A Thousand Times Blogged

Another Strait Line milestone.

This is my One Thousandth posted blog entry.

As some I know might say, "Another victory of quantity over quality."

Still, it is an achievement, of persistence and endurance, if nothing else.

The blog began in 2009.  Entries were sporadic until about April of 2012, when I began blogging between twenty-five to thirty posts a month.  I have stayed steady at it five to six days a week since then.  It has become part of my routine.  So whether it is seen by one or many, it is a part of my life now, and an important expression of who I am.

The Strait Line was named after a newsletter that my father used when he was high school Principal at Bridgeport High. I hope that I have honored him, in the stories that I have done, in the thoughts I have expressed and in the memories I have shared. The only entry I know that he saw for sure was the Six Weeks to Always story, because my sister read it to him.

The total page view count of the blog is just a hair under 120,000 right now.  Not Huffington Post numbers, but it is more than I was ever expecting when I began the blog.

There are 133 entries labeled fiction, including 81 chapters of History of the Trap and 36 Crowley Stories.  The History of the Trap is about 75% complete now, and Crowley Stories is about two thirds done.  I have high hopes of finishing their first drafts withing the next few months.  The History of the Trap is a story I first conceived as a Freshman in high school, so it has been in my brain for a long time, desperate to get out and onto paper.

There are 120 posts about theater, including 88 to the Flying Dragon.  I hope to continue to be a supporter of the arts community wherever I get the chance.  Help keep me informed of what's going on, and I will amplify it here.

127 posts have been sent first to my fragile but well loved facebook group, Ripping Good Yarns, my group where people are free to share their indulgences about wonderful, sloppy, fun, exciting, melodramatic entertainment in television, movies and books.

There are 157 posts about politics, including 96 in the series Saturday Political Soap Box.  I know I live in a highly conservative area, and that some have a great disdain for my political posts, but I also see the page counts.  They are among my most viewed posts.  We live in a democracy (albeit rapidly fading into oligarchic madness), and discussing how we feel about the issues of the days is a vital part of that.  I'm not just going to abandon political discussion to the wealthy, the Christian right, and those who fear those who have less than they do.  If it really offends but you like my other stuff, than be like Barbara Bush, and just turn a blind eye to it and protect your beautiful mind (okay, that's a little more "barbed" than I intended, but that's the way it is my political stuff - sorry about that).

There are 88 poetry posts.  I ain't no poet, and this'll show it.  But it's something I like to do.  So there it is.

There are reminiscences throughout, including 39  labeled autobiographical and 135 labeled family. Old Pat and the Great Bathroom Wars series is probably the closest thing I have ready to self-publishing, but I get frozen by the fact that I started putting pictures into them, and I don't know how that's handled in e-books.  Oh, well.  I'll figure it out sometime.

I have 9 stories from my father's writings, and I need to get busy with that and put on a lot more.

The Strait Line is proud to be a sponsor of the Okefenokee Heritage Center Writer's Guild Writing Contest, and to publish the winners on it's blog.  I think it is an endeavor that my father would be very proud of.

To the nest one thousand.....and beyond!

T. M. Strait