Why I Oughta...

The end of the year came-and-went and I failed to mark the closing of another chapter in daily blog posting here in my online diary.  If you look at the full archives over on the left rail, you'll see that I published 365 posts in 2022 - one for each and every day.   I've written similar recap posts over the year, including last year .  2022 marks the eighth straight year that I hit 365 posts.  One everyday since 2015.   With the first part of 2023 already behind me, it is wild to think that I'm now in my 19th calendar year of posting to this blog.   I did a quick look and it appears that I wrote 307 of the 365 posts (84%) using the [ garden diary ] tag - up from 260 out of 365 (70%) posts in 2021.      Posting here on my own little blog has been something that I have enjoyed doing - creating, writing and publishing - in a venue of my own.  With all the uncertainty around the Web and in particular (some people's feelings a...

Today marks a seven year stretch of publishing a post in my online diary here on my blog.  Seven years straight, starting back in 2015 when I stopped posting on my Illinois political-meme blog (which lasted just a couple of years) and came back home to my homestead on the Web.  This year, I've hit 365 posts - this one is the 365th one and there's no reason to not keep going in 2022.  Just post, baby.  I'm like the Al Davis of blogging in 2021.   By my quick count, there are 260 posts in the [ garden diary ] for the year, so that's 260/365 = 71% of my posts were related to our yard and garden.  I suppose I'm not surprised by that number, but it certainly points to where my interests are (currently) and how I've been able to use this place on the Web as a reference for what I've planted, what has worked and what I need to work on.   That feels like a good way to look at the new year:  Recognize what I've done, think about the good and the ...

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 go...

Doing an entire 'Year in Review' would be daunting, as I can't quite remember what happened 6 weeks ago, let a lone 6 months ago, but what I can do is tell all you--my loyal readers--what I think was/is the biggest story of 2005 in and around Chicago. ....Drum roll please........... The Biggest story in 2005 was the City of Chicago's 'about-face' on live, outdoor music in the City's parks. What? Live music as the biggest story of the year?!? WTF, Parrillo?!? What about the 'Drought of '05', or the White Sox, or Hired Truck, or Marshall Field's closing? Well...those are all good stories. They're all qualified for 'Biggest Story of the Year', but they don't have the same impact to me as the City's Leaders embracing live music. I wrote about it back in July when both Lollapaloza and Intonation were put on to rave reviews, despite the repressive heat. Dunno if you realize what is happening here. We just went from th...