Challenges to be kept or not ~ 2024 Musings

The turning of the year as always have me thinking ~ Challenges? Why? How many? Which ones? And so on.

For the last many years, challenges have come and gone on this blog and in my life in general.
Some I liked, some not so much. Some were fun, some were not.

This past year has been an ungentle year. Record amounts of rain, closing of 'my' supermarket, health issues, family worries, ... I heard the saying "waiting for the other shoe to drop", well for me 2023 was a centipede. Much - among those my family, this blog, all kinds of fun challenges, my garden, oh so many things - have been suffering from my lack of energy and joy in anything. I hope both returns with the gall bladder surgery behind me and the returning of the sun.

And as for the (blog) challenges, this pretty day is a fine day to reflect a bit. Which ones are keepers, which ones are not?

Keepers & Not Keepers:

Words for Wednesday - Link - hosted by Elephant's Child, and a perfectly enjoyable writing Challenge.
Poetry Monday - Hosted by Diane (but Mimi and I take over for now) Link to Diane and Link to Mimi - Poetic fun.
IWSG (Insecure Writer's Support Group) - Link - A question to answer every first Wednesday - can do!
Sunday Selections - Link - good photo fun. I will participate in the coming year, but maybe not every Sunday.
A to Z Challenge* - very stressing but still fun ...  it might just be that anti-streak-imp roaring his head again, I suppose. I might still do a light version without signing up. I bit off a great deal more than intended with my ancestors, but it was fun and a good learning experience.

Colour of the Month - Link - it just did not work out as intended, I would have liked to post at least one Sunday Selections each month with the monthly colour. It simply did not happen. Maybe I'll continue in a slightly changed format ... time will tell.
Fredagsfrustrationer / Friday Frustrations - A way to vent my grumpy so that it does not pervade the whole blog. This too has been suffering lately - and the grumpiness spreading as a result -  but it's going to stay.
Tirsdagstips / Tuesday Tips - Suffering, but not abandoned.
Birthdays - of people known and not so known, mostly poets and writers. I like to cite and celebrate.

Duolingo* - Link - studying Japanese, and a couple of other languages, this way is good fun. I'll return, as this has been suffering, and try to keep it up.
Wordle* - and many more such letter-games. I just like this kind of games. They have also been suffering

Simple Daily Drawing* - Link - with great sorrow I saw this simple challenge morph into something bigger, not simple any more, but demanding, encompassing many more areas. I would really like to tell the crew behind SDD to Keep it simple!
InkTober & InkTober52* - InkTober 52 is discontinued, and the InkTober proper has turned too much into an Instagram event.
Doodlewash* - Link - As already told I'll try this drawing challenge instead. It seems to be old and well established. I'll just try and post my drawings at my drawings blog as I have not quite grasped the Doodlewash concept.

I also found a new drawing challenge:
Sketch Your Day
Use one random drawing prompts to record something from you day. From Artists Network. I think I'll try this one out first, as it is less alike to SDD Later I might add Doodlewash, r jus try this concept. 

Write, Edit, Publish - Link - which I stopped following last year, has ended their challenge. I'm sad to read this for totally egoistical reasons, as Olga Godim published wonderful bi-monthly stories using these prompts.
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* Many of these Challenges are centered around maintaining a streak (participating on a consecutive series of days) the longer, the better.

For such Challenges I regularly skip a day on purpose so as not to accumulate long streaks. Because keeping a streak in any Streak-oriented activity stresses me.

I know I'm strange this way and that this streak-business keeps many people focussed, but I really, really hate it and wish that I could opt out of it being counted.