When I started blogging back in 2005 it was something to keep me writing. OK to be fair, it was something there to get me writing more regularly in the first place. In those early days I was a bit sporadic in the entries and would go in fits and starts. As the weeks and months continued and I got into what could be done on the blogging both on this here blog and on the other place I picked up the pace a bit leading up to the end of last year where things got fairly frequent. With the change that’s happened blogging has been a fairly important part of my life and I’ve pushed on to get more prolific with the entries.
(Puts on a presidential manner) As I reflect on the first three months of 2010 and the level of blogging that’s taken place. For the sake of review and consideration, it felt right to me and myself to give some overview as to how things have been.
Soon I’ll do a review of this blog, but it’s worth getting an insight on what’s been going on over at the over place. A good question will be why do it on this blog and not over the other place? Well, it’s always good to do a bit of cross promotions and it’s good to get you to check out what’s been going on over there.
January
The entries over all the months this year had a good sprinkling of music, Dr. Who, football wrestling and other stuff. January was a typical month in that way. I enjoyed doing the overview of the different reviews looking at the end of David Tennant’s run as the Doctor. I didn’t do a review of the shows at the time, which is a bit odd for me as I do enjoy doing reviews. The Doctor took up a fair amount of the blogs over the month with three entries.
There’s no doubt though, that this month was dominated by music and football. Liverpool were going through a rough patch and even I wasn’t able to keep it to myself and had to share my own, shall we say, reservations about Rafa Benitez’ management.
Music wise I got the chance to catch up with some new tunes to me like Marc Dorsey’s People in Search of a Life as well some ones that I’m used to like the Toto hit Rosanna.
I was glad to be able to put on some book reviews as of January, after all I love reading so it makes sense to keep a record of the books I read through the blog. Of the books I read the reviews I put on, I guess the one that I was most pleased with was the one on the Manchester United biography. It was a good read, which made the review easier.
As you’ll note the number of views wise compared to where the blog was earlier in the year interest in the blog really picked up in January to heights unknown up until then. Part of that is down to the popularity of the Dr. Who blogs, and I reckon part of that is also the wealth of material I developed and the growing consistency in output.
Blog Entry of the Month: After The Love Has Gone – Cover Versions
For the ones I did on television which were good like the Law and Order one. It has to be edged out by the great fun I had putting this one together. When I love something and get to see different angles from which I can write I think it brings out the best in me, and that was the case reviewing the different versions of what is a great song.
February
Blogging here took on even greater importance over the month and I actually blogged more in that month than I did in January even though there are more days in the other one!
Music continued to be the back-beat of the blog and there were a number of cross-overs between the music and entertainment stuff, but more on that a bit later. As well as music though the big deal of the month was humour. From Stewart Francis’ One Liners that had be laughing hard to one of my favourites Tim Vine who merited two parts (yeah part one and part two, which was convenient at the time).
I reckon, funnily enough, that this was down to the hard time I was having personally through February. It was an incredibly trying month and one outlet to release the pain and trauma is laughter. So on reflection both the music and the laughter helped a great deal with that time in me life.
Pro-Wrestling also played a more significant role in February than January – for me it’s a healthy interest. My particular favourite of the month was the tribute to how entertaining the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Steve Austin are. Look it’s about entertainment, people, and when you’re good at it, you acknowledge it!
I don’t mind saying that looking at the stats now that I’m over on WordPress is a good pastime, but in essence I don’t blog to get a large audience or that it is essential to get lots of readers. It was not a drawback then when there was a little less people viewing the blog over February. On average the week’s business was profitable and that was encouraging.
Blog Entries of the Month: Pure Imaginations Part One and Part Two
Similar to the EWF tribute of January I really enjoyed doing the posts on Pure Imagination. This is the cross-over mentioned previously that worked a treat, it combined so many different streams of interest for me and was good fun to put together. It was also good seeing people take interest in it and comment on it. I really loved the range of material that was put on both parts and I was reminded of it when my daughters and I recently saw that classic Gene Wilder version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Another set of work that I am really pleased with and recommend highly to you.
March
For the first time since I started blogging I put up an entry for every day of the month. To do that at the same time as doing the same thing on this blog was very satisfying and sets the standard for what I’m hoping to do in terms of my blogging. I’m not putting myself under the pressure to do daily blogs especially if it costs me the more important things in life, but it keeps me active in doing what I love doing.
As opposed to the first two months of the year, there was not particularly strong theme across the month, but the various streams that make up what I’m interested in all found a place in the month’s blog entries. I was pleased to see more book reviews posted on the site, one of which makes it to the blog entry of the month. To me the standard of the book reviews was overall improving as well and I was pleased with what I wrote about The Devil’s Guide to Hollywood and a particularly creative effort with The Worst of Friends.
One name that has not been mentioned who plays a crucial part in my interests got a bit more say over March. Stevie Wonder’s got his own series now on the Seriously Underrated songs (like Fun Day and One Of a Kind) in his discography. That’s been great fun to put together and there’s plenty more where that comes from, as there are quire a lot of songs in Wonder’s catalogue.
The interest definitely picked up with regard to Dr. Who again, just as it died down in February in the run up to the quality television programme hitting the screens again. And it’s worth mentioning the extensive effort I went to in putting together the preview and predictions for Wrestlemania 26. It’s about writing about what I enjoy and so putting in the effort and seeing it out there is reward in itself. It’s as though I’ve done my bit.
Numbers of views shot through the roof over March. It doubled the amount that had been recorded both for the best week and the best month. I still cannot put my finger on what exactly it was. Maybe the Dr. Who rush had a lot to do with it. Maybe some of the interest picked up on the range of stuff that was now decorating all around the blog was the key. Either way, it was a pleasant surprise to see the figures shoot up over the month. It neatly fell in line with a little desire I had at the beginning of the year and bodes well for future work. Yet I am not measuring success by this. Success to me will always be that combination of creativity, humility, diligence and vigilance. So whether I get a lot of views on a blog, but I know it hasn’t been that good, I’ll always prefer the little regarded entry in which I know I put in my best.
Blog Entry of the Month: The Rise & Fall Of Phil Spector: Book Review
What marks this entry out above all the others was how hard it was to read the book, how hard it was to process the information and then subsequently the challenge of putting across as rounded a review as I could. Those challenges overcome and seeing the final result made me feel good and when you read it for yourself you’ll see where the wonderful and tragic thing of life can be drawn out of that love for reading life in words. It’s definitely encouraged and inspired me to read more and do more reviews which will hopefully improve with age.
Other Notes
One particular entry that wasn’t posted in 2010 but picked up a great deal of interest throughout the first three months of this year was the review for Dr. Who’s Water of Mars programme back in November 2009. More than any other single entry recorded on the blog this has received so many different views. I’m touched that evidently people are interested in enough to give it a read. That’s really cool.
In Closing
I know that there will be a blog coming soon that will outline what stuff will be expected in the season to come on the blog. Just to let you know that I love blogging there about some of my interests and hobbies. It’s like this blog is my reading room where I relax in my contemplative setting and the other place is my living room in front of the telly with the magazines and books around where I chill out and have a leisure time. I hope to keep up the stuff over there and not take it for granted the level of enjoyment that I have, but push on to be better where I can.
So that’s the review for the other place and coming soon will be how things have been in the first quarter of 2010 over here.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 