02 in 30 - IV - Cultivating the Blogflocks

[aggienaut]

   This is my 1,050th entry, which means I've averaged 20.2 entries / month over the last 1,562 days.

   Yesterday we had 30 in 30 updates from xaositecte, ironlioninzion, bartgroks, beastmario, eazyt, pavel_lishin, witless_nerd, abunchofcrap and emosnail. There are a few more that are following along "unofficially" or its unclear whether or not they've joined in (and/or there may be people I'm not aware of). To those who have not yet joined the premier internet related event of the year, fear not! It is not too late to join up.
   Even if one didn't update yesterday, one can still start now and as long as one finishes 30 entries by the 30th one's still good (and thats only 3% harder than if you'd started yesterday)!

   My favourite of yesterday's entries goes to Xaositecte and his list of awards to be earned by one's friend further their social life. So to speak.


   Anyway, to drift into metabloggery for a moment, I thought I'd offer some ideas on what to blog about. A number of you have taken up a challenge to drastically increase your blogging and no doubt are rather concerned about this very question.
   First and foremost, the most optimum subject is of course something original and hilarious. Some examples that come to mind are professor_david's Jesus Cthulhu post of 30 in 30 II, apoplecticfittz's Ten Blogmandments (turns out religion is hilarious I guess), or xaositecte's 30 in 30 Standard Template.
   Remember that even the most innocuous adventures can be made hilarious with a little multimedia a la photoshop.
   Constantly take note of potential ideas. Stockpile them. Let them ferment. Then triple distill them.
   If the spark of creative hilarity just isn't ... sparking, you can probably go off on a philosophical / political rant about something.
   Keep your audience in mind. Speak to them specifically. Try to illicit feedback. Because not getting any feedback feels like you're talking to yourself. You can only truly transcend the blogosphere once you've made it interactive.
   For that matter, most of my best ideas have come from talking to other people. Go forth and have hilarious conversations with people via instant messenger or what have you (or god forbid, real life -- but certainly not myspace).
   Interact with the other 30 in 30 participants. Even if you don't know them! You're both going through the same thing.
   My empirical blogological research indicates there is a strong corrolation between commenting on other people's blogs and receiving comments on your own.
   Build on the themes other bloggers post on.
   Some topics have traditionally been done by several people, such as Five Television Proposals.
   Do something useful like BlogSETI.
   Do some amazing feat in real life and blog about it, such as the legendary time apoplecticfittz spent 24 hours in a greenhouse!

   For more wisdom and the technique and craft of blogology, see this tag.


   And now, if you will, I need to gather some information for research purposes.[Poll #996038]


Meanwhile In the Real World
   I went to a bar at The Block in Orange last night with Nidia & her friend Janice. The end.
   Today we learned that chickens float. One of our chickens was spooked by the dog next door and ran right into the pool. She bobbed there like a duck, only not nearly as graceful.

Comments

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

The floating chicken was worth mentioning. The rest, not so much.

However, as the word : 'elicit' means to try to pull out information, whereas 'illicit' refers to indecent activities, I am very intrigued by your suggestion to "illicit feedback." I'll be looking forward to reading some of those.

[angryunicorn.livejournal.com]

Hey, I think I'm going to join the challenge of 30 in 30. I host my blog on jeff4mvh.com/blog/blog.html however. I've never written more than 5 entries in a month, so this should be a good way to ruin my life for the next month:)

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Welcome aboard! Nice website you have there. I'll do my best to facilitate connectivity between you and the rest of hte 30 in 30 sphere with my constant linking.

[beastmario.livejournal.com]

"Constantly take note of potential ideas. Stockpile them. Let them ferment. Then triple distill them."

This is good advice. I literally keep a pad of sticky notes on my desk and am always writing down potential ideas. I don't always end up using them, but when I get in at 4 a.m. and am braindead, it's nice to be able to turn to them for ideas.

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Usually either I keep thinking about the initial idea I had and it snowballs all day as I think about how to write it and come up with more things to tie in ... or I sit down, look at what I scribbled down, and think "wtf?!"

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Hm, thats very unfortunate. However, I think its still better for you to jump onboard with 28 in 28 or something than drop out entirely!