As the year winds down I find the blog getting more hits than usual. At least this time people are looking at posts. Mostly old posts, like Colonel, when we actually had discussions and this was a pretty lively place. The contributors went their separate ways. Only Trippler is still around. I suppose the posts get shared and others look at them but no comments. It's like a curious form of voyeurism.
Blogging isn't very cool anymore. I've shared some of my posts on facebook and gotten some response but no additional followers. I had written a few articles on LinkedIn, mostly to do with architecture like a high school my wife and I designed in Vilnius. But response wasn't overwhelming so I stopped writing.
An old high school buddy promotes himself on facebook and has managed to garner 3.4K followers. His is a garden variety philosophy mixed with religious observations in the form of memes that you can pick up anywhere, but it seems to work. He's now shooting videos of himself offering advice from his desk at home or in his truck on the road. Who knows he may eventually strike a chord like Oliver Anthony did if he can turn his cliche thoughts into catchy lyrics.
My niece has done pretty well as a "breakthrough coach," pitching self-improvement cards and other means of getting your life in order. She works mostly through social media and has garnered 2.2K followers from her home base in Long Beach, California. It seems to keep her going.
A former college friend of mine tried to pitch home improvement for a while on facebook. I hardly hear at all from him these days other than a rather sad New Year's letter that suggested he didn't achieve the goals he set for himself.
Another college friend sells t-shirts on-line. They're pretty good and reasonably priced. I bought two shirts but the shipping and customs killed me on this end, so no more. Hopefully, he does better stateside.
I have to think they all have other things going in their lives because it is hard to imagine they are making much off these efforts. I tried to monetize this blog with "AdSense" at one point, but all I got were a bunch of algorithm-generated spam ads in between each paragraph and no money. I suppose you have to garner tens of thousands of hits per week to captivate potential advertisers if any even bother with blogger anymore. They can rest assured I don't cater to white nationalism speech but no matter, I de-monetized the blog so it wouldn't look so cluttered.
I would be content with just a few active followers to exchange thoughts so it doesn't feel like I'm writing into a void. I don't think all these hits come from bots. I'm a pretty friendly guy. I won't bite your head off. Although no spam please.
Be nice if we could have friendly and knowledgeable exchanges like we did in the old days.
ReplyDeleteNot too long ago I looked through 𝑬𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑬𝒍𝒃𝒂 and the 𝑵𝒀 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 forums but our topic discussions have all been archived. All those great exchanges now lost to history!
With all those books and ideas we exchanged in American history, one could easily earn a B.A. degree on the subject. Some books such as Fehrenbacher's 𝐒𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲, 𝐋𝐚𝐰, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 and McGarvie's 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐚𝐰 were graduate level reading. Because of that one could earn a few graduate level credits!
Let's hope we can bring back those days soon.
It only appears to be you and me, Trip. I haven't heard from Rick or AVRDS in a long time. Chartres and Bob are gone. We're getting old. Anyway, I would be up for a good history read. I'll look into the titles you mention and see if there is anything else that captures my imagination.
ReplyDeleteThere is a new biography on Willa Cather,
ReplyDeletehttps://www.loa.org/news-and-views/extremely-orderly-and-uncrazy-benjamin-taylor-on-his-revelatory-new-biography-of-willa-cather/#:~:text=In%20his%20engrossing%20and%20limpid,%2C%20when%2C%20dismissed%20as%20a%20%E2%80%9C
I sure miss Bob as we had several things in common -- we both had much difficulty learning how to use PCs. He likely was partly learning disabled as I am. But at least I learned to cook which he never did. Both of us struggled to find jobs in NYC and we both labored intensely to get through law school. Neither of us found any real use for our degrees. Both of us loved great literature, American history, and Iberian history. Would loved to have met him.
ReplyDeleteAs for American history there appears to be a book that might interest some folks:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/here-s-how-john-quincy-adams-was-canceled-in-congress-and-what-he-did-about-it/vi-BB1ibHgU?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=7f2ff657f4de4276ae3a550ab109395b&ei=45#details
𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 by Jared Cohen
https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Power-Presidents-Purpose/dp/1982154543
Interesting choice of presidents. I would think there wouldn't be too much to explore in W but I guess Cohen wanted to include a contemporary Republican. More interesting what Obama is doing but I guess we all see that on display.
ReplyDelete