Just after midnight, this past Sunday morning, I published my last post. In it, I stated that I was “an hour and a half into a twenty-eight hour Mellencamp marathon.” A little while after that, a very kind lady – her name is Sharon – posted a comment stating she didn’t think she “could stay awake long enough for a 28 hour marathon of anyone’s music.” She wished me good luck and asked me to “please let your readers know if you accomplished it.” I’ve already told her in a reply to her comment, but for the benefit of anyone else who is interested, I failed miserably in the Mellencamp marathon. I managed about three hours, then I had to get some food and spent the rest of the night re-watching “George Gently” episodes on Netflix.

Later, another kind blogger (or bloggers) – http://indamixworldwide.com/ – followed this blog, liked several items, commented on one and even replied to my comment! This blog hasn’t see this much action since last January when WordPress billed me for my Premium upgrade. Apparently, this blog allegedly contains some humorous material that prompted said activity by the kind blogger (or bloggers) from Indamixworldwide.

On October 2 this year, I published an article entitled Blog Followers: Good and Bad. In it, I wrote “So, I think that is what makes a good blog follower, one that actively engages the author and the readership by becoming involved in the blog with comments or by using an article as inspiration for their own article – by working to build a community.” That is exactly what the blogger at Indamixworldwide did. With two simple comments, he (or she) engaged and encouraged me as a writer and started the simple process of engaging a community. That is powerful enough by itself, but if you think about the power this idea has to engage people of different ages, genders, races, cultures, religions, and everything else that makes us each unique, it seems to me, as most of us already know, that words – on this blog, in books, the press, or in simple conversations have remarkable power to change the world. In just a few hours, this simple little blog of mine, with some words I wrote and some words from people I have never met started a process that can change lives.

Now I will get down off on my soapbox for now so I can finish and publish this, but be forewarned, I intend to get on my soapbox again soon to pontificate about blog “posts.”

I failed again this past weekend to get caught up on the daily assignments for Blogging 101, and I haven’t even started with those for Photo 101. If I am honest with myself, which usually I am not, I have to say that it is highly doubtful that I am going to complete either one of this courses. I am still going to try, though.

The assignment for this post is to follow five new topics in the (WordPress) Reader and five new blogs. I will start with the blogs, since two are mentioned earlier in this post. In no particular order, they are:

4 Times and Counting – A remarkable site from a Four Time Breast Cancer Survivor

Indamixworldwide – Stunning and musical. Just look at it

A Writer’s Path – A very informative, appealing, and easy to read blog for all aspiring writers

OK…between dogs, cats, family and hunger, I’ve run out of gas for the night. Sorry, only three blogs here, but I am going to publish this anyway. Maybe tomorrow will be better.