Life is strange. While I was in Boston for the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting in November, something unusual happened. For a few days back then this blog was getting a lot of traffic. I mean, a lot. For me. In fact, I posted about when I finally shot past a million hits. I couldn’t figure out why. Well, things have settled back to their usual trickle and I figured it was just “one of those things.” Pleased but not obsessed, I went back to my usual blend of observations about life, dark academia, and horror movies. Then, and I can’t recollect exactly how I saw it, I noticed that my old blogging buddy Dan McClellan had, about that time given me a shoutout on his social media. Then I remembered that I’d run into Dan at the conference and we’d had a brief chat.
The pieces began to fit together. (Thanks, Dan!) I’ve known a few fairly well-known people over the years. Most of them are academics, and a few of them clergy. Occasionally an author who has made a name for him or herself. Some of them sometimes give me shoutouts but I’d never seen the numbers tick up like they had after this particular one. I can’t figure out blog stats. During the early years of this blog I had quite a bit of traffic. I remember that in 2015 my views plummeted precipitously. They’ve stayed at that low level ever since. Until last year. Now they’re headed back to normal, post 2015-levels. I’ve tried some other platforms such as YouTube, but they take a lot more time and lead to limited hits. Some influencers suggest I should try podcasting again.
I do have plans to bring the podcast back. It takes several hours to make such an entry into internetdom. I started podcasting when I began this blog (well, actually the blog was started by one of my nieces when a family member suggested I should podcast). What happened? I lost my job at Gorgias Press and I had to spend the next five years trying to find full-time employment in a stable environment. By the time stability returned I figured podcasts were dead because everybody was watching videos. I may have done a Mark Twain there. Podcasts are still popular. When I can get a chunk of time, and a nip of courage, I may rush back into the fray again. At this point, I had my maybe fifteen days of fame in someone else’s shadow. Life is strange.
