Blog Award – Blind Injustice

December 23, 2021December 21, 2021

Blog Wrap-Up: Calendar Year 2021

As I’ve been doing the previous couple of years, I am doing a blog wrap-up post for 2021.

Much like in 2020, in 2021 the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected what I blog about as well as how I blog. As the theme of this blog is talking about injustices we may be blind to and/or blindly commit, there were (and are) a number of injustices related to the pandemic that I decided were worth talking about here. Additionally, as the pandemic situation has changed, for me personally and in my hometown of New York City, I have changed the extent to which I post updates about the pandemic (at times posting weekly, at times not posting at all, and more recently posting monthly about the pandemic). When I started this blog, I did not anticipate that, in some ways, this would turn out to be a personal diary for an area slammed by the pandemic (and slammed especially badly in Spring 2020), but here we are.

However, probably the most challenging thing for me with this blog has been in covering some issues that were important to talk about, yet delicate and sensitive. Topics such as the January 6^th insurrection, the trial involving the police officer who killed George Floyd, critical race theory (posts that I literally spent months writing, editing, and perfecting), and more were all important to talk about, yet were all difficult to write about in their own ways. I can only hope that I’ve added at least a bit of insight into discussions about these topics and more, especially in a political, cultural, and social environment that has felt very fragile at times in the past year.

That being said, it’s not any of these posts that have caught so much attention, but instead my post on “Simone Biles, Sexual Abuse, and Mental Health.” That post has nearly 100 likes and over 40 comments as of the time of my writing this and continues to get likes—not that blog post statistics are the be-all and end-all, but when I was writing this post I had no idea that it would resonate so much with so many people. Granted, I think that Biles’ experiences have resonated with many people, and the popularity of this post is only a microcosm of that fact.

Speaking of my writing getting recognition, I should take some space in this post to recognize the fact that Sakshi Shreya at Art Enthusiastics nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award. While I do not write blog award posts anymore as I used to, I appreciate the nomination!

I know that I’ve spent most of this post talking about my own blogging for this year, but I do want to thank all of you, my readers, for reading my posts, liking them, and leaving engaged comments. While I don’t want to get fixated on views, likes, and comments, I am always happy to see others engaged with the topics I write about here, some of which can be sensitive and difficult to think about, talk about, and yes, even write about.

And on that note, I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season.

I will not be publishing any blog posts next week.

June 10, 2021June 6, 2021

My First Blog News Post in Some Time

When looking at the page on my blog for “Relevant Blog News” it dawned on me that I had not written a post dedicated solely to blog news since February 2020. Goodness me! It just goes to show how much time flies, especially during a global pandemic.

Like with many other aspects of life, the pandemic resulted in a change of course for how I did things with my blog. Instead of a mix of republishing some old blog posts, blog news, announcing blog awards I received, sharing others’ blog posts, and giving some blog advice on select Thursday evenings, I instead dedicated myself to the weekly COVID updates every Thursday evening when the pandemic was bad in New York City (not having COVID updates for the portion of 2020 when COVID was not that bad where I was).

A global pandemic can have a weird way of making you reevaluate your so-called plans. Well, in my case, the pandemic helped me reevaluate whether all of the things I used to do on select Thursday evenings with my blog were things that: a) others wanted of my blog and/or b) I wanted of my blog.

Here is the result of my reevaluation:

Going forward, I do not plan on usually republishing old blog posts.

Even though there seemed to be some support of my republishing old blog posts when I contemplated starting the practice, the reality is that republished old blog posts don’t seem to be that popular or that well-read, even among some of my newer readers. While I’m not one who likes my content to be driven based on popularity, republishing old posts was, in part, a way to help newer readers connect with older content—something that just didn’t happen as I expected.

That being said, there may be some occasions when I realize that an old blog post needs significant revisions. In such circumstances, I may yet republish a significantly revised blog post. I don’t expect that to happen often, but it may happen.

I still see a place on this blog for blog news posts.

I am not a fan of suddenly making a significant change to the blog or its content without announcing it first. Such announcements tend to be made through blog news posts such as this one.

I am “semi-retiring” from doing blog award posts.

This is something that I have been thinking about for some time, and this is not a decision I take lightly.

I am flattered and honored that there are some bloggers who think that my content is good enough to merit a nomination for a blogging award. And, in recognition of the fact that I am flattered and honored with getting such awards, I still plan on mentioning who nominated me for which awards at the end of a calendar year.

However, these awards (and subsequent award posts) come to me every 2-6 months at this point, and it is honestly time-consuming to put together these posts (between the answering of questions, looking at which blogs I want to nominate, etc.)—posts that aren’t even read much if at all by readers more than a few days after I publish them. The bottom line is that I see more drawbacks than benefits of writing blog award posts at this stage of my blogging life. The one exception I will make is if I get a blog award that seems particularly prestigious.[1]

However, the one aspect of blog award posts that I still want to do is making my readers aware of other blogs that I think are worth reading. This brings me to my next announcement in this blog post full of announcements…

I am as enthusiastic as ever about sharing others’ posts, even though I haven’t been good as of late about documenting for myself which posts seem worthy of sharing.

I recognize the fact that my perspective has its significant limits, as I’m white, able-bodied, and middle class in the United States of America (to name a few of my identities). Yes, I try to educate myself as much as I can, and I try to share a lot of what I learn with others. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that my perspective on a lot of things, including when it comes to issues of injustice, has its limits due to my life experiences.

As such, I really want to amplify the voices of bloggers who have perspectives I may lack. That is where sharing others’ blog posts comes in.

While content from me tends to be more popular than the content I share from other bloggers, I still hope that sharing content from others will become an important part of my blog again.

I also hope to resume the posts offering blog advice.

I have now been blogging for over four years. While I’m not the biggest blogger on the planet, I have a decent-sized following for someone who’s not a celebrity, and therefore I feel that I have some wisdom to share with other bloggers about blogging as a whole. I look forward to sharing that wisdom once again through blog advice posts. While this blog is not focused on teaching others how to blog, I do see this being a piece of my blog going forward.

I know I went through a lot of assorted pieces in my blog news post today, so if anyone has any questions or comments about how my blog is going forward, feel free to reply in the comments section below!

[1] By the way, if you’re interested in reading about whether to accept blog awards or not, feel free to read my “Blog Advice” post on the subject.

December 28, 2020December 28, 2020

Blog Wrap-Up: Calendar Year 2020

Okay, so I know this is my blog wrap-up post for this calendar year, but in typical 2020 fashion, not even this wrap-up post could be done as normal…

Given the surge in COVID in New York City, I just wanted to give a brief update on COVID here right now, before going on to the main subject of the post, which is the blog wrap-up for this year. Here are some quick updates:

Everyone in my immediate family is still COVID-free.
That being said, the positivity rate continues to rise where I am, and in the zip code just north of mine, the test positivity rate is approaching a whopping 13%. Needless to say, I still very much feel like we are heading in the wrong direction where I am, in my part of New York City (southern Queens).
For the first time since mid-May, New York State is reporting over 100 deaths a day from COVID on a regular basis.
For those worried about what I’m doing over the holidays, worry not—I am not traveling during them, and I’m taking care of myself right where I am.

I know this is not the typical way to start a blog wrap-up post for the calendar year, but I figured that it would be better to give a COVID update now, during the middle of the holidays, instead of waiting completely until after the holidays.

Okay, now for my originally scheduled wrap-up post…

Honestly, at times it has felt like just too much to keep up with everything, both personally and blog-wise. I’m guessing that many of my readers might say the same—that it was a struggle to keep up with all that was going on.

And yet, we persevered. We’ve made it through 2020.

In light of all that went on this year in the United States (and in the world), talking about what this year in blogging has been like for me feels a little insignificant. That being said, I would like to highlight some pages on my blog that seem relevant, given all that is going on right now:

My Coronavirus Diary page. This page classified as “Coronavirus Diary” is broken up into two categories: the weekly updates from New York City (something I did for a couple of months when the pandemic was particularly bad in my hometown) and blog posts about injustices related to COVID-19.
My blog’s page on racial issues. While I have some posts on that page that precede the killing of George Floyd, some of my older content is as relevant as ever, in light of Mr. Floyd’s death. Some posts that may be worth a read (especially if you’re someone who’s followed the blog in the past few months) include ones on how institutional racism affects policing, how the fight for African American Civil Rights is not over, and what white guilt is.
The page I have for the “What Is” blog series. The goal of this series is to hopefully help many of us better understand terms that are often used in social justice circles that some of us may struggle to understand.
The page I have for “blog advice” posts. Since I’ve gained a substantial following, I want to make sure that my own tips on blogging get passed down to both current and future bloggers. I will say that this is taking a back seat to my COVID update posts for now, but whenever this pandemic settles down (and I really believe it’s a “when” and not an “if”), I will continue giving blogging advice.

I want to end this wrap-up post by offering a few “thank-yous”:

First, thank you to those who nominated me for blogging awards. This includes Em at Invincible Woman on Wheels, for the Ideal Inspiration Blogging Award; the blog Living Everyday, for the Outstanding Blogger Award; and Keith V at On My Mind Today for the Blogger Recognition Blog Award.[1]

Thank you, of course, to all my readers this year. I know many people are feeling quite fatigued from all the screen time we’re having, so I don’t take lightly the fact that people are using a little bit of that screen time by reading my blog.

A thank you goes to all the essential workers, such as those in grocery stores, those keeping mass transit running, fire fighters, and many others who kept things functioning as best as they can during COVID. Many of these people had to deal with COVID in their workplaces yet did the best they could to make sure things were kept running—without help from our essential workers during this time, it would be impossible for us to see our most basic needs met.

Most of all, thank you to our EMTs, nurses, doctors, and other medical workers who’ve been helping during this time of pandemic. I am grateful for the work you all do. You all deserve better than the ignoring of basic public health guidance that has led to many of you feeling overwhelmed.

Finally, I just want to wish that everyone has a healthy and safe holiday season.

I will not be publishing a post for the rest of the week, in observance of New Year’s Day.

[1] I still need to do an award post, as this too has taken a back seat for now to the COVID update posts. That being said, I do want to at least acknowledge that I got nominated for this award!

October 1, 2020September 27, 2020

Blogging Awards: To Accept or Not to Accept?

A winner’s medal. (Not that I receive any for winning a blog award, but this seems appropriate since we’re talking about winning things.)

As some of my readers may’ve seen, I accepted another blogging award in the past couple of weeks. I’ve tended to enjoy accepting these awards and “paying it forward” to other bloggers by nominating deserving bloggers for those awards.

However, I also realize that not all bloggers have the same attitudes I do about awards. I’ve heard of bloggers who have an indifferent attitude about awards, and bloggers who even dislike accepting them. Given the differing attitudes about awards, I think that a good follow-up to my recent blog award acceptance is to express my own thoughts about blog awards, and give room for open conversation about them in the comments section below.

So…blogging awards: To accept or not to accept?

Really, it’s all up to you. You, the recipient of the award, can choose to accept or not accept the award, and I think there are valid reasons to accept and valid reasons not to accept. And, if you accept the award, you can choose what that acceptance of the award looks like.

Therefore, instead of giving a definitive “you must accept” or “you must not accept,” I think it would be helpful to outline some benefits I’ve seen to accepting blog awards through award acceptance posts, as well as some pitfalls.

Among the benefits I’ve seen for accepting blog awards include the following:

These award acceptance posts give an opportunity to share things about myself that I would otherwise not share.
The award acceptance posts tend to give me an opportunity to highlight the work of deserving bloggers, through nominating said bloggers for the award.
I really enjoy sharing good news about myself and my blog.
Not that I have ever intended this to be a benefit, but it seems like my blog following grows by a decent amount after I accept an award nomination.

But, I have also noticed some pitfalls to the blog award posts. Here are a few pitfalls I’ve seen:

Blog award posts, and particularly award posts where you need to nominate other bloggers for the award, take a lot of work and time. Honestly, identifying other deserving bloggers is the most time-consuming part of a blog award post for me, and formulating my own questions for other bloggers’ blog award acceptances is also a time-consuming process.
While I enjoy sharing more things about myself, some questions from some blog award posts may require people to answer questions about themselves they might not feel comfortable answering in a public realm.
I haven’t gotten to this point as a blogger yet, but I’ve seen some bloggers get nominated for awards often enough that accepting every award post would mean more award posts a month than they might like.

The decision on whether to publish an award acceptance post or not should come down to one thing and one thing only: whether you feel that the award posts are a net benefit for you and your blog, or a net drawback. If it is a net benefit, then go ahead and publish those award posts. If it’s a net drawback, then you may want to consider something other than a traditional award post—what you should consider depends on what the biggest drawbacks and benefits are for you. Personally, if I get to the point that I get so many blog award posts that it would be too time-consuming and get me too much away from the focus of my blog (outweighing any benefits), then I might consider doing something similar to what Ashley at Mental Health @ Home does—in some form of wrap-up post (for me, possibly a wrap-up post for the year, as opposed to a wrap-up post for the week in Ashley’s case), thanking bloggers who nominated the blog for certain awards.[1]

Am I missing any benefits or drawbacks to accepting blog award posts? Do you accept blog award posts, and why have you reached your decision? Feel free to talk about these things and anything else relevant to blogging awards in the comments section below!

[1] If you want to read a different point-of-view on whether to accept or not to accept blog awards, I recommend reading Ashley’s post on this topic. She’s coming at it from a different perspective than I do, but I think it’s worth the read: https://mentalhealthathome.org/2019/12/08/do-you-do-blog-awards/

September 17, 2020September 13, 2020

The Outstanding Blogger Award!

So I found out recently that I’ve been nominated for another blogging award! This time, I was nominated by the blog Living Everyday for an Outstanding Blogger Award! Being nominated is an honor.

These are the rules for the award:

Provide the link to the creator’s original award post.
Answer the questions provided.
Create 7 unique questions.
Nominate 10 bloggers. Ensure that they are aware of their nomination. Neither the award’s creator, nor the blogger that nominated you, can be nominated.
At the end of 2020, every blog that ping-backs the creator’s original post will be entered to win the 2020 Outstanding Blogger Award!

Here were the questions I got (with my answers in bold):

What have you learned about yourself during the pandemic? I learned that I can be a quicker learner than I often give myself credit for. In just two months or so, I went from knowing nothing about Zoom to giving Zoom tutorials. Wild stuff.
Where is your favorite place to vacation? I’m not a huge vacationer myself, but a vacation to anything historical or cultural is up my alley.
What is your favorite season? Spring. It’s the time of year when the weather is getting warmer (but it’s usually not too hot) and the days are getting longer.
Why did you start blogging and is it the same reason you continue? Honestly, I just wanted to talk about injustices that I and others may be blind to and/or blindly commit. Even though my blog has done other things, such as my COVID update posts and now some blog advice posts, that is the main reason why I continue blogging.
Do you come from a large family? Not particularly. I only have one brother.
What was your best (maybe not favorite) subject in high school? History was my best and my favorite subject in high school.
Which would you rather read, fiction or non-fiction? I have a preference for non-fiction, but I would not turn down a good historical fiction book!

Here are the bloggers I’m nominating, in no particular order:

Here are my questions for my award nominees:

What have you learned about yourself during COVID? (I know, same question as one of the ones I was given, but I think it’s a good one.)
What is an interest of yours you don’t think your readers are aware of?
Has the focus of your blog changed over time? If so, how?
Why did you decide to blog on the topic(s) you blog on?
Are there any sports you are into? If so, which sports are you into, and which people or teams do you root for?
What is a place you haven’t visited yet that you would like to visit?
What is the best place you’ve been to? Why?