Blogging from A to Z: The Drinking Game ®

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For today's post, because the start of 2013's Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is nigh, I've re-purposed and updated a portion of my 2012 A to Z reflections post for your amusement. Nota bene: this post is a joke, a satirical piece, a farce. It is not for realz. There is no such game, nor is this non-game endorsed by any of the good people co-hosting the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, nor any of their helpers/minions/ninjas. It's just a bit of fun, all right? Sheesh...

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Last year, around the time I was doing the 2012 A to Z Challenge, my day job had me on the verge of acute alcoholism. Sure that I wasn't the only A to Z-er self-medicating with hooch, I proposed an official Blogging From A to Z Drinking Game®! (DISCLAIMER: this is NOT a real game. Readers are STRONGLY DISCOURAGED from actually doing this. Please drink responsibly, for heaven's sake!!!!!)

Anyway, as I made my way through the A to Z linky-list, I noticed some trends which, I felt, would have been more entertaining with a bit of booze to accompany them. (Or, at least, more tolerable.)

The rules of the Blogging From A to Z Drinking Game® (which is totally NOT a real game) are simple; as you make your way through the linky-list, take a shot of your preferred liquor every time you come across:

• A blogger still requesting word verification of commenters. (As it happens, I'd inadvertently left my word verification on last year, but turned it off as soon as I realized there was a problem. To learn more about turning this jazz off, click here.)
• A C entry that’s for Cats, D entry that’s Dogs, X entry that's Xylophone, and/or Z entry that's Zoo. C'mon.
• Every H entry that’s for Haiku, only the blogger totally got the basic English haiku form wrong (the English haiku comprises three lines, as follows: 1st line = 5 syllables; 2nd line = 7 syllables; 3rd line = 5 syllables).
• A blogger goes days without posting (or forgets the event’s begun and chimes in well into the alphabet, OR stops posting mid-stream and returns, OR just craps out altogether), saying it's 'cause s/he “got super busy,” BUT TOOK NO STEPS TO GET HIS/HER BLOG LINK REMOVED FROM THE LIST. (Just contact one of the co-hosts, 'k?)
• Other participants who leave comments for which you'd like to return the favor, yet are impossible to track down without performing a Google search. (Make it easy for folks to find your blogs, peeps: leave hyperlinked-signatures with your comments!)
• A blog that’s got Random, Rants, Ramblings, or Musings in its title (or subtitle). (Titles/subtitles with more than one of those words are worth 2 shots. If, God help you, you find one with all four, just keep drinking.)
• If, at any point, you find yourself reaching for the bottle of whatever it is you're drinking, rather than the shotglass, you've probably had too much. (Of the A to Z Challenge and, possibly, the drink.) Turn off your computer, lock up the liquor, and go for a walk around the block or pet some puppies, or something. There's no shame in taking a break, and the linky-list will still be there tomorrow. Probably.

Most amusing to me when I re-read my reflections post was the following bit at the very end:

I know the Challenge hosts were hella busy and made heroic efforts to clean up the linky-list, for which I thank them. The only suggestion I have is to maybe deputize trusted past-Challenge participants and let them aid in the clean up. (Not me!)  ;-)

Hah. So much for that. ;-)