Resurgence

Crap. This blog is stale. The hiatus has been like forever; the last post being on the first day of the year which, by the way reminds me that among the goals I set for this year is to exceed 48 blog posts. But with a sole article and the first quarter done? That’s some New Year goal huh. At least, my list is more challenging and thereby more ‘real’ this time in the sense that efforts must be doubled to accomplish it.

So, it’s the first time AGAIN in ages that I logged in to Blogger. There were a lot of comments – about 50 – pending approval which should have made me proud IF these were not spam. As expected, most were ads but a few were brief remarks of appreciation or support from the world’s most avid fan named Anonymous earned my attention only to realize later that these were faux as well for they have nothing to do with the blog; i.e., immaterial. The most spammed page was the post prior this. I wonder if the words “Performance Report” in its title are to blame. On the other hand, the most visited page since its publishing is “Subic Beach Bodies 2008” and I deduce that it’s because this shows up in Google results for searches similar to “Subic Beaches”. Too bad they won’t find the gorgeous bikini contestants actually swimming in our beaches here but I’m glad that site traffic is not absolutely dormant.

Out of the 4 blogs I follow, only one was recently updated although the frequency of publishing has been irregular. And the readers’ comments have also become rare; gone were the days when the thread of comments could sometimes get longer than the article itself. What explains these? Has blogging become passé? Maybe…

As I’ve observed, most blogs that remain busy are the likes of those that offer free downloads, juicy gossips on ‘it’ celebrities, coverage of prestigious events and those blogs with steaming photos of naked models. I must say that it’s clever of the owners of those blogs to feature such because at the core of every blog is entertainment. Regardless of the feature, readers follow a blog that interests them. These bestseller blogs has something in common: brevity. Upload few photos, add a caption, and the pictures do the talking. And then there were the ‘Vlogs’ for both the blogger who’d rather show off than write and the reader – quote, end quote – who ironically prefers watching than reading. Now Twitter and Facebook status updates seem to do the job, quick and carefree.

How many still read essays such as this? I cannot tell. But I’m glad when later I learn that my few readers know about my recent articles although they would not post comments on the blog. Or simply when they tell me that I haven’t blogged for centuries, I know they were reading actually. Call me petty but that’s rewarding enough for me who started this blog with the mere purpose of having something worthy to spend my spare time; I get to practice writing in English as a second language.

There, I might have bored you again with a five-paragraph random rattling. But if you had read thus far, thanks for bearing with me.