By: Chuck Miller
TU Blog Community, Uncategorized

Chuck’s best blog posts of 2013

This is the fifth year in my Times Union tenure that I’ve created this December 31st year-end wrapup of my best blogs and blogging moments.ย  It’s like my Thursday “Best of our Times Union Community Bloggers” posts, but this time it’s a recap from my blog.ย  Don’t worry, the Thursday blog wrapup will occur at its regularly scheduled time.

So come share these moments with me once more.ย  One more look back before I start crafting more blog posties for 2014.

10.ย  I’ve done several McFrankenfood blog posts this year – mostly combining different McDonald’s ingredients and trying to eat the concocted melange.ย  Of course, there was the day that Times Union community blogger Chad Polenz and I tried to eat ten McDonald’s hamburgers as part of a food challenge.ย  We were supposed to eat five burgers apiece, but he was so slow, that I was able to finish mine AND eat one of his.

9. Traded in old recliner for a new one.ย  Traded in old cell phone for a new one.ย  And the Nikon D700 camera is now in a new location, replaced by the super-swank Nikon Df.

8. Trivia wasn’t as strong this year as in the past; my team suffered a massive collapse at Trivia Bowl IX, but we did take second place at the Elbo Room trivia tournament.ย  The Chance was a complete wipeout.ย  Nothing I could do about that.

7.ย  Three more Dream Windows were built this year – Dream Window #6: The Beacon, Dream Window #7: The Sacred Shore, and Dream Window #8: The Last Sermon.ย  All three were later sold for charitable fundraisings.ย  Awesome.ย  And Dream Window #5: The Thirst Quencher was exhibited at the “projectart” event at the Northeast Home Show.

6. It took four years of blogging, but one of my blog posts – about a Facebook game where you post a scandalous status update and watch as people go nuts over it – well, that blog post became, for a few days, the most-read blog on the Times Union portal.

5.ย  Probably the best April Fool’s Day joke I ever pulled… and people actually thought the story was serious.ย  And some people got offended that I would even come up with this as an April Fool’s Day joke.ย  Ha ha ha ha…

4.ย  I made it to the first half-century of life.ย  It’s all downhill from there… right?

3. “A Dream in the Dash,” my first-ever art show.ย  It went off better than expected, as my fellow bloggers, blog readers and friends from past and present came to admire – and, in many cases, purchase – some of my most popular photographic artworks.

2. It was the best “Competition Season” ever for me, claiming a dozen ribbons in six different photo competitions.ย  The big home runs came from The Jumbuck, which took blue ribbons at Altamont and at the Big E; and the “Best of Show” award I snagged for The Agfa Bridge over Ansco Lake at the Durham Fair.ย  Not to forget this year’s Vermont State Fair entry, in which I garnered first place for a photo that was originally disqualified on a technicality.

1.ย  Nicole.ย  That’s all I need to say.

Okay.ย  Time to get started on blog posts for 2014.