I have been a bit remiss on posting for the past week. Work has a way of obstructing blogging at times....
In any event, July 1st marked the third anniversary of The Useless Tree. Let's take a minute to look back at the past year.
My posting fell off a bit. In 2006-2007, I averaged a post a day, as was my intention. In fact, the annual average was 1.02 posts a day. That average fell to .912 for 2007-2008; 1012 posts in 1096 days, not a precipitous drop but a down tick nonetheless. One reason for the decline is international travel: trips to India and Taiwan and Hong Kong, which produced some good posts but reduced the number of posts. But travel (with an especially bad day at the Delhi airport) is not the only reason. It was a bit harder to remain focused every day and find inspiration in the press and on the web. There was some good stuff, at least to my mind. But it took a bit more effort.
I am, nonetheless, undeterred. The blog continues to be a source of enjoyment for me and it does serve a useful purpose as a place to try out some ideas before they find their way into my book (I am still working on chapter five!). Readership, though modest as always, continues to drift upwards. For five of the the past six months (my statistics are not very good) unique visitors were higher than the year before. On a weekly basis, 1200-1300 unique visits are usually made, with the expected decline in the summer. Again, that is a rather small blog audience but a consistent and engaged audience. We have had some spirited exchanges in the comments section during this past year.
I don't like to take too much time blogging about blogging (too meta for me). But here are a couple of highlights from last year, from my perspective at least.
Our India trip produced a series of posts - here, here and here - that were cross posted on China Digital Times. Indeed, getting to know the good people at CDT (one of whom grew up in the small college town where I now live!) has certainly been a highlight for me. Some pictures from India are posted here.
My Taiwan-Hong Kong trip also produced a couple of CDT posts: here and here. And more pictures, here and here.
I also discovered and spent some time arguing against the so-called "New Legalists:" here and here and here.
And, just for fun, I took on the big issue of what Facebook might mean for Confucianism here, with a follow up here.
That's it for retrospective. Onward. Or, to follow the state motto of Wisconsin: Forward!
Recent Comments