{"id":471,"date":"2020-04-02T16:40:04","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T23:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetcrum.com\/?p=471"},"modified":"2020-04-02T16:40:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T23:40:04","slug":"the-2020-atozchallenge-because-i-am-a-glutton-for-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/02\/the-2020-atozchallenge-because-i-am-a-glutton-for-punishment\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2020 #AtoZChallenge (because I am a glutton for punishment)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-475 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/1badge-1.jpg?resize=320%2C320&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"2020 A to Z Challenge logo\" width=\"320\" height=\"320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/1badge-1.jpg?w=320&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/1badge-1.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/1badge-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/>While I was roaming through posts from #IWSG blog hop participants yesterday, I stumbled across the A to Z Challenge, a challenge to bloggers to post every day (except Sunday) through the entire month of April&#8211;and relate each post to a letter of the alphabet (in order, of course). Sounds fun, I thought. It&#8217;ll keep me writing during quarantine, I thought. And like an idiot I filled out the signup form, and now here I am, needing to cover letters A and B and come up with 24 more alphabetically-inspired posts. Why, oh why, do I do these things?<\/p>\n<p>Besides the alphabet, I hope to write posts around the theme of discovery. I&#8217;m wrapping up week 3 of stay-the-hell-home, and in an effort to retain my sanity, I&#8217;m trying to approach this bizarre experience with curiosity. What new strategies can I employ to keep from losing my mind? What interesting new things can I learn? What can I discover in my own backyard (besides dog poop)?<\/p>\n<p>For those of you who subscribe to this blog, I hope my much-greater-than-normal posting frequency won&#8217;t drive you away. I&#8217;ll try to keep my posts short and entertaining, so you&#8217;ll want to stick around. Here we go&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-478 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/a2020.jpg?resize=117%2C117&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"2020 A to Z Challenge Logo - A\" width=\"117\" height=\"117\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/a2020.jpg?w=320&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/a2020.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/a2020.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 117px) 100vw, 117px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A is for Alexa, because this week I discovered how to make Alexa fart. Yeah, you read that right. All the power of a digital assistant built into my TV, and I find it the height of hilarity to tell her to fart. Repeatedly. Dear readers, I even spent $1.60 for&#8211;wait for it&#8211;the Extreme Farts Extension Pack. I truly wish I were joking. I am a 53-year-old librarian, and 3 weeks of quarantine has reduced me to giggling over synthesized farts. Thank goodness no one has invented smell-a-vision.<\/p>\n<p>If you, like me, have the emotional sophistication of a 12-year-old boy&#8211;and an Alexa-enabled device&#8211;activate your device and issue the command, &#8220;Alexa, fart!&#8221; And let the hilarity ensue.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-479 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/b2020.jpg?resize=117%2C117&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"2020 A to Z Challenge Logo - B\" width=\"117\" height=\"117\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/b2020.jpg?w=200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/b2020.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 117px) 100vw, 117px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>B is for backgrounds, specifically Zoom backgrounds. As a quarantined academic, my workdays are now populated with Zoom meetings. In my never-ending (and doomed) quest to make meetings interesting, I discovered custom backgrounds for Zoom. If you have a green screen or a reasonably powerful computer, you can try them too. Just Google Zoom backgrounds and maybe add a keyword or two to indicate the kind of background you&#8217;re looking for. I met with an employee today while standing in the middle of Diagon Alley.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-481 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/janet_diagonally.png?resize=462%2C341&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"janet_diagonally.png\" width=\"462\" height=\"341\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/janet_diagonally.png?w=754&amp;ssl=1 754w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/janet_diagonally.png?resize=300%2C221&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow I&#8217;ll be on Platform 9 3\/4.<\/p>\n<p>If anyone knows how to teach Zoom to fart, let me know.<\/p>\n<p>So how about you, dear reader? What have you discovered to keep yourself entertained during this long, strange trip?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While I was roaming through posts from #IWSG blog hop participants yesterday, I stumbled across the A to Z Challenge, a challenge to bloggers to post every day (except Sunday) through the entire month of April&#8211;and relate each post to a letter of the alphabet (in order, of course). Sounds fun, I thought. It&#8217;ll keep me writing during quarantine, I thought. And like an idiot I filled out the signup form, and now here I am, needing to cover letters A and B and come up with 24 more alphabetically-inspired posts. Why, oh why, do I do these things? Besides the alphabet, I hope to write posts around the theme of discovery. I&#8217;m wrapping up week 3 of stay-the-hell-home, and in an effort to retain my sanity, I&#8217;m trying to approach this bizarre experience with curiosity. What new strategies can I employ to keep from losing my mind? What interesting new things can I learn? What can I discover in my own backyard (besides dog poop)? For those of you who subscribe to this blog, I hope my much-greater-than-normal posting frequency won&#8217;t drive you away. I&#8217;ll try to keep my posts short and entertaining, so you&#8217;ll want to stick around. Here we go&#8230; A is for Alexa, because this week I discovered how to make Alexa fart. Yeah, you read that right. All the power of a digital assistant built into my TV, and I find it the height of hilarity to tell her to fart. Repeatedly. Dear readers, I even spent $1.60 for&#8211;wait for it&#8211;the Extreme Farts Extension Pack. I truly wish I were joking. I am a 53-year-old librarian, and 3 weeks of quarantine has reduced me to giggling over synthesized farts. Thank goodness no one has invented smell-a-vision. If you, like me, have the emotional sophistication of a 12-year-old boy&#8211;and an Alexa-enabled device&#8211;activate your device and issue the command, &#8220;Alexa, fart!&#8221; And let the hilarity ensue. B is for backgrounds, specifically Zoom backgrounds. As a quarantined academic, my workdays are now populated with Zoom meetings. In my never-ending (and doomed) quest to make meetings interesting, I discovered custom backgrounds for Zoom. If you have a green screen or a reasonably powerful computer, you can try them too. Just Google Zoom backgrounds and maybe add a keyword or two to indicate the kind of background you&#8217;re looking for. I met with an employee today while standing in the middle of Diagon Alley. Tomorrow I&#8217;ll be on Platform 9 3\/4. If anyone knows how to teach Zoom to fart, let me know. So how about you, dear reader? What have you discovered to keep yourself entertained during this long, strange trip?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,13],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-to-z-challenge-2020","category-personal","tag-atozchallenge"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The 2020 #AtoZChallenge (because I am a glutton for punishment) - Janet Alcorn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2020\/04\/02\/the-2020-atozchallenge-because-i-am-a-glutton-for-punishment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 2020 #AtoZChallenge (because I am a glutton for punishment) - Janet Alcorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While I was roaming through posts from #IWSG blog hop participants yesterday, I stumbled across the A to Z Challenge, a challenge to bloggers to post every day (except Sunday) through the entire month of April&#8211;and relate each post to a letter of the alphabet (in order, of course). Sounds fun, I thought. It&#8217;ll keep me writing during quarantine, I thought. And like an idiot I filled out the signup form, and now here I am, needing to cover letters A and B and come up with 24 more alphabetically-inspired posts. Why, oh why, do I do these things? Besides the alphabet, I hope to write posts around the theme of discovery. I&#8217;m wrapping up week 3 of stay-the-hell-home, and in an effort to retain my sanity, I&#8217;m trying to approach this bizarre experience with curiosity. What new strategies can I employ to keep from losing my mind? What interesting new things can I learn? What can I discover in my own backyard (besides dog poop)? For those of you who subscribe to this blog, I hope my much-greater-than-normal posting frequency won&#8217;t drive you away. I&#8217;ll try to keep my posts short and entertaining, so you&#8217;ll want to stick around. Here we go&#8230; A is for Alexa, because this week I discovered how to make Alexa fart. Yeah, you read that right. All the power of a digital assistant built into my TV, and I find it the height of hilarity to tell her to fart. Repeatedly. Dear readers, I even spent $1.60 for&#8211;wait for it&#8211;the Extreme Farts Extension Pack. I truly wish I were joking. I am a 53-year-old librarian, and 3 weeks of quarantine has reduced me to giggling over synthesized farts. Thank goodness no one has invented smell-a-vision. If you, like me, have the emotional sophistication of a 12-year-old boy&#8211;and an Alexa-enabled device&#8211;activate your device and issue the command, &#8220;Alexa, fart!&#8221; And let the hilarity ensue. B is for backgrounds, specifically Zoom backgrounds. As a quarantined academic, my workdays are now populated with Zoom meetings. In my never-ending (and doomed) quest to make meetings interesting, I discovered custom backgrounds for Zoom. If you have a green screen or a reasonably powerful computer, you can try them too. Just Google Zoom backgrounds and maybe add a keyword or two to indicate the kind of background you&#8217;re looking for. I met with an employee today while standing in the middle of Diagon Alley. Tomorrow I&#8217;ll be on Platform 9 3\/4. If anyone knows how to teach Zoom to fart, let me know. So how about you, dear reader? 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Yeah, you read that right. All the power of a digital assistant built into my TV, and I find it the height of hilarity to tell her to fart. Repeatedly. Dear readers, I even spent $1.60 for&#8211;wait for it&#8211;the Extreme Farts Extension Pack. I truly wish I were joking. I am a 53-year-old librarian, and 3 weeks of quarantine has reduced me to giggling over synthesized farts. Thank goodness no one has invented smell-a-vision. If you, like me, have the emotional sophistication of a 12-year-old boy&#8211;and an Alexa-enabled device&#8211;activate your device and issue the command, &#8220;Alexa, fart!&#8221; And let the hilarity ensue. B is for backgrounds, specifically Zoom backgrounds. As a quarantined academic, my workdays are now populated with Zoom meetings. In my never-ending (and doomed) quest to make meetings interesting, I discovered custom backgrounds for Zoom. If you have a green screen or a reasonably powerful computer, you can try them too. 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