Blogging for the Holidays: Wrap-up
The ninth and final post in my Blogging for the Holidays project. Just a little wrap-up post to tie a bow around the whole thing.
Well, it’s hard to believe but my two weeks of vacation are coming to a close and tomorrow morning I return to the grind. It says a lot about my mental state before my break that I feel like another two weeks would be welcome, but alas, until I manage to earn myself a sabbatical or, some day, retirement, I suppose this will have to do.
As for this blogging project, I’m really glad I set myself this writing goal! For folks who have their own blog but struggle to get motivated to write, this approach–setting a queue of topics over a fixed period of time and then tackling them steadily–was very motivating and rewarding! I definitely recommend it as a fun way to get inspired.
I was particularly happy with how a theme emerged across the various posts. And I felt pretty darn smug when, in the January 1st episode of Slate Money, Stacey-Marie Ishmael, a writer and journalist who’s much smarter and articulate than me, summarized the theme of this blog series: the pandemic is making the invisible visible. I have to admit, when I heard her say that, I felt a rush of validation that maybe I was onto something!
So, where did I end up clocking in? Well, over the course of the last two weeks, counting short posts, I wrote a grand total of approximately 13700 words. Counting only long form posts, roughly 12900 or about 800 words a day. Not bad at all! And I know of at least one person who actually read most of them!1
Anyway, for folks who weren’t following this project as it was being published and want to check it out, here’s a list of the long form posts in the order in which they were written:
- Blogging for the Holidays
- Grappling with Viruses
- Grappling with Statistics
- Revisiting The Lord of the Rings
- Grappling with Misinformation
- Grappling with Supply Chains
- Grappling with Labour Markets
- Grappling with Inflation
- A New Years Post
For those few people who actually stuck it out and read these posts, either as they were written or afterward, thank you! I hope they were interesting and worth the time.
And for those folks who’ve heard me going on about these topics throughout 2021 and still read these posts, a special shout out! You’re a trooper!2
Finally, I hope everyone had a happy holidays in spite of all the difficulties of the past two years, and I truly believe this next year we’ll see things start to get better.
Have a fantastic 2022!
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@brettkosinski I have enjoyed reading a couple of your posts - I hope that reentry to the grind has been kind.
I particularly liked this comment in Grappling with Misinformation
"But deep down I think there’s something more fundamental going on: I think people find themselves frustrated and bewildered by a world we don’t understand, and so they’re looking for certainty and simplicity in an increasingly uncertain, complicated, and rapidly changing world."
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@qldnick Thanks for bringing up that post. I hadn’t read it. I think Brett is on to something. The Make America Great Again is something that certainly can resonate with you if all the uncertainty and perceived uncertainty of today’s rapidly changing world makes you feel disconnected and forgotten about. I think one of the things people don’t consider, is that this happened to a large extent before also, except we didn’t hear or read about it. I don’t know what the solution for the broken trust and sense of not belonging is. I hope it doesn’t take a war, or shutting down the internet*. @brettkosinski
*) It’s worth it if it cures the problem.
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@qldnick Thanks so much for the kind words! I will admit, as the new year has begun, the idea of a sabbatical has become increasingly attractive...
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It seems to me (in my little corner of the world in sunny Australia) that part of the problem is the thrust toward divisiveness. Bridges between ideas and thoughts and beliefs are not being built, but they are being guarded. Which makes it even more difficult to cross from one side to the other.
Questions based on 'this or that', 'what is your opinion' (on matters that you probably have little right having an opinion on), and the accessibility of the broader network of knowledge (internet) don't help. Comment sections on fb are a dumpster fire with an eternal fuel source. Thoughtful and well-reasoned insights seem to be paywalled or produced in non-accessible lanuage (i.e. academic speak). The answer for me has been to want to know more and go looking for nuanced discussion and a range of views.
I concur absolutely, war and censorship can't be the answers!
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@brettkosinski I'd never be one to discourage a sabbatical!
qldnick
odd
brettkosinski
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