10 years

A notification popped up on my phone today; Happy Anniversary 10 years.

I’ve been posting on wordpress for 10 years now, this is the third site on WP with the original on Blogger, before they went all assbackwards. Started blogging because the forum site I was hooked on, went tits-up. It’d been headed that way for awhile, and we (myself and Soffitrat ) had even been approached by the “owner” about taking over it, but neither of us wanted the headaches.

Been quite some evolutions along the way. Revelations even. First was that Soffitrat was straightup a no bullshitter. He said he was a mayor of a small Texas town, and no shit, he was. He was also severely hampered by a lifetime of smoking and wasn’t much physically, but his mind was sharp as a tack, and the man had WIT.

Met good people because of blogging. Met some bad as well of course. But my personal evolution to NOW, likely wouldn’t have happened without my posting thoughts and getting some feedback from the world at large.

I probably would never have attempted to write a book, if not for blogging. Heck, maybe I should gather up ALL of my posts and format them in a book form. It would be a decent ‘third party’ review of historical points, of nothing else. Not that I would try to market it as such. More of a “diary” in one location, much like published diaries from the Civil War were perceptions of events by ‘the man on the street’. Published news articles only show one side; whats the guy with the bagged lunch on the construction sites thinking,,,

Since I never shut down ANY of my blogs, I just stopped posting, I could do that,,, maybe, or maybe just gather them up and archive them until maybe I decide to make a project of it. Its not like I’m a force of nature that needs recorded for prosperity or sumpin,, ha! I haven’t hit a million hits yet and its been 10 years.

My readership has been picking up though. 19k in 2020, doubled in 2021 with 38k and there’s still 4 months left. So I must be doing sumpin right. Figures, 10 years of bumpin’ around in the dark trying to ‘get it right’, you’ll eventually find something that you can rub togther to make a spark. Just hope you aren’t in the powder room of the magazine when you make said spark.

The biggest thing i see as ‘doing it right’ is that ‘keep showing up for the beating’ thing Rollins harped about in his spoken word albums. Eventually, you’ll hit that combination and knock the bully out. Until then, keep showing up, keep doing your thing and trying, and NEVER BACK OFF.

So, here I am, another ‘day at the office’ soaking up the isolation of a backwater blog with minimal readers, and hoping for,, Hell, thats half the problem, I write to vent more than a particular goal or to educate or to entertain. And maybe I do offer all of that, a time or tso, but the purpose has never been clearly defined nor applied. Its. Catharsis to vent the pressures of solo living in a world that has quite flipped its lid from my youth. I’m rolling into 53 here real soon and have seen so much change, and not all of it is better. Love the tech changes but not the societal ones. Freedom in the 70s and 80s compared to the tweens and 20s,,,, two sides of a coin. And maybe the tech isn’t all that great either. I recall being able to tell you any friend phone number without reference during the 80s. Now, I have to dig in my phone to find them. We seem to have dumbed down over the last 20 years, and the last 20 has seen the most radical shifts across the board. Maybe the reason for turmoil and angst is because we are in some sort of revolution, like the industrial revolution caused back in the late 1800s. Our tech is that, and it grows so much faster than the steam engines did, so the shifts are more blunt and traumatic.

I dunno. I’m just rambling because I don’t want to delve into the cesspits anymore today. Dads doing well considering he had heart failure just one week ago. Went down this morning and did some hillside weedeating for him so he wouldn’t. Mamakats grumpy because she scratched an eyeball while playing with the boys, and they are walking on eggshells around her. Voo is always on eggshells cuz he’s the only canine in the house and “kats is pointy and sharp on 5 of their 6 points”. He may have them in weight, but not speed, edges or agility, and he knows it. Have ya ever had to escort a dog through a house because of the kats lounging about? Its a daily event here. All 4 have me quite well trained for their little quarks.

Even with the world spinning on its head, life carries on. Days like today remind me of that, and why its important to remember “our realities” aren’t entwined, so much as snagging on occasion.