the sounds of non-silence

So I'm back. And feeling better.

Maybe some of that mood can be attributed to the fact that December is almost here. Yes, the holiday season, but also the end of this post-a-day blog challenge! Actually, it hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would. And, more important, I think I've largely lived up to the challenge. Sure I've had a few crappy posts, but most have been relatively thoughtful (judged through the filter of my low standards, of course) and, well, long-ish. I care about my readers, after all! All, oh, five of you...

Actually I do have a stats counter, and some of the numbers have been surprising. As far as I can tell (I use a relatively low-level stats metre), almost half the traffic has been courtesy of the post-a-day web site, which offers some randomizing feature. I imagine most of the people that end up at my site aren't reading entire posts. Which leaves half arriving here via my begging and pleading, or surreptitiously. Overall, the numbers are pretty decent: the site has received 812 hits overall, and just over 200 "unique visitors." (There's also a feature which allows me to see if people are coming to the site via keyword searches. Most of the searches are not surprising: "november blog," for example, or "living with bracess"; although this one from today comes as a minor surprise: "fuck buddies on the howard stern show." Did I have a post about that? My memory is not what it used to be.)

After chatting with a couple of friends about this blog, I've decided to keep it live and post even when the calender flips to December. I'm not promising a post everyday, but hopefully every few days. The discipline has been good for me. I'm not sure my writing "chops" have improved all that much (since I get lazy and don't often proofread and correct what I've written), but it's been a good exercise - to the extent where I've been floating the idea of establishing or finding a writing group. This has been a good reminder of how much I do enjoy to write, even if the writing itself is hackneyed.

And if nothing else, joining a writing group will get me out of a book-reading club that I seem to have joined... Perhaps that's tomorrow's post.