I had my two year blog anniversary a couple of days ago. Yippee and all that jazz. Two years of blogging – it’s been, for the most part, an enjoyable learning curve. Of all the things I find I need to do on social media, I must say the blog is my favourite.
The first year of blogging on WordPress, I opted to pay extra for my own domain name. I didn’t regret that choice. This year, I’ve decided to go with the upgrade that means no advertising placed on my blog by anyone but me, more storage space, the option to do a bit of custom design and the use videos or audio files. You never know when I might decide to go multi-media.
To date, I’ve posted 271 times (this post will be 272). My blog has had over 31,000 views and almost 3000 comments. I currently have 2244 followers (if WordPress will ever get around to updating my Facebook and Twitter numbers and adding them in). Not bad for two years of effort. Small potatoes to some, I’m sure, but I’m thrilled.
Naturally, I wanted to celebrate my anniversary – if only because the WordPress people were so kind as to remind me of the date with a nifty little gold cup icon on my stats page. But I couldn’t. I was in the midst of serious laptop problems which puts me into high-anxiety mode. I call anything serious that I can’t rectify myself. I had to send my laptop into town to a computer whiz kid and have him back-up all my files and do a complete reformat. If I’d known that was needed, I could have probably handled it on my own but ever the optimist, I hoped it would be something a bit simpler. No such luck.
I had two days to mope around the house reflecting on my total lack of flexibility and complete dependence on an electronic gadget. We have other laptops in the house and I defaulted to my old Dell (practically pulling it out of Bruce’s hands – that’s how things work around here. When I get a new laptop, he inherits the old one). But of course the Dell doesn’t look or act anything like my newer model HP and it bugged the hell out of me. As you can imagine, Bruce’s suggestion that at least I had another computer to use (and could be grateful for that) fell on deaf ears.
But seriously, I haven’t been out of sight or touch of my laptop for almost two years – I’ve spent more time looking at the screen than I have doing anything else (and believe me, that statement just gave me pause for serious thought). I described this to Bruce as analogous to him going out to his truck one morning and finding that every single tool he owned was gone. How would he work? How would he feel? Like it or not, this bit of electronic gadgetry represents all my tools rolled into one package. I can’t do my job (writing) without it.
All the angst is behind me now. My laptop came back – emptied, fresh and new, except the one backup folder on the desktop. I didn’t lose anything. It was time consuming to reinstall Office and a few of my other go-to programs. It took most of last night for Windows to get itself totally updated and I had to do my own manual update to reinstall Window Live Writer 2012. I can’t blog without that tool! iTunes reinstalled with all my playlists intact. Everything is back to the way it was before the problems.
Except this low-level anxiety – what if it happens again? I resolve to check out a more systematic way of backing up my work. But knowing myself, I probably will put that off (my human nature being what it is).
I will end by saying: Happy two year blogging anniversary to me – albeit a couple of days late. I send out so many thanks to all the wonderful people who follow my blog, read my posts, like and put up the great comments that keep me motivated. I am also grateful for the many bloggers I have discovered and follow – I’ve learned so much from so many of you.
disappearinginplainsight 
I really like this post . The sentiment your’e trying to convey is so aptly put.
Well done 🙂
Thanks for dropping by, Akriti. I had sentiment going for sure over the laptop issues. But all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well – eventually. The Zen of Computer Maintenance 🙂
Glad your laptop is back to working condition. Congrats on 2 years!
Thanks, Trent – glad you dropped by.
Congratulations 🙂
It does feel good to have the computer back working and be a somewhat experienced blogger.
happy anniversary, that is a big accomplishment. it seems many come and go, and less are in this for the long haul. i’m very dependent on my laptop as well and understand your description and feelings about what happened perfectly ) best, beth
Thanks, Beth 🙂 You have it right about how blogging is something that a person has to be willing to stick with for a good length of time in order to garner experience, gather a following, and become a trusted voice out in the blogosphere. It is not for the faint of heart because to do it right, though enjoyable, is both demanding and time consuming.
I just had my two year anniversary as well, Francis – we must be blogging twins! Congratulations and Happy Anniversary (and I’m glad your laptop is fixed – yikes, I’d be very lost without mine and I think it’s on the way out)
Now that is a fun idea, Dianne – find your blogging twin 🙂 I couldn’t be happier that we fit the criteria. The thing about having a computer scare is that even when it’s resolved one is apt to quiver over the keyboard every time the thing hiccups. When the anxiety gets too high, I usually end up trotting off to the electornic gadgetry palace to purchase something new – Bruce may end up with a hand-me-down in the near future.
I loved this peek into your life! Congrats on your anniversary…I’ve never celebrated mine!
Carol
http://www.carolcassara.com
Thanks, Carol. Since those wizards at WordPress are nice enough to send me a little gold cup – well, what can I do but a happy dance. Here’s to celebrating all the milestones – small and large.
That’s some impressive figures for two years. Well done!
Thanks and thank you for reading and taking the time to comment 🙂 Hope I’ll see you here on the comment page again soon.
Happy two year blogging anniversary! I really enjoyed your apt comparison of the loss of all of Bruce’s tools to your inability to use your usual laptop. I can completely commiserate. I am also very attached to my laptop and I use it almost everyday for writing, research, and other work. Please let me know if you find a good back-up program. I definitely need some sort of cheap but effective cloud type back-up program for my dissertation research and draft(s). I look forward to your next year of blogging!
Thanks so much, Chris. If I do get around to becoming a backupper, I’ll certainly let you know. And thanks for all your support and Facebook reposts of my blogs – we are only as successful as the network of people who surround us.
Having just passed my 1 year mark, I really admire you, Fran! You’re right, the blogging is more fun than other social media, in my opinion, but it is sometimes hard work since my name is on everything that appears there and I’m more of a perfectionist than I ever knew. Congrats!
Oh, and on the computer front, one word: Mac!
I agree with you, Kevin. Once you go Mac, you never go back. 🙂
Thanks, Kevin. I accepted, fairly early in the process, that I could give my blog more freedom than any book I wrote could have – by freedom, I mean that it can be more like a conversation with me. That doesn’t cut it when it comes to books. Still, I agree – blogging is hard work and like many things, it seems to be a craft that continually requires updating and new learning. Oh, you Mac people – I can’t wrap my head around such a major change.
Congratulations on your two year anniversary, Fran! For me, blogging is much more intimate than other social media. I would never learn all about your beautiful grandkids, storyboards, your husband’s awesome photographs, through Facebook. Interacting on each other’s blogs is how we develop relationships. I love it! Happy to hear you got your laptop fixed. That is the worst feeling!
Thanks, Jill. That is exactly how I have come to feel about blogging – that intimate quality of reaching out to share things that matter to me with others. It is about developing relationships.
Happy anniversary, Fran, and I feel privileged to have followed you for most of those two years. I have to agree, of all the social media outlets, blogging tops my list, too. I had to laugh out loud at your recounting of your laptop’s absence from your life for two agonizing days, and coincidentally, I can relate at this very moment. I’m visiting a writing friend in North Carolina this weekend, and we have big plans for a mini writing retreat, which will commence a couple short hours from now. I hauled out the laptop moments after I woke up (as I do every morning), got myself situated in my hotel room’s nifty little desk nook, and discovered I had forgotten to pack my computer mouse! Arrgh! I hate using those touch pads – how am I going to survive a mini writing retreat without my mouse?! Luckily I have not left the civilized world, and Target is only a 5-minute drive away. So I shall be purchasing a new mouse the moment the store opens its doors. Phew! One more First World Problem solved. 🙂
Thanks so much, Gwen. The following feeling is definitely mutual. As I laughed at your 1st world problem, I understood exactly what you meant. The cost of an external mouse is a small price to pay for a smooth and productive writer’s mini retreat. I, too, cannot function on a laptop without my trusty external mouse. Yippee for close by Targets.
Phew, Fran – and I get my computer back. . . the truth being, it was a nice break.
Ha, ha – until you started it up this morning and found I had changed things.
You two crack me up. Commenting and replying to each other by way of the blog. Couldn’t you just yell back and forth to each other? 😉
Congrats to you Fran. Without our laptops, we are truly bereft. 🙂
Truly, truly – thus it is so – I’m listening to slightly scratchy RPM record of Richard III right now – an entire series of Shakespearean plays on RPM that we seemed to inherit. What a treasure. Odd language is finding its way into my brain.
Hi, I followed you here from Ariana’s Cafe on Facebook. Congrats on your 2-year blogiversary! I’ve been thinking about paying the extra for my own domain name but just never get around to doing it. It sounds like you’d recommend it?
Hi Michael – thanks for dropping by. I do recommend the domain name – on its own it’s relatively inexpensive and I like the less clunky look and sound when I tell people I blog at disappearinginplainsight.com rather than having to throw WordPress in there as well.
Happy blogoversary Fran and many more of them.
Most welcome, Roy. In for the long haul – right?