I’m on the mailing list for NaBloPoMo, the group that encourages people to write one post per day for the entire month of November. Since last year, they’ve been sending out themes each month for people who struggle with topic ideas or just need reminders that the do in fact have a blog and should perhaps post on it. I tend to ignore these emails – the topics they give are pretty lame, and god knows I don’t need more reasons to update – but the email sent out for September caught my eye.
The theme is predictably pedestrian, but it was the blogging “challenge” that got my snark all in a knot:
Additionally, I’m adding a new 21-day blogging challenge to run from the 1st to the 21st of the month. September’s challenge is “Five-dollar lunch.” Spend $5 on lunch every day for 21 days and tell us what you ate! That’s $5 American, but a currency converter can be found at http://finance.yahoo.com/currency?u.
At a minimum, I find that a little insulting – and at worst, a terrible, terrible idea.
$5 a day for lunch over 21 days is $110. For a lot of people, that’s a fortune – is blogging suddenly only for those with enough disposable income to be able to waste money for the sake of fulfilling this “challenge”?
I admit that I’m often guilty of spending much more than $5 on my lunch from time to time – delicious yet needlessly expensive Jugo Juice smoothie/grilled wrap combo, I’m looking at you – but there are also many times I either bring my lunch from home, go without lunch, or spend less than $5. For example, $2.05 will get me a delicious pan of gyoza from the Japanese store downstairs. Tasty and cheap, just like me.
This blogging challenge can only be a terrible thing. You’re actively encouraging people to break the first cardinal rule of good blogging: NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU ATE FOR LUNCH. It takes a very rare kind of writer to make a lunch menu worth reading, and I’ve yet to come across someone who can list what they ate for 21 days in a row and make me want to check in each day.
Maybe I’m just cranky and looking for something to bitch about, but this email made me go wtf and then grr.
delicious juice dot com 
WTF indeed.
I’ve slowed down blogging lately, but I don’t think I’d stoop so low as to blog about what I’m eating for lunch. First off, I know my lunches aren’t that interesting. Secondly…. well, that’s really all I’ve got. I’m just not that interesting, and I’d rather not blog about what I’m having for lunch.
Also, being jobless and a student definitely means that spending $5 a day on lunch is kinda out of the question. Hooray for unemployment!
No, I don’t think you are needlessly cranky. That’s a pretty dumb “challenge” if you ask me.
Then again, I’m a big, dumb, bike-riding hippie who mostly brings leftovers for lunch, so maybe I don’t know nuffin.
Once in a while I like to splurge on something GOOD for lunch. Most anything I could get for a fiver would not qualify as good.
I spend more than $5 each day for lunch. On the other hand, I don’t cook.
I don’t like to think about how much it’s costing me.
I spent $6 on lunch today. It was the special from Pig BBQ Joint. Today’s special was the “the fiesta-wich” smoked turkey, guacamole, tomato, smoked jalepeno mayo and dorito chip sandwich. Pretty tasty.
But more importantly, I got to chat up a cute girl at Subway tonight who said “I had doritos on a sandwich today” and I knew where from. She was clearly impressed. Unfortunately, her boyfriend didn’t seem as impressed with us chatting and was clearly in a rush to leave. Hmpf.
I would suspect this challenge is meant for people who buy lunch every day anyway. In that case, $5 (rather than $10, because god knows I can’t seem to find much to fill my stomach in $5 any more) would be a challenge for them.
But yeah, BORING TO READ ABOUT, indeed.
But exciting to comment on!
I am the sous chef at pretty nice restaurant, and I have been living on the three “S”s since June. Soup, sandwiches, and sushi.
Boring!
Oh, but free. Maybe that would make a better blog challenge.
“Your Lunches for Under $2 This Month”
See, THAT I could get behind – at least once a week, spend no more than $2 on lunch (pre tax, unless you’re hardcore). While I bet there’d be a lot of dollar slices of pizza, there’d be some interesting finds.
$5 a day for lunch over 21 days is $110.
I know how you can save $5.
I try to limit my lunches to about $5. This has slowly been creeping up… and my salary hasn’t. Damnit.
So, I’ve started buying cans of soup to heat up at lunch instead. They give me heartburn. *sigh*