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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Meet Your Co-Host: John Holton

I'm John Holton, host of the blog The Sound of One Hand Typing, simulcast on The Sound of One Hand Typing FM. (I'll the answer the question, "whaddaya mean, simulcasting?" next week.) I chose the name "The Sound of One Hand Typing" based on the Zen riddle ("what is the sound of one hand clapping?") and the fact that I type with one hand thanks to a stroke a few years back.

I've been blogging daily since July 1 of last year. My blog covers just about anything (as you've heard, it's kind of the Seinfeld of blogs); you might read about music, old TV, math, cats, technical topics, and anything else that crosses my mind on a given day. I enjoy challenges, and also participate in A Round of Words in 80 Days, the bimonthly "Battle of the Bands", and Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

This is my fourth year doing the Challenge. During my first Challenge, I used the word list from the NATO spelling alphabet; the year after that, members of the Chicago White Sox from the late 1960's and 1970's; and last year, I winged it, just picking random words and writing about them. I have a better theme than that this year, which I'll share on March 23, the same day we all do. (I've already posted it, because I was so excited, but plan on posting it again that day.)

I'm a retired (as in "out of work and on Disability") computer person with experience in training, development, support, installation, and system administration. The blog has helped me become a better writer. Do I have a book inside me? I'm not sure just yet, so I blog to fill in the time while I figure out the answer to that one.

There were two reasons I wanted to be on the staff of the Challenge this year:

  • I get a lot of joy out of doing this every year, and wanted to "give back" in some way, so I could help other people enjoy this as well.
  • I wanted to find something to do with my time now that I'm not actively working. Being part of the blogging community is a lot of fun, and making connections with other bloggers fills that void.

Now, onto some of your questions:

  • Susan Scott asks: Do you like sleeping? Do you remember your dreams? I enjoy sleeping, maybe more than I should. I remember some of my dreams, but more the settings than the people.

  • Barbara in Caneyhead asks: What would you do if your pc died in the middle of the AtoZChallenge? I have a desktop, a laptop, a smartphone, a Kindle Fire, and my wife has an iPad. I think I'm covered. On the other hand, if all were plugged in and we had a massive power surge, knocking everything out simultaneously, I'd run down to the library.

  • betty asks: How do you manage your time during the A/Z challenge? I get as many entries written before April 1 as I can, and use Sundays to finish the ones I haven't done.

  • Luann Braley asks: Have you ever dropped Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke to see what would happen? I've never done it, but I remember an episode of Two and a Half Men where Jake did it.

Looking forward to this year's Challenge and getting to know more of you! See you soon!

8 comments:

  1. So nice to get to know you John! I also got too excited and blabbed about my theme earlier. But I'm doing the reveal anyway. It's gonna be an extra good challenge this year. I can just feel it!
    Life & Faith in Caneyhead

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  2. Glad to meet you, John! I look forward to seeing what your theme is come the official day to reveal them :) Good for you for being able to type one handed; I know its out of necessity but still can be a bit of a challenge. Thanks for answering my question; that's a good strategy to do with writing posts beforehand; something I'm trying to accomplish :)

    betty

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  3. When I was a kid, we would drop candy or the powder of those pep sticks in our soda to make an explosion, then drink the flat coke. As a teacher, I would do the mentos in the 2 liter soda for kids. Sort of like reading MAD magazine, I loved it as a kid and could not relate to it at all as an adult.

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  4. You couldn't be on a better team of people, John!

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  5. Lovely to meet you John - last year was my first year and I loved it. With luck I'm planning to get a lot of the posts done before April 1st or else there'll be major panicking going on. Looking forward to the theme reveal - I hope mine's not too boring.
    Fil

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  6. John I'm glad to have learned about you and your blog. We share some of the same reasons for jumping on board to host the challenge. I like your answer to Barbara's question and I'd likely watch Two and a Half Men over Seinfeld because some of the characters on the latter show are annoying, but I must have missed that episode where Jake did the mentos and Coke thing.

    ~Nicole
    #atozchallenge Co-Host
    The Madlab Post

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  7. Nice to learn more about you, John. I would head to the library to if all my electronics got fried at once. More concern would be losing power which happens to us in the spring sometimes.

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  8. It's wonderful to meet you, John!
    I also LOVE the AtoZ challenge!
    This is my 5th year participating and I can't imagine not doing the challenge.
    See you at the Theme Reveal!

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