I like this old post… I was so young… so naïve…

It was called: Does this font make my blog look fat?

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Once again I am forced to come to the conclusion that blogging is just a popularity contest. And like any such contest, it forces us to make compromises in order to come out on top. We all know popular people, those annoying individuals that make friends easily. They are good conversationalists, and more importantly, good listeners. I like to consider myself to be fairly witty. I can dance with words. But I do have certain flaws which counteract my gift. I am loud, opinionated, self-centered, and can’t stand not to be the center of attention. Conversely, I am terribly shy. Oh sure, once I know you, you will not be able to shut me up, but I am unable to initiate conversations. I was never one of those guys who could just walk up to people and start schmoozing.

So here I am trying to get millions of strangers to like me, to get to know me, to read my words and look at my art, and feel a little of what it is like to be stuck in this strange head of mine. My posts have sort of developed a rhythm, a sequence, a style. I am mixing my art with pictures and stories about my family and my past, my friends, my pets, and most importantly, my struggle to overcome my art-side-of-the-braininess. I am trying to mix in some keen observations about modern life in general and a big, heaping spoonful of humor.

And that brings us to the compromises we all must make in order to achieve popularity. Do I stay with my original vision of what this blog was supposed to be, or do I cater to my readers more and more, try to type what I think they want to hear? I have been in a few bands, and this problem comes up in the music world all the time. Are you playing for you, or for your audience? Do you write songs that no one but you ‘gets’, or do you write to sell CDs? I don’t want to be a sellout, but I want to sell out, if you see what I mean.

So far, I have gotten 775 hits. I have 34 followers now… (although some of them seem to be nonexistent accounts when I try to click on them to read their stuff. I have no idea what is up with that). These numbers are hardly huge, but in two months, considering I have not yet figured out how to get my posts put up on any of  the WordPress front pages, I am satisfied that I am moving forward.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I have absolutely no intention of just putting things out there that are only designed to suck people in using cheap marketing strategies. On the other hand, any input from you would be greatly appreciated. I do not want to fail out of pure stubbornness. So please, any advice would be useful. Is my site set up in a way that is easy to use? I notice that it is just one long scroll, and I liked that at first. But now it seems that for people to start at the beginning is a time-consuming process. Another problem is that my blog only really makes sense when you start at the beginning. I have a whole storyline here, from my early life and my first attempts at art. I constantly make references to jokes I made way back at the beginning, and I could see how that would be confusing to anyone who just stumbled in here.

So please, make some comments. I am floundering in a sea of ideas, and I just want this blog to make you all nearly as happy as it makes me.

And if you are a newcomer, take a few minutes to scroll back through my life. There are only three or four ‘older’ post buttons to click, at the bottom of each page. It is all in there,  comics, baby pictures, jokes, tikis, Photoshop art, poems,… (the one where Shakespeare writes a letter to Sam I Am is worth the admission price, I promise)… and the best near-death experience story you have most likely ever heard. I open my heart to you all. That is what this is all about…. Thank you.