Here’s to 1,000

When I started this blog, my goal was to share, reflect on, and preserve the memories and experiences I had of growing up in the ‘80s. It was a formative decade. I was in Grade 5 when it began, and part way through my third year of university when the clock struck midnight on December 31, 1989. Starting out as a young boy it concluded as a young man.

Much of my reflection has been on pop culture, whether TV, movies or music; sports; and news. It’s funny how so many memories are attached to songs, shows or events. I knew I had a lot I wanted to write and reflect on, but I never imagined it would eventually add up to 1,000 posts, with really no end in sight.

It has been just over 12 years since this blog launched and, at 1,000 posts, I have observed some interesting things.

Attribution and sources
Being a trained journalist, one of the things I am very cognizant about is attribution and plagiarism. I rely heavily on Wikipedia as my primary source of material. It is a pretty incredible resource.

I try to cite it directly when I find it puts something better than I can, especially when it is background information that I may not have known. Otherwise, I try to share my own recollection.

Something I have discovered, especially after I start a blog post by reading what Wikipedia says, is how often other websites will essentially copy and paste exactly what is on Wikipedia. What makes this extra disappointing is this is not exclusive to blogs or personal websites, but actual mainstream media outlets, and the official websites of professional organizations. I would expect them to do their own research, or at the very least rewrite Wikipedia entries.

What this really does though, is limit the voices out there. If I Google a topic, hundreds of websites come up. However, when I start reading through website after website, the same information appears – often word for word. I get it. If I am looking for a few sentences of background information to go in a story, the easiest way is to get it from Wikipedia. The thing is, with the Internet becoming the source of information, this is limiting.

That is why I try to dig deeper, look at a lot of websites, and look up the reference listed on Wikipedia to get more and different information.

Ideally, what I would like to do, and have done in the past, is actually go to primary sources, particularly past issues of periodicals such as “The Lethbridge Herald”, “Billboard Magazine”, “TV Guide”, and others.

Ideas and inspiration
A couple years ago, I mused about the goal of getting to 1,000 posts then thinking about what is next – keep going or stop? Would I have enough ideas to even get to 1,000, much less keep going.

I knew it meant having to write every day, which I have tried to do.

The challenge is to keep finding ideas every single day.

As it turns out, that really has not been a problem at all, and does not seem to be going forward. One of the sad things is that the people of that era are dying off, so eulogizing them provides a fair bit of material. So does anniversaries. That happens mostly in sports, when an athlete hits a milestone of some kind.

When there are no deaths or anniversaries, my go-to is the celebrity birthdays for that day. Only once or twice have their been no celebrities to blog about. Often, there are more than one. The other cool thing is that checking out celebrity birthdays provides names I would never have thought of but, when I see them, may be flooded by memories.

I guess that’s pretty much the definition of inspiration.

Production and process
After 1,000 posts, I do have to ask myself, am I tired of doing this? Is it becoming a grind or like work? The answer is no.

There are days when I don’t write, and that just causes the work to pile up. However, what I have discovered is that starting is the hardest part. That seems to be the story of all aspects of my life. Once I get started, I get into a flow that really takes on a life of its own, and I just want to keep going and going. Often, when I start late in the evening, I regret not starting earlier, because I get into this flow late in the day, when I really have to go to bed.

Earlier this year I had a streak of more than 40 straight days, and I put up more than 50 total posts in the month of June. The key to that production was starting earlier, before distractions sunk in their teeth, and writing every day.

Something I realized a long time ago. It is satisfying to write, but just as satisfying or moreso to have written. It is exceptionally gratifying for me to look back at a day of writing and see what I accomplished, or read something I wrote and going, “I can’t believe I wrote that.”

Parting thoughts
Having said I what I just did, I can’t believe I have written 1,000 posts. It is gratifying and energizing and motivating.

It is hard to imagine, and testament to achieving a goal by chipping away at it every day. One thousand posts seemed almost insurmountable to me at times, but doing a little bit every day piles up, and soon you’re there.

And I am here, with no end in sight.

So here’s to 1,000.