Competitive.

This challenge came at a really good time in my blogging journey.  I started “Life is Good” in 2009 with the intention of practicing my skill and getting HONEST, constructive criticism in order to improve.  However,  only a few brave souls, aka my friends, ever read anything.    At that point I knew nothing about blog-hops or weekly prompts, or anything about the etiquette assumptions in Blogland.  But there have been many wonderful mentors in this new world I found, and many faithful readers who have helped me, by their presence and support, through one of the toughest times in my life.  I've told some of the stories in posts, in poetry, and in rambling diatribes which probably shouldn't have gotten the “publish post” button pushed.  But it's all me, and I'm not shy.  I'm Swedish.  (Nudity is no big deal there.)  The A-Z Challenge shook me loose from the doldrums  and I met new, wonderful, supportive bloggers.

I didn't really have anything planned for HOW I was going to complete it like some of you clever folks who picked a theme for the month.  I just knew I needed a challenge to feed my competitive nature and get the blog back in gear after sitting on the side of the road feeling sorry for myself for a while.  It worked.  (For a full reflection of the challenge go to “How to Fix Your Sex Life: AZ Challenge  Reflections")   Yes, that's what I called it.  Kinda goes with the nudity...

Ok, now that you're all caught up (or going to be, once you hit the links above ;-) I do want to say a bit about the Post Challenge-Challenge.  Like I said in the opening paragraph, it's for me a competetive thing.  When Shannon commented to me that she was doing the same thing, I thought that being stubborn and competitive is a lot easier with a friend.  So we went from there. 

It's been a great ride so far, and I'm looking forward to more friendships built as those of us who hopped on this Post-Challenge Challenge train continue our travels.  Who knows what will happen next year.  I, for one, will be on that ride, too.  Maybe with a theme...

           My special thanks to Tina.   I hope you will stop by her blog and say hello.  While you're there you might even want to click the follow button so you can keep up with Tina's future posts and if you're up to the Challenge, join the fun by adding your blog to the Challenge list.

           Over the next several Wednesdays I will be hosting special guests here at Tossing It Out.  Next week my special guest will be Karen Walker from Following the Whispers.  Please come back for some great advice about memoir writing.



--------