I also know from experience that when I post a picture like the one to the left, traffic soars above the daily average. Which says more about you than it does about me.
It is hard to believe I started this blog three years ago following my birthday and the epiphany that I'm not doing enough writing.
Oh I write all day for a living, mostly about horsepower, zero calorie sodas, investment banking, and easy-to-prepare microwavable foodstuffs. The same crap a thousand other copywriters are writing about.
And if I'm being brutally honest (when am I not?) it's not really writing. It's more about taking some pre-digested copy points, realigning some verb noun agreements and sprucing it all up with a well-chosen adverb or adjective.
It's not something a well-trained monkey couldn't do. And if you've spent anytime inside an ad agency you know that metaphor has not been stretched.
I needed to do something more expressive. Like my friend Laurenne, who recently introduced me to the concept of vagina prolapse. She writes a lot about her vagina. I would too, but I don't have one.
I could write about my penis but Twitter with its 140-character limit is probably a better forum for that --see, I beat you to that easy joke. Besides I just started a new column about my heel spur yesterday and I think two anatomically-based essays would get a little repetitive.
All this talk about penii and vaginas has made me lose focus.
Oh yes. So here we are at another milestone. And the natural inclination to start asking milestone-like questions. For instance, how much longer do I plan to continue this narcissistic exercise? Three years later and I still don't have an answer. We're now 608 posts deep into this little venture. And that's not counting the dozen or so entries I have deleted when I realized I was straying into legally dangerous waters involving libel, slander and bestiality.
In the last three years, I have seen other friends just give out on their blogs. I've seen others publicly complain about their own personal writing blocks. Or apologize for the warmed-over content or even the sporadic posting. I have done none of that. It makes a certain presumption of importance that frankly I'm not willing to make.
The truth is I don't know when I'll stop writing this blog. I only know that even if I wanted to stop, I couldn't.
And I suppose that's a good sign.
After 2,700 posts and almost five years, I continue to write my blog. Mostly because I love to write and writers in ad agencies seldom actually write.
ReplyDeleteOn occasion I battle indifference or the feeling that such writing is an utter waste of time and energy.
But I persist.
Because, like I said, I love to write.
That's why you are my blogging idol George.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the photo, I imagined this would be how you'll be celebrating your birthday, or are you saving this for your wife's birthday?
ReplyDeleteIt is not narcissistic. It is a gift to those other copywriters sitting in fake offices with no windows. Those people need penis jokes and very pertinent heel spur info.
ReplyDeleteWhat you're doing is very charitable and honorable.
Incidentally, I am now sitting in a fake office with no windows.
Thanks to my brilliant friend Geo I found your wonderful blog.
ReplyDeleteNow on my reading list.
Thanks to my brilliant friend Geo I found your wonderful blog.
ReplyDeleteNow on my reading list.
Welcome aboard Tore. Nice to have a fellow NY'orker. And an ad guy to boot.
ReplyDeleteTell your friends. And don't forget the first reader to reach 100 referrals gets a warm, appreciative Thank You.
I grew up reading Mark Fenske. I learned how to bring donuts to meetings. Then his blog stopped.
ReplyDeleteAnd then, like a gift from the Cheeto-And-Diet-Coke heavens, yours has popped up.
You'd best not disappoint me like he did.