One thing that has been long overdue, is that I created a backup of this webpage, and saved it on my computer. I should have known well enough by now, given the fact that I have had computer troubles and loss of data over the past year. Even in years past, I have lost gigabytes of data due to computer crashes, bad hard drives, and operating system upgrades. After investing countless hours into the development of this site, and writing tens of thousands of words, I would hate to have all my thoughts disappear into oblivion if (and when) Blogger crashes. Even Matthew Good has not been immune to the wrath of computer failure, as he has mentioned in more than a few posts that he has lost months of writing. He has been lucky that his readership is large enough that a few good Samaritans were able to provide archives of Matt's entries. My readership is by many factors smaller than Matt's (he has claimed to get up to one million hits per month on his blog; I'm lucky to get 100), so statistically speaking, relying on the generosity of others to provide me with an archive of my writing is extremely remote.
While conducting the backup of this site, I made the innocent mistake of reading a few entries. I ended up being quite proud of the entries of the first few months. I felt my writing was objective, intelligent, detailed and overall enthralling. I was discussing many themes that were occupying my mind, and many of them had a philosophical twist to the writing. I think it is obvious that my writing has changed over the course of the year -- I hope it has changed for the better. I have found my early entries had little to do with recent events of my life, while recent entries are accounts of daily occurrences, as well as odd tidbits of product releases, etc. As of late, I am writing less, and less often. That being said, I am not sure if I am writing more concisely or not.
I was hoping to wait until the first anniversary of this site to discuss my future vision for this page, but perhaps this time is as good as any to reflect on the last year and plan for the future.
For the next year, like every other blogger, I want to increase my readership. Some bloggers, like Raymi, have been blogging for four or more years, and it has taken them as long to develop a dedicated following. Relatively speaking, this page is in its' infancy. I still don't even feel like I have found my voice, or the proper gimmick to allow this site to rise above the average weblog (a quick search for 'blog' has netted some 182 million webpages). I consider the best advice given to bloggers by fellow bloggers is to write well, and write often, if you wish to increase your readership. People will spread good writing by word of mouth (or word of hyperlink, in the 21st Century).
This year, I hope to include more images. People love pictures, myself included. Some of the best blogs I have read have included wondrous images either pulled from the web, or taken and modified themselves. I have dire need of a digital camera, and perhaps even a webcam. Voyeurism is a huge influence on web traffic; those who publish lots of photos of themselves (especially risqué images) get huge amounts of traffic. I will not resort to nudity or otherwise suggestive / pornographic material in order to increase my web traffic. But once I have a digital camera, the frequency of images will increase on this site. The other issue I am facing with images, is the problem of hosting. My "free" solution is not as successful as I had hoped. I have lost a great many images in cyberspace, and I would like a bit more stability in order to preserve the integrity of my entries. I am currently getting into the habit of storing backups of all my images on my computer in the event that subsequent images go AWOL.
A facelift may occur in the coming months. I am convinced that the background image is too bright, and makes the journal entries difficult to read. I have been really happy with the Blogger template provided in this page, including the color scheme. It will only be a matter of time that I will grow tired of this look, and desire something different.
I feel that "MC Fro's Top 5 Tunes" as well as the "Recently Read" sections of the sidebar may meet an untimely end. They are time-consuming to maintain, and I doubt that many of you are interested in those aspects of my interests. It may be difficult to let go of the Top 5 songs, mainly because I am passionate about the music I listen to, even though I feel that the list is not representative of my current musical tastes.
I fully expect that my writing style will evolve over the course of the next year. I hope to be blogging more about my personal life, as well as the depraved thoughts that plague my mind on a daily basis. I love the idea of publishing how incredibly messed-up I am on here. Even more so, I love the idea that people would read my thoughts and say "Wow, is that MC Fro ever fucked-up! I'm glad I'm not as crazy as he."
In the future, I believe that profanity will be within these entries in higher frequency. This was a difficult decision to make. Actually, it wasn't as much an intellectual decision as it was an emotional one. The truth be known, is that I don't like writing profanity. I think it tarnishes good writing, but in the blogging element, profanity tends to increase traffic. To further reinforce this point, I would like my writing to come a little more from the heart, rather than from the brain. Obviously, if I feel like swearing, I'm going to swear, rather than find some other creative way to be crude.
I hope you return to see what will be new and exciting during the second season of mcfro.blogspot.com.
