Happy 200: A Mixorama

Da da da da da daaa! Pseudo has made it to 200 posts! Plus I consider June kind of the one year anniversary of the blog. Blogger will tell you differently, but since I barely wrote, like, four posts in the first six months, I don’t count those months. June was also the month where I started leaving comments on other blogs, beginning the process of creating a network of friends.

A lot can happen in a year and 200 posts.

I think one of the things I like best about blogging is that there really are no rules. Sure, there are guidelines, suggested ways of doing things. But in the end each of us gets to make what we want of our blogs and the experience of blogging. I love that.

I started the blog hoping it would lead me back to writing and feeling creative and it has. The no rules thing really helps and I find the blog so much more satisfying than my last experiment with writing. I also had hoped I would find a way to bring in extra income. Everyone knows that teachers do not make a lot of money, and the way things are going, after years of hard work and going into debt for a graduate degree, the State wants to cut my salary next year. So far I have not put ads on my blog, but this summer I am going to look into doing just that. I am planning to take it slow and not compromise the creative integrity I strive for.

I am hoping the blog has inspired me enough to pump out the first draft of a book this summer…

The biggest change in my life that has come to me through blogging is the people I have met. The closeness I feel with my online friends. I think we all expose a part of ourselves in our writing that lends itself to an immediacy of kinship. These friendships are a bonus I did not see coming when I began this experiment called blogging.

In honor of this bonus, my blog friends, my 200th post will host a contest as well as a peek at Pseudo. I remain anonymous mostly because I put the word teacher in my “experimental” blog title. This blog was supposed to be a test, an experiment. If I ended up enjoying it, I had planned another blog to be permanent. However, when that moment rolled around it was already past summer, I was already back to work, and there was never time to start another blog. So. I kind of got stuck with my lame blog title. Pseudonymous HS Teacher. I don’t want school or State authorities to get all up in my arse, so I remain anonymous.

I do like seeing photos of my blog friends though.

Thistle did a big reveal for her 200th. She was one of the first blog friends I met. She’s not been blogging lately due to a back injury and it is amazing how much I can miss her presence on the Internet.

Anywhos she gave me this idea.

Well.

Here goes.

My daughter took this on Mother’s Day.

Hit 40 freaked me out and now you only get my back... there were more.

There I am..Since I am fairly pissed off at some work related things and may end up writing about them, the photos will probably come down after the weekend. If you are reading this late, you are probably wondering WTF because the photos are already gone.

Next, I’d like to give a nod to the first blog friends I met last summer. The bloggers who helped influence me from sporadic blogging to full on commitment.

I already mentioned thistle. If you visit her, wish her well so her back gets better and she can sit long enough to go on the Internet.

My sister Shaunna at Shaunna' Soliloquies pushed me to start a blog for two years before I finally got to it. She is an incredible writer and we hope to work on a memoir project together this summer. Stay tuned for more tales from the eclectic Surf and Sand Mobile Home Park.

Kristan is a talented young writer. I left my very first comment on her blog. Her post was discussing being biracial and some of the issues hit home for me as my children are biracial. She’s working on the revision of her first novel and has a series online called Twenty Something that I love.

I found Movie in the beginning. I was looking for other teachers. She leaves the kindest, most empathetic comments, and for weeks she and Kristan were the only people commenting regularly on my blog. I’d wake up every morning and would be like a kid opening a Christmas present when I’d see I had 2 comments waiting to be read on a post I had written. Movie and I also have a lot of parallels in our lives. I feel like I have known her longer than one year.

Laura at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman is also an English teacher. She blogs honestly and bravely about the demise of a bad marriage and the beginning of a new life.

Jane at By Jane hosts Midlife Bloggers. She posted a couple of my posts about being a cancer survivor over at Midlife Bloggers and fast forwarded my blogging. Thank-you Jane.

Liz at Inventing My Life blogs is in the middle of the adoption process. When her child comes home I feel like I will have been on the front lines from the beginning because of her honest writing.

Smart Mouth Broad over at Words of Wisdom from a Smart Mouthed Broad hosts a blog that is like the neighborhood hang-out. I love SMB and feel grateful to call her a friend.

Kate at What Kate Did Next lives in England and is a writer working on her fourth novel. Her blog (which posts writing prompts and thoughts) has been a huge influence on inspiring my creative side. She has recently published through blurb a book which features the best from her first year of blogging. She is donating all proceeds to War Child. How cool is that?

Twenty-Four at Heart writes about everything that I feel I should not with the word “teacher” in my blog title. Boobs, nekkedness, sex toys… She is funny and endearing and lives close to where I grew up. She posts photos that make me incredibly homesick, but I adore her anyway.

Jan at Jan’s Sushi Bar is amazingly funny and witty. She befriended me from my first comment. And I love her recipes. I wish I was going to Blog Her in Chicago so I could hang out with Jan and 24. I cannot even imagine how much fun that would be. Well, I CAN actually imagine it and so am jealous. They are going to have a blast.

Mama Dawg at Two Dogs Running is so much fun and I feel like I know her and her daughter LOML. Mama was brave enough recently to ask me to guest post.

Vodka Mom, well, everyone knows her. Despite her wild popularity, she has always made me feel like I know her personally. Her funny posts about her kindergarteners inspired me to write some posts about my classroom.

Braja at Lost and Found in India found my blog with a bang of an insightful comment. She is another blogger who has gained enormous readership over a short period of time; however, she always has the time to connect through her comments and emails.

There are many others I wish I could mention in this 200th post, but I’ll end there.

And now for the contest. I’m going to go with my last contest. Kathy, who won, seemed to like the contents of her Hawaii goodie box. The prize is a box of “stuff” from Hawaii. Swap meet stuff. Exotic snackie stuff. A shell or two from Pseudo’s beach walks.

To win the random drawing.

Leave a comment.

If you are a follower leave a separate comment for another entry.

If you voted for me in the Blogger’s Choice Awards, leave another comment. It may be silly, but I am hoping this Blogger’s Choice potential award might help me land an agent this year for the book I plan to write this summer. In the sidebar you can find my favorite posts, which would mean my better writing. I think.

If you post about the contest, leave another comment.

Leave your comments separately, as the comment numbers will be the contest drawing numbers. The contest will run all week and I'll do the random number thingy next Saturday.

Good luck and thank-you for sticking with my incredibly long 200th post.