Sometimes, your phone battery is down to 19% (because of a million football whatsapps) and you’re ready for bed, even though it’s only half past eight (because there was a kid’s “sleep”over here last night).
And then you remember that you have blogging commitments. Better sort that out before one or other energy source expires then.
’tis done. And so am I.
Everyone does these “here’s what I’m going to do next year” posts and it’s a bandwagon I’m more than happy to jump upon.
But first, as 2016 draws to a close, I’d like to say thank you to those readers who have stuck with this blog through thin and thinner this year. You loyal, gullible fools, you. Also thanks to The Guru, without whose invaluable assistance, this blog a) would not look as good as it does, and b) would not actually look like anything at all. And then also to Mrs 6000, who pretends to read this crap every day just to keep me happy. Although in all fairness, I doubt that she’ll have actually got far enough down the post to have seen this.
So, what plans for 2017?
Well, more photography is a good bet. This holiday season has been disappointing in that regard, so I’ve got a bit of catching up to do.
And more health stuff: I got lazy in the second half of this year, and that’s something you can’t afford to do at my *ahem* ‘advanced’ age. It’s apparently also harder to come back from, so I’ve got my work cut out. Rest assured that you’re not going to be seeing exercise programmes and healthy eating recipes on here though. Unless I find a really nice salad that you simply CANNOT miss out on or something. I think we can agree that that would warrant a blog post or two.
Next up: better communication with friends and family that don’t read 6000 miles… Because not everyone does Internet, and a letter costs nothing. Well… almost nothing. (Actually, how much is a letter these days?) Again, readers on here will not be troubled by this, I thought I’d just tell you that it will be happening.
And then the drone thing. It’s ordered, it’s paid for, it’s due any day now. And I think it might be mentioned once or twice on here over the next twelve months.
2016 has been fun, and personally speaking, much better than both 2015 and 2014. Thus, 2017 surely promises even more (n=1). Come join me for the ride.
Happy New Year.
Cash used to be king, then thanks to Bill Gates, content was king for a while, but we’re now in the information age and information is now king having deposed the other two in a bloodless coup.
And I, for one, welcome our new factual overlord.
Further evidence of this monarchical shift is the daily stats on 6000 miles…, your favourite go to blog for all things… well… for all things. We can like to do eclectic.
Here’s a prime example – which were the pages that people looked at most on here yesterday?
The big news in SA yesterday was the State Capture Report. Everyone wanted to read the 355 pages for themselves, seeking possible confirmation that our President had been acting improperly, unethically, in a corrupt manner, and generally taking the country for a ride for the benefit of himself and a few of his cronies. (Confirmation was duly provided.)
The website of the office of the Public Protector was overloaded, so I helped out by uploading a PDF of the report on here. And lots of people viewed that post. I would count this is an information post.
In second place yesterday was people accessing the front page of the blog. Simply typing “www.6000.co.za” into their URL bar and looking at what was on offer there. It’s loads. Loads.
Third place goes to the SARS minus number post. Also helpful information. SARS is our taxation service, and once you’ve submitted your tax return, they drop you an email with a number in the OWED TO YOU box at the bottom. Often this number has a minus sign in front of it. But who owes whom in that case? People are confused and thus that post, which explains all, is regularly up in the daily top 3.
Fourth, more reference material. For the morning and evening rush hours, the barriers at Kenilworth station in Cape Town remain closed for a prolonged period of time. But what are those times? I posted them, and people regularly click through to find out.
Fifth “Stop Zuma“, probably related to the State Capture thing and this tweet, bizarrely suggesting that the DA’s election campaign from 7½ years ago could now be considered a raging success (if you conveniently ignore its repeated failures and the unfolding national disaster in the intervening period). (And the fact that Zuma has actually not been stopped.) (But otherwise, sure.)
More informative posts at sixth and seventh. Helpfully sharing which towns the two or three letter codes on Western Cape numberplates belong to. And those all-important Level 3 Water Restrictions for drought-stricken Cape Town.
The remainder of the Top 10 is filled with yesterday’s post in which I was tacitly described as being “very obviously common” and “probably something perfectly frightful like a Primitive Methodist”, Tuesday’s sharing of those wondrous aerial photographs, and -perhaps somewhat unexpectedly – images of a land crab from September 2010.
Nice, but uninformative.
My point stands though, in that while far less than half of the posts on here are “reference” or “information” posts, those posts still fill a disproportionate number of slots on my daily most popular post rankings.
People like to know things.
Maybe I should go full reference? After all, that’s what Wikipedia did and I believe that they are ever so popular.
Except that popularity isn’t why 6000 miles… exists. And it’s a good job too, to be honest. So I think that I’ll just keep sharing the good stuff, passing comment on silly people, venting my spleen on occasion – and making that all important information available where necessary, in an effort to make your day just a little bit better.
Don’t like it? Feel free to demand a full refund.
You may have noticed that there’s been a dearth of good quality blog posts on this site throughout its entire history recently.
Sorry about that. Numerous reasons, none of them singularly adequate, but in combination, perfectly reasonable.
I’m hoping that normal service will be resumed tomorrow, but in the meantime, please enjoy this wholly accurate depiction of life in a laboratory.
Extra points are awarded if you use all those exclamations during a single experiment.
I have a lot of extra points.
On the blogroll just on the right there is diamond geezer. He publishes a blog post at 7am each and every morning. Except yesterday, that is.
Because I post so regularly, a change in behaviour is always going to be relatively easy to spot. I only have to have not posted something by 8am and some people get twitchy, and by 9am somebody’s usually posted a comment wondering if I’m OK. Today it took until quarter to twelve, but then there was a steady stream, split between missing out on having something to read and keeping their fingers crossed everything was fine.
But it turns out that this was an entirely planned manoeuvre, as he was merely toying with his audience as some sort of social experiment.
Hmm. Fishing somewhat for endorsement, I feel.
Still, this sentiment resonates:
Life would be easier if I could throw my hands in the air sometimes and say “hell, you know what, not today”, or if I had a stash of articles in reserve to bring out when time is limited or inspiration weak, except I’ve never managed to create a stockpile, and rarely write anything more than a day in advance.
I might not agree with the political views of dg, or think that his posting at 23:59 last night was particularly clever. And while 6000 miles… covers most every subject (albeit in scant detail), his blog is decidedly London-centric. So there are many, many differences between us.
Still, it’s nice to know that a recognised “big” blogger feels exactly the same way about blogging as I do.