50 Years and 500 Posts
(image via wikimedia)
This might be a self-indulgent post. If you think so, I’ll understand. Still, it’s tough to resist. I noticed last week that my post about introverts was my 499th blog entry. I also realized that my 50th birthday was on the day that I normally publish something on my blog. If I kept to my normal schedule, I would publish Dysfunctional Literacy’s 500th post on my 50th birthday.
So here it is, my 500th post on my 50th birthday.
My 50th birthday feels kind of weird. My daughters keep saying the word “fifty” around me. A few months ago, I thought about having a Nifty Fifty party, but I don’t like parties, and I would have felt uncomfortable being the center of attention at my own party. I didn’t want to spend my 50th birthday feeling uncomfortable. If my wife wants to have a party for her own Nifty Fifty (which won’t be for a while), I wouldn’t mind throwing her a party because I wouldn’t have to be the center of attention.
I didn’t know if I should do anything outlandish for my 500th blog entry either. Maybe I should have done a BEST OF DYSFUNCTIONAL LITERACY 500th POST CELEBRATION. But that might have come across as obnoxious. Some of my posts are obnoxious, but I didn’t want my 500th post to be obnoxious. If I get to 1,000 posts, I’ll do something obnoxious. I might even throw a party.
Just so you know, it didn’t take me 50 years to write 500 posts. I started blogging just under five years ago. I’m not sure how long it takes most bloggers to reach 500 posts. Right now my goal is to write at least one post per week, but sometimes I’ll get two if I think of an extra idea. At one point, I was writing three posts, but I was really grouchy around the house trying to keep up with my writing, so my wife told me to cut back. I can write one post each week without getting grouchy. It’s not that I get grouchy when I write. I get grouchy when I write and get interrupted, and with my family, there are almost always interruptions.
500 posts seems like a lot to me. I can’t even remember what most of them were about. It’s probably a bad sign that I can’t remember most of what I wrote. Either I have a bad memory, or most of my writing is forgettable. I’m not sure which is worse.
I wonder if it’s normal for writers to forget what they’ve written. Has Stephen King forgotten about some of his early short stories? Has James Patterson ever forgotten a novel that somebody else wrote for him? That would be great, to make lots of money from a book that you forgot somebody else wrote for you.
Maybe it’s not a big deal to not remember everything I wrote. I don’t remember every day of my life either. I would like to remember something from every day of my life, but the human brain probably isn’t capable of that. My daughters keep journals where they write their favorite and least favorite event of each day. I hope they keep those journals. They started writing those journals a couple years ago, so they won’t be able to recall every day from their early childhoods, but at least they will have decent records of their teenage years. Those journals would be great for them to have when they’re 50. I hope I’m around to see it, but that would make me about…
Uh, never mind. I’m pretty sure I can make it, but I don’t want to plan that far ahead. I don’t even know what I’m going to write about next week.
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What do you think? Do you remember everything you have written? At what number of posts would you do an obnoxious BEST OF… for your blog? What’s a good alternative to throwing a party if you don’t like being at parties?
Dysfunctional Literacy 
Reblogged this on perfectlyfadeddelusions.
I have been a quite reader of your blog. But I find it appropriate to break my silence on this momentous occasion. Here is wishing you reading your daughters’ journals when they celebrate their fifties!
Thank you! At the rate they’re writing, it’s going to be a lot of journals, but that will be a good problem to have.
And thank you for breaking your silence!
I’m not nearly at 500, and I already don’t remember most of what I’ve written. But then we should think of it as a good thing – if we wouldn’t have written it down, we would have forgotten that we ever had that thought.
What you write is a lot more difficult to do than what I write. If I wrote the kinds of lists that you do, there’s no way I’d be close to 500 (or even 100).
“-if we wouldn’t have written it down, we would have forgotten that we ever had that thought.” Good point!
I don’t remember everything I have written. How I wish my mother didn’t give my diary to my father so he will have no chance to light a bonfire with it. I don’t like parties too and I hate crowds so on my birthday I always have a little me time. I don’t feel like writing whatever you feel like is obnoxious no matter how frequent that might be. The readers have always a choice; to read or not to read. Happy Birthday. You are older than me by two years.
Best party is a book-and-tea-or-coffee party. Or something else as long as it wouldn’t involve too many people. Or whatever..it’s your day and you rock. 🙂 Happy birthday! More thoughts to share.
A coffee party might be a great idea. Coffee is about the only thing that gets me to start talking, and at a party, talking is essential.
Happy birthday and happy 500th post – and no, it’s not self-indulgent at all, it’s a great cause to celebrate!
Happy b-day! Whew, 500 posts…you’ve certainly been busy!
500 posts sounds pretty good to me. I’ve only been blogging for four months and I’ve already forgotten a lot of what I wrote (but then I’m older than you). The thing is, with a blog, you’ve got it all in one place and you can always look it up. So what you are creating is not so much a blog as a repository – a second self, a storehouse for all your ideas, dreams and ambitions.
Happy Birthday! Not throwing a huge party is perfectly fine, and actually sounds better to me, too. Well done reaching 500 posts, too! I probably don’t remember everything I’ve written on my blog so far (and some of the things I have I wish I hadn’t) but I don’t think I’ll ever do a best-off. It seems like a strange thing for my blog about me writing a book. The best-off can be the end result.
Congratulations on the birthday and the big 500 blog posts. I can’t remember a fraction of my blog posts either and I haven’t reached 200 yet – I have a nasty feeling I’ve already repeated or near-repeated a few themes …
Your blog is kind of like your daughters’ journals – a record of what you did and how you felt about books and writing at least.
So, as long as we don’t have a zombie apocalypse which drives us all back to pre-industrial, Medieval style living, your blog will also be there for your girls to read when they’re fifty. 🙂
Happy belated birthday! MIne was the 26th! We Saggitarian do love to talk, now don’t we. We are governed by the throat chakra after all! (Or so they say).
Happy 50th birthday and congratulations on 500 posts! Keep on going, enjoy and hope your “muse” never runs out on you. 🙂
Congrats on both accounts, been a genuine pleasure reading your posts:)
Happy Birthday!!! I’ve enjoyed your posts since I started following your blog. Congratulations on reaching 500 posts 🙂
Happy birthday and congratulations! 🙂
Congrats on your milestones. Keep the faith. I always enjoy your insight and humor.
Oh, and I loved that James Patterson jab you threw in there. HA!
I had to go check. I’ve written 564. I remember thinking that I would stop when I reached 360. You know, full circle. But I’m still hanging in there, although posting less of late – and visiting fine blogs like yours when I can. I’ve noticed most bloggers run out of gas. So congrats on the 500 and on the 50 too.