Blogathon 2006

I didn’t participate in previous Blogathons, because I didn’t know much them or have much time to learn more.  After reading announcements, the Blogathon website, and participants posts, I decided that since I’m very addicted to the computer, I might as well put it to good use on Saturday, July 29, 2006.  During the Blogathon, we had to post a new entry every half hour, and I figured that I would use the time in between to type class notes or do my homework on my computer. 

For Blogathon 2006, I wanted to use a separate online journal or blog on a different server from my usual one, because I planned to delete most of the entries a few days after the event, and I didn’t want stalkers finding my regular blog.  Signing up for Blogathon posts your blog on their list, making it easier to find and more vulnerable to stalkers.  Besides, it would give me the opportunity to explore different online journal servers.  Since I was going to use the Xanga account only for the event, I decided on blog06id for my screen name.  The blog06 part is short for Blogathon 2006, and id means it was my id or screen name for the event.  I’m afraid that is causing the OD staff to not recognize or list me as a Blogathon participant.

I blogged for Direct Relief International, because I am a healthcare field, and the world has had too many disasters recently.  To further support and pulbicize the charity, I set my blog background to have the same colors as those of its site, and also wrote about it.  Direct Relief works worldwide to provide aid to many people around the world.  This organization puts their efforts in improving the health and lives of those in developing countries and areas hit by disasters by providing medical care, supplies, and equipment, and strengthening national health efforts. 

Unfortunately, I only had two sponsors totaling $15, and the event didn’t go as planned.  Thank you to the kind souls who donated! For the first few hours, I wasn’t quite awake, especially since I had trouble sleeping the night before due to the continuous heat and humidity.  That’s why I had short, unplanned entries.  I would write, set my alarm to go off at the next half hour, go back to sleep, then get up and write.

There had been topics I had planned to write during the Blogathon, but didn’t get to them.  I realized that 30 minutes is usually not enough time to write a decent entry.  This means that I didn’t get to type my notes or do my homework.  Maybe in the future, they should change it to one entry per hour.  That way, it is less stressful, and people have more time to write better entries.  Besides, it’s hard to think of so many topics, so less entries would mean less topics.

The event was fun, but I’m not sure if it was for me.  I wasn’t able to get many important things done, and I don’t have much endurance.  Maybe if it didn’t go on for so long, less than 24 hours, it wouldv’e have been better for me.  Well, at least it was for a good cause, and I got to really clean out my e-mailbox from those junk e-mail since I had to keep logging in to send e-mail for the Blogathon games.  I think for the future, they should have more options, such as Half Blogathon, where people only participate for 12 hours or write one hour per entry with limits, such as maximum amount of sponsors accepted or lesser prizes.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep, not having the endurance, recently being ill, stress from busy schedule, the hot and humid weather, too much air conditioning, or all of them, but I’m still recovering from the Blogathon.  During the last few hours, I had a bad headache that wouldn’t go away, even with medicine.  Soon, I was also feeling weak and dizzy, with palpitations.  I spent most of the last few hours in bed with the half-hour alarms again.  That’s why the entries were very quickly written and so short.

The end finally came.  I was so sick that I immediately went to bed.  When I woke up a few hours later, the headaches, dizziness, and weakness were still there, so I was forced to take medicine and go back to sleep.  I didn’t get up again until after midnight, and still had slight heavy head, dizziness, and weakness, but I had to type my notes and study for my midterm.

As of now, my head is still heavy, and I still feel a little weak and dizzy.  I probably am not strong enough for the Blogathon.  Maybe if I didn’t have such a busy schedule, or if the weather hadn’t been so bad, I wouldn’t have been so ill.