You are reading the 250th post on “We’re Going To Cover That In Phase 2.” In honor of this momentous occasion, which I believe would be technically its “sesqui-bicentennial” post (I’m not sure this is an actual word but centennial = 100, sesquicentennail = 150, and bicentennial = 200 so I think it is), I want to share some stats and reflect on the past 2.5 years with my dear readers:

Posts: In my blog’s first year, I only posted 26 times, a paltry amount by any standards. During ’04, I started to get serious about this whole blogging thing and posted 114 times. I think the watershed moment was when I was almost killed in a gang shoot-out in Chinatown. and really saw my blog as a great way of communicating with the world. This year so far has seen 110 posts and I can promise there are plenty more to come.

Site Traffic: In ’03, basically I was the only one who ever stopped by. Period. For three fourths of ’04, only around 115 unique visitors a month would visit which meant that a bunch of spiders and bots, a few friends, some family and maybe some random people were the ones who stopped by. However, starting in 10/04, things started to move. That month the site hit 200 unique visitors and the proverbial snowball started to roll down the mountain. November saw 500 stop by and the numbers kept on creeping up; in 5/05, 888 people visited. Last month blew me away though: 2432 unique visitors stopped by. I tripled my previous amount and so far its holding steady as over 2200 visitors have stopped by so far this month with less than a week to go.

Comments: While I know through site traffic reports people are stopping by, this site suffers from a definite lack of comments. If you read something that moves to have an opinion, share it. When I went to a sleepaway camp reunion, I was floored to hear that every girl there from bunks 33 and 34 had read my first post about camp. I had no clue any of them had read it, let alone all of them. That was the first time I realized that more people are reading this blog than I thought. I know you are out there. I want to hear from you.

After the jump, feel free to read my reflections on this milestone:

I had been in a bad car accident and while out of work, I re-evaluated everything that was important to me. Writing was at the top of the list. I have always written in some shape or form and in toying with the idea of changing gears and getting an MFA in Creative Writing, while recovering I took a short story workshop to do 2 things:

1) get a portfolio together for my admissions package
2) see if really wanted to do this in the first place

Well, I didn’t like the workshop at all. Instead of it solidifying my true latent desire to write and teach writing, I became discouraged from writing in general and found it hard to finish a few stories, let alone an entire collection.

I shortly thereafter returned to work yet I desperately wanted to keep writing in some fashion in order not to get rusty and to keep my renewed enthusiasm towards writing alive. Just because I’m in the IT realm does not mean that I don’t want to write and publish a series of children’s books, or that I won’t write and publish my Seven Squared graphics novel series, or that I will never write the Great American Novel. It just means that they’ll have kickass web sites supporting them. As I was working through these thoughts, my Cognitive Remediation Therapist of all people suggested that I start a blog. Well, as they say, the rest is history (that is if you believe in history – some people don’t.)

I chose Tolkien’s poem “The Road” as my first post because the words are as true now as they were when they were written:

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

So far, this road has been an interesting and rewarding one for me. Without this blog, how would I have ever touched base (no pun intended) with my favorite baseball player Lipso Nava? How else could I have shared all my thoughts about literature, politics, technology and a whole host of other things with friends and strangers alike? I love how 8 people so far have asked me for the New Yorker article on the NYPD’s response to terrorism, and that 2 of them are professors. It’s about the connection and the interaction. It’s about randomly matching someone’s DNA and helping to save a life. It’s about how ka is a wheel, its one purpose to turn and in the end it always arrives at the place where it has started.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the first 250 posts. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the next 2,500.

Cheers,
Jeff