Sunday 8 February 2015

Fourth Anniversary.

Four years blogging away now, four years yesterday. I did remember the right day this time but didn't get round to writing; I went to a gig instead.

Looking back at 2014/15: Once again, there were fewer posts than in the previous year – 13 as opposed to 14. My resolution of posting something every calendar month is still standing, if only just. The respective days in each were: 25th, 23rd, 21st, 31st, 26th, 31st, 14th, 21st, 31st, 19th & 30th, 31st, 30th – i.e. a whole load of 20s and 30s. And July was the 31st at 22:46 (a mere 1 hour 14 minutes before August). Similarly, October was the 31st at 20:52; and December, the 31st at 21:28 – half-past nine on New Year's Eve, when most people were out having New Year "fun". But that's okay. I hate that kind of standardized, compulsory fun anyway.

Stats update (2014/15): The most viewed post is still ‘In vision (3)’, which now has over 4000 views (2000+ more than any other). Overall monthly pageviews peaked at 3226 last April, but whether those are all real views or a random influx from Russian spam sites, I'm not sure. The highest referrers remain Reddit, Google and T-Central.

Rather than having a favourite post of last year, there were particular elements that gave me pleasure: the phrase repetition in ‘Andreja Pejic’ and ‘Butch blogs’; minor wordplay in ‘Underdressing’; and the precise nature of the jibe at the end of ‘Trans "vs." feminism (4)’ (which no one is likely to pick up on). Is it impossibly vain to reread your own writing and feel pleased with it? Probably it is, yes. Never mind ;)

Here's something else I like (adapted from an old feminist slogan quoted in Prof. Deborah Cameron's book, ‘The Myth of Mars and Venus’):

If being a man is natural, stop telling me how to do it.

I'm adding that to my growing list of "things to say" as and when required. In the meantime, let Year Five commence.