It is now one year since I celebrated my blog reaching its first birthday, which therefore means that I have now been blogging for two years. First of all; I would like to apologise for me spewing this out all over the Internet for such a long time. Not bad for something that started out as an ICT coursework project. Mind you, I am still doing my ICT coursework, but it will be finished by Christmas, I promise!
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| Two fingers, happily celebrating the second birthday of The Blog Of Stuart |
It is fair to say that in the past year my blog has certainly increased in popularity. It may be due to the fact my Headteacher mentioned it in an awards ceremony at school to a few hundred people, but I doubt that somehow. It may because I have a lot more followers on Twitter and every time I post my blog they look at it; possible. The most likely option in my opinion seems to be my increasing Internet presence. Did you know that a lot of my views come from people Googleing 'Depressing Britain' or things similar? I love that really; the reputation of my blog that I complain about British life.
Out of all my 108 blogs (so far), it is easy to distinguish which ones are the most popular and least. All of my driving blogs about my driving lessons and tests were completely huge failures. I regret doing them, and if given the choice again, I would have at least created a different blog to put them on. That is my biggest mistake in my blogging career so far. My more popular blogs seem to be my television reviews. My Doctor Who reviews have proved a huge success, as did my review of Sherlock on BBC 1 and Ant and Dec's disastrous show at the start of the year. They are my most read, which I am proud of.
My Internet presence is showing to have grown. I am actually receiving Emails in reply to my blogs. I will just point out now; I never reply to Emails - I don't like the thought of talking to a complete stranger who I cannot see. However, feel free to Email me, I do like to read them and they do tend to put a smile of my face. I have received two notable Emails. An Email a few weeks ago asked me to help contribute to an American video website in which you create videos explaining how to do things. It’s not really my thing as A) I wouldn't be able to rant and swear and B) It is American, and I doubt they would understand half of my ramblings.
My other notable Email was a few months ago in reply to my '10 Reasons Why Britain Is Depressing' post. I hope they won't mind me sharing what they said, because I am going to. Not only is it my only proper review, but it is sparking with praise:
"Hi, is this the guy who wrote that blog - "10 Reasons why life in Britain is depressing"? Well first of all - Great article. It was so good I honestly thought someone had hacked into my brain and stolen some of the things I find depressing and made it into a top 10 list. Yeah, you pretty much summed up all the major and minor inconveniences no-one bothers to talk about because they're either too shy or too damn lazy. Good on you! If you hadn't have done this I would have. I hate Facebook, every single "Celebrity", mobile phones and Channel 4 ruined the Simpsons..."
I feel sort of guilty for not replying, but I'm sure he didn't cry about it. This put me on a massive high for days. To think that I am actually appealing to other people, all over the Internet, is mind boggling. It's also nice to know that I'm not the only cynical teenager alive who seems to have a strong dislike for everything and pretty much agrees with all my points.
To be honest, I wasn't even expecting to still be blogging. Well, to be honest, if I went to University, I'm not sure I would have carried on. I in fact think, had I gone to University this year, today I would be posting my very last blog. So, to any regular readers out there - you should be grateful I got Chicken Pox. My target for the next year is to instead get my career sorted. Try and turn my blogging skills into a job in Journalism; even if it is just making coffee and tea for a few years. I hope not though, purely because I'm rubbish at making drinks and I would never get a promotion.
I read my very first blogs, and I am still quite happy with them. I seem to have the same, cynical mindset and hatred of the same things in society. Comparing them to my newer blogs, then you can honestly see an evolution in my writing ability. Obviously, that is at least partly due to the fact I have done A-level English Literature for two year, but I don't think that it the main reason. The more you write and practice, the better you get and that is exactly what regular blogging does. I make mistakes (quite regularly really, if I'm honest) and I realise them, or other people do, and that is exactly how you learn - by making mistakes. If you don't write, you can't make mistakes and you can't improve. Simples!
Another reason for my evolution is probably Charlie Brooker. The man is a God to me and certainly an idol and inspiration. I read his articles regularly and constantly reading every one of his Tweets. That has certainly impacted on my own writing. Now, I am reading his books which contain his best articles written for The Guardian. Reading them, I see a faint likeness to my own blogging these days. Even some of the metaphors are things that I would think up. I have slowly gained Charlie Brooker's mindset; and I'm not sure that is a healthy thing to do... Mind you, if he can be engaged to Konnie Huq, then it gives other Socially Inept people, like me, hope that we too can find a girl willing to love us.
I thoroughly enjoy blogging. I now have enough free time to allow me to always be blogging due to me being not very busy. The beginning half of the year didn't allow me to blog much, what with the impending A-level exams, so free time was little, and I missed blogging. It is a way of letting frustration out. Ranting about something, anything, seems to help. I find some of my better blogs are written when I'm in the worse moods. Anyway, blogging is free so therefore cheaper than physiatrists, so I'll stick with what I'm doing as it seems to work.
I love finding out Statistics about my blog. Last year, I done a word count of how many words I had written over the course of the year, and the end number was 46,587 words. Very impressive! However, in this second year, I smashed that record, despite writing fewer blogs. The magic number is 64,747 (including this blog); A rather high and unexpected number. Those of you good at maths or with access to a calculator, will know that means that over the course of two years I have written 111,334 words. How amazing. Granted it shows that I kind of need to develop a life and get out more rather than sitting in my room and hitting my keyboard with a red mist, trying to express my feelings, but who cares.
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The past year has been mainly reviews of things I have (or in the case of Big Brother, haven't) watched on TV or at the cinema. It is also filled with comments on world events like The World Cup or it is me giving my view on a news story and pretending to have a good awareness of politics. I know nothing really about Politics, but I like to pretend. I am glad to announce that the next year will much of the same. The next two blogs will be reviews of my favourite albums of the year. I have other blogs in the planning stage. I will, at some point, be doing a special about Advertising and how much they lie or annoy in order to sell their kitchen roll or service.
I also have other blogs scheduled for the end of the year. I plan on doing my usual Review Of My Year and also this year’s Stuart Awards, in which no-one wins a real award. There will also be a return of my blog reviewing My Comedy Nights. Hopefully they will all go well. Who knows what else is in store for the next year? I'm sure any disastrous world events will get their media coverage scrutinised and I'm long overdue a rant about the News and Gossip Magazines in general. I'm sure there will be more mundane blogs about my uninteresting life. We shall have to just see what the year has in store for me and the world.
You may have noticed the Jade Goody rants are becoming rare in my blogs. You see, the thing is, she's dead. She is failing to find new ways to annoy me in the media spotlight anymore, and what-with Big Brother dead, mentions of her will probably soon end. I don't want it to end, but I don't think I have a choice. I think it's the end of an era for Jade and my rants. However, my blogs will try and continue. I'll just have to rant about other things.
And on that sad bombshell, it's time to end...
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