As I lay shivering feverishly, curled up in the fetal position under every blanket in the house, the first year of my existence in "blogdome" came and went with little fanfare. The flu/plague/Ebola virus or whatever the hell infested my body on December 18th prevented any commentary on the past 365 days but did allow for some reflection about how the 88 posts on this blog developed.
Sadly, my disease-induced dementia has all but removed any coherent thoughts that may have been developed over the last 72 hours. And I may need a stint in rehab to overcome an apparent addiction to Emergen-C and acai juice.Anyway...I wasn't entirely sure what my goals where when I logged onto Blogger and put this thing together a year ago, but I'm oddly satisfied with how it has turned out. There may be a few fluff pieces where I just threw up some photos and captions but for the most part, I have really tried to make sure that I am proud of what I have written. I have too much respect for the art and science of human communication to not recognize that I am 100% responsible for every word I choose to publish. I have always done this for fun (plus a dash of therapy and maybe a couple sprigs of general boredom with the cycling media) but I do believe that accountability often precedes performance.
No offense to anyone out there who uses this format as a daily diary of sorts, but that model is not what I am interested in. Instead of a purely first-person "my world" type of thing, I wanted to create a venue in which to express thoughts and views in a manner that is hopefully somewhat entertaining and interesting to those who may or may not have any connection to me personally. Whether I have succeeded or not is debatable but that has been the overriding intent.
No offense to anyone out there who uses this format as a daily diary of sorts, but that model is not what I am interested in. Instead of a purely first-person "my world" type of thing, I wanted to create a venue in which to express thoughts and views in a manner that is hopefully somewhat entertaining and interesting to those who may or may not have any connection to me personally. Whether I have succeeded or not is debatable but that has been the overriding intent.
Cycling has been the common theme for the most part, but I have appreciated being able to freely associate my sporting passion with other interests and topics. I never imagined that I would write a 1000+ word Tour of California race recap based off of quotes from the movie Dazed and Confused, but it came naturally for some reason. Same thing with Vino and Rick James.
It's all about context. Relationships and external forces. Jens Voigt and Chuck Norris.
But it really is all about context. I love the sport of cycling even more when I can view it within the context of other interests and events. I often feel that the cycling industry as a whole has long operated in a progress-stifling vacuum, so focused on itself that it lost touch with it's place in the grand scheme of sports and society. But that's a topic for another post. The point is...well, I don't know what the point is anymore. I guess I'm just saying that I have truly enjoyed writing these posts and hope that anyone unlucky or foolish enough to have stumbled across this blog has not found it too terribly lame.
So now...in the true spirit of lazy, year-end recaps and the BCS rankings, I am going to let the computer pick the old posts that seem to have the best viewership statistics and present them in a format that makes it seem like there was some effort involved. Instead of just rehashing old work.
Google Analytics has informed me that the following are some pieces that have generated the most traffic. I know it's largely a function of publish date but cut me some slack. I'm sick.
More context:
1 year = 365.25 days
1 year = 8,766 hour
1 year = 525,960 minutes
1 year = 31,557,600 seconds
I have to say that I have greatly appreciated all of the feedback from those who have taken the time to comment on this blog. For some reason I kind of anticipated that I would get more arguments and counter-points in this arena but I am always pleased to have generated any kind of response. I welcome any constructive criticism as needed though and thank all of the readers who have challenged me to think from another perspective.
Finally (I mean it this time), I would like to thank MissingSaddle.com for the continued encouragement and all of the other writers out there that have been kind enough to include this site on their blogrolls or referenced the content here in a positive manner. You didn't have to do that but I appreciate the gesture. And thanks to the family and friends that have supported this effort with both their kind words and critical thoughts. Seriously, thank you.
Maybe someday I'll write a book about this experience. I've got the first 88 chapters done already.
4 comments:
I have to confess. I stole the "overweight man buys bike parts" and changed the name to a friend of mine and sent it to him. He still hasn't gotten me back that good so I'm definitely one up on him.
Still my favorite post of yours.
Keep up the good work, I really like reading this blog
Ditto. You're a really talented writer. Please keep the blog going and don't quit (like a few of the other cool kids have done recently).
Hey, how come you have not posted in 2008 yet? Are you still on winter break, or are you waiting for the training camps to begin? Good job in 2007. You definitely have a unique approach to the cycling blog.
Hey, thanks for the nice comments and I will cough something up here shortly.
The Holiday break is over and I am getting into the LSD (Long-winded Silly Dork) phase of my writing and riding training.
Thanks again for reading. Hopefully 2008 will be good.
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