Monday, November 15, 2010

What I learned from the Blog-a-thon

Last Saturday an impressive group of people held a 24-hour blog-a-thon (or in BZTAT’s case, a paint-a-thon) to raise fund for various pet-related causes. The blog-a-thon idea is the brainchild of Dr. V at Pawcurious. She held one last year, which I didn’t see any part of, and decided that it was worthwhile enough to go forward with again this year.

After seeing Blog-a-thon 2010, I wish that I had seen the 2009 event because I think I would have begged to be part of this incredibly cool weekend. Instead, I had to be content with sending comments to three of the participants (Pawcurious, BZTAT and About Vet Med) while hoping they didn’t write me off as some crazed weirdo. I was that enchanted.

I also managed to learn a lot in the process.

  • There are a number of really thoughtful, caring people in the world who will put aside a weekend (not to mention a whole night’s sleep) to help someone else in need. Although this isn’t exactly a revelation, it helps in these cynical days to be reminded of that as often as possible.
  • Doing anything for 24-hours is harder than it sounds. If you’re going to try it, you should have a pretty good plan in place for your success. Fortunately, all of the participants I saw seemed more than prepared for their commitment.
  • There are plenty of angles to explore in the world of pet-human relationships and an event such as this provides an opportunity to showcase so many of them that even the casual pet lover could find something to touch their heart.
  • There’s a lot more to a blog-a-thon than simply blogging (not that blogging in and of itself is a simple process). These folks were blogging (or painting) while also posting on Facebook and Twitter, responding to comments, encouraging each other and, in one case, cooking and putting together a video of the cooking segment while keeping the hourly posts flowing and notifying prize winners. And they pulled it off with aplomb.

Watching these folks (I’d love to say “women”, but sure as I do, someone will pop up and declare their dudeness and I’ll feel bad, so better safe than sorry) at work, I felt like I found “my people”. The ones who talk about pets because they feel a profound connection between themselves and their four-legged companions and aren’t afraid to share tales of that connection with others. The ones who will not only listen to your poop stories, but will have one of their own to add to the mix. The ones who are as disgusted with slobber and hairballs as I am, but deal with it daily (like I do) because it comes with the territory.

If you’d like to take a peek at what you missed, head over to these websites. There’s enough to read to keep you busy for days.


Fingers crossed, maybe nexy year I'll be on the inside, looking out.

P.S. Special thanks to BZTAT for the Darby painting seen above :)



6 comments:

Unknown said...

We were the crazed ones, and most certainly you can join in next year! The more the merrier. Thx for all the fabulous support!

Anonymous said...

I was following along as well; the whole blogathon produced some fantastic stuff across the various sites -- and for such a variety of good causes. Thanks for talking it up! And c'mon, Vicky -- any chance we'll see you on an all-night blogging bender next time around...?
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Vicky said...

There's every chance in the world that you'll see me there next year! Thank you for your support!

Dr. Jed said...

Yes, there was a dude writing in the blogathon, me! Found you by the blog hop, by the way. Thanks for checking in!

Dr. Jed said...

Thanks for following along--and yes, there was a male writer out there, me! Found you on the blog hop btw.

Vicky said...

I knew there would be a man who was out there blogging! Thanks for stopping by and introducing yourself. I'll be looking for you next year.

 

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