As part of the marketing for the The Carbon Almanac, which will be released next month, the volunteer team launched an email series called The Daily Difference on May 1.

I participated in writing and editing the Almanac, but I’ve been a bit too busy winding down The Little Middle School to work on the marketing phase of the project. However, I’ve kept an eye on what the team is doing, and one message that Seth Godin sent to the team prior to the launch of the Daily Difference series caught my eye.

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I enjoy taking courses on platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, and Kejabi. Seeing those little checkmarks appear after you watch a video or click on the buttons of a virtual worksheet is very pleasing.

However, these checkmarks probably aren't the best measure of whether I did the work I was supposed to have done. If there's no teacher who's going to give me a grade, how do I measure whether I've actually gotten out of the course what the creator intended? What I intended?

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In studying early Dylan songs, it's interesting how many of them were adapted (or stolen) from hymns and so on.

He would take melodies and write new lyrics to them, or copy the structure of existing lyrics and create a new melody. He also mimicked Woody Guthrie's singing style.

This tactic obviously worked out pretty well for the guy. Taking the long view, all that copying was a shortcut to developing his own creative voice.

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Well, how about that? A blogaversary!

Three years in, here are a few things I've learned:

• It's still possible, in 2022, to build relationships online without social media.

• Having an audience helps you to uphold your commitment to publishing.

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I love Elton John. Love, love Elton John.

I have many happy memories from childhood, adolescence, and throughout my adult life that involved Elton John’s music. I’ve listened to his songs on repeat, sung them at family gatherings, and even performed them onstage. I have the utmost respect for Elton’s musical talent (not to mention that of his longtime collaborators).

And yet, I can’t say that I’ve heard every single song in his catalog, or even every album. And in truth, some of Elton John’s songs make me cringe. Some are even terrible.

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