367 Days Later: A Review

The blog is still up and running! One year and two days ago I posted the following on this blog:

It's April, 2005, and I'm going to try to start blogging again. Thanks to my friend, Joe, for the inspiration. We'll see what I post. Movie reviews. Probably lots of those. Book reviews, likely, too. Also you might even see some pseudo-pretenious philosophical babblings about my attempts to figure out what all is happening in the world. Writers--much smarter guys than me--like Thomas Friedman, Andrew Sullivan, David Rusk, and many others. Somehow they all work together.

That all said, maybe I'll tell some jokes, too. I like being a funny guy.

I'd say I was pretty much dead on. Especially about the pseudo-pretentious philosophical babblings part. And there have been plenty of movie reviews (wait for my review of Brick tomorrow! Awesome movie!).

But in the last 367 days, my stats tell me I've made 540 posts, and a quick survey of my blog in that time puts me at about 60,000 words that I've written myself--subtracting quotes from other people. Now, 60,000 words is a short novel (my last novel, Zebras in London, was 104,000 words). So I have to look back over this year and ask, "Would I rather have this blog, or a short novel?"

And I'm rather surprised to say that I would choose the blog. It's been a whole bunch of fun to write, plus I like that people are reading and then coming back. My little counter tells me that in all of September I had less than 25 visits. And for April, I've topped 350 already with 26 hits Thursday alone (lots of procrastinators out there, people?) Maybe I should start selling ads.

So why choose the blog?

I like the convenience of updating anyone who's interested without having to send a bunch of e-mails. I like, too, that the blog feels like a pretty good snapshot of my life in terms of interests, hobbies, religion, art, struggles, passions, and politics.

I have studiously refrained from baring my personal life or writing much about my job, but I don't want to author a tell-all blog about either of those topics. And the truth is neither area is that interesting unless you're a close friend, and then I force that stuff on you anyway, so why should I make you read it here? Everyone's life has turmoil and everyone's job has bad days with the good. Reading about that here would take away the point, and the fun of both reading this blog and writing it.

Some might read this to procrastinate and it's certainly a large part of why I write it. Actually, it's not procrastination for me so much as a reason to go forth online and find stuff when I need a break (perhaps I'm just finding a long-winded way to say "procrastination" but, oh well.) I like that because of this blog I wake up in the morning and look for interesting bits from newspapers, other blogs, movie reviews, gossip columns, etc. I don't know that I'd visit the New York Times homepage as often if I didn't suspect I might find something there worth posting.

I like writing long posts about arcane subjects and I like writing short squibs with links to articles or news. Both are fun depending on my mood and what's going on in the world. And I really like posting from far off places like Vegas, Chelan, Torino, 35,000 feet above Greenland, and even the Lake Cabin.

Thank you to my first year of readers. You are brave souls to venture back to these pages. I hope you'll still be around after Year Two. I don't know who you all are, but I hope there is something here for you.