Friday, August 11, 2006

Happy Bicentenary to me - 200 posts and counting!

An introductory note: all the numbers in this post refer to my Wordpress blog. I maintain this blog as a backup and it contains almost identical material but if you want to join the party, all the action is over at Wordpress.

Yes, you read right viewers, I passed 200 posts. On the grand scale of things this is pretty insignificant but as I've never attempted anything like this before I like to mark the milestones. And I also get to celebrate at my little party for myself with the highest number of hits in a single day and more than 40,000 total site hits. Although it wasn't planned, my post from yesterday about meetings resulted in around 1700 hits to the blog and is still going strong. Again, not huge compared to the real movers and shakers but a record for me.

There are three things that keep me going on this blog. One is my original reason for starting this blog - to practice my creative writing regularly and improve it. Writing is like any other skill - practice it and you will get better. Number two is my developing obsession with numbers. I really look forward to passing each milestone both with the blog and other mediums (over 30,000 video views on YouTube and I've reached the rank of 35,000 in Technorati). I had no idea I was so competitive but a little success has left me hungry for more.

Number three, and probably the strongest motivator, is the interaction with readers via comments here and on their own blogs. I feel like my horizons have broadened so much in the last six months that I can forgive the internet generally and blogs specifically for all their shortcomings (and there is a lot about both that sucks). I've railed frequently about the haters you have to deal with online but they count for nothing next to the positive bonds you can build with other people in an online community.

Which brings me to an apology. I feel totally slack for my inability to keep up with everyone's blogs. This is an unfortunate product of my self-obsession. I am dedicating so much time to this blog - on average my more involved posts take about two hours to put together and each video takes a couple of hours to produce as well - that I feel like I neglect other forms of contact with my readers. So... Sorry. At the moment, I don't seem to have enough hours in the day to fit in my day job AND my blog AND my videos AND everyone else I want to keep up with. I need to either win lotto or find a way to make blogging my day job.

Looking back at my 100th post I found it interesting that I was speculating on broadening my blog by branching out into podcasting. Since then I've done about 40 videos so I'm quite happy with how I've followed through on that goal. That leads me to think I should state some big, fat, hairy, audacious goal in this post in the hope I reach it just as successfully. I think I'll stick to something a bit more realistic.

My pledge in this post is that I will definitely start doing live standup performances as Mr Angry. As much as possible I will be videoing any performances and posting them so you will be able to see how I'm going no matter where you are. So that's it, in post number 300 I will be evaluating how well my standup career is going.

I hope you can all stay on board for a wild ride.

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