Montana Jones

Blog-a-versary

Greetings my dear blog reading minions.

It has been a year. Yup. Can hardly believe it myself. A whole year of spewing forth composing words for consumption on the Internet.

I would like to think that all the effort has been worth it, that I have made a difference. That somebody somewhere out in that vast and mighty Internet has read my words and gained a little insight or laughed or cried or got pissed off or at least enjoyed killing a little time. I would like to think that I am a better person for the experience as well. Hopefully a better writer or better reader. Better time waster probably. I would settle for more observant. Funny thing about personal growth, it's hard to measure. My reward for putting all the effort in for a year? The same reward that so many things in life give us. I get to do it again.

So how about some numbers. My first year had 172 blog posts in it. That averages slightly more than 3 per week. Okay, I have not been a consistent poster. My personal blog directory here on the local computer has 15.5MB of stuff in it. That's across 248 files in 6 folders. So no, you have not seen every last word I have written. Trust me, you are probably better off for it. There looks to be about 23 photos in there, averaging two photos per month.

I try to do a lot of filtering and condensing of the stuff I write before it gets blogged. In addition to my manifesto I also have one personal rule that I have held myself to very strictly. Rewrite everything. I do not allow myself to ever publish anything on the same day I wrote it. That can be a little rough when trying to expound on current events but I believe it is a crucial element in making myself readable. My re-writes have run the spectrum from niggly little punctuation and word edits all the way up to trashing the thing and starting over. I can only think of a couple instances in the past year where I published exactly the words I originally typed. In spite of all that effort I can still look back through the archives and spot poor spelling and punctuation and grammar. Sigh. I will need an editor before I can become a decent writer.

Sometimes I think of blog posts as throwing stones. Chuck a rock out into the pond and see what ripples it creates. Strange thing about blog posts; I pretty consistently cannot guess how many ripples it will make. There have been posts I have meticulously researched, wrote, rewrote and edited. They were very heavy stones for me when I finally heaved them out and I did not see a single ripple. Other times I toss a light piece of fluff and it splashes back at me with many comments and much feedback. Strange thing this Internet.

I have never expected to make any huge splashes. I don't think enough people read me for that. I know there are a few people that check in on me regularly and that is nice, but I don't think there are more than a dozen of you. I have toyed with the idea of putting one of those hit counter thingamajobs on here so I could get a clue about who visits and how often. It would help me measure the waves I generate with my posts. I don't think I will do it though. Ignorance is bliss. It's almost easier to write when I don't think anyone is listening. I have no desire to be a big name in blogging, I am quite happy out here in the long tail. In the end this blog is what most other blogs are about. Me, me, me, me, me, me. I don't want to care about appealing to the masses. Wanna have some fun messing with my head? Post a comment. If I get more than ten I will pretty much freak out.

I was toying with ways to celebrate my first anniversary. Guest bloggers, photo spreads, win a date with Jones contests. Now that the day is here it feels a lot like birthdays feel after you hit your mid twenties. Nothing quite so special anymore, still expected to show up for work, celebrations involve a single nice glass of wine instead of a row of shots. So the celebrating here will be a little subdued as well. Besides, I already know who would win the date with Jones. Not very fair for the other contestants. So how about we celebrate by sprucing the place up a bit. Polishing up the look of the blog is as good a way to celebrate as any. Hope you like it.

Looking forward to year two.
Montana Jones

Posted by: Montana Jones / 8:12 AM