This is the 50,050th post on this blog. That means that there was some post, one day this week, that was the 50,000th post. I'd been planning to celebrate that milestone, and not only did it slip by me, it took 50 additional post before I noticed that it had been passed. It's unlikely that I'll make it all the way to 100,000, so there's no rounder number that's I can look forward to. I can only look back and wonder why I didn't see it approaching and slow down for the experience.
Ah, I've counted back. The big 50-thousandth post was: "Does Trump have a sense of humor?" That's funny enough — just another inconsequential ripple on the face of the blogosphere.
September 23, 2017
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
74 comments:
THanks for having us, Ann!
you'll make 100,000; you're prolific!
Thanks for the mammaries and carrot sticks. Where did the 70 come from?
Congratulations! It takes a lot of dedication to post day after day, year after year.
Didn't Sullivan burn out after a couple years?
Didn't there used to be a traffic meter than we (the readers) could view?
Now I don't see it anywhere. For quite awhile Votexological Constant was resulting in expansion at an accelerating rate. It seems like there's still plenty of dark energy re her posts, so presumably all's good in the hood.
"Didn't Sullivan burn out after a couple years?"
He went stark raving mad. Althouse is made of sterner stuff.
Congrats and thanks!
congratulations
Slacker !
"you'll make 100,000; you're prolific!"
Assuming I continue at the same rate, I would have to continue blogging until I'm 80. Doesn't that sound bizarre?
"Assuming I continue at the same rate, I would have to continue blogging until I'm 80. Doesn't that sound bizarre?"
Bet it doesn't sound bizarre when you're 80.
"Where did the 70 come from?"
Thanks for flagging that. I've corrected the post. But I can answer your question. Warning: the answer is really boring. In Blogger, I see a heading "Posts" and under it, "All/Drafts/Published" with a number for each. Obviously, it's the "Published" number that matters, but I accidentally used the "All" number at first, then corrected it but missed that one thing.
There are 23 "draft" posts, but almost all of them are nothing, just open windows that got saved somehow.
BTW, the yutes of today may not understand the magnitude of someone piling up this many posts.
Any idiot* can rack up nearly this number of Tweets EZ PZ.
I've done the math and it turned out that every single solid post is equal to 46.6732 Tweets.
So Althouse has made well over two million Tweets. And, she can still look forward to a big round number milestone: she's only 3,514 posts from getting to 2.5 million Tweets!!
* https://twitter.com/MichaelRapaport/status/911625396537274368
"Didn't there used to be a traffic meter than we (the readers) could view?"
Yeah, it was a very sad loss for me when Site Meter stopped working for me (and then a few years after that it ended for everyone).
The Site Meter numbers were extremely important to me. I have Google stats but I almost never look at them. It's the Site Meter numbers that mattered to me. The other numbers just seem fake. They only go back to 2010, not to 2004 when this blog started, so the "all time" number isn't right, and it's tracking "page views" not "visits," which is what I liked to see.
For the record, I get about 2 million page views a month.
3000th ham contact here just now. See?
2991:Sat Sep 23 13:45:49 EDT 2017 n5pht 599 fann 599 oh tx txqp =20m
2992:Sat Sep 23 14:14:56 EDT 2017 w5mf 599 harr 500 oh tx txqp =20m
2993:Sat Sep 23 14:15:45 EDT 2017 n5rz 599 gill 599 oh tx txqp =20m
2994:Sat Sep 23 14:16:33 EDT 2017 n5na 599 hock 599 oh tx txqp =20m
2995:Sat Sep 23 14:19:28 EDT 2017 k4v 599 fl wayne 599 oh ron fl rte66 =20m
2996:Sat Sep 23 14:22:06 EDT 2017 kc5dct 599 dent 599 oh tx txqp =20m
2997:Sat Sep 23 17:44:48 EDT 2017 wa2vya 599 bast 599 oh tx txqp
2998:Sat Sep 23 17:47:13 EDT 2017 k5nb 599 fann 599 tx txqp
2999:Sat Sep 23 17:51:03 EDT 2017 aj4f 599 galv 599 oh tx txqp
3000:Sat Sep 23 17:54:54 EDT 2017 wa8zbt 599 dals 599 oh tx txqp
(started 4/1/2016)
I almost never tweet. It's a distraction from blogging. I could tweet just to try to get people to come read these posts, but that doesn't work. People on Twitter stay on Twitter.
If I forced myself to start thinking about it, I could turn every post into a tweet. It would force me to compress the essence out of every post, but that's distracting, just like writing a book would be distracting. I'm in the zone where my writing comes out at blogging length, with a blogging level of detail, and that feels right for me. It screws with my rhythm to try to write any other way.
I would like to convey a personal appreciation for the years of thought provoking entertainment you have provided through your blog, and a hearty congratulations on the milestone! It has to have been a lot of work (especially during your career years), so here's hoping it has been as enjoyable for you as it has been for us.
Best blog in the country!
" I'd been planning to celebrate that milestone, and not only did it slip by me, it took 50 additional post before I noticed that it had been passed."
One of us would've eventually noticed. Especially if you failed to show up for physics class.
65536 is the next round number if you're a computer.
"It would force me to compress the essence out of every post, but that's distracting, just like writing a book would be distracting."
It'd be nice if you could somehow make a book out of your greatest hits. Maybe an e-book. Of course, when you figure out the $/per hour most authors would be better off working at McDonald's.
"65536 is the next round number if you're a computer."
Computer stuff is for nerds.
Like reading.
At the top of the page is an arrow for "next blog". Random blogs from around the world. Most of them gave up long ago, after starting with good intentions. Some of the commenters here have profiles that lead to their own blogs, most are sporadic.
Mark Twain wrote that being a columnist and writing every day was one of the hardest things in the world.
Congrats.
Pete Rose wanted to say something churlish re: his opinion about your first 50,000, but no one else on the riverboat seemed to care, or else they thought the old dotard's metaphor didnt translate well
If Althouse gets 2 million page views per month, what would a newspaper get? Both the failing NYT and the Madison newspaper.
Amazing achievement, Ann.
Congratulations!
It's been a pleasure to be a longtime reader and a sporadic commenter.
Congrats Althouse. I read your blog daily at breakfast. Most days it's the most intelligent thing I'll read/hear all day.
Post number 50,000 asked whether Trump has a sense of humor. The peppermint striped tie he wore when he gave his speech in Alabama answers that question he n the affirmative.
Maybe you can make it to four score and seven years, then give your final address and shut her down.
Thanks for the blog dear hostess. It's my go-to site in the morning and evening.
Your patience with select commenters is admirable.
"rhhardin said...
65536 is the next round number if you're a computer."
Please explain for us Luddites.
Congratulations. Yours is one of the first three I read,
Son John could carry on the blog.
"rhhardin said...
65536 is the next round number if you're a computer."
Please explain for us Luddites.
It's 1 followed by 16 0's in binary.
"then give your final address and shut her down."
Or at least take a day off. My little pea brain cannot grasp why this everyday posting thing is appealing. IMHO, it's the opposite of appealing, it's controlling, it's oppressive. Choosing to self-subjugate a portion of one's existence to something so ephemeral-y seems like the opposite of living freely.
Too be clear, I'm not discounting the amazing quality and content that Althouse has created, but I have no idea why it matters if she missed a day here or there. There's no logic that states a missed day out of 50,050 posts would matter.
It's gotta have some sorta relationship w/ being somewhere on the so-called spectrum. Maybe there's some sorta masochism angle. Or some sorta other psych thing-y.
I dunno.
"It's 1 followed by 16 0's in binary."
Nerd!
Odometers used to fail at round numbers, leaving lots of 9's hanging for several miles after the leading 1 came up.
Derbyshire passed 500 radio derb's without any remark on it. As a number theory guy 500 is pretty uninteresting, probably.
Althouse, blogging at 80:
Hey, you kids! Get off my blog!
Jelly the masochism is that as a rich man, A Really Rich Man, you spend your time here jawing at Althouse, self-identifying as bouncing rubble at the Blogress' whim.
You shoulda just been poor and you could do exactly what you do now, without that impotent feeling only the rich-but-amazingly-still-powerless suffer from.
Your opportunity costs are staggering dear boy.
From a milestone to a millstone is but a step. A millstone, however, is what you want if you wish to grind the kernels exceeding fine. Congratulations on your 50,000 plods around the millstone..
Congrats! It has been a nice daily thought-provoking journey over the years.
Did you have an ideal 50,000th post topic if you had happened to catch it?
Blogger rcocean said
It'd be nice if you could somehow make a book out of your greatest hits. Maybe an e-book.
...
You can convert a blog to a handsome book easily at blurb.com
Congratulations AA.
The Lou Gehrig of blogging. Congrats Althouse and thanks for doing this!
Well, yes. But God bless you.
Congratulations indeed, AA! As others have written, this is one of a very limited number of blogs that I look at every day, and I'd be disappointed if you were to begin to reduce the frequency of your posting here; still, lives change, and maybe as you get older your life will fill with other activities or pleasures or diversions or who knows what and this will fall into desuetude.
Wonder which commenters will be around when you reach 80?
Missing a blogging milestone isn't as bad as leaving someone behind in a cave.
A very sincere thank you from a longtime reader. I never comment, but I never miss a day of your insights.
You could celebrate nice looking numbers in other bases.
Rh beat me to that idea. Should have guessed!
Look forward to reading your blog every day. Thank you.
It's unlikely that I'll catch up with you: Starting in 2002, I've only published 7488 posts. And I can't brag about quality over quantity either.
Even when I don't agree with you, which happens with some frequency, I enjoy the things you notice and how you express yourself.
While the rest of us were just blogging, you turned it into an art form.
"It's 1 followed by 16 0's in binary."
Hey, yeah, I knew that. Just slipped my mind for a moment.
Many thanks, Althouse. You bring some coherence to the chaos. Or chaos to the coherence. Which is it anyway?
Congrats and many thanks, Althouse! This is a must-read blog every day for me.
There is no better blog on the face of the earth. Congratulations. Will tune in again tomorrow as I do every day.
Assuming I continue at the same rate, I would have to continue blogging until I'm 80
I was largely offline for 4 years until June. It seems like you put out more posts now, possibly due to emeritizing. Can you measure your posts/year? /month might be interesting, too--you could be seasonal.
Ann, suppose you could go back in time to your first post, and tell yourself that
a) you're going be doing 50,000 of these
b) your 50,000th will be about whether President Donald Trump has a sense of humor
How do you think you would have reacted (other than asking for stock tips, SuperBowl winners, etc)?
Ralph, you can see the numbers by year and by week in the sidebar, under archive.
Ann, suppose you could go back in time to your first post, and tell yourself that ...
The younger version of Ann Althouse would ask "President who?!?!?" and laughed herself to death.
@Big Mike:The younger version of Ann Althouse would ask "President who?!?!?" and laughed herself to death.
I started reading blogs right after 9/11. If I had known that in 16 years I'd be reading Ann's 50,000th post, and that it was about President Donald Trump, I would assume that nothing else of 9/11's magnitude had happened in the intervening time, and be relieved.
Your posts/week dropped off significantly right after I left in July 2013.
My memory is faulty, but I was working then too.
We all hope it's been worthwhile for you, and you did get a husband/1st rate gardener out of it.
How many posts did that take?
Ann, All your hard work and fine intellect over many years is greatly appreciated!
I'm glad blogging is still interesting for you.
Your interest shows in your posts.
rhhardin's affinity for Morse Code.
Althouse's affinity for blogging.
There are commonalities.
I am Laslo.
I appreciate the variety of topics here. Thanks and a toast to you, Ann Althouse.
Congratulations. If you were in the coffee shop I'm in right now, I'd buy you a cuppa.
Congratulations, Ann! As one of your many readers who has been with you since (practically) the beginning, I say brava, and thank you!
RBG is how old?
Trump still has no sense of humor.
The only funny joke he ever told (or read) was when he prayed for Schwarzenegger's ratings.
Iron Horse!
I can still remember when I forgot to celebrate my billionth second of life. *sigh*
Maybe you could celebrate your 55,555th post?
Thanks to all who expressed appreciation, and thanks to all who read and all who comment. It’s been an extremely rewarding experience for me. I am able to do it because I have always done it for the intrinsic experience, the flow. It’s been no kind of sacrifice (though I have sacrificed other things out of love for this experience). It’s never been a means to any end, but I have received some immense extrinsic rewards (most especially Meade). But I only got those, I think, because I operated on the intrinsic value of living freely in writing here from post #1 to post #50,050 and beyond, and since I do hope to live to be 80, I do mean to get to post #100,000, but it’s just a matter of living day to day, in the day, so it’s nothing to look forward to, and I mean that in the sense of nothing being a high standard.
May all your stones pass unnoticed.
Post a Comment