Tag: Weblogs

Blogging Part 5: Viewing

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As I sit here watching my WordPress follower number steadily approach the big four-oh-oh, I’m thinking of things that I’ve done and can’t help but wonder if others do it too.

One of my lazy habits for a long time was to go to the Readers menu and go through all my followers blog posts. If I was feeling guilty, I’d quickly go down the list and hit “Like” on the ones with the titles that impressed me most. (or thumbnails)

Now besides showing a sort of “kack-handed” support, it also showed just how lazy I could get. It also doesn’t show up on the bloggers view count. Now I did not realise this, back when I was doing it. It only became apparent when I paid a bit more attention to the “stats” for my site.

I would get a notification that “so-and-so” and good old (fill in site name here) had “Liked” my latest post.

But…

My views had not increased. It took a little concentration on my part, but, I eventually made the connection. In a moment of serendipitous epiphany-age, I put two and two together and, besides getting four, I realised they’d hit the “Like” button without actually reading the post.

Now, I’ve always had a “thing” about my view counts. I had it on my first blog at Blogger.com and I had it on my second blog on Tumblr.com and I still have it. I’m attached to my view counts and will (throughout the day) keep checking them to see if they’ve gone up. I am, almost, OCD in my feeling about my view counts.

I then made another connection. I was doing that myself! I felt a little bit ashamed. I mean, I read incredibly fast (always have) and it seemed worse than cheating for me to ignore the actual content of the bloggers I was following to not at least look at the damned post!

So I have stopped that heinous habit and started really liking the post versus, liking the idea or the notification of the post. I would like to point out that I didn’t do that all the time, just occasionally when I “felt” strapped for time. Something that, now-a-days, I’m not but old imagined stresses are hard to break.

I’m sure I’m not alone in this preoccupation with viewing figures.

So how about you?

So you have anything that you obsess over? Do you compulsively check your follower numbers or views? Do you even bother to look at your stats at all? Do you succumb to this “lazy liking” and not read posts at all?

Let me know.

My obsession.
My obsession.
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Best Moment Award

Best-Moment-Award

I owe a heartfelt thank you to Sandra over at quirkybooks who nominated me based on my blog post – 50,000 Plus! Thanks Guys. This is the first time I’ve received this award and I am, to put it plainly, chuffed to bits (in American English that means damned happy). So  again, Sandra, thanks!

I also owe a gesture of gratitude to the kind folks over at Moment Matters who started this whole thing in the first place. They’ve even made up an award logo for the recipients to paste on their wall. It is the one at the top of this post and it is very impressive looking.

The words and music that accompany this award are below:

Awarding the people who live in the moment,
The noble who write and capture the best in life,
The bold who reminded us what really mattered –
Savoring the experience of quality time.

Pretty nice, I think. As with all awards that are bandied about in the WordPress Blogging community there are rules. These are listed below and since this is my first time winning this award, I hope everyone will forgive me if I muck the process up!

Rules:

Winners repost this completely with their acceptance speech. This speech may be written or video taped (vlogged)

Winners have the privilege of awarding the next recipients. The re-post should have a new set of people/blogs that are worthy of this award and then you have to tell the new folks that you’ve chosen.

Resources:

(I’ve included these as they were in Sandra’s post and any help is good help, if you need it)

  • What makes a good acceptance speech?
    • Gratitude. Thank the people who helped you along the way
    • Humor. Keep us entertained and smiling
    • Inspiration. Make your story touch our lives
  • Get an idea from the great acceptance speeches, compiled in MomentMatters.com/Speech
  • Display the award’s badge on your blog/website, downloadable in MomentMatters.com/Award


Acceptance Speech:

I accept this award with gratitude and heartfelt appreciation.

For any person who takes the time to look at my blog, I am truly grateful.

For every person that likes my blog, I am thankful.

When a person leaves a comment on my blog, I am inspired to continue blogging.

For each person who interacts with me, I am elated.

For any person who Follows me, my face lights up with pleasure.

For every blogger who shares their knowledge, wisdom and thoughtfulness, I am blessed to be in your company.

Every moment in life is precious, so make sure you do everything you can to cherish and enjoy it.

*I have used the acceptance speech from Sandra’s post as it is damn near perfect. I would only add that my inspiration comes from within and without and my urge to share comes from your views and “Likes” and comments. This community and all who stop by, rock.*

The winners for the Best Moment Award are:

Serendipity

Films and Things

For Henry

terry1954

And that is that. An incredibly short list I know, I follow a huge amount of blogs. The ones I have chosen have inspired me “outside” my box. In other words they’ve touched a part of me and my thought process a bit more deeply than usual. I feel what they are saying. These are the folks who have affected me one way or another by one or more posts.

I will apologise now if any of you feel left out. I have many wonderful followers and it pains me when I have to choose some over others in these things. But such is life and I’m trying to play by the rules here. (at least I hope I am)

You will also notice that I’ve chosen non-film related blogs for my winners. As much as I love film and can talk/write about it till the cows come home, this award isn’t about film or film related things. It’s about life and living the moment. My winners are doing that.

The last part of this Award process is the instruction to share this with your followers and to tweet your “success” with the hash tagged  #MomentMatters.

Congratulations to all my winners and I want you to know that you’ve all written things that have touched me. Deeply.

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I’m a Versatile Blogger…Again!

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Just when I thought I was through with dodging the award bullets, I got “zinged” with another one from my good friend Marilyn over at Serendipity. She has given me the Versatile Blogger award!

If you haven’t checked out her great blog, stop reading this and head on over via the link above. She has a great site and (like me) she posts a lot! She is a great photographer who shares her work willingly on her site and she asks a lot of pertinent questions. Not to mention that she is one of the most erudite blogs going.

And she and her husband Garry are amongst the few on the net that I consider great pals! Check her out…okay?

Now as with all the other awards that are flying about in the WordPress blogging verse, there are penalties, sorry; rules that must be adhered to, or at least you are supposed to. I tend to vary them a little, just because variety is the spice of life and (in case I’ve not mentioned it lately) because I’m lazy and a bit of a rebel.

I have to mention here that I love getting awards! Ever since I got a Best Supporting Actors Award in 1976 I’ve been hooked on getting any type of “special” recognition. I know, I could change my blog title to Ego’s are Me. It is a tiny personality flaw that I’m aware of and I’m trying to address it.

Okay??

So without further ado, here are the rules involved when you receive the Versatile Blogger Award:

*These have been copied shamelessly from Marilyn’s blog post. See! I told you I was lazy!*

These are the traditional rules for The Versatile Blogger Award:

  • Thank the person who gave you this award.
  • Include a link to their blog.
  • Next, name the bloggers to whom you would like to pass the award and send them a link to tell them you’ve selected them.
  • Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

So! I’ve thanked the person who nominated me! (Thanks again Marilyn!!!). I’ve included a link to their blog. Now I have to name the bloggers I’m nominating.

*Drumroll please*

And the nominees are:

Written in Blood

Hard Ticket to Home Video

Claratsi Movie Review

myfilmviews

RobbinsRealm Blog

It Rains… You Get Wet

Cinematic

I’ve only done 7 nominees (aka winners). The reason? Well, I’m not going to do the 7 “things about me” drill. So at least I’ve made an attempt at the rules by utilising the number seven. (Does anyone else hear the Sesame Street thing in their head saying, “Today is brought to you by the number seven?”)

What I’m going to do instead is post a picture of “moi” holding up my first coffee of the day (and amazingly it’s after I wrote this blog) and toasting not only Marilyn over at Serendipity and the nominees, but, everyone who follows my little blog!

Cheers, all the best!
Cheers, all the best!

I’ll also add a few more pictures from “yesteryear.”

My family. Brother Randy, Dad, Mom, Me, and in the front, my son Donovan. 1980
My family. Brother Randy, Dad, Mom, Me, and in the front, my son Donovan. 1980
Me. 1979.
Me. 1979.
My daughter Megan, 1990 aged 9 months.
My daughter Megan, 1990 aged 9 months.

And that’s me finished!! I’ll also take this time to thank all the folks who stop by, ‘like’ and follow my blog. You guys are the reason I keep forcing myself to sit down in front of my laptop and repeated strike the keys…and to write my blog posts.

You guys are the greatest!

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50,000 Plus! Thanks Guys!

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Literally the day after I posted about my 1 year anniversary on WordPress, I passed the 50 thousand mark. To add to the excitement of that landmark, I also got 673 views yesterday which obviously helped to move my view totals up. While still surfing this wave of excitement, I thought I’d do a short post of gratitude…again.

I still haven’t figured out what drove all that extra activity to my site. It certainly wasn’t any of the regular search engines or terms. It is baffling to say the least. But not unappreciated at all. I mentioned to my friend Tyson over at Head In A Vice and he assured me it was not down to the “FACE OFF” that we’re doing at the moment over on his blog. *How’s that for a plug, Tyson?*

Still, wonderment aside, I have to say thanks again for all the folks who take the time to stop by my little blog. Your views are what keep me going. Sure I like the “sound” of my own voice, even if it’s only in my head while I read my ramblings, but it is nice that other folks seem to like it as well.

I don’t want to jump on the “I appreciate you guys so much train” again after just doing it in my Happy Anniversary to Me post I just did, but, doggone it! I am pretty excited to hit two milestones so close together. So you’ll have to excuse me if I get too carried away.

I know that I am still not a “successful” blogger yet (whatever that means) as in I have tens of thousands of followers who hang on my every word, but, I do love all the folks who have obligated themselves to following my words and images. It means a lot, so much in fact that I kind of feel like you guys have been instrumental in my recovery from my heart attack last August.

My writing has helped me keep my mind off the negative connotations of almost dying and your interaction with me through the auspices of my blog posts has given me more ammunition for the old grey cells to ruminate on instead of my own fractured mortality. In other words, you all have given me a new lease on life. And for that I am grateful.

I do follow folks back (at least I try, although it may take me some time to do it) and I try to read as many of your blog posts possible. I just wanted to take another minute or two to thank everyone once again for helping to make my blogging experience a fun one.

On a final note (see I told you this was a short one) I’d like to thank WordPress! You guys so totally rock as a weblog site!

Believe it or not this is my happy face!
Believe it or not this is my happy face!
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Happy One Year Anniversary to My WordPress Blog!

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The 1 year anniversary logo.

It has taken me all day to decide on what to write after WordPress told me of my one year anniversary this morning. I will admit a certain amount of astonishment. I thought I’d been with WordPress much longer than a year. But after looking at my old posts and remembering that a goodly number of them had been first posted with Blogspot.com my amazement diminished pretty rapidly.

I have written before about how much I like the WordPress set up and the fact that I have loads more views per post and followers here than I ever managed to get on the old Blogspot site. I’ve been accused of being a “view” junkie and I will admit that I am hooked on my view numbers and also pretty excitable about my follower figures. Aren’t we all, to some degree?

But the nicest thing about having been on WordPress for a year is the great folks I’ve met and interacted with. Folks (aka fellow bloggers) that I never would have met on my old blog site. These are people who I, rightly or wrongly, feel are friends; some more so than others, but friends nonetheless. My daily interaction with them has been a boon, especially since my heart attack last August.

Of course, view counts and followers aside, the very visibility of WordPress is what has made this such a great ride. I actually started blogging in 2010.  A short timid two sentence entry that laid dormant for an entire year. Then in 2011, I began in earnest and tried to pretty much write every day. This wasn’t possible at that time, but as my input (or output) became more frequent and I discovered Tumblr and then WordPress I kept leapfrogging to each site looking for a blogging home.

It did not take me long to discover that here was where I wanted to be. The support from the staff is phenomenal and the themes are fantastic. I guess that the reason that I thought I’d been here longer than a year was twofold. Firstly, I manage to upload two or more posts a day. I have also managed to get 254 followers on this blog alone. I guess in my mind the culmination of blog posts plus followers equals a long time, i.e. much longer than a year.

Still, I’ve had fun here and as I start to reach more people I feel like I’ve been blessed to find so many folks who feel like I do and not just about films and books, but life as well.

After being “ill-health” retired from my job at an obscenely early age I had a lot of time on my hands (I still do actually) where the days could have stretched into a depressingly long time period of too much inner reflection and fears about health. The people who I’ve met via my little blog have made my days interesting and (in some cases) challenging.

I am not much of a “joiner” preferring instead to be on the outside of the social circle instead of actually being part of it. For the first time that I can remember, I’ve enjoyed being part of a community. One that shares kudos and publicity and awards with one another.

The other great thing about WordPress’s visibility is the contact that I’ve had with people in the entertainment and literature business that I never had with my other blogs. I have directors, actors, producers and authors who comment on my reviews and I can honestly say that I’m “blown away” each and every time it happens.

As my blog continues to evolve and grow (I’ve just done my first ever interview!) I look at the fruits of my labour and the community that I’m a part of and I think how lucky I am to have discovered this world of blogging and the folks who inhabit it. It is the people who I’ve met and interacted with combined with those  who have paid me the ultimate compliment of following my blog who make this so worthwhile.

So I raise my glass high and I’ll make a toast to you all: “Thanks WordPress for making this a great first year and thanks to you all who stop by and read, like, comment and follow. You guys are great!”

Happy anniversary to me and my blog!

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