The most surprising thing to me, I think, is the fact that you’ve stuck around. I mean, I’m sure you’ve all missed a week or two here and there because life happens, but for the most part, fifty-one-and-a-half of you (on average) have shown up every week without fail. That’s not nothing--for me or for you--so thank you for coming along on the runaway train that is my thought process. I hope you’re getting something out of it. (I mean, I assume you must be, since you keep coming back.) (And I’m not even mad if what you’re getting is schadenfreude.)
The other thing I am still finding to be very strange indeed is the fact that fifty-one-and-a-half-of-you-on-average show up every week, but in the last year I have had three whole comments in the blog itself. I was actually playing a game starting somewhere around the fourth week to see how long it would go before anyone said anything. (It was seven months, BTW.) It started to be wildly amusing, actually. “I hope no one says anything this week! I don’t want to break my record streak of silence!” Plenty of you have contacted me on other platforms--replied to the social media shares etc.--and it wasn’t as if I was expecting an avalanche of commentary, but holy wow, y’all. You’re a very quiet bunch. Serious talk for a minute, folks; it’s okay to say things if you want. You can ask questions. You can make suggestions and requests, even, and if I think I can accommodate whatever it is I’ll give it a go. I promise I’m not too scary. I’m just a little scary. And I don’t bite. Well, I might nibble. A bit. Wait, why are you running away? Don’t leave, I promise I’ll get back to the original subject!
Ahem. ::adjusts glasses::
I mentioned it here, but I know that the reason I have been successful in pushing through for a whole year is because I set myself a deadline. I made myself accountable. It’s all very well and good to say, “I’mma write a thing!” but in my experience, most people don’t succeed with that vague an endgame. If that had been the only thing to keep me going, I’d have posted randomly until I got bored and then gone away and done something else. With ‘give yourself a deadline’ in my back pocket, though, I had a very simple goal: Get something up for people to read every Thursday at six. It doesn’t matter what it is, it just has to be there. I tried to adhere to the industry standard of the 800 word opinion column, and for the most part I managed that, too, but that was a secondary goal, really.
I’ve taken a look back at the last 52 posts, and there were some I had forgotten about completely. Some weeks it’s like I get the topic out of my system and it also packs up and leaves my brain...forever. That’s a strange sensation. It’s like rediscovering some lost part of myself. I wrote it, there is evidence to support that, but until I was reminded of it, it had ceased to exist in my brainbox. Some of my posts feel like I wrote them last week.
“Didn’t I just do that one?”
::checks date on post::
::checks calendar on wall::
“Well, if you count April as ‘just’...”
Over the last year, some of my posts have been better than others. Some have been serious, some sad, some angry, some confused, some the very textbook definition of whack-a-doodle. Some of the ones I was most proud of turned out to be the least read. Some of the ones I thought of as ‘throwaways’ proved to be immensely popular. (What I conclude from the last two observations is that y’all are weird. It’s okay. I still love you.)
In the grand scheme of things, a year is the blink of an eye--a drop in a bucket. It’s nothing. But if you stop for a second and really look at all the things that happen in any given 365-day period, it’s so much more than you remember when you cast back a sweeping glance as you cobble together your annual family Christmas card. Christmas card! Oh good, a segue. I was at a loss for one, but now:
Speaking of Christmas cards, they are traditionally printed on paper.
Paper is the traditional gift for a first anniversary.
This is the first anniversary of a blog, which, before the advent of the internet, would have been written on paper.
One year! Paper anniversary!
Here, have a .gif of Yzma clearly not enjoying some confetti (which is made of paper).
And hey, while you’re here, maybe take a gander at this group I write for. Shoot The Breeze Comics (rebrand to On Comics Ground coming early 2019) is a completely volunteer-run organization on a mission to showcase the best in comics with an emphasis on indie creators, creators of color, LGBTQA+ creators, and stories and characters enabling all readers to find comics reflecting their identities and experiences.
The current website is:
www.shootthebreezecomics.com
I am currently reviewing three titles: Image Comics’ Errand Boys, Action Labs Comics’ Albert Einstein: Time Mason, and AfterShock Comics’ Dead Kings, but there are lots of comics to choose from and new reviews, news items, and articles go up all the time!
Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/shootthebreezeC
There is also a Go Fund Me campaign running to help with the cost of rebranding:https://www.gofundme.com/stb-media-presents-on-comics-ground
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