If I've figured out one thing, it's that Liam, Phoebe and Chet Baker save my blog. I can be puttering along with my flars and my abandoned church and my hayrolls and deliquescing barns and my dearly beloved regular readers are happy enough with that, but deploy the redhead or the towhead and interest spikes. Looking at them, I can't imagine why. Not much charisma there.
Load both barrels with, say, the redhead and the dog, and Nelly bar the door. We blow up the Internet like Kim Kardashian's butt. Well, OK, we're still counting our hits in the hundreds, not the millions, but it beats toddling off into the Internet sunset sucking our thumbs.
Am I pandering for blog hits? You bet your bippy I am. I will do about anything to save this blog. I've been posting for nine years now--practically Chet Baker's whole life--and I'm highly invested in keeping this blog going. Rather than allow Facebook to suck its will to live, I have forced Facebook to support my blog. Facebook has given me a way to spoon-feed my posts to a large audience, and when people share those posts, good things happen here on JZ on Blogspot. The key has been not to allow myself to fall into the lassitude of, "Ehh, I'm putting out entertaining content on Facebook, why should I blog any more?" If I've got something good, I save it for the blog, make people come here for it.
As I see it, all I'm doing is recording life as it goes on here on Indigo Hill, and if I have the ability to figure out how to turn that into an amateurish video and share it, and if that humble product can charm and amuse a thousand people, that's a beautiful thing. More beautiful, IMHO, than a steatopygic protuberance on a person with nothing better to offer. I can't change the collective appetite for junk food and junk content. I know that. But I can make a video of my daughter and her boyfriend tattooing the dog.
Happy New Year!!
27 comments:
Ok I have been blogging for about 4 months..? And I get what you are saying - even though I don't have your record of blogging - sometimes I think - "blow! This is a waste of time I'm talking into WWW land & nobody reads. Then I put on a page diddle-daddle - it told me people were looking and that's all?? No comments - I think if you get no encouraging comments what's the use???? PS I am guilty of reading you - now I comment. ...sorry...cheers from Leslie in Australia. ...lesalp.blogspot.com.au
I for one am glad that you post on your blog, as I don't do FascistBook. I don't like or trust the way it has taken over social media. Businesses begging to be "liked" on Facebook strikes me as a tad desperate. People whose "friends" number in the thousands strike me as having a rather shallow definition of the word "friend". Yes, it takes more time to follow individual blogs, but that's what the bookmark button on your computer is for. I follow only a handful of bloggers -- you being one of them -- but I follow bloggers who write quality and who make me feel better for having read them. Kim Kardassian's butt does not do that for me. Reading about what passes for pop culture would only make me feel soiled. If that makes me an elitist, then I am proud to be one.
Happy New Year Julie! And THANK YOU for unfailingly giving my mornings a wonderful start. The tattoo video was inspiring - my dog will want to be on trend!
I could just add "ditto" to what mimimanderly said. Really, your blog posts are a cherished gift for me. What does it really matter how many people follow, as long as you are offering the world your joy?
Don't you dare stop writing this blog! FB is fun - and also helps me by telling me there's a new blog post to go read, but the blog post itself is the main thing. And now I have to go tattoo Bugs.
Perfect way to begin the new year - with the adornment of Chet Baker's naked nethers, or may I say nekkid nethers? Humming "Nether my love" and off to cook some black-eyed peas. Your blog brings peace and clarity and joy to those of us fortunate to connect with it and all of you at Indigo Hill. thank you. Aunt Weezy in Texas
When your blog pops up, it's one of the first I read... not only do I love the birds (and Chet, of course), but having spent my first 60 years in SE Ohio, you take me home with your morning runs, your festivals, and your fields and hills. Yes, your blogs are a gift.
I remember when you started as a guest blogger for birdchick.
I admit I don't always read your flars posts but I do read everything else.
It's like sitting in your kitchen and having a family visit. Who's doing what, where you've been, how the groan house is faring. Did it survive the last wind storm? What antics the hotdog brothers are up to.
And of course there is Chet Baker, the irrepressible,kind, quietly suffering through all sorts of indignities soul who warms our hearts and makes us laugh.
I enjoy the reports of your journeys near and far, seeing through your eyes things I wouldn't normally see.
Yes, you are a parent, painter, birder, musician, rehabilitator and all round naturalist but to me you are a storyteller of the first order.
Thank you for fighting for your blog and have a great New Year.
Plleeeeez keep blogging ! please, please,please -- Love to hear about Chet & co but especially enjoy your views and the great images The nature education is a huge bonus on top of the whole Zick casserole
Hilarious! Chet is so well loved, as he should be. Love your blog.
Now there's one you don't see everyday! Ha! How delightful ;-)
What a treat to watch this today!
Love your pup and seeing Phoebe and her BF be so silly. What a hoot those kids are. Don't ever consider ending your blog, its worth its weight in gold to me!!!
Hilarious! And Chet was definitely only a few degrees away from just melting into a pile of doggeh-ness! So fun to see him so chill. Sun, massage, messing around his tail. I'm sorry to read about the state of blogs. I only read a few, including yours--and I love getting the FB notification from yours and Chet's FB pages that a new blog is up. Although I usually check directly if I need a fix! Happy New Year to the Indigo Hill gang!
hey, it's a good thing you don't live in NY!
;-)
http://nypost.com/2014/12/15/new-york-bans-pet-tattoos-and-piercings/
A great way to start my 2015: I've seen a Boston Terrier get a Geisha tattoo, and I can add "steatopygic" to my vocabulary! Not s bad start! Thanks for your blog, and keep the posts coming!
Yes, this is the second new word you have given me. I was taught that you should use a new word three times to make it secure in memory. Having fun with those sentences.
Please keep blogging! I love all your posts, and have learned so much about birds, bats and turtles, not to mention Chet Baker. Thank you for sharing your art, knowledge and most interesting life. I look forward to actually hearing you speak someday, or even better, one of your birding events. You are my kind of people!
Charles is looking at me all askance, I get the message, Charles. No Geisha tattoo for you! (stē′ă-tə-pĭj′ĭk, -pī′jĭk)
"Deliquescing." That's my new word for the new year.
I have too many blogs on too many subjects. The houseblog is the one I should keep up come hell or high water, since it provides the best record I have of what I've done around here.
And everybody likes looking at a nice shellac job, right?
How's Chet Baker doing with the tat as the day has progressed? Is it edible? ;-)
Happy New Year. I hope you never stop blogging. I have read your blog for so many years. I love your books. I feel more of a connection here than on a FB page. I don't often post a comment but I always read. I am one of those hits. One must see the next installment of what the children are doing or what happens to Chet. A tattoo! A gangsta geisha no less. too funny.
Oh, please keep blogging! Some of us readers are just kinda shy and don't say much but trust me I read EVERY post with great delight! You have taught me so much about the natural world. May 2015 be a blessed year for you and your family. Bette
I've reached the conclusion that there just aren't that many folks with the attention span to handle more than 10-15 seconds of material. But those of us who do will be bereft should you fold your tent and slink away.
And console yourself...your numbers are better than mine...
That was so fun! Could Chet be any more patient?
You must blog as must I.
Especially since you talked me into FB.
I'm looking forward to that Jay tale, but for now I'm savoring a tattooed Chet B.
Love this post-and all of them that I've read! Didn't realize I wasn't actually following your blog (these things can be mysterious), but I am now. I must say I was relieved that Chet wasn't getting a real tattoo-I have some-they sting a bit!
I am totally doing this to Holly the Pibble! I love how Chetty just lays there and enjoys all the attention! He's such a good doggeh!
P.S. Who's Kim Kardashian? ;-)
Well I for one (and I see I'm among 2 dozen others) hope you continue to let us in on your world through this blog for many years to come. I have your blog bookmarked (have since 2005 when I discovered it), and it has been part of my routine since then to check out what goes on with you every few days. I've watched your kids grow, Chet Baker's muzzle turn whitened (and now receive a tattoo!), and been entertained and touched through all your nature ramblings and ministrations. FB is just crack. You are sustenance.
And I believe Chet Baker was giving you all a bit of a stink eye there at the end. He's such a patient gentleman.
Love your blog! I love ones about the kids and your adventures with Chet. Where else can I read about tattooing a dog and a turtle that made it's way back to you!!
I was afraid to watch this thinking it might be a real tattoo, but from the comments ("he's so calm") I knew no self-respecting dog wold go through the needle process without biting you a few times. I think this might be illegal in NJ too (a real tattoo).... however, this press on one- not urine proof, right? How long did it last? Not long enough to take a few more pics as it dissolved (a vanitas theme in art)?
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