This post is No. 2,000 since I started blogging here on May 14, 2009, less than five years ago. As I've said before, I may not be good, but I am prolific.
The big round number is as good a hook for a navel-gazing post as any. I have pared down the links on the right siderail, excising several dormant Free Press blogs and one of the AL Central blogs that simply wasn't getting updated. Also axed was a Twins blog (Twinkie Town) I seldom visit and even less seldom get anything out of. The rail links are selected as a means of easing my perusal of the Web, and I want to keep them tidy, tight and up-to-date.
As for the future of this blog ... steady as she goes. Two Twins bloggers I hold in esteem, Aaron Gleeman and Seth Stohs, occasionally make noises about abandoning the field. I understand that; blogging frequently and well is a time-consuming endeavor, and not necessarily financially lucrative.
My take on it is this: As long as the rewards are worth the effort, you keep going. (This is true of any endeavor, not merely blogging, and the rewards don't have to be monetary.) I get enough out of blogging about baseball in general and the Twins in particular to continue putting something into it. Someday I may decide I have something better to do with the time. That day has not arrived.
Showing posts with label Inside the blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inside the blog. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Photo day on this end
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| The Associated Press has supplied a sharply focused photo of Joe Mauer's bat. Why is another matter. |
When photo day comes, I know that I'll be spending a few hours downloading and preparing mug shots from the Associated Press feed. Which I did Wednesday, about two hours of work on something like 71 photos.
It's not a complete set. It never is. Last year I didn't get a Casey Fien mug, and figured, well, he's not going to make the team, I won't miss it. He wound up pitching 35 innings with a 2.06 ERA for the Twins, and yeah, I wanted a Fien mug in August. In 2011 it was Ron Gardenhire's image missing, of all people.
This year's missing guys are Lester Oliveros and Nick Blackburn, both of whom I have from previous seasons anyway. And bullpen coach Bobby Cuellar, who I don't.
I may never need a photo of the bullpen coach; I think the only time I used a Rick Stelmaszek mug was when the Twins let him go last year. On the other hand, if in midseason Gardenhire and Rick Anderson get the ax, Cuellar is the most likely successor to Anderson as pitching coach.
Much of my work today will go for naught; if Ray Olmedo or Eric Fryer ever play for the Twins, it will be a bad sign indeed. But I'm ready if there ever is a time when their image is relevant.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Bravely into 2013
New Year's Day is a conventional time to assess and adjust; there's something about a fresh set of numbers for the date that suggests that a fresh beginning -- and improvement -- is possible.
So let's assess the blog.
I put up 416 posts here in 2012, which sounds like a lot but is actually my fewest in a full calendar year since setting up shot in this corner of the Internet. I missed posting, I believe, on two calendar days, one of them Christmas and the other (if I recall correctly) on a travel day. I may not be good, but I am prolific.
I've already this offseason made a few changes on the siderail. The rule of thumb here is that I regularly visit those sites; it irritates me when I click on sidelink on other blogs and find that the link is to a long inactive site. By and large, if I have a link to it, it's an active site that I actually use myself; if I don't use it, I'm not linking to it.
But there are exceptions. I'm sticking with a couple of Free Press blogs that have gone dormant, if not moribund, just in case those colleagues reactivate their blogs. And I'm clinging to the hope that Carl Skanberg's cartoon blog will kick back in someday.
Anyway, I dropped a couple of sites I didn't use much, and I added three blogs from cities with Twins minor league affiliates. Those three may not be strictly about the minor league teams, but that's the basis for adding them. To the extent that the blogs are about the affiliates, they figure to be quiet during the offseason. We'll see how this plays out. (I'd still love to find more afflilates blogs, esp. from Fort Myers and Elizabethton, two cities now unaccounted for.)
For a while I had a functioning Twitter feed, but that widget failed. Finding a new one is on my list of things to do here, but that can wait until I've devised a use for my Twitter account that goes beyond announcing a new post. (If you're at the blog, you don't need to know that I've put up a new post, so telling you that I have is rather pointless.)
Happy New Year, dear readers.
So let's assess the blog.
I put up 416 posts here in 2012, which sounds like a lot but is actually my fewest in a full calendar year since setting up shot in this corner of the Internet. I missed posting, I believe, on two calendar days, one of them Christmas and the other (if I recall correctly) on a travel day. I may not be good, but I am prolific.
I've already this offseason made a few changes on the siderail. The rule of thumb here is that I regularly visit those sites; it irritates me when I click on sidelink on other blogs and find that the link is to a long inactive site. By and large, if I have a link to it, it's an active site that I actually use myself; if I don't use it, I'm not linking to it.
But there are exceptions. I'm sticking with a couple of Free Press blogs that have gone dormant, if not moribund, just in case those colleagues reactivate their blogs. And I'm clinging to the hope that Carl Skanberg's cartoon blog will kick back in someday.
Anyway, I dropped a couple of sites I didn't use much, and I added three blogs from cities with Twins minor league affiliates. Those three may not be strictly about the minor league teams, but that's the basis for adding them. To the extent that the blogs are about the affiliates, they figure to be quiet during the offseason. We'll see how this plays out. (I'd still love to find more afflilates blogs, esp. from Fort Myers and Elizabethton, two cities now unaccounted for.)
For a while I had a functioning Twitter feed, but that widget failed. Finding a new one is on my list of things to do here, but that can wait until I've devised a use for my Twitter account that goes beyond announcing a new post. (If you're at the blog, you don't need to know that I've put up a new post, so telling you that I have is rather pointless.)
Happy New Year, dear readers.
Monday, April 16, 2012
I am now a twit who tweets
I have finally taken the plunge into Twitter. Or, more accurately, dipped my toes in the water of Twitter.
I've considered this for a while, and have held off in large part because I've never been sure exactly what I'd accomplish by being on Twitter. I still don't know. From what I can see, the baseball Twitterverse is divided into two parts: Breaking news/rumormongering and snark. My blog isn't a newsbreaker, and I prefer to offer context to snark. One hundred-forty characters doesn't lend itself to nuance. So ... I may surprise myself, but as of now I don't anticipate being particularly active.
Now that I have dampened your expectations, I hereby call your attention to the "Twitter update" section in my siderail. Follow me if you wish, don't if you don't.
I've considered this for a while, and have held off in large part because I've never been sure exactly what I'd accomplish by being on Twitter. I still don't know. From what I can see, the baseball Twitterverse is divided into two parts: Breaking news/rumormongering and snark. My blog isn't a newsbreaker, and I prefer to offer context to snark. One hundred-forty characters doesn't lend itself to nuance. So ... I may surprise myself, but as of now I don't anticipate being particularly active.
Now that I have dampened your expectations, I hereby call your attention to the "Twitter update" section in my siderail. Follow me if you wish, don't if you don't.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
A blog maintenance day
Rather than cudgel what remains of my brains for a fresh post this morning, I spent my "blog time" on other aspects of it.
Some of what I did is meaningless for you (but not for me). Some of it is obvious — I've set up a magic number watch that is probably pretty difficult to miss — and some isn't.
A quick tour of what matters to you, Dear Reader:
Magic number: Don't expect to see this updated within minutes of a game. It might happen that quickly, but more likely not, since I work more nights than not. It should reflect the magic number as of that morning at the very least.
Search: I've added a "Search the blog" function; you'll find it under the blog archives. I've tried a few searches and don't think it's perfect, but it's better than nothing.
Newsbobber: I have a number of other Twins-oriented blogs listed on the siderail. This isn't a blog, but a list of blogs with links. If you're looking for more Twins to read, check some of them out.
Some of what I did is meaningless for you (but not for me). Some of it is obvious — I've set up a magic number watch that is probably pretty difficult to miss — and some isn't.
Magic number: Don't expect to see this updated within minutes of a game. It might happen that quickly, but more likely not, since I work more nights than not. It should reflect the magic number as of that morning at the very least.
Search: I've added a "Search the blog" function; you'll find it under the blog archives. I've tried a few searches and don't think it's perfect, but it's better than nothing.
Newsbobber: I have a number of other Twins-oriented blogs listed on the siderail. This isn't a blog, but a list of blogs with links. If you're looking for more Twins to read, check some of them out.
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