Ponderings

I started this blog way back in 2008 for three reasons. First, as a promotional tool for my “diet” book. Second, as a public outlet for my writing. Third, as a way for rich people to find me and send me large bags of money on a regular basis.

The astute reader will recognize the above paragraph as the opening to the most popular BTTF post of the last three years. But I don’t mind using it again, because it’s still true. In January of that year, after heavy pondering, I put the blog on hold. And it probably would have stayed that way had it not been for nature’s little speedbump.

And once again, just like January 2012, I find myself pondering the future of this blog. But quite unlike January 2012, I’ve come to the opposite decision: let’s do this. And it’s not to promote my now-aging book nor to receive bags of money (though I’m not completely ruling out either of those). But that second reason still stands. The fact is, I like to come up with interesting ways of stringing words together, and there should always be multiple outlets for that.

What To Do, What To Do

One issue hasn’t changed from January 2012. Quoting myself, “What would I say about the trials and tribulations of dieting that hasn’t been said a thousand times over?” That was the thing I got the most tired of back then. And to be honest, it’s the primary reason I rarely (if ever) advertise my new blog posts. I simply can’t bore anyone with, “I weighed this much. Then I weighed this much. And then I weighed this much again. How interesting my life is.”

Boring though it may seem, I can’t ignore that was the whole point of Back to the Fridge. As a reminder to myself, before writing this post, I took a trip Back to the Past:

• I read some early posts.
• I read some recent posts.
• I read a lot of comments. I love comments.
• I looked at my Google Analytics numbers.
• I watched traffic surge. I watched traffic dwindle.
• I saw posts with over sixty comments. I saw many posts with zero.

But mostly I saw something that wasn’t as boring or pointless as I thought it was. And (if I may say so myself) the posts were (for the most part) both creative and well-written. I probably still have more of that in me.

And so what if readership is down? Let’s say I have thirty readers a day. Let’s say I have three thousand readers a day: in the grand scheme of things, is there any real difference in these numbers? Both are just a drop in the bucket of humanity. So why fuss over numbers? Especially when I’m doing this for myself anyway.

New Format

I had nearly forgotten my old format from the 2008-2009 era. I posted five days a week in the following categories:

• M: Return to Onederland (personal weight loss topics)
• T: You Know What Sounds Good Right Now? (food topics)
• W: Leftovers (anything goes)
• T: No Help Here (public weight loss topics)
• F: Pizza Night (dining out topics)

I thought about doing something similar again (though weekly, and not daily). But then it hit me: that route means I’ll just end up all boxed-in and grumpy again. Still, expect some of these old categories to be resurrected. And also expect more in the “anything goes” department. Early on, I worried about too many off-topic posts turning people away. Funny enough, not a concern now.

I would still like to force myself to stick to a schedule. (Mostly based on the precept, “If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done.) So expect new posts four Mondays a month.

I’ll set aside the occasional fifth Monday to count newly-arrived bags of money.