"Neanderings" Turns Two!

   Next week marks the second anniversary of "Neanderings". As with most marked passages of time, it has arrived much more quickly than I might have imagined. About a year ago I sat here and mused on "Neanderings" first year so now some thoughts on its second.

My Dad, Kenneth Baker

   First off, I blogged a lot more in Year Two, probably twice as much. Very early on in the second year, my Dad became ill and eventually passed away. For better or worse, this had me blogging almost constantly. As much as anything, I was attempting to keep Dad's friends and family abreast of what was going on with him. At the same time, it was a very cathartic process for me and I'm glad I had that kind of outlet. I think that many of the people who were reading these particular blogs likely and hopefully were discovering the same thing--the string of them ended being pretty well the most well-read blogs the past year.


Cristopher Hitchens

   The blog post, however, which topped them all in terms of readership was the one I wrote last December entitled "Death of an Atheist". This chronicled the passing of Chris Hitchens, a well-known writer and avowed atheist. At that time, I'd recently read a book of his called "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" a book in which he attributes many of the society's ills to organized religions around the world. Currently, this post has been viewed close to 300 times, whereas most of my other posts average around 20. I am not sure why it's been so popular, it might have had something to do with Hitchens' celebrity status and people who were doing random searches on him ending up occasionally at "Neanderings".
   For much of the rest of this past year I simply continued to write about whatever popped into my head--as the blog description says, "random thoughts on random subjects". This took me to such places as coffee shops, storage units, doctor's offices, hospital rooms and football fields. You got snippets of opera, poetry and song. Sex and death popped up every once in awhile and you found out how I feel about some of the Christians in the world. I talked about saying goodbyes--both to kids who have moved and cats who have left this world. You read about me walking and you read about me running. I offered my opinion on some current events and and I blogged about blogging (about blogging!) I even blogged about coffee mugs, for goodness sake.

Strides

   I wrote about running more than once in "Neanderings" and realized after awhile that I had all sorts of thoughts on the subject. I then thought why not start a whole new blog, devoted to my running adventure? This then became "Strides", my other blog, which began back in late October. So far, it's been a fun blog to write and I'm enjoying it!
   So that about caps it off for Year 2 of "Neanderings". I've blogged a lot but the one thing I haven't done is make any inroads on "serious" writing, whatever that means. I guess I'd really like to write something that has a story to it, even something short. This, however, would require a little more discipline and time management than a blog does. I can blog in front of the T.V., with wife and kids hovering about, and answer the phone and e-mails all at the same time. I don't think this would work well for story-telling. Discipline, discipline, discipline--where do I get me some?!
   Anyway, cheers to you all, and many thanks for reading and the occasional comment or words of encouragement. It is nice knowing you're not writing in a total vacuum. If any of you have ideas for blog material then please pass them on. In the meantime, enjoy the holiday season and we'll talk soon!