Number 250

Happy bicentennial and a half to Less Dana.  This is my 250 blog posting in exactly 250 days.  It is hard to believe that I have not missed a day of writing something, not always something brilliant, funny, profound, touching, life changing, inspiring, delicious or interesting, but something everyday.  Granted there were some days during the summer when I was on a three hour delay that my posts were appearing past midnight East coast time, but in 250 days, I have made 250 posts.

Recently a friend asked if I would write something on the blog about her business.  She started the request with, “I don’t know if you have your blog planned out for the next few weeks…” I got a big laugh out of that.  I don’t have my blog planned out for the next day, let alone weeks in advance.  Sometimes something funny will happen and I will make a note of it as a potential blog idea, but for the most part I have no idea what I am going to write about when I sit down at my computer.

So many people ask me about the mechanics of the blog so I will confess it all here, now.  Usually around 3:00 in the afternoon I remember that I even write a blog and panic for a moment that I have nothing to write about.  I get my computer out consider the following things:

1. Did anything make me mad today?  I can usually spin that into a story that I can tie to weight loss in some way.
2. Did anything really funny happen today?  Funny writes itself and is my first choice for every blog.
3. Did something happen that reminded me of something from my childhood?
4. Did I cook something good and remember to take a picture of it?
5. Did anything profound happen? Jackpot, not often.
6. Was there something in the news that I wanted to comment on?

If none of those things gives me a start then I just start writing.  I try and not spend more than twenty minutes in front of the computer, although Russ says it sometimes takes up to an hour.  Those posts are usually the ones that involve the things from my childhood because I have to carefully edit them so as not to anger every member of my family or one of my few lasting childhood friends.

I try and keep all the posts to abut 500 words since that is all I can get out in twenty minutes and all any one of you could pay attention to day-in and day-out.  I spell check and still make many mistakes and without any editing by anyone else I post the mess I have written, mistakes and all.  Every once in a while I reread a post and think that some school I attended might want their diploma back.

About twice a day I check the stats on the blog. On an average day about a hundred different people read something on the blog and many people read a bunch of posts at one visit.   I like to see the crazy things people Google that gets them to my blog.  More people are searching for information about “thin people living longer” than almost anything else.  I often wonder if they are looking for information to the contrary to help assuage their guilt. I have had readers from 87 different countries.  Lots of those people are interested in freedom.  Those looking for freedom are probably not worried about losing weight, but about getting enough to eat.  I often hope they understand sarcasm and are not offended about some of the things I write.  I hate to cause more hatred of Americans, but I am not going to change my point of view just to be diplomatic.  Diplomacy is not something I will ever be accused of having.

On this bicentennial and a half-blog posting I can report that I have lost sixty and a half pounds.  After all that is the whole reason I am doing this.  Accountability and putting myself out there keeps me mindful even if I don’t always remember that I have a blog to write.  And now I will close with the bloggers prayer.  Please God, let something funny or profound happen to me in the next 23 hours.  I have to do this again tomorrow.