Blogging Stats Update from Dec 2021

Among the many things I take stock of around the New Year is my blogging. I set a goal a few years back to average 1.5 posts per day to my blog. Here's a chart of my daily average over the past 2 years:

A Multiplicity of Goals

When I set goals I don't just set a goal; I set a multiplicity of goals. One approach I often take is bracketing a goal with low, medium, and high marks. Here 1.5 is my target, the "medium" goal, 1.0 is my baseline (low), and 2.0 is my stretch goal (high).

Overall for 2021 I posted 579 entries, an average of 1.58/day. So I comfortably hit my target goal.

On a monthly basis there were hits and misses. You can see that February came in right at 1.0 and April fell short of even that. A few other months came near to 1.5 but didn't quite hit it. They were balanced out by months when I exceeded 1.5, including three months in 2021 when I exceeded my stretch goal of 2 per day. In December I averaged 2.13/day, my second highest month ever.

Top Topics

I also pay attention, as a curiosity, to which tags I use most frequently. I have overall statistics at LiveJournal, where I started my blog roughly 10 years ago and where I continue to crosspost today. Tag stats for just the year 2021 would take lots of time and effort to generate (neither LJ nor DreamWidth provide them in that fashion), but I can use my DW stats as a proxy because I've been posting to DW since only a little before 2021.

My top topics in 2021 (numbers approximate) were:

1. Coronavirus (131)
2. In Beauty I Walk (92)
3. Planes Trains and Automobiles (63)
4. Food (48)
5. Let's Go Shopping! (45)

My top topics of all time are:

1. In Beauty I Walk (541)
2. Planes Trains and Automobiles (496)
3. Coronavirus (355)
4. No Rest for the Wicked (324)
5. Road Trip! (283)

It makes sense that Coronavirus led 2021 as it has been the defining issue for 22 months now. It is sad, though, how it's crowded out other things. Long term it's charged ahead of everything else in my blog except In Beauty I Walk (outdoors/hiking) and Planes Trains and Automobiles (the trials and tribulations of travel).

WoT S1E8: The Eye of the World

S1E8 of The Wheel of Time is the season 1 finale. As I expected sometime back it aligns with the climax of the first book in the series, The Eye of the World. The episode shares the book's title.

This episode, like the others in the series so far, omits and/or changes various plot points in Book 1 of the written series to condense it for TV. That's necessary, of course, as each of the 14 hardback books is 600+ pages and would span far more than 8 one-hour episodes if recreated location by location and line by line of dialogue. Though even at its greatly accelerated rate, with season 1 aligning to the first book, does it follow that the show will run for 14 seasons?!

Anyway... about omitting and changing plot points from the book. As I said in my commentary on S1E1, I don't object to changes per se. Many are necessary and many improve the storytelling in a visual medium. But some changes are poor. I've railed about a few of them in past blogs and won't repeat it here. There are new ones to discuss now. 😏

Five Things about this episode, spoilers protected:

1) The episode starts with a cold open from the Age of Legends.
( Read more... )

2) Rand has a troubling dream in the Blight.
( Read more... )

3) Showdown at the Eye of the World
In my preamble above I noted that some simplifications in the series weaken the narrative or are lazy storytelling, some are good. The screenwriters simplified the climactic showdown at the Eye of the World, and it's a good change. ( Read more... )

4) Lady Amalisa and the mechanics of channeling
In the previous episode we're introduced to Lady Amalisa Jagad, sister of Lord Agelmar Jagad, ruler of Fal Dara, ( Read more... )

5) Padan Fain!
( Read more... )

On the whole, despite some of these frustrations with the TV show ditching rules of magic Robert Jordan was very meticulous about devising and which made his books so enjoyable, I thought the show worked well as a finale for Season 1. A tag ending even provides a view of what's to come in the next season.