Looking at my stats, I realized before this month is over, I will pass a million views. When I started blogging, I remember discovering I’d made it to a thousand views. I was thrilled. A thousand was a lot! Those were the days when getting two or three views was a big deal. Then, suddenly, I was getting a hundred, two hundred, three hundred a day. It happened fast. I never imagined I would still be blogging eight years later and suddenly, in front of me, was the million marker. I know others who have crossed it and of course, the really big bloggers who are way up there in the multi-millions, but for a regular “I do it for the fun of writing and posting photographs” kind of blogger, a million is a lot of views.
I’m not getting the kind of traffic I used to get. I think the glory days of blogging are drawing to a close. There aren’t enough platforms anymore and they all charge more money than I can reasonably pay. I’m glad, before I fade away, that I’m going to make that mark.
I stopped pushing for bigger numbers a couple of years ago. It wasn’t that I didn’t care. It was just that I cared more about the writing and the pictures. The numbers were incidental. I also felt obliged — with all this political madness — to notch my writing frenzy down a few pegs. I began to realize while I love blogging, I also enjoy the rest of life. I started baking again. Bored with the same old food, I figured if I couldn’t stop cooking, I could at least try making more interesting dishes.
I also missed the joy of wrapping myself in a book and letting the real world disappear. And music and the occasional movie. All the hassles with WordPress made blogging so much more like work and so much less fun. I’m still trying to figure out what I’ll do at the end of my fiscal year. What I’m really hoping is that they fix their block editor to make it more “bloggable” and less of an ugly clunker. Make it more friendly for people who just want to enjoy blogging. If I wanted to get really SERIOUS about blogging, there’s always Medium. They want serious writing and if you get popular, they will pay you, too.
I can write seriously. But more often than not, I want to have fun. I want the fun of remembering stuff, telling stories. Showing off a few pictures. Serious is sometimes. The rest of the time, blogging is my idea of fun. Birds, flowers, foliage, and people from olden days when we were young and frolicked more while worrying less.
On a good day, I still enjoy blogging … but I don’t want to give it my all every day. This morning, I looked at Garry and asked him: “What’s going to happen next month? Are we heading for a civil war? When I lived in Israel, we were always expecting a war. War could come from outside. It wasn’t a civil war. This is something entirely different.”
Garry admitted he has no idea what is going to happen because this isn’t like anything he’s lived through before. I’m not sure anyone in our generation or younger who was raised in this country has any idea what might happen. I need to put some time into thinking about what living means to me, to Garry, to all of us. How we are going to find our way from this very dark place to a happier one. A million views is a nice thing but I’m not sure how much it’s going to help us get through whatever is coming next.
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Categories: #Birds, #BlackstoneRiver, #Blogging, #gallery, #Photography, #Writing, Autumn
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Congrats on hitting 1 million views. A mark that many of us may never hit.
I think the glory days of blogging are over. There are too many blogs, web sites and social media channels to keep up with. And we get new ones all the time. What the heck is tik tok anyway? I never got to snap chat.
It’s hard to imagine another civil war but the Jews in Germany could not imagine their country turning on them either. We have to imagine that anything could happen. I have no idea how to prepare, so it’s just another layer of stress for me.
And unlike so many, I haze 0 plans to buy a gun. If a Marine platoon knocks on my front door, I think they’ll achieve their objective regardless of how many guns are inside. Only a fool would think otherwise.
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Unless you count our Red Ryder b-b gun, we’re gunless too. Well, we have 22 caliber target rifle, but I don’t think we have any bullets. My son faithfully cleans it because it was his father’s, but it’s not much of a war weapon. It’s pretty good on paper plates, though. I like to think that being old is a form of protection. we aren’t going to be out in the streets protesting. I can get up and down the six steps in my house, so I’m not charging around with sign. Let’s just hope this elections goes better than we fear.
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Congrats on your achievement. I couldn’t agree more with your views in this post. You list all the reasons why I never started a blog although I would have much to tell too. I immensely enjoy following you because it’s never dull, mostly interesting, often eye candy with those lovely photos, but mostly – to me anyway – it’s something of interest, a challenge, we sometimes agree to disagree, but I (read that ‘I’ in BOLD) don’t have to make the effort to work in a blog, I can have discussions about God and the World and hear other views and opinions, but I don’t have to reply to everybody. I used to write to every one of my Flickr posts that I DID NOT want ‘just Faves’ (likes) but have a conversation….. I rarely had it and those who committed themselves as I do now with your blog, I’ve kept in contact with and some unlikely but sound friendships were established. So, whatever you decide, I would be very unhappy if your writing were to stop, but I also would understand your reasons.
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I don’t want to stop , though I do want to cut down. I’m getting older and tireder and I need to spend some of my retired like just hanging out. But stopping? Not if I have a choice.
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OH! Forgot to say “Congratulations”. It’s been a pure pleasure to view and read your lovely blog. You deserve a million!
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It certainly took long enough 😀
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Everyone over a certain age or in a certain financial situation has your fear. Is there to be a war? It’s not unthinkable, but I won’t willingly survive it. I don’t like it NOW, that is simply unthinkable and I’d rather face whatever comes next for me personally than to stay and watch the further degradation of what was America. I didn’t sign up for this, NOBODY deserves it. I’ve been hearing about it though (from a certain viewpoint) since I was a tot. I knew then (I was 5 or so) that something in me couldn’t deal with seeing something that ugly. I suppose I’ve been fortunate to enjoy a long ‘golden age’ in America and historically don’t those always end in such things as war? Well shoot.
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I simply don’t know. I think that any “war” will be small and very local to DC. I do not see it spreading out to the entire country. I just don’t think most of us want to be involved or even want to know about it.
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First, congratulations on nearing a million views. That’s incredible
Second, as to your question, “What’s going to happen next month? Are we heading for a civil war?” I think, unfortunately, the answer is yes.
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It’s very worrying. I’m trying to keep my cool. Living here, I really don’t see Worcester County as central to any kind of war … but we don’t know what we are looking at. No one seems to know what’s going to happen.
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I think the Proud Boys and other right wing, white supremacy “militia” groups will not lay down their arms if Trump loses.
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Maybe not, but they don’t live here — or near you. We are in very blue regions and I thing have a minimum of militias. They don’t tolerate them in this state.
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Garry has corrected me. He says we do in fact have a couple of pockets of militias mostly in Vermont and Maine and they are very scary people. Not so much in Massachusetts. We are too full of colleges and hospitals.
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Central California has some very red counties.
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No safe place? There’s a movie by that name.
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You certainly do post lovely pictures, Marilyn. I must be honest, I can’t remember when I last checked my stats. I don’t really care about my stats, I blog for the enjoyment of it.
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I look at them when I think about it. Occasionally. I knew I was heading for a million views a while ago, but then I forgot about it. The other day, I looked at the number and though “Well, I guess I finally made it.”
I know people on Facebook and Twitter get those number with one post, so eight years of blogging doesn’t have the same viral feel to it, but it’s a nice round number. If I’m going to go out, at least I’ll get to do it and know I’ve reached a few people along the way. But I also don’t study my stats, or at least not often. Sometimes I do in the sense of trying to figure out why I get more hits from England than from Canada, for example. Or why I seem to be popular in the Philippines. More than the numbers, I love the map of the world and how I interact with it. That’s kind of fun.
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Yes, that map is interesting, Marilyn. I get a lot of visits from the USA and also India.
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There aren’t many place I haven’t heard from Central Africa is one and North Korea another. I think there are a couple of small islands I haven’t heard from, but overall, I’ve gotten to chat with the world. Which is pretty cool.
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That is marvelous. Central Africa probably doesn’t have much in the way of internet. I have friends in Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya but no-one in Zimbabwe or the DRC. North Korea is probably restricted.
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Congratulations! A million of anything positive is cause for celebration. I have no clue as to what tomorrow may bring. It seems that we are getting double whammies……Trump and the Virus. Oh, and the changing of the atmosphere is another factor. We are still getting days in the l00s, and that is not natural for October. I love seeing pictures of your river and waterfalls. I dearly wish I had those to see every day. While I love my front and backyards filled with trees and California native plants, I yearn for water.
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We haven’t gotten out very much. Part of it is worries about COVID, but there’s also so much anxiety about what’s happening nationally, we’ve been pretty bummed out about it.
I’m glad I’m rounding up. If I’m going to considering giving this up, it’s nice to hit a nice round number along the way 😀
I don’t know what’s going to happen here. Everyone is so anxious and worried about our future. I keep being briefly optimistic then falling off another ledge. Still, most of this has not affect us in this valley very much … except for the weather. We’ve been hit by the strangest storms. All wind, very little rain, one of the longest ever droughts. Too warm winters and dying trees from lack of rain. I would love to see some positive progress on SOME of this stuff.
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A million! You have done quite a job here and it is something to be proud of. I always enjoy looking at the pictures, always! I also love the variety here. It’s a slice of Serendipity for me.
I hate the block editor and never use it. I go to the page with posts and at the top, next to the word posts there is a drop-down arrow for the blockhead and the classic. I pick the classic. When I go back to continue or edit, I pick the classic. I am not sure I would ever get used to that mess they are pushing. Maybe the rest of the world is creating things in little pieces and putting it together later. We live in a Tik-Tok world now.
I had a lot more serious articles in mind, but I think we are preaching to the choir at this point. So I will preach to them Sunday and leave the rest of the political stuff aside. I think there will be some unrest after the election. Let’s hope it is not widespread. If Putin could have wanted anything, it would have been for us to have the moron to tear the country apart. He got his wish, but I digress.
Congrats. This is a fun landing spot.
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I think you are right. Putin has gotten EXACTLY what he wanted. I think I have done about as much preaching as I think anyone cares to listen to. I find it hard to believe — at THIS stage — that anyone is still unsure who they are voting for. Which makes me wonder how many people never watch the news, never read the news — online or in a paper. And never actually think about our world.
A million is a good number.
I got back “most” of the better editor. I reposted that article today. If you follow it, it more or less removes the blockhead editor so you don’t have to contend with it … at least not now. I keep thinking they will at least FIX the block editor so it works better. If they won’t get rid of it, how about making it work better? Is THAT too much to ask?
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I am stunned at the masses that still follow the orange con man. I will preach to the choir Sunday, but basically that is all we are doing. My articles on business and politics take a lot of time because I usually look through a lot more pieces than I show in sources. SERENDIPITY readers have gotten all our best points by now.
The classic editor is almost exactly like it used to be and I am going to stick with it. The other can be frustrating. Perhaps it is just familiarity.
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No, the blockhead editor is not ready for prime time. If they are going to force us to use it, they might try making sure it works properly first.
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What is this “Medium” thing Marilyn?
Leslie
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Medium is a blogging platform. It’s free, but it also will pay YOU for writing if you find a good audience. But they are very oriented to serious writing and while I can do that, that isn’t why I blog. I did a lot of serious writing for many years. I have an actual distaste for turning writing back into a profession. I think I really want to stay retired!
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Congratulations, Marilyn! That is huge.
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It has taken a long time, but somehow, I guess I’m about to reach that far station. It’s funny thinking backward to when getting one or two views was a big deal 🙂
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Congratulations, I do not see views on my statistics, but something called hits and now I have 480,000 give or take a few.
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I publish my stats because otherwise, I never notice them at all. It’s interesting getting here and also interesting because it isn’t nearly as important as I thought it would be. I remember when I hit 100,00 and that was unimaginably huge. I suppose if you just keep doing it, you get there. I was thrilled when I first reached 5,000 😊
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I should point out that half a million ain’t so bad either!!
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I am so happy for you Marilyn. Love your blog.
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Thank you. It has certainly kept me busy for the past 8 years 🌹
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Congrats!!
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Thank you 😀
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That’s cool Marilyn. A million is a lot of views.
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Yes, but it has taken a very long time to get here. Not like those viral hits on Twitter that get a million view in one night.
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Nope, that’s not ! That is just a flash in the pan. Yours is much more durable
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