Hello, friends! It’s been quiet around these parts lately because while the teaching-heavy part of my summer is over I am now finding my time totally consumed with the process of moving. I am moving across town into a bigger, better apartment this weekend, and it’s been a rush to get a moving date set and to get packed and organized. I’ll fill you in on all of that plus other bits of news soon, I promise.

For right now, though, I am stopping by to participate in a little meme that has been going around the blogs I read lately — it’s called Seven Links. It looked like plenty of fun and I was thinking about joining in even though no one had tagged me, but lo and behold Chrissy tagged me this morning, just like it was FATE. So here we go: I am going to choose a past blog post from each of these categories, and in the end I am supposed to tag five other bloggers to participate.

1. My Most Beautiful Post This is a tie. I first thought of my marathon recap, because for me, completing that race was the culmination of a lot of beautiful things in life. Not just four months of training, but years of working on my own health, fitness, and confidence. Also, it wasn’t just about me but about the amazing support I received from so many friends (including you).

I then thought of this post about photography and my forays into Project 365, where I document the year with one photo a day. I have learned through all of this that I won’t necessarily take a beautiful photograph every day, but the effort to seek beauty in the everyday is a beautiful enough thing in itself.

2. My Most Popular Post By far, the post that gets the most hits through google is my satirical post about “How to Gain 100 Pounds,” receiving dozens of hits a day. I highly doubt that the tongue-in-cheek advice I give in that post is helpful for anyone in anything other than a comedic or therapeutic sense, though. It’s a bit ironic, too, that this post receives the most hits, because I remember when I first posted it, I felt so anxiety-ridden that almost no one commented on it, which we all discussed in the follow-up.

3. My Most Controversial Post I don’t tend to write much of anything controversial around here, but I think this post, “Wrong with Me,” in which I explore the mental issues that cause me to score extremely high on the autism spectrum test, certainly allowed people to choose which “side” they were on, and some interesting comments followed. My favorite question there is the museum vs theater debate. Which one are you?

4. My Most Helpful Post I’m not sure, but I think I’m going to go with my pizza crust how-to post. I now know several friends who have brought this pizza recipe into their lives and are the better for it. I made some just the other day in fact, and I highly recommend it!

5. A Post Whose Success Surprised Me One day I got the idea in mind to talk about nicknames and aliases. I think I just felt weird at some point about going by a blog nickname that almost no one in real life uses for me. I wound up nattering on a bit about all of the nicknames I have had in life, and a surprising number of people joined in the conversation. Names are always a fun topic, though, I think, so this shouldn’t have surprised me.

6. A Post I Feel Didn’t Get the Attention it Deserved It’s not that I think my post about the wisdom of Miyagi-Do karate was necessarily great writing on a timely subject, but I thought it was good enough. I really do think “come back tomorrow” is some of the best advice in any situation. Just keep trying; keep doing. I’m mostly surprised, though, that more people didn’t share my love for The Karate Kid, one of the greatest sports movies of our time. C’mon, guys, that crane kick will live on forever! Why doesn’t anyone else love The Karate Kid as much as I (and Sho) do?

7. The Post I am Most Proud Of I don’t know what it is about this post, but it’s one I really liked at the time of writing and that I still like (and occasionally re-read — guilty!) today. I wrote about some of my history with body image, specifically about the “thunder thighs” I was told I had as a kid, and how running and other sports have changed my view of myself. Plus, this post has that great list of terms for the quads from the Myoplex ad that I just love beyond reason: The Moneymakers, Four on the Floor, The Jackhammers, The Quad Squad, The Tree Trunks, The Gravity Killers! I think I’m mostly proud that I actually felt this way and proceeded to write it.

So anyway, feel free to peruse these posts from the archive if you need something to read at work today, and I will hopefully be back soon with an update on my new apartment and other such fun.

Here are the five bloggers I nominate to participate and post seven links of their own, if they so choose:

Emma from A Century of Nerve
S. from Simply Bike
Holly from Holly Would if She Could
Liz from InnerTeub
KerriAnne from (of course) KerriAnne

Have a great weekend, everybody!