Rant #2,649: Written On the Wind

Today is May 6, but an anniversary passed that I think should be noted.
 
On May 4, the Ranting and Raving Blog turned 12 years old.
 
Although not yet ready for its bar mitzvah, this blog that you are reading has made it through a dozen years, and right at the top, I have to thank you for supporting it as much as you have.
 
Way back in May 2009—when things were very, very much different than they are today—I decided that I needed another outlet to vent, to talk, to chat, and to basically get off my chest exactly what I was thinking.
 
I had been a professional writer for a number of years then, but I was always pigeonholed into writing what my employers wanted me to write, which was entirely understandable.
 
But as a writer, I did not want to be straitjacketed, and since I love to write, why not write some more, but write about stuff that I was interested in … whether it was a current event or news item, or record collecting, or baseball, or about people who put glue on their heads or women who feel the need to show themselves off in the latest bikinis.
 
So I started the Ranting and Raving Blog to satisfy my need to write, write, and write some more about the things I wanted to write about.
 
If you wanted to join me and read my writing, that was fine with me.
 
And if you had an opposing viewpoint, that was fine with me too.
 
And over the past 12 years, the blog has taken me to places I never thought I would discuss or go to, but it pretty much is shaped by what I want to talk about.
 
The incredible thing about the blog is that probably 75 percent of the time, I have no idea what I am going to write about on that particular day.
 
Today was such a day.
 
I had no idea what subject I was going to pursue today, and when I sat down at my computer, it kind of dawned on me that the blog’s anniversary was coming up. I kind of remember that because I know I created this thing right after my birthday and right before my daughter’s birthday, but I never remember the exact date of its creation.
 
So yes, I missed it by two days, but what the heck … as I said, I write what I want to write about, so why not write about the blog’s 12th anniversary, even though it is a few days late?
 
And in 2022, the blog will celebrate its 13th anniversary, so it will have its own literary bar mitzvah, which I think it pretty neat.
 
And even though a few years ago, during an April Fools Day spoof, I said I was giving up writing this blog, the truth of the matter is that the blog is more important than ever to me, and I have no intention of giving it up any time soon.
 
It is just too much fun to write each weekday, so what, me worry?
 
Twelve years of this isn’t too much. As far as I am concerned, I haven’t even gotten started … which is sort of a white lie, but you just know that there are plenty of other things that I will have the chance to write about using this forum to put my thoughts down on.
 
And no, I have never gotten a dollar out of this blog. It is incentivized, but no one clicks on the ads, so I don’t get any money from that.
 
I don’t even have the blog spread across search pages, because I am really not interested in that.
 
I want to keep it small and nice and cozy.
 
Yes, I do put it up on Facebook each day in two of my members-only sites there, but that is simply as an added feature of those two sites.
 
I do put up a teaser each day on Facebook for the general public to read what I have to say, but generally, the blog has a small audience, and that is what I like about it—you read it if you want to read it.
 
What is next for the blog?
 
I don’t know, other than I will continue to put out product each weekday into the foreseeable future.
 
I toyed with taking the blog to YouTube and making it something of a “vlog,” but at least right now, that doesn’t appeal to me.
 
I was also thinking about maybe doing the same thing on Facebook, making it sort of a daily video blog, but that doesn’t really appeal to me right now.
 
I am a writer, not a performer or an actor, so why not do what I do best and just write, write and write some more?
 
The last time I acted was in a school play in third grade, where I was a painter, wearing a beret and a false beard. I don’t remember how that fit into the play, but my previous acting experience was in the second grade, where I played the Farmer in the Dell.
 
My one line was, “Ask the white cock. He will tell you where to go.”
 
After reciting that golden line, I should have known my acting days were over and done with right then and there, but it took me one more year to really cement my place in the “has-been-but-never-was” acting category, so I think I will just stick with writing for now.
 
Let me tell you, the past 12 years have been fun, and I hope to continue to do this for as long as I like.
 
So, as I celebrate the 12th anniversary of the blog, albeit two days late, all I can say is the following:
 
“Write On!”