In the NBA, after a long basketball season, when a really good team clinches a playoff spot pretty early and they still have a bunch of games left, they have to make a big decision. Do we rest our best players for the rest of the season, because it is a long season and the could use rest for the playoffs? Or do we keep playing them so they don’t get rusty and forget how to do stuff like dunk with authority and steal like one’s watching?
Us bloggers go through the same thing all the time. We go on a vacation, or we get in a writing slump or school, family or work get in the way and we have to decide if we want to continue giving 4% on the blog or taking some “time off” to refresh ourselves and find our bitter place. I’ve been doing this blog for 3 and half years and after a 6 post first day and 2 post second day, I wrote maybe once a week, until May when I only wrote 4 posts. Then I got some actual followers and some actual likers and some actual commenters that could actually relate to the bitterness. (It’s inside all of us, we just have to acknowledge, then bring it out.) Pretty much since then, I’ve written 3-5 posts a week (with some guest posters taking over when I was on long vacation.)
In those three and a half years, I’ve seen bloggers come and go, some visit once or twice think you are bitter and move on. Others would read every post, like, comment, and be faithful for years and then drop off. Even some that I though would last forever, dropped the regularness and despite trying to get back into it, never came back on the reg. It’s a bitter thing to see people come and go, but it is the life of a blogger. Go back to your first couple of months (or for me, the first year) and check on some of those followers and see how many are still there. Almost 100% of the ones that followed me from the beginning came up with excuses, and believe me I’ve heard them all.
Having a baby (uh, they have wifi in hospitals now), kid got sick (ever heard of Tylenol), got a promotion (just tell your employees to go away when you have to write a post), had to cross the road to get to the other side(chicken!), dog ate their post work (K, nine reasons are enough).
I’m on vacation this week, and I hate writing at home, (boring work is so much easier to avoid than interesting laying on the couch). But somehow, I’m powering through it.
I know it’s a little off the topic, but the Bitter Rivalry of the week is Rust vs. Rest. Do you prefer to power through a post and get it out there even if it isn’t your 100% best of favorite? Or do you take a week or two or three and rest from your blog and hope that no one forgets who the heck you were?
Do you prefer your blog resting on the couch? Or rusting Iron Man’s suits? Let me know in the comments so I can use all this data for absolutely nothing. So I can file in my circular file of important things to never get to.
AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH
Bitter Rusted and Rested Ben
After a couple of bad months, I’m definitely having trouble getting a rhythm back. The ideas are there. They just don’t make it to the fingers. 🙂
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That’s why I just keep putting out posts on a regular basis, no matter how good or bad. Every once in a while something works and I claim it was meant to be awesome. But really it’s just an accident.
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Well, I watched football today for four hours, if that was resting, then what was the two hour nap I took afterwards? It’s hard to tell what’s what.
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The nap is definitely the resting part. Rust is when you have to do work.
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I think I was resting and have slowly become rusty. If anything, my bitter levels are still the same, if not higher, which I consider a win.
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As long as you are bitter, you should always consider yourself a win.
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Winning for life then!
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you could bake some cupcakes in your easy bake oven
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Except they never seem to come out quite right. They don’t have enough heat.
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well maybe if you invent a flat light bulb
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I’ll invent the next annoying thing like Alexander Graham Bell did. The next phone.
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the phone IS so annoying to me
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I’m going to take it to a next level of annoying and necessary. So I make tons of money for it, but I’m reviled like Alexander GB.
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that makes me think of my grandmother calling my aunt “vaccinated by the phonograph needle”
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That’s a good one. Some people have such a way with words. Not me though.
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i think you have a way with words…especially on question thursday…at WP it says i have 1300 followers , but yesterday i saw 1600 somewhere..i can’t remember where & i just want to know are they invisible ?
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There are two different ways they consider followers. WP followers (just people from wordpress) and total followers (that counts any from Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.) Most of mine are from WP, but I have a few Facebook and Twitter followers that they count as total.
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well you just answered .obviously they are facebook followers & i have no idea..i’ve never looked or been able to get in to see myself,
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You aren’t sure what yourself looks like?
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no. i just remember seeing furman university had 1800 likes . that was all i saw on my page..but the university itself had 1200…that was funny. i guess that was so shocking,i just left & couldn’t get back in
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You’d think a university would have more than that. Unless they aren’t very good.
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well brook shields was going it was her 2nd choice.. it’s a very good baptist college.. that man who wants to buy my condo, last friday said oh that’s a good school…it’s just tiny..
the vocational expert of s.c. from divorce court said i had to be smart to go there..
dave berry wore a furman sweatshirt on his tv show…some blond in the 80’s from SNL went there…4 people from 12th grade went there ..
46% clemson & 46% USouthcarolina
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Sounds like it should be a werewolf school. Furry man.
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i’m a girl. well are there baptist werewolves
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I know you are a girl. I just called Furiman, furry man. So I guess you would be Furry Woman?
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ahh…i will read your posts when i can. i only read you and the rabbi in charleston..i’m the only one who clicks like…so you rate.i was in the hospital a few days ago.. i signed myself out, b/c they were going to make it worse, but they saved my life…
i caught a virus on top of my usual and i have only been sleeping 1.5 to 3 hours a night for weeks and now maybe 4 or 5…so i’m not really here…coughing all night…
and i am very busy trying to make sure my fiannce has a nice time in america..you should follow him back…he has a teaching certiificate to teach english at cambridge and he thinks i’m a poet genius..lol
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Thanks, I like it when people read my posts. It’s a lot of work, so I just hope people appreciate them. I’m glad I rate, it’s pretty awesome that someone reads only my posts and a few others.
I hope you get well soon and that you finally get some rest.
Fiance? Congrats! How long has this been in the works? Let me know his name and I will try to follow him. And yes, you are a poet genius. Especially haiku!
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don’t tell anyone,b/c you are the only person i told…
i just went to read you & they changed the dumb reader and you would think ben’s bitter blog would be in the b;s & it’s not there..there are only 3 b’s in my reader & i must have at least 20
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They changed reader again? I’m just glad when you find your way back to my blog.
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apparently they did… i will look again after i answer your comments
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Yeah, they did. I just saw it. Not too dramatically this time.
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there are a million people missing still.. there are only 5 b’s and you aren’t there
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Now that makes me bitter.
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it does make one bitter..it may be my windows xp, but i don’t think so
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It’s always windows XP. I can never get on WordPress on Explorer because my work won’t upgrade to Internet 9 or 10. That’s why I have to use Chrome.
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yes it’s ALWAYS wndows xp!
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You need to get your fiance to put a new operating system on that computer.
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oh he was trying to get me to use the new computer a few weeks ago. he tried to set it up
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And how did it go? Did he set you up with something not XP?
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it came with windows 8..i only use it to watch tv
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Not even blogging or Twittering?
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no just tv and jazz,hulu, bob newhart, dean martin rooasts, george and gracie and dr katz
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You should try some newer roasts. Not quite as classy but still funny. I suggest the Beiber one.
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okay. we watched one on the comedy channel a few weeks ago for that guy who is in every movie and general hospital ..eat pray love.. that’s the only one i’ve seen since dean martin
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You need to watch Comedy Central more. They roasted Trump not long ago.
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surely you jest..i’m not calling you shirley.
trump? who would roast trump? i have to see if it’s on youtube..
my favorite accidental haiku
“please don’t ever look
at me the way you look at
donald trump darling”
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They had a lot of fun doing it. Now I wonder how many of them would try. And it is almost absurd that this same guy who got roasted on Comedy Central and fires people as a joke on a show could possibly be our president.
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well you said it :he can’t. he’s a big joke. i can’t wait to move next door to him and write haiku about him
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Let’s just hope your aren’t moving next door to the White House.
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yes 1. b/c that would mean trump was pres
2.it’s tooooo cold
3.then i’ve wated 3 days looking at pictures of houses in the Languedoc ,south france
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Is that what you want?
2. Yes, it is too cold. My feet are freezing. Though at least we don’t have 2 feet of snow here.
3. Nothing wrong with that. Are you going to move there with your new fiance?
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it’s the name right before yours on the follow friday i did friday
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Got it. I will try to follow him.
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that’s great
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I followed him.
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yay!
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I aim for 4 fresh posts a month. This may be weekly. May be consecutive. But it will be four posts a month. Like you did in that May. I’m not the most consistent blogger in terms of posting regularly but I am consistent. I’ve been thinking about crossing over and doing your style of writing (straight up posts) but it’s not my strong point, I feel.
The first blogger that came to mind reading this is Edward Hotspur. My top 5 favorite blogs since I joined WP in 2011. When he took that long hiatus and made his site private I actually emailed him to at least make the blog public again so I can read old stuff.
What is your writing process? Are you saying you prefer to write at work?
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I try to do at least 4 per week. It is a consistent thing for me too. I definitely like writing at work better. Things are too crazy at home and too many distractions. At work, I like doing posts early before I start.
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Not gonna lie, I write up most of my ideas during work. I’m tired when I get home.
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No joke! Who has time at home when you are trying to be lazy!
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Dude, I’m a bit bitter that you can even think about this as a problem. I don’t have many followers and only have a few commenters. I am okay with this, a tad bitter no one else cares about my sporadic blog, but okay. I don’t have to worry if I take a few days, weeks or whatever off. NO ONE CARES. Luckily, my few commenters keep me busy and haven’t left me yet.
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I have to keep bribing these people or else they never come back. By the way, your check is in the mail.
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I almost never blog from home and even took yesterday off so I’m hoping you didn’t forget who I am…but just in case, I’m the one that you always fire and never pay and I rarely come in to work. Still don’t remember? Oh well. Anyway, yeah, the kids are way too distracting and why should I sit at home and stare at a computer screen when I can get paid to do that at work?
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Oh yeah, you’re the incompetent one that I keep firing. Which works well in my business because I’m incompetent too.
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See, we’re a great team. (Just keep telling yourself that.)
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Yes, I am a great team. I’d like to thank myself for becoming so successful.
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Excuse me! No I in team and all that.
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There is an I in bitter though.
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So true!
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And also there is an I in winning, and losing and I.
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But there is no I in Ben.
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But there is an I in bitter and Benjamin.
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Always looking for an angle. Bitter Benjamin…you sound like a character from a kid’s movie.
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That is the truth. I’m so angled that I don’t even walk straight. My back is curved, one leg taller than the other, etc.
I would be the bitter older character that tries to destroy kids dreams.
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I thought you already were.
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In real life I definitely am. I’m just saying that I would play that character in a movie or TV show really well.
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But you keep forgetting the lines so they have to put up the stupid teleprompters!
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Like I have the ability to memorize more than a few words at a time.
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I know, and it’s a shame because I really feel like you could have been a very successful actor if not for that.
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That’s the only thing I think that is standing in my way. Oh and good looks, a good body, some sort of charisma, some ambition, some sort of ability to care, some really absurd demands and I would really need to ramp up my poor treatment of others, then I could have been a celebrity.
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You’re so close.
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Yep right up here in Seattle. Just a hop, skip and an airline flight up.
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