Attempted Bloggery has been around for two and a half years now, so I no longer feel like the new kid on the block. This year, the blog published 433 individual posts, which is more than eight a week on average, and considerably more than last year's total of 375, thank you very much. Still, the daily format has been trying at times, because when I write about something I like to include everything but the kitchen sink, and then I occasionally add the kitchen sink anyway for good measure, and all this can be quite time-consuming, particularly when it's my turn to do the dishes.
The blog's format has changed a bit this year in ways I didn't foresee. Probably the most obvious change is that I'm entering the weekly New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest, something I never dreamed I'd be capable of , and I'm documenting the results here no matter how disheartening. For those of you keeping score at home, my success in this contest to date can be counted on no hands. My new pastime all got started with Danny Shanahan's Caption Contest, the very first contest I entered, although only one full round of that contest has been completed thus far. Most encouragingly, in the midst of my second round of the Moment magazine Cartoon Caption Contest, I've been made a finalist twice, and a new winning caption should be declared soon, so I still have a shot at the big time here. This latter contest represents the sum total--two--of my captioning successes to date, and I find it highly motivating, particularly after dealing with the New Yorker contest and its 5,000-odd weekly entries..
Without warning in March, this blog started receiving page views from China and of course I, student of global trends that I am, took note of it immediately. After more than a year and a half of publication, this humble weblog was being visited by someone in the world's most populous nation. Something remarkable has happened, as I believe the Chinese government still goes to great lengths to prevent its people from freely surfing the internet. I in turn certainly have never had anything remotely civil to say about the evil government there. For December, China placed seventh among nations here in page views, and they now have moved up to ninth in all-time page views, just edging out Australia. It's never been clear to me just what anyone from the People's Republic is hoping to find here, but I applaud them for taking an interest. One thing seems clear to me: when the malevolent Chinese government sees fit to shut down our internet, Attempted Bloggery will not be spared. Read it while you can.
You may have noticed that this blog has become, like this blogger, more bottom-heavy. By that I mean simply that a lot of content is now located in the note at the bottom of the blog posts, including links to older posts. I started out my blogging career doing this often, then deliberately avoided the practice for a while thinking it was getting out of hand, but as the blog has aged I've now found it useful to put in more and more references to relevant older content and to a variety of outstanding internet sites.
One very minor tweak is that I no longer attempt to write posts about the Disney short "The Band Concert" on summer Fridays, but for auld time's sake I will return to it right now on this winter Tuesday. Here's Horace Horsecollar and I say he's about to welcome in the New Year! Who's going to argue? Have a Happy New Year, everybody!
Note: I'm not sure where I found this image, which appears to be an animation cel set-up, perhaps with a Courvoisier background. If you know, please drop me a line.
My archive of New Year's Eve posts can be accessed here. Bring your own champagne.
Older posts about Walt Disney's "The Band Concert" may be seen here.
0999
The blog's format has changed a bit this year in ways I didn't foresee. Probably the most obvious change is that I'm entering the weekly New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest, something I never dreamed I'd be capable of , and I'm documenting the results here no matter how disheartening. For those of you keeping score at home, my success in this contest to date can be counted on no hands. My new pastime all got started with Danny Shanahan's Caption Contest, the very first contest I entered, although only one full round of that contest has been completed thus far. Most encouragingly, in the midst of my second round of the Moment magazine Cartoon Caption Contest, I've been made a finalist twice, and a new winning caption should be declared soon, so I still have a shot at the big time here. This latter contest represents the sum total--two--of my captioning successes to date, and I find it highly motivating, particularly after dealing with the New Yorker contest and its 5,000-odd weekly entries..
Without warning in March, this blog started receiving page views from China and of course I, student of global trends that I am, took note of it immediately. After more than a year and a half of publication, this humble weblog was being visited by someone in the world's most populous nation. Something remarkable has happened, as I believe the Chinese government still goes to great lengths to prevent its people from freely surfing the internet. I in turn certainly have never had anything remotely civil to say about the evil government there. For December, China placed seventh among nations here in page views, and they now have moved up to ninth in all-time page views, just edging out Australia. It's never been clear to me just what anyone from the People's Republic is hoping to find here, but I applaud them for taking an interest. One thing seems clear to me: when the malevolent Chinese government sees fit to shut down our internet, Attempted Bloggery will not be spared. Read it while you can.
 |
| All-Time Page Views by Country, December 30, 2013 |
One very minor tweak is that I no longer attempt to write posts about the Disney short "The Band Concert" on summer Fridays, but for auld time's sake I will return to it right now on this winter Tuesday. Here's Horace Horsecollar and I say he's about to welcome in the New Year! Who's going to argue? Have a Happy New Year, everybody!
 |
| Horace Horsecollar cel set-up with nonproduction background from Walt Disney's "The Band Concert" (1935) |
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| Film Still 8:46 |
Walt Disney's "The Band Concert" (1935)
My archive of New Year's Eve posts can be accessed here. Bring your own champagne.
Older posts about Walt Disney's "The Band Concert" may be seen here.
0999
