The future of eclecticmisc.org: a lean, mean progressive machine!
My dad loved Gene, Gene, the Dancing Machine from The Gong Show! But that’s not what this post is about.
I haven’t published on this blog in a month. It’s become harder to keep up with five-post-a-week schedule with my work, volunteering (I’m now Director of Social Relations for TYT Army!), and family responsibilities. It’s tempting to just close shop.
But instead, I’ve decided to turn this blog into a lean, mean progressive machine. (I was going to say “leaner, meaner” but that didn’t sound right…). Why?
I had some successful posts on here, including three awesome guest posts!
And last year, thanks to the votes of readers of the blog and Twitter followers in the $50 monthly poll, this blog provided a way for me to donate $700 to 14 different organizations (since there were two ties!) — supporting and hopefully getting the word out about a variety of worthy causes.
Plus, I enjoy writing, and this “forces” me to do so. Writing for my blog has helped me think through issues on several occasions, and sometimes led to discussions on Twitter.
So here’s the plan
I’ll do three posts a week, MWF
Monday Motivation — something good that happened in the news, in my work or personal life. 😎
As someone with bipolar, it’s good for me to try to remember that while there are always bad, depressing things in this world, there are also things that inspire hope and happiness.
I’ll try not to include too much sarcasm in these.
Whatever Wednesday — I’ll write a post focusing on something important or interesting related to progressive news. 🤪
Because I like alliteration (see #1 and #3), and a good challenge, every week I’m going to come up with a different W word for the title of Wednesday’s post.
For example, if it’s about labor movements it might be Worker Wednesday. If I’m fortunate enough that Waukegan, Illinois makes headlines for something related to progressive issues, I’ll have a Waukegan Wednesday.
This is an even worse idea than The Simpsons having to come up with a new chalkboard gag for every show, which they probably got tired of trying to think of ideas for around season 3 or so. Except theirs didn’t have to start with a W.
Follow Friday — A shoutout to recent or top followers.
I love to do this, and it’s a way to say thank you to the nearly 2000 people who, for whatever crazy reason, decided to follow me and haven’t unfollowed me (yet)
When I started doing Follow Fridays last year, I had the idea of taking a screen grab of each followers’ profile and doing a Follow Friday a tweet thread. That way, people could get a quick preview of who they are.
It does take time to do the screen grabs and posts each week, but I’ve gotten lots of positive feedback about it. I think it really does help to see if it’s someone you already follow or might want to start following, and the more progressives the merrier!
Looking for a good Simpsons chalkboard gag, I came across this. What are the odds?! (Well they do have over 700 episodes now…)
Eventually, I am hoping to bring back guest posts, too! I want to get things back up and running first and get back with people to see who is or isn’t (still) interested.
Hopefully this new plan doesn’t turn out to be one of those “best laid plans of mice and men” Robert Burns wrote about. See, it already looks like I’ll need a good Monday Motivation meme or post to start things off. See you next week!
