In approaching the New Year and looking back over my 18 months of blogging, I’m pausing to take a minute or two to attempt to identify what I’ve accomplished (if anything) and what I would do different if I had the chance.
In the accomplishments category, I have to say that I have exceeded my own expectations—that standard, of course, being that I had no criteria at all when I started. I just jumped in with both feet to see what would happen. Now I feel guilty if I don't write every day--that statement coming from a guy that absolutely
I have successfully produced two websites that I can use to develop my analytical and creative writing skills, hone my internet research abilities, and which at the same time provide me with venues where I can publish my writing and photographic work for public consumption.
In retrospect, I find that my writing falls into three or four different categories.
The first category is easy. My cooking blog-- The Redneck Gourmet.
It’s well defined, and self sufficient in that I get the majority of my hits from people doing searches for various recipes. I think that I will in the future continue along the same path and that I shouldn’t tinker with my limited success enjoyed to date. I’m trying to fine tune the content for publication on paper next year possibly.
This blog, Coastal Companion, also known as “What I’d Liked To Have Said”, has a bit of a schizophrenic personality. I find myself vacillating between periods of using it as a personal diary filled with photos and satirical rants, and then there are my serious periods when I tend to produce long winded, four page political diatribes full of statistics and links to the Congressional Budget Office Website or Junk Science.
I’m having a serious conversation with myself (talk about schizophrenic…) about splitting the two halves of my brain, and by default Coastal Companion, into two separate blogs. I’m still thinking about the name for the sister blog—stay tuned to this channel for future developments…
Then there is my secret-to-date and much neglected local interest blog—The Brunswick Blues.
While the name is a parody of our local newspaper, “The Brunswick News,” my intention was to seriously address local political issues. I’m embarrassed that my last posting was in May and consisted of a letter I wrote to the editor of the News, and nothing original has been published since
That’s about to change.
I have great aspirations for Brunswick Blues in 2006. I intend to start covering the local city and county politics in a detailed manner. My national and international readers and casual visitors to this blog could probably care less, but I believe that there is a local blog market that is entirely untapped and I want to be the one of the first ones to fill it.
I have been in correspondence with my two county commissioners about a potentially explosive issue that has yet to be publicly covered, and I’m now on a first name basis with the new mayor elect, Bryan Thompson, so I have the connections in place and I want to be the Drudge Report of the Golden Isles.
I guess what I'm saying here is that I think that 2006 is going to be a record year for bloggers, and I don't want to just ride the existing wave--I want to make the wave even higher. I want to write high quality, ACCURATE, stories based on well researched information and more importantly--I want to tell the truth. That's something that you are generally hard pressed to find in much of what you read.
I also want to scream and rant and rave and lay on the ground and kick my feet (in writing, of course.) If I'm editoralizing, I'll be the first to tell you.
And by the way, why don't YOU start your own blog? It's free, and all you have to do is click here to get started.
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