Huge Chunky Final Blogpost

I've never read a "farewell post," so I'm not really sure what one is supposed to look like. In fact, I'm not even really sure if a "farewell post" a real thing. Well, I'm writing one now, so... if it wasn't a real thing before, it is now. Here goes...

If I wasn't required to blog for my English class this year, I probably would have never started, but now, I'm stuck in the blogosphere. I write, I follow, and I even comment from time to time. It's May, so I'm about to take a nice, relaxing blog-cation, but before I depart, I want to make sure that you know me well as a blogger. So, because it's my favorite thing to do... here are some LISTS:

Five Favorite Blogs (in no particular order)
1. Smitten Kitchen - interesting recipes, and beautiful pictures of food
2. Grilled Cheese Social - Just like Smitten Kitchen, but only grilled cheese sandwiches
(can you tell I'm a huge foodie yet?)
3. The MindBlog - It's neuroscience, but in the most interesting, easy-to-understand way possible.
4. Playbill - OKAY, it's not really a blog, but thanks to Google Reader I always get great little newsflashes or fun facts when I check it.
5. The Disney Blog - 'Nuff said.

Five Most Valuable Blogging Lessons
(greatly in part due to Liz Strauss and her Blogspertise [Blogs. Expertise. Get it?])
1. Links are everybody's friend. A blog that never links to other blogs or sources is a dead end. It has nowhere to go, and will probably not be linked or referenced often because it does nothing for the networked blogging community. Don't be afraid to link often. You'll lose nothing; it can only help you.
2. Cool-looking blogs are cooler in general. I love posts that include photography, pictures, diagrams, etc, and when blogs are visually unique (no templates) and easy to navigate with the eye, they make me want to read them.
3. Make sure your blog represents your voice. If you can picture the blogger physically saying what he or she has posted, it makes the blog so much more readable.
4. When blogs have a clear theme, when all the posts connect to some common interest, such as technology or music or eating or Japan, it ups the "followable" factor incredibly.
5. Talking. Real talking. Yeah, bloggers are real people who communicate with other real people in the real world. They live beyond their blogs. Sometimes, learning about exciting new blogs happens off the computer. This is definitely true for me.


Four Things I Still Need to Work on:
1. Draft more. I tend to crank out a whole post in one sitting, and I probably should proofread or outline a little more (THIS post WAS proofread... yay me)
2. Try to get readers. Usually I never get around to publicizing my posts on REddit or Facebook, but it's reallt not that hard.
3. My theme. If I ever get back into blogging, I need an over-arching idea that holds my posts together, because this time around, it didn't quite happen.
4. Returning the favor. Maybe the reason I don't have more readers is because I have terrible blog karma. I read plenty of posts but rarely comment...

Finally...

Seven Songs I Will Be Listening to All Summer (you should, too):

1. Sweet Pea
2. Someone You'd Admire
3. Sleep the Clock Around
4. Blue Skies
5. This Bed
6. Lux Aurumque
7. Sweet Talk Sweet Talk
...okay one more...

Have a fantastic summer, and thanks for reading!