End of April but not Blapril

Today brings with it the end of April, and I’d say this has been a very interesting month. Sure, there is the incredible life-changing event of the COVID-19, China Flu, Wuhan Virus lockdown, but there’s actually been more going on than that nastiness.

Blapril was here!

Yes, the fantastic Blaugust event that has lured people out of their blogging seclusion in August for the past few years spawned a sibling, and coupled with the medical emergency that has been going on, Belghast appropriately named the event Blapril.

This seemed to be the perfect remedy for the social distancing we all had to engage in outside the blogosphere, and I think a lot of us were more than happy to have a distraction from masks, hand sanitizers, and lines for purchasing toilet paper.

My part in this Blapril thing has been pretty much just as a participant. I really didn’t feel like I was gonna be able to mentor or organize anything, and I was right. Things were just too chaotic with working from home, learning to utilize online delivery services, and trying to figure out how to get my 10k steps in while locked in my 1200 square foot house.

I made it through April, however, and I think I did a decent job with Blapril as well (side note – Blapril is scheduled to continue into the first week of May based on the calendar that was set up and I hope to keep going beyond that too).

First things first, I’ve for the last bit of months I’ve been posting a lot about the comics I read and the new issues that are available on the online services I subscribe to, but with the lockdown, we’ve actually seen a shutdown of the comics industry. Very few new comics have come out in April, and it’s made Wednesday a pretty depressing day since I don’t get my weekly dose of new stories. Regardless of the reduction in publishing, I was able to mostly keep up with my Comics Corner posts though somehow I missed a Marvel Unlimited New Release post I just saw. I’m not sure how I missed it since I know I wrote it up, but I did have a problem with WordPress at some point this month…maybe that was part of it. In any case, I push out 12 posts for my Comics Corner.

Wait a minute – there’s Marvel…I just need to recategorize it from Comics to Comics Corner…duh!

Ok, so 13 posts there.

Then there’s my Daily Rambles, which have been covering all sorts of topics. I pumped out 24 of those with rambles ranging from the cancellation of Comic-Con to the Championship of March Mammal Madness. I also started trying to move back into some game coverage as I let myself move beyond my boycott of Blizzard and started playing my LOTRO Warden again.

On the whole, I think Blapril was a success for me.

Including this post, I was able to crank out 37 posts during the month, and we’ll see how things go when the entire event has wrapped up next week, but I feel pretty pleased with the effort I’ve put in.

Next up, though, I’ve got a part of Blapril I am looking forward to continuing after the event is technically over…the Civilization (I had to use the Z) VI Blogger Succession Game. This is gonna be a lot of fun, and it has been already reading through the advancements of Queen Victoria through 40 turns.

At this point, it looks like there are 8 of us participating in this thing, and who knows how long this is gonna go…it could end on my turn for all I know since I’m not that great at the game…or it could go through to our eventual victory. Either way, I’ve excited about the interesting twists and turns that are always possible in these types of succession games.

And it’s an excellent way to keep the camaraderie of Blapril going even after the event is over.

In any case, I hope you all enjoyed Blapril and continue having fun in our little segment of the blogosphere.

Ramble 2020.02.12 | End of April but not Blapril