How Am I Doing?

Let’s take a look (shall we?) at how I’m doing midway through the year as far as accomplishing my 2007 blogging goals is concerned.

Finally embrace my inner litblogger, instead of pretending she doesn’t exist, and maybe even dedicate entire posts to books I’ve just read, like others do.
(Patting myself on the back.) I’d say I’ve done a great job of this, wouldn’t you? Two posts devoted entirely to books I’ve read and “in a nutshell” reactions to each book I’ve read for my classics challenges, plus discussions of books in general.

See if I can find a local chapter of M.A. (Meme’s Anonymous) and start attending support groups.
(Patting has stopped.) It’s all Charlotte's fault. She’s a horrible enabler. And now Courtney's busy posting tantalizing memes every day. I'm a goner. If, at some point, you don't hear from me for six weeks, it's because I'm in rehab.

Quit coming up with ideas for new blogs and stick with making the two I’ve got going the best they can be (well, and keep the third one going at Halloween when it’s time to write another ghost story).
Everyone should be happy they don’t have to witness what a strain it’s been not to start a couple of other blogs (most specifically a real litblog). And I am so playing around with “Notes from the Pastor’s Wife” come this fall (except then I’ll have to worry that members of the congregation might stumble upon it). Still, I’ve stuck to my guns thus far.

Speaking of challenges: don’t be so afraid of them, and maybe come up with a few fun ones of my own.
I’m slowly but surely reading through my thirteen classics challenge, as well as my thirteen children’s classics and I’m keeping up with the nonfiction five as well. I think that’s enough for one year (unless Court does that drama one she threatened to do a while back. That one would be very tempting).

Provide more links to great blogs in my posts, so people read them, and they don’t die.
This post is a prime example of how I’ve been doing that. We’ll just ignore the fact that most of them are links I’ve repeated many, many times.

Stop worrying who might be reading my blog and that I might offend people.
I’ve definitely succeeded with this one, mainly because I don’t tend to think anyone is reading this blog anymore except those of you I know and love, or those who accidentally stumble across it one-time only because they’re searching for the other Emily Barton or have done a Google search for “dye and die homonym Romeo and Juliet page” (how on earth the searcher got to me with that one is still a mystery).

Become even more convinced that I can write and that people actually want to read what I write. Blogging has come a long way in helping me to accept this, but I still have that little inner voice that loves to make occasional appearances by whispering, “Who do you think you’re fooling?”
All right, I now know I’ve got everyone completely fooled, because you all keep reading me.

Learn more about the technical aspects of blogging. I think it’s about time I got past patting myself on the back, because I. Know. How. To. Italicize.
Well, Mandarine has helped me come along in this area (although, right now, I don't seem to be able to link to him, so maybe I haven't come so far after all). I’ve done things like learned a little HTML code (I even know what HTML stands for) and produced a pencast, of which I’m still extremely proud (once again, good thing no one was here to listen to me while I was trying to produce it).

Contribute more posts, and encourage others to contribute to What We Said . Creating that blog was such a great idea on Bloglily’s part, and I’d hate to see it fizzle out. As a matter of fact, I think it could be grown into something much bigger than it actually is.
I’m pathetic, having posted over there once so far this year. However, I am hereby declaring that if you’re reading this, it’s time for you to post at What We Said. Only Litlove, the latest contributor, is exempt.

No blogging after 8:00 p.m.
I’ve done very well with this one. Every (very) so often, I break this rule, but usually, my computer is off from 8:00 p.m. – 7:30 a.m. It’s also off all day every Sunday, which means much more time for curling up with print books. Due to this, I’ve been posting less often this year, but then, that gives all of you more time to read my posts and to keep caught up, no?