And here we are again... six years ago today, I published my very first post here, and a lot has changed since then! Got married, moved, had a baby. I'm still not bored of blogging -- I have the desire to do it -- but as is evident in recent months, I really don't have much time for it. Back in April, I said I was going to take a "Spring Break" to get ready for whatever this year's "Summer of..." project would be. But, as you may have noticed, there have been no Friday posts yet this summer. I'd love to say that's because I'm prepping something big for the fall, but it's not. I have nothing in the queue for Fridays in the foreseeable future, and I'm barely a month ahead of schedule on the Monday Batman posts.
But still, I persevere! I have no intention of shutting the blog down, but for the foreseeable future, I'm sticking to one post a week, on Mondays. Sure, there'll occasionally be something else during the week -- most likely an Unboxing on Friday -- but that's about it. Batman will carry us through the remainder of the year, and at that point I will make a determination as to whether the blog undergoes some sort of format change to make it easier on me. What that change will be, I can't yet say (because I don't know). But I intend to keep plugging along for as long as I can, even if I'm running at diminished capacity!
By the way, what exactly is keeping me from maintaining a schedule like I used to? I usually like to stay transparent about it, so here we go: besides having a three year-old son who takes up a great deal of my time (which is something I wouldn't change for the world), I'm also a lot busier at work than ever before, and both those things together result in a perpetual state of exhaustion at home. I get back from work, make dinner, play with the little tyke for a bit before putting him to bed, and after all that, the last thing I want to engage in is any amount of critical thinking! So I turn off the brain and hang out with my wife while watching TV or drawing (which I'm doing a ton of lately thanks to an app called Procreate -- it's the best drawing experience I've ever had in my life). Which means my only time for reading and writing posts is my lunch break at work, and that means I only manage to write about two full posts a week! (For comparison's sake, in past years I often produced four or more posts per week.)
So yeah -- any failure to meet deadlines for this hobby (which is all it is for me -- I love it, but it doesn't pay any bills) is all on me, but what're you gonna do?
And now, the annual stat check-in: The top three most visited pages on the site haven't changed since last year (and, it seems, likely never will change): X-Men Collected Editions Chart still has the most hits on this site by at least a country mile. It's followed by the index to my Roger Stern Spider-Man reviews, and then by my review of the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS. Searches for the blog's name account for most incoming traffic via Google, followed by searches for the New Teen Titans and the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS.
And that's it. We'll check in again around New Year's!
NOTE
Showing posts with label Anniversary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anniversary. Show all posts
Friday, August 16, 2019
Friday, August 17, 2018
FIVE YEARS
It's time again for me to recognize that I've survived another year here in blog-land. Though I never said anything about it here, five years was always my unspoken goal. I would keep the site running for that long, no matter what, and then if I was bored after five years, I'd feel okay shutting it down.
Well, the good news is: I'm not bored! Busier than I used to be, maybe, but not bored. Certainly the busy part is reflected in how my posting schedule has diminished recently. I used to post three to four times a week, then it became two to three times. Nowadays it's pretty much two, with an occasional third post, plus for the first time ever, I fell so far behind on a review project that I was forced to cancel it mid-stream. As noted at the time, I do intend to return to the James Bond newspaper strip at some point, but for now I'm setting it aside.
I have a new project starting up in a couple weeks, though, which I think I should be able to keep on track all the way through. Ever since I started the blog, the fall season was devoted to Transformers posts, but this time it's going to be something different -- however, in keeping with the toy tie-in theme, it will still be a beloved eighties property in comic form. Post-CRISIS Superman and Wonder Woman will continue for the rest of the year as well, so the remainder of 2018, at least, is in pretty good shape.
That said, I have absolutely no idea yet what classic run I want to look at for Mondays in 2019. Usually by this point in the year I've figured it out, or at least narrowed it down to a few candidates, but at present I've got nothing. I should be able to figure something out before January, but right now I'm scratching my head.
Now, we'll close things out as always with a look at some stats relating to the blog. I should probably stop mentioning that the X-MEN COLLECTED EDITIONS page is the number one most viewed around here. It's so far ahead of everything else, that I can't imagine anything ever catching it. In a nice surprise (for me at least, considering how much work I put into it), the home page for my SPIDER-MAN BY ROGER STERN reviews has leapt into second position. Last year it didn't even place! This knocks the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS review, the perennial number two, down into third place for the first time ever.
(Also, though it's still some notches down from fourth place, I should note that John Byrne's savaging of my FANTASTIC FOUR #262 review has catapulted it up the standings, way ahead of any other single issue review I've ever posted here.)
So that's your anniversary post for Year Five. Onward into our second half-decade!
Well, the good news is: I'm not bored! Busier than I used to be, maybe, but not bored. Certainly the busy part is reflected in how my posting schedule has diminished recently. I used to post three to four times a week, then it became two to three times. Nowadays it's pretty much two, with an occasional third post, plus for the first time ever, I fell so far behind on a review project that I was forced to cancel it mid-stream. As noted at the time, I do intend to return to the James Bond newspaper strip at some point, but for now I'm setting it aside.
I have a new project starting up in a couple weeks, though, which I think I should be able to keep on track all the way through. Ever since I started the blog, the fall season was devoted to Transformers posts, but this time it's going to be something different -- however, in keeping with the toy tie-in theme, it will still be a beloved eighties property in comic form. Post-CRISIS Superman and Wonder Woman will continue for the rest of the year as well, so the remainder of 2018, at least, is in pretty good shape.
That said, I have absolutely no idea yet what classic run I want to look at for Mondays in 2019. Usually by this point in the year I've figured it out, or at least narrowed it down to a few candidates, but at present I've got nothing. I should be able to figure something out before January, but right now I'm scratching my head.
Now, we'll close things out as always with a look at some stats relating to the blog. I should probably stop mentioning that the X-MEN COLLECTED EDITIONS page is the number one most viewed around here. It's so far ahead of everything else, that I can't imagine anything ever catching it. In a nice surprise (for me at least, considering how much work I put into it), the home page for my SPIDER-MAN BY ROGER STERN reviews has leapt into second position. Last year it didn't even place! This knocks the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS review, the perennial number two, down into third place for the first time ever.
(Also, though it's still some notches down from fourth place, I should note that John Byrne's savaging of my FANTASTIC FOUR #262 review has catapulted it up the standings, way ahead of any other single issue review I've ever posted here.)
So that's your anniversary post for Year Five. Onward into our second half-decade!
Sunday, August 20, 2017
FOUR YEARS
It's that time again: four years and four days ago I made my very first post here, and it's time to acknowledge that anniversary with a quick summary of where things stand at the moment.
My schedule isn't quite what it normally is at this time of year, unfortunately. Way back in December, when I took the month off to spend time with our new baby, I managed to read Frank Miller's entire DAREDEVIL run and compose posts for all of it! It was the biggest cushion for Monday posts that I've ever managed to give myself. Tomorrow the final post goes up, and I've barely even started work on what comes next. This baby has sapped a lot of my quiet evening reading time, and it took me about six months just to read three FLASH GORDON collections! But I'm not too concerned; I think I'll be back on track soon enough. At the very least, I still have Fridays lined up for a while. We just finished Flash's adventures on Friday, and after dallying for the next two weeks on smaller "one-shot" posts, we'll head into this fall's TRANSFORMERS stuff, which is coming along nicely.
And that's a nice segue into a "behind the scenes" sidebar, providing a look at how and where I find time for all these posts. I have two prime reading times during my day: my lunch break at work and in the evening after the baby is asleep. I don't usually bring books to work with me, so that's when I read a lot of the digital stuff I post about. I'll whip out the iPad, read an issue or two, then compose a quick post all in the span of my lunch hour. Then the post gets refined whenever I can find time, usually at night or in the morning.
The evenings are when I read the actual physical books: the Omnibuses, comic strip collections, etc. I try to find an hour, during which I'll read an issue (or a segment of the book or whatever), then type up a post. The only catch there is, as noted, our baby is not very good at sleeping yet, so for several months, my evening hour was often interrupted or never happened at all. Only recently have we finally hit on a routine that seems to work, and things are shaping up so I may soon be able to get comfortably ahead of schedule again.
Lastly, the stats: The X-MEN COLLECTED EDITIONS chart still has the most all-time hits by a mile; I don't think that's ever likely to change. Behind it with about a third as many hits is still my review of the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS. That'll probably only increase as next year's INFINITY WAR movie gets closer. And more or less tied for third place are some newcomers to these standings: the CAPTAIN BRITAIN reviews and the IRON MAN by Michelinie & Layton reviews.
And those who dare to come here via Google use variations on the blog's name as the most popular search term, followed still by searches for information on the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS, and, unexpectedly, searches for NEW TEEN TITANS reviews.
So to sum up: Mondays are kind of by the seat of my pants right now, but Fridays are looking good. And of course Sundays will continue to see The Unboxing once a month. I have much less time for the other sorts of posts I used to squeeze in on weekends, but I'm sure some will pop up now and then.
My schedule isn't quite what it normally is at this time of year, unfortunately. Way back in December, when I took the month off to spend time with our new baby, I managed to read Frank Miller's entire DAREDEVIL run and compose posts for all of it! It was the biggest cushion for Monday posts that I've ever managed to give myself. Tomorrow the final post goes up, and I've barely even started work on what comes next. This baby has sapped a lot of my quiet evening reading time, and it took me about six months just to read three FLASH GORDON collections! But I'm not too concerned; I think I'll be back on track soon enough. At the very least, I still have Fridays lined up for a while. We just finished Flash's adventures on Friday, and after dallying for the next two weeks on smaller "one-shot" posts, we'll head into this fall's TRANSFORMERS stuff, which is coming along nicely.
And that's a nice segue into a "behind the scenes" sidebar, providing a look at how and where I find time for all these posts. I have two prime reading times during my day: my lunch break at work and in the evening after the baby is asleep. I don't usually bring books to work with me, so that's when I read a lot of the digital stuff I post about. I'll whip out the iPad, read an issue or two, then compose a quick post all in the span of my lunch hour. Then the post gets refined whenever I can find time, usually at night or in the morning.
The evenings are when I read the actual physical books: the Omnibuses, comic strip collections, etc. I try to find an hour, during which I'll read an issue (or a segment of the book or whatever), then type up a post. The only catch there is, as noted, our baby is not very good at sleeping yet, so for several months, my evening hour was often interrupted or never happened at all. Only recently have we finally hit on a routine that seems to work, and things are shaping up so I may soon be able to get comfortably ahead of schedule again.
Lastly, the stats: The X-MEN COLLECTED EDITIONS chart still has the most all-time hits by a mile; I don't think that's ever likely to change. Behind it with about a third as many hits is still my review of the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS. That'll probably only increase as next year's INFINITY WAR movie gets closer. And more or less tied for third place are some newcomers to these standings: the CAPTAIN BRITAIN reviews and the IRON MAN by Michelinie & Layton reviews.
And those who dare to come here via Google use variations on the blog's name as the most popular search term, followed still by searches for information on the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS, and, unexpectedly, searches for NEW TEEN TITANS reviews.
So to sum up: Mondays are kind of by the seat of my pants right now, but Fridays are looking good. And of course Sundays will continue to see The Unboxing once a month. I have much less time for the other sorts of posts I used to squeeze in on weekends, but I'm sure some will pop up now and then.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
THREE YEARS
Well, as I did last year and the year before around this time, I'd like to acknowledge another anniversary for the blog. To be exact, my first post went up on August 16th of 2013, so I'm almost a week late, but since I'm too anal to deviate from my normal "announcements on Sundays" routine, here we are.
As usual, I'm trying to stay ahead of schedule, even with the new Bundle of Joy in the house. To that end, a few months back I scaled down my Monday-Wednesday postings to Mondays only. As a result, I was able to finish reading and writing posts about the full John Byrne FANTASTIC FOUR run just before the baby was born, and those are now queued up to be published through the remainder of 2016. Fridays aren't booked quite so far in advance, but I do have them going into early November at the moment via the recently announced Dreamwave TRANSFORMERS part 2 series.
Since I've done this each of the past two years, let's see what gets the most hits around here these days: According to the "All Time" counter, the X-Men Collected Editions chart remains my most visited page, with the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS review still clocking in at second place with about one-fourth as many hits. Third place remains the same as last summer too, in the form of the SPIDER-MAN by Roger Stern review series I did a couple years back. So really, nothing has changed at all in the past year in the terms of my most frequently visited pages.
What Google search terms are bringing people here? Besides variations on the title of the blog, it seems searching for reviews of the afore-mentioned INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS remains a popular venue of entry, and folks looking for reviews of Moon Knight comics and X-Men collected editions tie for third.
So those are the stats for my three-year anniversary. As noted above, Byrne FF and Dreamwave TRANSFORMERS will take us up to the end of the year, and the usual Unboxings and X-Men collected edition reviews will continue monthly on Sundays, with a few more various Sunday posts on other topics upcoming as well. Come 2017, I'll be back with my annual "Year in Review/State of the Blog", so see you then!
As usual, I'm trying to stay ahead of schedule, even with the new Bundle of Joy in the house. To that end, a few months back I scaled down my Monday-Wednesday postings to Mondays only. As a result, I was able to finish reading and writing posts about the full John Byrne FANTASTIC FOUR run just before the baby was born, and those are now queued up to be published through the remainder of 2016. Fridays aren't booked quite so far in advance, but I do have them going into early November at the moment via the recently announced Dreamwave TRANSFORMERS part 2 series.
Since I've done this each of the past two years, let's see what gets the most hits around here these days: According to the "All Time" counter, the X-Men Collected Editions chart remains my most visited page, with the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS review still clocking in at second place with about one-fourth as many hits. Third place remains the same as last summer too, in the form of the SPIDER-MAN by Roger Stern review series I did a couple years back. So really, nothing has changed at all in the past year in the terms of my most frequently visited pages.
What Google search terms are bringing people here? Besides variations on the title of the blog, it seems searching for reviews of the afore-mentioned INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS remains a popular venue of entry, and folks looking for reviews of Moon Knight comics and X-Men collected editions tie for third.
So those are the stats for my three-year anniversary. As noted above, Byrne FF and Dreamwave TRANSFORMERS will take us up to the end of the year, and the usual Unboxings and X-Men collected edition reviews will continue monthly on Sundays, with a few more various Sunday posts on other topics upcoming as well. Come 2017, I'll be back with my annual "Year in Review/State of the Blog", so see you then!
Sunday, August 16, 2015
TWO YEARS
Here we are -- Two years to the day since my very first post and still going relatively strong. I never got around to implementing the "DC Saturdays" idea I considered in my "Year in Review" back in January, but, despite having less time to read lately, I've maintained my regular Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule, with occasional Monday items as well.
At this exact moment, I have Monday-Wednesdays lined up through the end of September , while my Fridays are scheduled out through November. So I'm a about two months behind where I was at this time last year), owed mainly to moving houses last November and still being thrown off of my normal reading schedule. But I hope to get things back on track in the near future and keep the posts coming on a regularly scheduled basis.
And now the stats, for those who care: The number one most viewed page on this site remains the X-MEN COLLECTED EDITIONS CHART, followed in second place by my review of the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS at two-thirds as many hits. I didn't mention a third place page last year, but this year, since I'm quite proud of the work I did on it, I'll disclose that it's the index for my Roger Stern SPIDER-MAN reviews, albeit clocking in at barely more than half the hits of the IG OMNIBUS.
As far as Google results bringing people here, that remains the same as last year: The blog's name, followed by the terms "Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus", "Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus review", etc. -- though the third place result at this point is "Spider-Man by Roger Stern Omnibus", which probably accounts for that page's jump up the traffic chart.
Another year down, then. The IRON FIST reviews will continue and -- in a week or so -- mutate into something more, so watch for that, as it takes us through most of the Fall. We'll catch up again for the New Year's year in review in early January.
At this exact moment, I have Monday-Wednesdays lined up through the end of September , while my Fridays are scheduled out through November. So I'm a about two months behind where I was at this time last year), owed mainly to moving houses last November and still being thrown off of my normal reading schedule. But I hope to get things back on track in the near future and keep the posts coming on a regularly scheduled basis.
And now the stats, for those who care: The number one most viewed page on this site remains the X-MEN COLLECTED EDITIONS CHART, followed in second place by my review of the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS at two-thirds as many hits. I didn't mention a third place page last year, but this year, since I'm quite proud of the work I did on it, I'll disclose that it's the index for my Roger Stern SPIDER-MAN reviews, albeit clocking in at barely more than half the hits of the IG OMNIBUS.
As far as Google results bringing people here, that remains the same as last year: The blog's name, followed by the terms "Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus", "Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus review", etc. -- though the third place result at this point is "Spider-Man by Roger Stern Omnibus", which probably accounts for that page's jump up the traffic chart.
Another year down, then. The IRON FIST reviews will continue and -- in a week or so -- mutate into something more, so watch for that, as it takes us through most of the Fall. We'll catch up again for the New Year's year in review in early January.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
ONE YEAR
(...Plus a week.)
I'm a firm believer in acknowledging milestones, so I thought I'd mention that last weekend -- specifically August 16th -- marked this blog's first birthday.
When I began my ramblings last summer, I wasn't sure what form they would ultimately take, or even how long they'd last. I was armed with a bunch of posts I'd written about Captain Britain and little else. But within a month I'd started reading TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE, and soon enough something of a regular schedule materialized: long series posts on Mondays and Wednesdays, with "one shot" or shorter series posts on Fridays. Soon my Sundays began to fill up too, with whatever ramblings happened to be on my mind.
I eventually started mapping out my monthly schedule, and that soon became a yearly schedule. As it stands, as of today, I have a rough idea of what I'll write about on what weekdays, all the way through to the end of next January -- and I have posts already written and scheduled through November. But I like to keep my options open too, so Sundays will remain, with the exception of the regularly scheduled "Unboxing" feature and the occasional announcements, the spot where I will write about things more immediately: a review of a book I just got, or my opinion on some TV show or something else I recently encountered.
For those who care, the most viewed page or post on this site is X-MEN COLLECTED EDITIONS, with my review of the SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES soundtrack album in second place at half as many hits. And the Google search terms which have drawn the most eyes here, aside from the title of the blog, are "infinity gauntlet omnibus review" and, for some reason, "iron man #134 titanium man".
Anyway -- thanks to those who have stuck with me over the past year. It's been a lot of fun sharing my thoughts on some of my favorite comics, as well as several that I've never read before. I intend to keep doing it for as long as it's fun, and since I have quite a backlog of books to read, I'm hoping that will be a good long time.
I'm a firm believer in acknowledging milestones, so I thought I'd mention that last weekend -- specifically August 16th -- marked this blog's first birthday.
I eventually started mapping out my monthly schedule, and that soon became a yearly schedule. As it stands, as of today, I have a rough idea of what I'll write about on what weekdays, all the way through to the end of next January -- and I have posts already written and scheduled through November. But I like to keep my options open too, so Sundays will remain, with the exception of the regularly scheduled "Unboxing" feature and the occasional announcements, the spot where I will write about things more immediately: a review of a book I just got, or my opinion on some TV show or something else I recently encountered.
For those who care, the most viewed page or post on this site is X-MEN COLLECTED EDITIONS, with my review of the SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES soundtrack album in second place at half as many hits. And the Google search terms which have drawn the most eyes here, aside from the title of the blog, are "infinity gauntlet omnibus review" and, for some reason, "iron man #134 titanium man".
Anyway -- thanks to those who have stuck with me over the past year. It's been a lot of fun sharing my thoughts on some of my favorite comics, as well as several that I've never read before. I intend to keep doing it for as long as it's fun, and since I have quite a backlog of books to read, I'm hoping that will be a good long time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)