Day: July 1, 2023

June Gloom

Fandango36 Comments

I know I pay too much attention to my blog stats. But I can’t help it. And my blog’s stats for June 2023 were disheartening.

My 10,700 views for the month was the lowest number of monthly views my blog has received since it got just north of 10,000 in June 2018. And my average views per day this past month, at 356, was also my lowest views per day since June 2018, when I averaged 334.

But the stat that I found most remarkable is that, other than “Home Page/Archives,” not a single post during the entire month of June received 100 or more views. I had one post with 95 views, but the rest of my posts had fewer than 90 views each. I haven’t had a month in which none of my posts received 100 or more views since May 2018.

If I step back and look at my yearly stats, the picture doesn’t look any brighter. The 70,400 views for the first half of this year is less than 45% of my total views in 2022. And that means that I’d need to have a really big second half to at least match my total views for last year. That’s unlikely.

So what should I do armed with these disappointing stats? Should I change things up on my blog? Should I just resign myself to the fact that my blog peaked in 2019, and, mirroring the rest of my life, it’s all downhill from there? Or should I just keep on keeping on and stop looking at my damn stats.

My Last Photo — June ‘23

Fandango12 Comments

Brian, aka Bushboy, posted his monthly Last on the Card prompt, where he asks us to…

  • Post the last photo from your camera’s SD card or the last photo from your phone taken in the month of June.
  • No editing — who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like, or the subject matter didn’t cooperate?
  • No explanations needed — just the photo will do.
  • Create a pingback to Brian’s post or link in the comments.
  • Tag “The Last Photo.”

I was sitting on my back deck in my swinging chair on Thursday afternoon and I was looking out toward the backyard when I saw that a black bird of some kind had alighted on the tippy top of a tall shaft that was growing up out of the top of my yucca tree. I quickly whipped out my iPhone and snapped this photo. It was just in the nick of time, as the instant after I snapped it, the bird flew away.

SoCS — Like a Rock

Fandango6 Comments

I am a rock, like Gibraltar.

I am a symbol — of strength, stability, and resilience.

I am rock solid.

I am hard as a rock.

Like a rock, I can be emotionally detached.

Like a rock, I am always there.

Like a rock, I can persevere through difficulties.

Like a rock, I can weather the storm.

Like a rock, I am grounded, firmly routed.

But mostly I dig rock ‘n roll music.

Written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, where Linda has given us the word “rock.”

FOWC with Fandango — Latest

Fandango15 Comments
FOWC

Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “latest.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.