Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored nor endorsed by any person, business, or organization. All views are the author's own.
At this point in my blogging career, I have written nearly 200 posts. The next one will be the big number, and these posts are those that I believe are some of my best written, or more entertaining concepts, that I have come up with at this time.
That, or they were wildly popular. What's important is that either I like them, or the general public to the point that I look halfway decent.
Now, of the currently 199 posts published, here are my all-time favorites:
Of course, if you have your own Top 5 Favorite List, I'd love to hear it! Simply email it to "[email protected]" with the subject "Top 5".
Anyways!
5. The Ladder of Connections
Probably the most "interactive" post I have written, I developed a Buzzfeed-style quiz to go along with it to improve engagement. In addition, the references to the SCP Foundation help make the ideas seem a bit more concrete or in-reach for those who may not necessarily have been used to my thought process.
In addition: one of the more notable aspects of this post was the introduction of a "supplement quiz" in the style of BuzzFeed. The quiz more-or-less simply bolstered the claims of the post and allowed visitors to see what "level" they would consider a specific friendship to be at.
The original goal of this post was to usher in a new "era of interactivity and engagement" with the blog. That necessarily did not work, but the topics still showed to be popular, so they will continue to be evaluated and releassed when a light-bulb idea clicks for the blog.
4. 2 Speakers, 1 Week, A Dialogue
This post moves us away from specific topics and more looking at something that may be considered a stereotypical blog post by global standards. By that, I mean that it was about the week's events. Nothing too fancy. Actually, I lied. Two high-profile events at secure venues definitely is fancy.
The first event was a more public affair at Nationals Park, where it was more casual, yet still uptight at a baseball park. It was noticably more so a day-trip event, and I know people who traveled from New York and beyond to attend.
The second was an evening media affair with celebrities and the Orchestra performing. I personally enjoyed this event more but that's beside the point.
What is the point of the post was that two events, one week apart, in the same city, can be so wildly different, yet similar in their stances, that it made it worth writing about — and reading.
3. The Third Week of Wheels Adventure
What does rock jumping in Sedona, an attempted murder at the Grand Canyon, an alpaca farm outside Santa Fe, a charity in Phoenix, and a Travelodge 280 miles northwest of Dallas have in common? It's simple: they were all present in my 3rd-week recap of my Cross Country USA Trip.
This post has been considered notorious because of the many memable things that occurred during the entirety of the trip in general, but particularly what happened in this specific week. In addition: this post saw a major traffic spike to the site from more places outside of Massachusetts. More specifically, the Northeast Corridor as a whole, not that I have any idea how that would have transpired.
Now, what can be said is that this post was a new edge in my travel post design, and there is something to be said for a new "post layout" that can be seen to have better results for both me, and for the readers at large.
2. Drawing Between The Forms
This post is considered to be one of my most philosophical and metaphorical of my public writings. There is no specific "purpose" at hand other than the fact that many genres and aspects of literature are extremely confusing to even begin to disect, or, are so simple that it's absurdist to go beyond what's literally on the words.
More specifically: the post goes into T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphsis, and how the authors of the time were simply expressing their emotions in writing, rather than going to a therapy session that most people would argue was for the better.
Not only that, but the post goes into what it means for the author to not like their own work, and how it's not important to just teach the foundations of literature, but practical applications of it, so students understand what exactly is going on.
I did say that it was philosophical, after all.
Notable Mentions
The Wheels are Wheeling
The timing behind this post cannot be matched, alongside the coincidences that fell beside it.
The Commercialization of Blogging
Not everything has to be for money, especially something with such homegrown roots, wouldn't you say?
Now, for no. 1…
1. Being Slightly Odd
This post is special for a few reasons. For one, it was the post that took the longest to write — about 45 days to fully draft, edit, compile, then publish. Secondly, and most importantly, the post has received the highest critical acclaim and has been the most shared post outside of my own networks.
What is it about? It's a simple plot. My childhood and evolution as being slightly odder than what can be perceived as normal by the general population.
Due to both the long process behind it and the subject matter at hand, this post has been considered extremely popular and successful and my magnum opus when "shopping" my writing around to other people and teams. This post was so successful in its strategy that I utilized it for an extra credit assignment for my New Yorker Course.
The one piece of advice/criticism I get on this post, is whether or not this will be discussed more on the blog, or a sequel will be written. For that, I say: we'll see.
READ: Being Slightly Odd
Well, we're almost there. Next Friday marks the 200th post and the 5th anniversary. I have no other words for now, but expect more when the time comes.
As a thank you for being an email subscriber, you’ll receive the new post at 10:00 AM ET. This is currently my thinking for “early access” :)
Once again, thanks for reading, see you next Friday!