Challenged.

Are any of you planning to participate in the upcoming A to Z challenge?

 I have been dragging my heels about adding my name to the list.  I have been following the updates to the main page like a zealot.  And still... I have chosen my theme, have an ongoing list mapped out A-Z and am vigorously trying to fill in a subject for each letter.  It is something that is getting ongoing mental pushes on a daily basis.  I am down to the letters O and X.  They stare at me like two redheaded stepsisters that remain dateless for the Big Dance.  I glare back. "I have NOTHING for you," my brain screams.  And until I do I can't commit to The List.  Gah.  She bangs her head into the wall behind her desk.  Check that.  She only thinks about it.  The migraine already hurts enough.

If this is the first you have heard of the A to Z Challenge, it is a daily writing challenge for the month of April.  The sign up is now so that you have plenty of time to prepare.  The idea is that you write on a Themed Subject so that your readers get used to your topic.  (You don't have to write on a theme if you don't want... you can write on anything and everything if you so choose.)   It is every day but Sunday.  You can prepare all of your writing before April so that your time is spent reading and commenting, so that it isn't overwhelming in April.  The intent of the challenge is for you to meet new bloggers who are writing about things that you are interested in reading, and vice versa. 

So, let's flip to another page in the notebook.  Alex Cavanaugh is going to host a challenge on his blog in March, in the guise of Blog Hop, to list your Top Ten Movies of All-Time.

Are you freaking kidding me????  Can't we pick a genre, a decade, something?  Ergo, I have a running list that gets longer by the day.  Each movie that I think to add to the list triggers another movie.

Does anyone remember THE PLASTIC JOY AWARDS????

If you are scratching your head over that shout of frustration... that was an award intended to be fun (and OMG it was... so so fun) regarding fictional crushes.  However, I have this love of YouTube that is unmatched.  I maintain that they have laced it with visual crack cocaine.  Don't know how, but it's there.  And this award got slightly out of control.  I think you were supposed to choose five fictional crushes.  I think I chose 30.  Whatevs.  And it went for 3 days.  Again, it is the JOY of the award.  And no one says you HAVE to do it a certain way.  I mean the rules aren't set in STONE.  No one flogs you or anything if you go outside the boundaries.  A little.  Or a lot.  Moving on...

I think my quandary lies in the fact that I am not really known for following rules very well.  I am already looking for work-arounds with the Top 10 list.  Seriously... if there is a movie series... you should be able to count the entire series as ONE movie, right????  If not, I am thinking of panning them all.  I can't choose one movie out of a series and skip the rest.  Do you feel me?

So, what do YOU think?

So, am I the only person who would have trouble picking 10 All-Time Favorite Movies?  Does this Blog Hop sound like fun to You?  What about the A to Z Challenge... are you participating?  Does it sound like something you want to investigate further?   Do you prefer the idea of writing within the context of a theme or would you rather just fly by the seat of your pants?  Do you feel like you need to have all of your letters covered BEFORE you enter or are you ready to enter NOW?