Why I Oughta...

Those were the days.  I was going through some of my personal effects and came across this piece written by Tony Scott at the Kendall County Record (I think?!) that covers some of the shenanigans we were up to back in the early aughts.  I made some of the strongest connections of my career during these JoinCross.com blogging days as Chris Rhodes.  Pretty incredible to think back at how far the Boss let us go with the blog.   Today?  They're probably right to be a bit more careful with their political image.  And who's blogging today anyway?!? Here's post from the archives here on the blog from Dan Johnson-Weinberger that talks about the same thing Tony Scott says :  those were some heady days of GOP blogging. 

Last week, Tim Brey posted a piece on his blog titled "Still Blogging in 2017" that was shared by Jason Kottke on his own blog . That's how I came across Tim's original post.  Isn't that how blogs *used* to work, right?  You'd read something in your feed reader that referenced someone else's blog/post and you stumbled upon them.  Liked it?  Usually, I grabbed a subscription to their feed and kept up on them. I'm not one to pine for the 'good old days' (or, maybe I am?), but that little blog-to-blog transaction (about blogging!) struck me. I read both of them and figured that it warranted comment or two here on my *own* blog.  I've been doing these daily diary entries on objects, experiences and occurrences in my life for the past few years after picking blogging back up 2010.  For a few years (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016), I've been able to publish *something* everyday here on " Why I Oughta... " (which, is what I used t

It was just over a year ago that I posted a new blog theme redesign here on "Why I Oughta..." and showed the previous 12 years or so of what the blog has looked and felt like over the various changes.  If you're reading this in your email, you're likely unaware that I've made another switch recently.  Go ahead...click through on the title of the post in your email and you'll see this blue theme below.  This is one of the new(ish) themes that the team at Blogger released recently . I'm certain that there have been more, but this is the 10th *documented* version over the past 13 years .    I've streamlined things a bit by removing any and all ads as well as the 'you might like' feature boxes.  And for the first time in I think ever, I have only one column. Here's the full length screen grab, but because of the scrolling and the resizing of the header image, you'll see the white band across the photo in the top post.

One of the things that I failed to do as we crossed into the new year was to look back at the #everyday pledge of posting something here on my diary online.  For the past few years (starting in 2010), as one of my New Year's Resolutions, I worked to write something (as Neil Steinberg calls it) #everygoddamnday and flex my writing muscles while documenting the people, places and things in my orbit. I've hit 365 posts a few years:  2010, 2011 and 2015.  I was just short in 2012 and in 2014, I wrote a ton of posts elsewhere, but not here on the main blog. But last year?  I had 366 posts.  Yep.  Most posts ever.  And that's because it was a leap year.  I also wrote 80 posts on our family blog and countless links over at my link blog . But, one of my other resolutions sat there on the shelf:   my mobile app idea has kind of been on the backburner, but I'm doubling down on making it real this year again. So far, in 2017, I'm off to a good start and that's

As if you didn't get enough of my drivel on a daily basis, right?  But...for *some* of you, there's a new place to keep up with things that I read and places I go and photos I take online.  It is my newish link/photo home on the web.   You can find it here . It is called "Over by dere".  Which, if you speak Chicagoese , you know roughly translates to : Over by dere. i.e. "over by there," a prolix way of emphasizing a site presumed familiar to the listener. As in, "I got the sassage at da Jewels down on Kedzie, over by dere.' For now, it is a home to things that I come across on the web that are somewhere in between re-Tweets and blog posts here on the blog. I haven't totally figured out what will be up there and how often, but there's enough that I've put up there that I figured it was time to share.  Besides...part of the reason for it is me thinking about vanity SEO and having this post up with inbound links to Over By Dere by

In marking the 12th anniversary of the blog earlier this week , I thought it would be interesting to (at least interesting to me!) document the 'look/feel' of the blog over the years.  Here's some screenshots that I've collected starting with today and going backwards.   February of 2016.  Orange and blue.  Responsive blog with two columns.  Right rail for widgets/gadgets and a family photo of the five of us in the top right:   May of 2013 .  Orange and blue with a cursive domain name.  Argyle in the background in orange.  Two columns with a different mobile version.  Right rail with gadgets/widgets.  And a family photo of just the four of us.  "Why I oughta" dumped from header: March of 2011 .  This is what the blog looked like on a Moto Xoom Tablet.  Remember those?!?  It was a maroon and grey layout with a right rail.  Still called "Why I Oughta..."  Photo on the right was just me and The Babe.: February of 2010 .  A lot of white

All the way back on February 16, 2004, I posted the very first blog post here on the blog .  Well...it wasn't *here* then, but it was on what would become this blog. 12 years is a long time.  A lot of writing.  A lot of nonsense.  When I started, I was working for the House Republicans and living in Frankfort with my parents.  Today?  I'm living in my sister's house with my wife and three kids and a dog and working at Edelman.  Still writing nonsense, though. Over the past 12 years, I've now written  published 1932 posts.  Including this one.  Hundreds more on other blogs like the political satire one or our family blog.  But 1932 here.  Some started as "Chris Rhodes", but most as just me.  (Those of you who were around in 2004 will get that "Chris Rhodes" reference!) Here's a look at a screenshot of the archives totaling up the blog posts across time. I didn't mark the anniversary every year, but in looking back at the archives,

Welp...we did it.  365 days.  365 posts.   As Neil Steinberg says:  everygoddamnday .   Here's last year's NYE post . And frankly, it felt nice to flex those blogging muscles again here on my own personal property.  So, what's my 2016 resolution?  I'm going to keep at it here on 'Why I Oughta', but I'm also going to pledge to undertake another project: the Should I get the Project.     2015 was a fine year.  If we find our house and get in it and end our nomadic period, 2016 will be even better.   Here's the post I wrote exactly a year ago today .

While we're not quite at the end of the calendar year, I think I can safely say that 2015 is looking to turn out to be a 365 posts in 365 days kinda year.  I have had a few of those in the past - both in 2010 and 2011.  In 2012, I came awfully close with 354 posts.  Last year?  A paltry 94 posts. I also believe that I can safely say that not all of the posts written this year (or any year) were total gems.  There were plenty of turds mixed in there.  But....but...but...there were *some* that worked better than others in terms of attention/engagement.  And no good blogger these days isn't writing list-icles, so I figure I need to include one of those in my posts for the year. Without further delay, here's the Top Ten posts on this blog that were written in 2015. 10.   A post showing off the new Melrose Park Menards store (with fancy cart escalator ramp!) 9   A post documenting the gateway drug know as Shopkins 8.   A post showing the progress I've made on my De

I just peeked down at the total number of posts right here on the blog and noticed that although we're just in the sixth month of the year, 2015 has become the #4 in terms of ranking of total number of posts.  I took this screenshot you see above from the right rail of the blog.  If you're reading this on your mobile phone, you're likely seeing this either in your email or the mobile version of the site, so you can't see the sidebar.  You can click "view on the web" at the bottom of the mobile version if you'd care to see the archives.  Or...just trust me that the screenshot above is all you need to see?!? There's certainly no talk about ranking in terms of quality over the years, but we're just talking quantity here.  Total number of blog posts. Back in 2012 and 2013, I had back-to-back years of writing a post every.single.day.of.the.year .  Then things dropped off in 2013 and 2014.  With the advent of Medium and Facebook and the various ot

Five years ago today, I posted this photo of the electricians finally wiring up our garage in Elmhurst .  Below is a screenshot from the blog. Really hard to believe that it has been five years since this went in.  Pretty remarkable.  In the photo, we had the old chainlink fence and the arborvitae that we planted are tiny.  And the entire patio area/pavilion off the garage isn't there.  Most importantly...we were just a family of three.  And had a five month old.  Time sure does fly.

Three months in the book and I've stuck to it here on the blog.  A chicken in every pot and a post on every day and all that stuff. With crossing the 90 post mark, this makes 2015 the 6th most prolific year on JakeParrillo/RhodesSchool since inception back in 2004.  But it also reminds me that we've already been through a quarter of the calendar year.  For me, that means we're *that* much closer to the holiday season (which as we all know kicks off right/after Halloween...).  So, I got that going for myself. Which is nice.

Today marks ten years since I put up my first 'blog' post.  At the time, it was on a different domain, for a different purpose, but you can see the archives from February of 2004 here on JakeParrillo.com as I pulled them here .

Take a look see.  Still lots of orange, but a new font and a little bit less argyle.  Had it running since the 1st of the year.  Here's how it looks on the desktop: Here's what it looks like on mobile: Here's what it looked like before the change: Here's a post from 2011 from another redesign .   The site has changed a bit over the past few years, but that appears to be the only post where I documented the changes.

Had just 153 posts in 2013.  With a job change, a once-in-a-lifetime vacation and plenty going on around the house, it is no surprise that life got in the way of daily posting.  I had 58 posts on the family blog and 51 posts on the sockpuppet blog I write, so adding up the three numbers, we get 262, so that's not terrible, right?  Add in all the Google+ posts of the girls, and I'm sure I was over 365. 2014 is full of promise and here's to hoping to capture just a little sliver of what is happening around my world each and every day.

Just like last year , May 1st feels like a good spot to top and take a quick analysis of the year thus far.  With the calendar turning to May, we're not 1/3rd of the way through the calendar.  Like last year, I'd say that the first four months went *very* fast. What's on deck for the next 1/3rd of the year? Plant my garden Stain the outside (what's left) of our fence plant grass seed in our patches Improve my backhand (tennis) Welcome a new baby in the world Clean out the garage so my car fits in there again Build a A/V center in the basement Paint the rest of the trim in the basement

More than 700 posts later, I've stuck to my 2010 New Year's resolution of posting *something* to this blog every day of the year.   Last year , I celebrated the first time in my life that I actually stuck to my resolution.  Sure, writing a crummy blog post about something silly isn't all that impressive, but it was what I picked and as you can see from the number of posts next to various years, writing 365 posts wasn't always easy. As far as stats go, the most popular post - by far - was this post on the Cedar Summit Playground from Costco . This year, I also made a new resolution - and just like last year - I stuck to this one too.   This one was just as silly - and something that I shouldn't have had to 'resolve' to do, but nevertheless, the process worked and now I'm happy to say that I kept that resolution, too. Here's to a great 2012.  A great wife.  Great daughter.  Amazing family.  A good job.  Even more surprises.  And...maybe even a

The look of the blog has changed - once again.  For those reading on email, you can click through on the headline above to see it.  Right here below is what it looked like yesterday, which was a design that lasted 8ish months.  Below that is what the blog looked like for the entire year of 2010.   You'll notice on the new template that there's a ticker.  Yes...a ticker!  I can't tell if the site is loading incredibly slow and if it is, if the ticker is the reason.  I'll leave it up there for a few more days while I work out some of the other kinks.  If you see something that isn't quite right, drop a comment on this post.   JakeParrillo.com (February 2011- December 2011) JakeParrillo.com (January 2010 - February 2011)

Late Friday afternoon, my fifth sports-related went up on the Official Google Blog - this one focused on football.  Entitled "It's Kickoff Time for US Football Searches" , the piece touched on the behavior of football fans all across the country.  I'm just the 'ghost-writer', as this piece is (once again!) signed by someone else.  A few things to note: 1.  I was able to sneak in a Jim Mora "Playoffs?!?!" Easter Egg in the post that links to a video clip. 2.  I also had a link from the post where I referenced the Bears to Denny Green's "The Bears are who we thought they were.  If you wanna crown their asses, then crown 'em!" rant, but that got pulled. 3.  In the draft version, I included a link to this chart below (comparing football to religion) when saying that football was a big deal.  Again, wiser heads prevailed! World Series will likely be the next sports post, but that only gets us to six.  I'd like to find a few

The old template was throwing off an error up top with the Twitter stream integration, so I had to try to make some fixes.  Instead of monkeying around in the old template, I just swapped out to this new one. Looks pretty good, imo.  Here's how the site looked 6+ years ago .