Commentathons, Secret Ode Days, and Other Bloggy Loving

Infertility and pregnancy loss are shitty no matter how you cut it. No one wants to be living in the Land of If. The beauty of the blogosphere is that you quickly discover that there are many more people living on this island and most understand what you're thinking and feeling. Those people are nodding their heads as they read your words. And if there is any silver lining at all, it's the community that has sprung up through the weeds.

Sometimes we forget how much other people need to hear how they make a difference in our lives. Therefore, massive Commentathons in the winter and summer can help spread the comments across the blogosphere and brighten someone else's day with some feedback. Great Cake Days create a virtual party across the world. Frequent Secret Ode Days are sprinkled over the calendar like happy love surprises (wait...that sounded all wrong...but I think you know what I mean). Though the Commentathons and Great Cake Days only happen at certain points in the year, the Secret Ode Days is an ongoing project. Read more about it below...

Secret Ode Days pop up randomly in the calendar. The essence of Secret Ode Day can be found in this story that appears at the beginning of the post: Growing up, neighbours down the street had a tradition where their family had a floating holiday. It popped up unexpectedly on the calendar (at least for their kids) and only the parents knew when it was going to fall. Every morning, all the kids in the neighbourhood woke up and went to the window to check the tree outside their house because they kicked off this floating holiday by decorating this huge tree with lollipops some time in the middle of the night and all the kids in the neighbourhood were invited to come harvest the lollipops. Every morning had the possibility of being the morning, and even though it was just a simple lollipop--the same candy we had in our own kitchen drawers--it just tasted sweeter because it came up so unexpectedly.

That's sort of the point of Secret Ode Days.

You know that people read your blog because you have a sitemeter or they leave comments. But sometimes we just need something that is like the sweetness of a lollipop too by receiving kind words about our writing or personality. With the exception of this first string of Secret Ode Days, they will pop up on my blog unexpectedly. If you miss one, you can always find it again via the Festivities icon on the sidebar where I will keep an archive of each Secret Ode Day post.

This project--which I intended to be a one-day love fest--has now been converted to something ongoing. So here are the most frequently asked questions with their answers:

• Anyone can submit one.
• You can write one about someone who has already had a paragraph written about their blog (there is no limit to how many odes can be written about a person).
• All paragraphs are posted anonymously.
• You can write about more than one blog (giving each a separate paragraph). If you're in a particularly loving mood, feel free to write ten of them!
• You do not need to have a blog to submit one.
• Whenever I have a critical mass, I will post a new Secret Ode Day entry. All entries are archived on this post (see below).
• The beauty of Secret Ode Day is that just because your blog doesn't show up in the current post doesn't mean that there won't be a paragraph about it during the next post. And just because you appear in one post doesn't mean that you won't be mentioned in the next post too. It's just always a surprise--sort of like waking up in the morning and finding the trees decorated with lollipops.
  
• If you have a submission, send it to thetowncriers@gmail.com. Be sure to include the url as well as the blogger's name if possible.
• If you want to write one about me, create a fake email account to send it. All entries are kept anonymous from the blogger. So the only way to keep it anonymous from me is to make up a fake name and email account!

Wonder if anyone has written about your blog? Check the Secret Ode Archives by clicking on any of the hyperlinked entries below:

Ode 1
Ode 2

Commentathons are held twice a year in the summer and winter. Click up on any of the sign-up posts in the archive below to learn more about the Commentathon. Click on any of the master lists in the archive below to see the participants and points for that Commentathon.

Commentathon Archives:

Summer 2007 Sign-up Post
Summer 2007 Master List and Points



Great Cake Days: who doesn't love cake or a decadent dessert? Join in a virtual party that spans the globe by baking or buying a cake on the set date and posting a picture of the confection on your blog. Send me a link and I will compile a master list. Then, bloggers can jump from one cake post to another, learning recipes or just salivating over mounds of cupcake icing. Great Cake Days can be used to celebrate blogoversaries or holidays or happy occasions. Click on any link in the archives below to jump to a past Cake Day.

Cake Day Archives:

My Blogoversary Party 2007