Vanity time again, please excuse the indulgence. Each month, I'm surprised with my stick-to-it-iveness in keeping up this blog. It's a trait I'm not exactly known for. By now, it would be more my nature to have wandered away and started two or more other projects doomed to failure.
But my need for a hobby was matched by my need to vent. And doing it here on the blog saves The Other Half and my friends from hearing it. Well, from hearing it so much. But as I enter my 18th month of The Greenlee Gazette, I'm entering uncharted territory, not unlike that first day back in June of last year.
The blog started as a hodge-podge (as reflected in my motto above) of pop-culture, news, politics, personal stories and funny videos. But the closer we get to November 4, the more focused the blog has gotten on the election. That's very common though, as I see the trend on other general interest blogs, and on the cable news commentary shows. I've seen speculation that shows like The Rachel Maddow Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann will have nothing to say after November 4. Au contraire. They'll simply have a much wider theme to their stories and discussions.
And that will be my challenge here. I'm sure I'll still have politics to get me revved up, but it will be joined by more humor, more varied interests, and possibly a surprise or two. One thing I will likely do--at least for a week or so, yet to be scheduled--is take a break from the blog. Oh, it will be difficult, and I doubt I will "go dark" for a solid week. It will be more likely that I'll post a couple of fun things per day, and leave it at that.
Of course, a huge monkey wrench could be thrown into the works. If the election somehow ends up being a clusterf**k like it was in 2004 or 2000, we may not know a winner on the 4th. Or, even worse, John McCain could pull out a comeback win. In that case, I will have a colossal mental divergence. It will be a battle between a "why even bother" defeatism, and a drive to fight on. Hopefully, we don't have to see that play out!
Having reached nearly a year and a half blogging, I've actually reached a secret goal. I vowed to blog on, straight through the election. I left it to myself whether or not I would continue past the first week of November. Now that I'm here, I think it's way too early to quit. October saw a dramatic increase in traffic. I thought I'd surpass last month's record-breaking hits, but I even bested August's numbers, which soared due to a fluke link by The Daily Kos. I got nearly 7,500 hits in October, for a grand total of over 51,000 single page hits for the blog's existence.
As I said before, that's small bloggy potatoes compared to a mega-site like The Huffington Post, but for a (nearly) one-man show? I'm good with it! Thanks for reading, and as always, bring your friends!
But my need for a hobby was matched by my need to vent. And doing it here on the blog saves The Other Half and my friends from hearing it. Well, from hearing it so much. But as I enter my 18th month of The Greenlee Gazette, I'm entering uncharted territory, not unlike that first day back in June of last year.
The blog started as a hodge-podge (as reflected in my motto above) of pop-culture, news, politics, personal stories and funny videos. But the closer we get to November 4, the more focused the blog has gotten on the election. That's very common though, as I see the trend on other general interest blogs, and on the cable news commentary shows. I've seen speculation that shows like The Rachel Maddow Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann will have nothing to say after November 4. Au contraire. They'll simply have a much wider theme to their stories and discussions.
And that will be my challenge here. I'm sure I'll still have politics to get me revved up, but it will be joined by more humor, more varied interests, and possibly a surprise or two. One thing I will likely do--at least for a week or so, yet to be scheduled--is take a break from the blog. Oh, it will be difficult, and I doubt I will "go dark" for a solid week. It will be more likely that I'll post a couple of fun things per day, and leave it at that.
Of course, a huge monkey wrench could be thrown into the works. If the election somehow ends up being a clusterf**k like it was in 2004 or 2000, we may not know a winner on the 4th. Or, even worse, John McCain could pull out a comeback win. In that case, I will have a colossal mental divergence. It will be a battle between a "why even bother" defeatism, and a drive to fight on. Hopefully, we don't have to see that play out!
Having reached nearly a year and a half blogging, I've actually reached a secret goal. I vowed to blog on, straight through the election. I left it to myself whether or not I would continue past the first week of November. Now that I'm here, I think it's way too early to quit. October saw a dramatic increase in traffic. I thought I'd surpass last month's record-breaking hits, but I even bested August's numbers, which soared due to a fluke link by The Daily Kos. I got nearly 7,500 hits in October, for a grand total of over 51,000 single page hits for the blog's existence.
As I said before, that's small bloggy potatoes compared to a mega-site like The Huffington Post, but for a (nearly) one-man show? I'm good with it! Thanks for reading, and as always, bring your friends!
