The Yearly Babble

Blogger, now subsumed into the Google empire, has some new features and additions to their blog formats. This being a Blogger-enabled site, at least one of them has shown up here, and others will soon follow. So far the most obvious one is "labels," or what other systems have been calling "tags," which you append to a post to aid in sorting, classifying and accessing.

I've just finished the arduous task of labeling all Dreaming Up Daily posts of 2006. These labels are hyperlinked, so if you click on one, you'll get all the posts with that label. Eventually there will be a list of selected labels ( topics, types or names) that accesses a list of posts, but until I go through another couple of processes and change the template to the new version, I'm the only one who can see the list of labels. It's interesting to see what I wrote about most versus what I aimed to write about when I started this blog. To noone's surprise I'm sure, the leading topic was the Climate Crisis, with 103 posts in 2006 (which includes a few photos.) Posts that carry the "Future" label (many have more than one label) number 43. So that worked.

Over 70 were about the 2006 elections directly, and many more about Bush, Iraq, etc. There were scores on environmental and energy topics. There were 19 on nuclear weapons, especially when the prospect of attack on Iran was in the news. I labeled 28 posts as being "about me," and another 15 about "blogging," which I expect is way lower than the blogosphere average, and maybe is a violation of the blogging code of conduct.

Overall, I was appalled at how much time it took to simply go through all these posts, which would be a fraction of the time it would take to read them, and of course, to write them. While I hope they are worth the reading time, I'm still not so sure, given considerations of time on several important scales, that they are the best use of writing time. This blog has seen a dip recently in an already small readership. But in some ways the labeling work may turn out to be time well spent, as many visitors come here as the result of a search for something specific. This blog's value may turn out to be as reference resource. I still feel the motivation, or compulsion, to blog here pretty frequently. But that may pass. I've already lost the habit of writing for the major lefty blog sites.

Dreaming Up Daily began in July 2005, and the total post count is currently 1867. When I started it as partly a portal blog to other blogs I either maintained or started, part of my intent was to test whether this could be another way to get paid for writing. So far that hasn't worked out, though I suppose blogs could still work in relationship with other sources: synergy rather than principal or stand-alone medium. Apart from self-indulgence, or self-expression (depending on perspective and mood), there's the service aspect, and legacy, which looms larger these days.

There will be other changes in my blogs and blogging activities this year, partly motivated by some of these new features, which include an easier way to list and classify links. That works well with my plans to revive a "Skills of Peace" site. I haven't blogged as much on my 60's Now and Boomer Hall of Fame sites as I thought I would, but it seems likely that I will spend more time with them in coming years. I will probably set up a blog related to my North Coast Journal theatre column.

There were a lot of posts here in early 2006 on the Pittsburgh Steelers, as they made their way to their Super Bowl victory. Alas, no such luck to start 2007. They finished their season today with a win over the Cincinatti Bengals, for an 8-8 record--good enough in some divisions to get into the playoffs, but not in theirs. Their win today was emblematic of their season--they were better than most teams, but they hurt themselves with turnovers and penalties. Big Ben seemed more affected by his motorcycle accident than anyone connected with the team seemed willing to admit. He threw a lot of interceptions. But Willy Parker, their leading runner, fumbled too much as well. Today he actually fumbled as he was scoring a touchdown; last week inside the 5 yard line. Their defense was inconsistent, too--though there was a string of late season games when they gave up something like a total of 10 points.

Who knows what happened to the Steelers this year. But now it seems likely that they will lose their long-time head coach, Bill Cowher, which is a big deal in Pittsburgh. The Steelers have had only two head coaches since the 60s.

As for other end of the year macro-evaluations and the outlook for 2007, I'll leave that for later, or not. If I don't see you, Happy New Year.