Post Recycling – November 2008

Over on The World of Sherby57 I have a monthly feature called Post From The Past. In it I take a look back at all the blog posts that I made in that month in the previous year, in the form of a pop-charts style countdown. I’m the first to admit that this is a cheap ploy in order to try and get some hits on my older posts. In fact, I even go as far as to put the following disclaimer on each entry (when I remember to do it):

This is an extremely self-indulgent feature and is a cynical attempt to recycle stuff that I have written in the past in the vain hope that someone will actually read them. Please feel free to slag off “Post From The Past” to your hearts content.

I’ve always assumed that I wouldn’t do a similar thing on PSGOM, but, as we approach its first birthday, I’ve changed my mind (hence this post). I believe that it’s the duty of every blogger to shamelessly plug their blog in any way that they can, and advertising old posts seems like a great way to do that. Welcome to Post Recycling.

I’m going to try and do more than just a ‘top 10′ countdown of the posts and try to comment a bit on why I wrote them and what I think about them now. I really am a fascinating man. The first post of the month, and the first ever, was Why I Is Here, from the 29th November. It’s basically a quick explanation of why I started the blog, which I will summarize for you: I like writing, I want to get better at it, I started a new blog. I did already have Sherby57 on the go, but, since it is basically just a stream of consciousness, it wasn’t really improving my writing skills.

It’s (perhaps) worth noting that this is not the original location of PSGOM. Sherby57 has always lived on WordPress.com and I’d always been happy with it, but I’d seen a lot of other popular blogs using Blogger, so I thought I’d give it a try. It’s fair to say that I didn’t like it from the beginning – the biggest problem being the lack of any stats – but I gave it a go anyway. Being obsessed by stats makes me sound like a control freak, but there is a simple reason why I like them: I want to know that I’ve had some visitors, even if it was only one a day. Blogger was just a complete black hole – although I probably wasn’t actually getting any hits. For those that are interested (that would be me), the original PSGOM still exists here.

The thing that I really notice about the post is how much I’d like to rewrite it. Even the first line contains an obvious mistake:

So, I should probably start with the age old question, ‘Why are you starting blog?’

It sounds like I’m trying to talk like a caveman. Weirdly, the original post on Blogger contains the omitted ‘this’, so it’s a mystery as to how it disappeared (my theory is mischievous blog fairies). I actually did re-write the post to a large extent on my About Gravy page, but I even want to re-write that again now. I’m just such a perfectionist….no sniggering at the back, please.

I luckily started the blog towards the end of the month, which means that I have only one more post to cover. Fittingly, it is about my favourite blogging topic, The X Factor. The post, called X-Rated, gives some of the reasons why I like the programme and has a few thoughts on last year’s competition. I actually quite like the post and it’s all, generally, still valid; I would just like to go back and punctuate it a little better (and I know my punctuation isn’t perfect now).

On a more important note, one of the reasons I gave for watching the show was:

3) Cheryl Cole. Quite simply, I’m in love

But this year the words ‘Cheryl Cole’ have to be replaced with the words, ‘Holly Willoughby’. People that know me are shocked to learn that Cheryl has fallen from the number one slot on my favourite celebrity chart. It’s a position she held for many years and looked completely unassailable – I’d almost say that she was getting a little complacent. It’s all credit to Holly for accomplishing the seemingly impossible; she should get some kind of special badge. Cheryl must be feeling like a runner who has just had their long-standing world record smashed – absolutely gutted.

The post also contains my first mention of how quickly I managed to watch it all in. It took me 93 minutes to watch 255 minutes of programming. Using new-fangled scientific techniques, this equates to an X Factor ratio of 39.6%. No need to thank me, stats fans.

Anyway, that’s it for this month’s Post Recycling, see you next time. Unless I decide that this was rubbish and I don’t do it again.