… trying to recover and rebuild
Yes, my blogs have been basically silent for quite q while. I started blogging back in 2008, but did not really do so in earnest until the mid-teens — after I retired from teaching.
I have given the history of my slide from having about 70,000 page views a year, below, but today, since I am writing primarily on my website, which is hosted by Wix, I have decided that I had to tone down some of what I was writing because I am attracting customers to my tutoring business.
So, I am going to do it this way: I am creating a Site 123 blog that will include politics, sports, and religion, and then focus my positive pieces on the Wix blog.
I have a list of potential positive pieces to use on Wix, and will start doing that.
Really bad year
My horrible 2023 started last Christmas when I was hit with some kind of virus that had me coughing and kept me in bed through the holidays.
It was the second worst Christmas of my life — and I viewed to make changes — which have not been forthcoming.
I recovered from the cough, which was unusual, but it sent me into a funk from which I am still trying to recover.
I had planned to move back to somewhere in Pennsylvania this year, and still hope to do so, but my ambition in many areas has been lacking.
My tutoring has been going well, but my marketing of the business has not. I did, however, have 75 percent of my 22 hours of tutoring last week from my own website instead of other companies. Hopefully, that will continue.
But, I need to change.
The history
My blogspot efforts resulted in almost half a million page views, most of which occurred from 2016 until 2021. About 15 percent of those were from countries outside the U.S.
Then, blogspot, aka as Google, said that I violated their terms of service. They never told me what that violation was. In short, if someone reports you to Big Brother Google, then they can remove you.
I had three blogs with them: One was general, another focused on sports, and the third was on religion. I cannot post anything else on them now — although sometimes I manage to sneak one through.
Basically, I quit trying.
I realize that I do not have a constitutional right to freedom of speech or press on the blog. The first amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting freedom of” religion, speech, and press, but they are a private company. They can decide — or discriminate against — those who use their blogs, but they are not obliged to give me this forum.
Depression
I admit to be depressed — not clinically, but situationally with the state of the United States of America. I honestly do not think that it is going to continue for much longer as a constitutional democracy as it was founded.
In addition, I realize that we have more admiration and respect for our founding fathers — many of whom were and continued to be slave owners — than we should have had.
In honesty, if I was in my 60s or 50s instead of my mid-70s, I would seriously consider moving to Ireland or Canada or some other area to live. I no longer have the respect for the country that I grew up loving.
And that is unlikely to change.
So, I will return to my blogging, though perhaps not with the enthusiasm that I had previously. I have some things to say right now, and for a blog to be successful, it must contain posts on a consistent basis.
I hope to do so.
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