Now Serving 331

As of today, over 300 different people have come to this site. The exact number of distinct hosts (computers on an Internet connection) is 330. This excites me more than I expected it to.

I realize that 300 visitors is less than negligible to most Web sites. But for this site, with no marketing and no content other than my rambling thoughts, 300 is an enormous audience.

I know not everyone who has come here once, comes back regularly, but even a few is very encouraging and exciting. My latest report says that 18 pages were opened from this site yesterday—and 18 is among the fewest for a single day—there have been several days in the past couple months with numbers in the 60s.

When I started this blog site, I wanted to see if I could keep up a regular, daily routine of posting outside of a job schedule. I love to write. I’ve written for publication, I’ve written in a corporate job, and I’ve written as a hobby. I created this site for hobby writing.

My emails to friends, about things that happened in my daily life and things I experienced in my game playing, tend to be long and detailed. When I was playing World of Warcraft more regularly, I wrote a regular email to my friends titled “Weekly WoW.” When I started this site, I transferred those emails to this site, in the Computer Games section. Over the years, I’ve made many posts to a role playing game message forum. I transferred some of those posts to this site, in the Table Games section. Since starting this site in June, I’ve added all new stuff to those sections, and everything in this General section is completely new.

Writing something completely new every day, drawing from just mundane life experiences, has sometimes been a challenge. Trying to find something interesting, but not too personal, in my daily life is not always easy. I’m sure there’s been many times that what I thought was interesting probably wasn’t to many readers. But even so, it’s really fun to write all this. Sometimes I start with no idea what to write, but then I end up writing a whole article length piece. Sometimes I have a specific idea, but then realize that the subject really is boring or doesn’t really go anywhere as a story. I have about a dozen “almost” posts that I’ve written but ended up not posting, or not even finishing. I also have a few that I’ve written to completion but just haven’t posted.

I also have a back log of posts to make on my computer and table gaming. The past couple weeks have been rather busy, so I haven’t had the time in the evenings to get them together in a postable state. Some posts take 10 minutes to write, but most take at least 30 minutes. A few take an hour or more to write. And then there’s the 5-20 minutes to proofread and edit them the next morning before actually posting them.

You see, I write my posts in the evening but I post them the next morning. As both writer and editor, I need some time between the writing and the proofreading. Proofreading right after writing is called, “still writing.” I could “still write” a post for hours if I let myself. More than once, I’ve gone back and made a slight correction or edit to a post weeks after it was posted. I’m rarely perfectly satisfied with something I’ve written. There are things I’ve had published in hard form that I wish I could go back and edit just one more time. There’s always a better way to phrase something, always a better description, always a better way of expressing a thought. I’m envious of those writers who can write a perfect line in their first try. (There may actually be no such writers.)

Anyway. See, this post is a good example. I started out just wanting to mention my excitement at having over 300 visitors to this site, and that was covered in the first three paragraphs. I got on a roll and have ended up with 9 paragraphs of rambling on about writing.

And now the 10th paragraph—for the most important comment: Thanks to everyone who has visited this site, and especially thanks to everyone who has repeatedly visited. I hope it’s entertaining. I’m still sort of trying to find my “voice” for this whole thing, so I hope it isn’t too amatuerish. I’m a professional writer, but I’ve never written a daily “column” like this. It’s a great experience for me, and I want it to be an interesting read for you.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com