A Blog About My Blog

essaysbysean.blogspot.com

Hello Reader,

Got blog?

The trick, if you have a blog, is not to post on weekends, and to post as early in the work week as you can. This is according to research, by Wordpress, from back during the heyday of blogs: It seems people don’t read on weekends, AND the web search engines are very date sensitive: Stuff posted a couple days ago, such as Saturday, won’t show up by Monday, so post early in the week. Actually, I get lots of hits for last week’s post on a new Monday, (but never on Sunday) and I often enjoy reading good sites on the weekend.

And that’s how I know I have fans: Lately, when I post a day early, on Wednesday instead of on my usual Thursday, I still get most of my hits on Thursday, as usual. “Thank you, fans and readers, thank you.” Another statistic I have read, more anecdotal than researched, I think, is that only one reader in a thousand will comment. This is true, by my experience with other blogs. So: If you ever comment anywhere, then consider yourself special.

May I be self indulgent today? As web administrator, my screen “page” is set to show 25 weekly titles at a time. I always wait for at least 25 posts before I indulge in a post about me or my blog—like today. 

Well. What can I tell you? Recently, when I scrolled the current page and the previous, my two most popular essays, one on each page, by hit count, were Abuse Science (Archived November 2017) and Giving Love. (Archived January 2018) How symmetric: Those posts are from two sides of the same coin.

As I see it, being abused need not mean retreating into a basement, nor becoming anti-social. One need not become grumpy, anti-humble or anti-good intentioned towards people. Even at Death’s door, one retains the choice to love or not. How could I know? Easy: A man who miraculously survived a Nazi death camp says so. In his book From Death Camp to Existentialism, Viktor Frankl found that when everything else is stripped away, the choice of attitude still remains. 

If I might indulge: I profess that love is the answer, and love is the meaning of life, even if we know love by other names such as doing a little service. Frankl found that the few inmates who survived the camp all had a “reason to live.” His book has been reprinted as Man’s Search For Meaning. He was very clear: All of his peers who merely existed, without a meaning to their existence, perished.

I have experimented a few times, during this last “admin page,” with running one essay over two blog posts, to make the posts shorter and easier for my readers. No reader-reaction, I guess it worked out OK. My post for next week, though, is a lonnnng “meadow read,” where you can walk trails and think it over. But since no one knows what that phrase means, I’ll just call it a “beach read.” It’s about Respect, and yes I have a lot to say. 

What else? I’ve recently discovered why quotations (and footnotes) are always in smaller font than the surrounding text: Because they can be way more fun! More fun to read than the actual piece. It’s like what I noticed back in childhood: When a TV station has technical difficulty, and they have to play music, only the CBC plays fun classical music. The rest play junk music, so their shows don’t look so bad. 

After experimenting with quotes in larger fonts… I still believe my readers come before my ego: I won’t shrink the quote-fonts, no, but I may just keep them in the same size as the rest of the essay, as I have normally been doing, in fact, all along.

Blogs are becoming increasingly relevant for those with experience in having attention spans from doing, say, performing arts, martial arts, fine art, or fine focused reading. Blogs are increasingly less relevant for those who prefer sound bites, tweets and moving pictures. In other words, the high tide of blogs was some years ago, before social media. Meanwhile, folks who have preferred reading over surfing the web, without FOMA, (Fear Of Missing Out) have been doing just fine all along.

In my personal life? I keep meaning to switch over to writing fiction. (And I need to read more fiction, too) So during July I finally figured out how to “serve two masters”: My essays are only to be composed and edited on weekends. During the week, let me confront the fearful blank page… Because I can write! I am a warrior! A black bear! And also, somedays, a grey mouse. Such is life, on a stage where we play many parts.

On stage at Toastmasters, people have noted that I have a more confident posture lately. Why? I mean, I have been public speaking for years, so why now? I have my guesses, but since I am still processing, I won’t talk just now. Except to say one thing: I have written two or more essays down the years about failing to declutter, and now I’ve succeeded. Weird. I surely will say more, self-indulgently, in my next meta-blog, 25 posts from now. 

Sean Crawford

August

Calgary

2018

Footnotes:

~My last such “25-titles” blog was called My Latest Meta-Blog, archived February 2018.

~At the time, I had recently added a “subscribe to this blog” feature at the bottom of each post. It goes below the footnotes.

~Here is a link to a review of Viktor Frankl’s book by Scott Berkun, a credible fellow who’s blog I often comment on.

~For personal growth, and to start your day, I can recommend the daily blog of starpasser.com, by Jodie, a fellow Calgarian. 

Incidentally, for links, instead relying on highlighting with coloured ink, Jodie will underline, while I will overtly say “here is a link.” In my case, it’s because I am sympathetic to folks new to computers like my dear dad, folks without colour screens or fast colour downloads, and folks reading futuristic colourless archives. (Maybe I’ll be read by grandkids in a shiny white moon-base) 

~As part of trying to switch to fiction writing, I have worked ahead on some essays. Future titles will include zen of listening, classical war, idealists among us and, wait for it… Free Fall Pieces my Peers said to Post.