Blogiversary

Blogiversary- I made that word up.

I know for sure because I didn’t read it on the Internet when I Googled it.

Blogiversary is a portmanteau. A portmanteau is a combination of two blended words with two blended meanings, like a sloppy compound word. Think smog (smoke + fog) or fenemy (friend + enemy).

I blended blog (which is a portmanteau of web and log) with anniversary.

Blogiversary is the fifty-second topic of afewchoicewordsbyanita.com, which makes this post the first anniversary of my blog. For fifty- one weeks I pushed the “Publish” button on my Word Press account. Before pushing it the fifty-second time I reflected upon goals and outcomes. Reality’s pot shots at my lofty goals lowered them from the exosphere to the troposphere. However, unexpected outcomes, like stowaways, surprised me and tipped the blog writing experience to the positive.

Unreached Lofty Goal One: Earn a Bazillion Dollars with Ads

Ads generate revenue for bloggers. Most sites have ads that run the perimeter of content. Then when the reader is engrossed in an article, maybe about how Planet X will collide with Earth and destroy humankind, a popup covers crucial information about how to survive the annihilation. I figured after a few months I’d include ads in my blog and before too long I’d earn a bazillion dollars. However, there’s a catch. To earn a bazillion dollars your blog needs a bazillion followers. I have about 50 followers (and I’m counting the Pond Sealcoating guy who I think signed up by mistake). That means that I need a bazillion minus fifty more followers than I currently have. I fell a little short.

I ditched that idea.

Unreached Lofty Goal Two: Earn a Bazillion Dollars with my Photographs

I tote my camera along on most outings and capture a few interesting, bordering on exciting, photos. After Shutterflying a few into notecards for my personal use, I thought I’d offer them for sale through afewchoicewordsbyanita.com. Then I read an article in Newsweek about the decline of letter writing. The journalist predicted that historians might divide time not only by BC and AD, but also by eras when people wrote and didn’t write letters. What were the chances of those few letter writers in the world stumbling across my notecards and thinking, “I really need those notecards to dash off a message”? I estimated one out of a bazillion.

I scrapped that route.

Stowaway Outcome One: I Learned More Than I Thought I Would

Researching weekly to add detail to my post I’ve learned many interesting facts. For this post alone, I learned that bazillion isn’t a real number, there are five levels to the Earth’s atmosphere, and that “flare” is a portmanteau (flame + glare). Albeit these facts are useless unless I’m able to insert them into a conversation. For instance, I could say, “Those prices were through the exosphere” instead of “Those prices were sky-high,” but then I have to stop and explain that the exosphere is the highest of Earth’s atmosphere which doesn’t help the conversation flow.

Stowaway Outcome Two: Technology Confidence

 

 

I now am able to do scary technology tasks like embed a YouTube video without crashing the Internet or throwing my MacBookPro out the window in frustration. I hardly hyperventilate anymore when pushing the “Publish” button.

 

 

 

Stowaway Outcome Three: Trust

Fifty-one weeks ago I completed my first post then thought, “What am I going to write about next time?” At home, I found ideas under the bed (“Under the Bed” post) and in my drawers (“Scary Drawer” post). On a walk a bowling ball border struck me (“Spread the Word about the Minor Rules of Life” post). Dead celebrities inspired me (“Chalk One Up (And Only One) For Hugh Hefner” post). One year later I trust the creative process and thereby trust more in general.

For me a stronger sense of trust is worth a bazillion dollars.