Of Fireworks and Nostalgic Groans

I was enthusiastic, I was eager to start, and it was in a bout of adrenaline and probably a little more than just a bit of madness that I texted N and asked him how I would go about starting a blog.

It was that, and the internet just happened to be on right then, too. Facebook was boring, no one was on chat, and I couldn’t think of anything to watch on YouTube.

Basically, I had nothing else to do.

N replied, “Try Blogspot.”

I shrugged, “Why not?”

I clicked the mouse, typed, hit enter, and sat back as the tiny circle spun.

I sniffed, and clicked on the blue link: “create an account.”

I scratched my head, shrugged, tapped a beat on the table. This bit I hadn’t thought through.

I made my decision, roughly half a minute later. I leaned over and typed, “M… A… T…”

 Six months and two weeks later, and here I am.

Right now, I have over 4,200 followers on Google Plus. I also have 416 followers on Twitter, an account I opened in May and I still don’t use as much as I’m supposed to. There are 136 people who have me as friends on Facebook… and think that a small number if you will, but I use Facebook for the people who I connect with on a daily basis. It’s also the home of The Iron Writers, and its useful not to have too many people on there since it reduces the mess.

Send me a request and if you’re civil, interesting, and can hold a decent conversation, I’ll add you in a heartbeat. But for now, 136 is good enough.

Why, I hear you ask, do I bother giving you all these stats? It’s certainly not like you came here carrying concern for how my fan base was doing at the moment or anything. It’s not certain why you came here at all, one could point out, but bear with me, the worst will be over soon.

Why, again you ask, do I harp on about the numbers and sound so nostalgic? (Yes, I did sound nostalgic, thank you for not noticing)

The answer, fear not, is simple enough. For this, my friends, is post number 50.

Oh yes. I can hardly believe it myself. The big five-oh, the half century, The milestone so far. Being here right now and looking back at my progress, I think to myself that it probably wasn’t as hard as I made it out to be half the time… but then I remember how hard it really was most of the time. That’s when I just tell myself to shut up, and move on down to the next stile by memory lane.

Starting out, I knew nothing of what I know today. I was an amateur, and I had high expectations. Lucky for me, those hopes were squished right at the first week when total pageviews were 21 for about six days straight (that number being seared into my mind) and I hadn’t the slightest clue what to do other than sit down and twiddle my thumbs waiting for someone to stumble onto my first post like the little grey rock jutting out of the ground that it was.

I’m not saying it’s a mountain right now, but I’m getting there, one post at a time. I’m a guy with pretty long term goals, so I know it’s going to take work and time to build anything worthwhile. And though I’m never keen on the former (never, I tell you), I know that it’s necessary before that worthwhile thing is achieved.

It’s what kept me going on for the first month, a bland set of posts that I cringe when I look back on. Why don’t I edit them and make them more bearable? Simple answer, I also happen to be very nostalgic. Roll your eyes, sure, yeah, whatever.

  

I remember my first milestone post, the one I made when I reached number ten, and the second one I wrote when I reached number twenty. This is me reading through them again now:

Not that my writing is any better now, but, see, I’m trying to get you thinking that it is. That’s kind of my job with all the shameless promotion and arrows I hang up everywhere. So yeah, it’s definitely much better now. Oh, yes. Take my word for it.

Another milestone for me was when I first met Brian Rogers on Facebook, in a lucky set of coincidences with probably a one-in-a-million chance of happening. Overdramatizing much? Nope.

Joining the Iron Writers was one of the best things that could have happened to me after I began. Since then, I have done five challenges now, all of which I posted here in the blog (under the label ‘challenge’ in the list of labels on the right). I even managed to get into the quarterly Tournament held every three months, and (amazingly) qualified for the Final, in which I am currently battling it out to see who wins.

Five of these cursed challenges, and I think I’m actually getting better at flash fiction. Or not.

It was in May did I realize what I was missing out by not getting involved with Google Plus. Make amends I did, and that’s when things began to get a lot more interesting. I am growing followers by the day, and though not all of them have even seen this site, it still gives me a large crowd to toss out my posts to and see who takes the bait. Err, I mean, who decides to check out this awesome site.

And that’s a brief history of Ramblings and Ravings, the dedicated, six-month old blog of Mathew Wordweaver’s that might not seem so dedicated after all but he keeps it covered up, so there's no reason to worry.

 This site has given me a lot. A hell of a pile of unwanted workload, constant, consistent, never ending deadlines, hours of tracking and redirecting traffic. This guy probably gets it way easier than I do.

And he gets paid for it, too. (grumble)

  

But that’s all worth it, since the blog also gave me a wonderful sense of purpose, and something a whole lot more precious: friends.

You guys.

All of you who talk to me, who commented and still comment on my posts, who keep coming back over and over… I owe all of you more thanks than I believe I can ever show you. It was you guys who made me believe I could do this. It was for you guys that I keep going, every day.

And a special thanks to my pal, N, who never complains about finding fault with my writing and criticizing the heck out of my work, anytime I need him to. I owe you loads, man.

So, at the end of this lengthy script, the compulsory point to the meandering thoughts:

Against all odds, here I still am, still chugging along. This is the end of Post 50.

Will I get to a 100?

Only one way to find out.