Monday, October 22, 2007 | by nathan
Okay, well, I’m done.
THANK GOD.
No, seriously, this project was a lot of fun, but it sure ’nuff has taken a year of my life (give or take a week while I whinged internally about whether or not to bother with it at all). I’m deeply glad I did it, though that wasn’t always the case while I was in process. If you arrived at this post because you’re considering doing the x365 marathon, let me give you a few pointers:
1) Remember that this is A YEAR-LONG PROJECT. And at the end of it? It feels like a year. I would tell you not to start if you don’t plan to finish, but honestly some of the best participants out there only got through a bit of their year. Keep on yourself to do it; it’s worth it to finish, but don’t beat yourself up if you get behind or run out of things to say. That said,
2) MAKE YOUR LIST BEFORE YOU START! Seriously, I’m not kidding; most of the people I know who have dropped out of the project were all cavalier at the beginning, like, "I don’t want to be married to some list, man. I’ll just come up with it as I go." But seriously? Make your list first, and then don’t be married to it. You have no idea how many people I put off writing about; my mom, for example, was #7 on my original list, and she ended up being the last person I wrote about, just because I kept getting stuck. Feel free to move your list around. As many people as I got stuck on, there were others that, looking ahead, I moved UP the list because I came up with something good that morning. On occasions when I had to be away from the computer for awhile - vacations, etc. - it was nice to be able to write them in advance and pre-date them in WordPress so it wouldn’t stop. All that to say, before you start x365 you really need to have a list of at least MOST of your people in front of you. I promise, it helps more than it hurts.
2a) As for the list itself, you won’t run out of names. And if you think about running out of names, break your life up into little patches: who were your teachers? In elementary school, junior high, high school, college? Your classmates? What are those stories you’re CONSTANTLY telling at parties? Who are they about? Who have you dated? Who have you brought home from bars? Who did you go to church with as a child? Who has frightened you, or unexpectedly made a terrible day wonderful? Who made your life a living hell? Who have your bosses been? Your coworkers? Who were the other kids n your neighborhood? Who did you babysit? What were their parents like? What famous people have you met? They might not have been in your life for very long, but I promise you that you’ve met 365 people.
3) Here’s the dangerous part of x365: when you start doing this, for whatever reason, PEOPLE WILL FIND YOUR BLOG. In droves. You can decide for yourself whether or not you want to use full names (I eventually decided not to). My experience has been that people who didn’t even know the word blog started reading my x365 entries. I really, really offended some people, and the people about whom I had incredibly nice things to say? Either didn’t find it or didn’t care. It’s the people you didn’t like who will find it. The people whose embarrassing stories you repeat, whose mothers you trash, whose boyfriends you dated behind their backs. They’ll find it, so be ready, and don’t let that turn you off of doing it. Be honest, because otherwise what’s the point?
4) Have fun. Let go. Get through. Break the rules, or, when it’s REALLY SUPER CHALLENGING, follow the rules. You’ll be glad you did.
oh, and also? For those of you who’ve ONLY ever read my x365 posts, there’s a whole blog here that you’re missing! I’m not saying it’s GREAT, but really! Come on! Check it out. I’ve met some cool people via this project, and I’d like you all to stick around.
So it’s become increasingly rare for me to commit to buying an entire album without first hearing it, or, barring that, knowing the artist well. There is a long list of people whose music I’ll buy just because of who they are, but when it comes to newer stuff, I tend to hold back a little and take a listen; after all, anymore you can at least check samples on artists’ web pages or MySpace pages to make sure you’re going to like it.