Publocc at 500,000. Hit, and crossed, that mark a few minutes ago. Half a million since June 2010, nine years (no stats available from 2003-2010).
No, that is not very much, but it is gratifying to moi. Andrew Sullivan, from whom I got the idea of a blog, wrote about what an ego boost it was to see his readership climb and climb, it hit 24,000,000. Hell, it was gratifying to me when Publocc readership hit 150.
This is a one man show here. I have changed in sixteen years. I've gotten sixteen years older principally. I am almost 64 years old, I work hard and I am frequently tired. This is apologia for straying in the last few of those sixteen years far from the mission statement of Publick Occurrences, from whence I got the title of this blog duh, the first newspaper in North America (lasted one issue), which was:
"To encourage knowledge of affairs at home and abroad (1); to cure the spirit of lying which prevails amongst us (2); to record memorable providences.(3)"
1. Presumptuous in 2003, not in 1690.
2. Didn't cure that, hooooo doggie.
3. Don't believe in God.
Good mission statement though, so I adopted it along with the name.
Yes, I've gotten pretty far afield of that mission statement. In its first incarnation this was an anti-Islam blog, then a China blog, now an increasingly sports blog, something I swore would not happen. I gave every spare ounce of energy and time I had to China (which had diverted me from Islam). With shocking foresight I circumscribed the project and trained my sights on one discrete moment, on one murder, rather than on China writ large. "I can do that," I decided. I had done that for twenty-five years. And I largely kept my blinders on. But China is so different that of necessity I had to immerse myself in the period to comprehend how, and why, that murder happened. I had to understand the "soul" of China. I rode that mule as far as I could, did come to what satisfied me was the end of the trail, and was tired emotionally and intellectually--it was a draining if accomplished ride. I once was in a PhD program at an elite university. I only stayed to get my MS but I can say unhesitatingly that my work on China was infinitely more rigorous than my work on my master's degree. I believe I gave myself the equivalent in work and in writing of a PhD. At whatever age I was when I accomplished what I set out to accomplish I was not going to do it again and so I sat back and wrote about stuff that came my way, serious stuff, but without turning it into a project, and stuff that pleasured me or that made me laugh, a lot of sports. And that's the way it is (Walter Cronkite), Public Occurrences at 500,000.
No, that is not very much, but it is gratifying to moi. Andrew Sullivan, from whom I got the idea of a blog, wrote about what an ego boost it was to see his readership climb and climb, it hit 24,000,000. Hell, it was gratifying to me when Publocc readership hit 150.
This is a one man show here. I have changed in sixteen years. I've gotten sixteen years older principally. I am almost 64 years old, I work hard and I am frequently tired. This is apologia for straying in the last few of those sixteen years far from the mission statement of Publick Occurrences, from whence I got the title of this blog duh, the first newspaper in North America (lasted one issue), which was:
"To encourage knowledge of affairs at home and abroad (1); to cure the spirit of lying which prevails amongst us (2); to record memorable providences.(3)"
1. Presumptuous in 2003, not in 1690.
2. Didn't cure that, hooooo doggie.
3. Don't believe in God.
Good mission statement though, so I adopted it along with the name.
Yes, I've gotten pretty far afield of that mission statement. In its first incarnation this was an anti-Islam blog, then a China blog, now an increasingly sports blog, something I swore would not happen. I gave every spare ounce of energy and time I had to China (which had diverted me from Islam). With shocking foresight I circumscribed the project and trained my sights on one discrete moment, on one murder, rather than on China writ large. "I can do that," I decided. I had done that for twenty-five years. And I largely kept my blinders on. But China is so different that of necessity I had to immerse myself in the period to comprehend how, and why, that murder happened. I had to understand the "soul" of China. I rode that mule as far as I could, did come to what satisfied me was the end of the trail, and was tired emotionally and intellectually--it was a draining if accomplished ride. I once was in a PhD program at an elite university. I only stayed to get my MS but I can say unhesitatingly that my work on China was infinitely more rigorous than my work on my master's degree. I believe I gave myself the equivalent in work and in writing of a PhD. At whatever age I was when I accomplished what I set out to accomplish I was not going to do it again and so I sat back and wrote about stuff that came my way, serious stuff, but without turning it into a project, and stuff that pleasured me or that made me laugh, a lot of sports. And that's the way it is (Walter Cronkite), Public Occurrences at 500,000.
