With another interesting point from the Chris Martin interview with Stern, Chris said that Coldplay takes a lot of heat from the critics and that paying attention to it is like the Achilles heel of the music industry. I thought this was a really good comparison because it’s a small segment but it can still hurt nonetheless. Consider this, The LA review wrote this about Coldplay in 2005, “But put them all together and they add up to Coldplay, the most insufferable band of the decade.” These are some pretty harsh words and to be able to work past criticism like this has to be a hard thing to do. I’d probably have quit if one of the most prominent cities in the music business just said I was awful.

To bring this full circle here are two comments left on my blog under the Brandi Passante Mug Shot post.

Joesixpak 8 November 2011 at 11:13 pm
I think you are a douchebag for posting something like this.
Rabbit 9 November 2011 at 3:40 am Edit #
I agree with joesixpack. That’s 2 votes for “You are a douchebag.”

So two people think I’m a douchebag for posting information about a “D” list celebrity. Now I’m not saying this really gets to me but lets say this current blog and these comments were all multiplied by 10, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t appreciate people telling me what I do makes me a douchebag. Honestly, my intrigue of developing a huge audience for this blog would only lead to more comments like these. I just give a lot of credit to celebrities because it’s impossible to make everyone like you and critique is part of the business. Building armor to it is probably necessary to persevering through.

Perhaps I was too hasty in this decision if Jkash is comparing my popularity to Smokin’ Joe. Not to mention YoungCaseHo was wondering where my thoughts were on the PSU debacle. Meaning that people do read this and probably do enjoy it from time to time. Here’s my dilemma and my solution. My dilemma can be explained in this example. Tonight we played a BBall game at Ambler that I could go into detail about. I think that maybe 10 people would actually care. This isn’t enough to make this blog meaningful. This is the current problem because when I’m putting all this effort into these entries, it’s nice to feel like the audience gives a hoot. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to continue this blog exactly as it has been going until 1,000 posts. That’s about 2 months of material. In the meantime I’m going to work on this other website that I think will reach a broader, more defined audience. I know that seems like an oxymoron but I think it works. So when I’m ready to unveil my new site (which none of you will care about), I’ll at least have finished this current website with 1,000 posts which is an achievement that I’d be surprised if many people can say they’ve done. So that’s my thinking for the future. An just so Casey knows, my only thought to PSU is that if the upper level heads of the program would have come forward in 2002 when they were aware of it, none of this would be snowballing to where it is today. Seems timely that they bring it to light after JoPa’s 409th win is in the books. Bake told me tonight that the number of boys coming forward is up to 20! I hate to say it but it really ruins JoPa’s reputation for the record books and tarnishes his achievements. Serves him right though for waiting. They all deserve what comes to them in the form of punishment.

I have some news regarding rnningfool.com. I’ve been considering putting my efforts towards a different site. Now you’ll remember that I tried this before but that was with the idea that I would just maintain two sites equally which wasn’t plausible. Essentially, I’m deciding whether or not I want to keep keeping up with rnningfool. As you can see from my post count of last month and what will surely be a low post total this month, I’m slacking off. I’m just tired of writing about things that nobody reads. The site says that 7,000 people a month come to the website which is fine but with 65% bouncing that leaves 2,550 people a month reading my material. Now this seems like a lot except when you start breaking down that if 10 people visit the site daily, that’s 300, or 11% of those 2,550. The bottom line is that there are probably a few people who like reading this site but there’s nothing at the end of the road for me. It’s always been fun to me but I’m starting to get squeezed for ideas. Or if I can’t think of anything that what I do think about isn’t very good. It feels more like a chore than a fun thing.

This is post# 897. This isn’t a website that is in its infancy. I have been unable to progress past this point of fake traffic and actually get an audience. It’s obvious my life is not captivating enough to bring in the masses. That being said, it’s time for me to try something new. I’m not flushing 897 posts down the drain but I can’t have months of 60 posts. I think it’s also a little disappointing from the standpoint of reader interaction. I’m not sure what to expect but I know that if Sam, Laura, Mark (I don’t want to discredit everyone) and I want to go into a room to discuss topics, we don’t have to do it through our websites. I’ve learned a lot about creating your own website and I think I can create something more specific to something I like. General, personal blogs aren’t what generate huge traffic unless people who don’t know you find what you are writing about interesting. My audience is my friends and some random people who search for Brandi Passante. This isn’t exactly ideal. I know that google is looking for specific oriented sites to a certain topic and with this experience, I think I can create a better, more enhanced, website than this. I can’t spend as much time with this site and hope to accomplish something better. I think this will disappoint a few more people (the Shee, Bud, W, Jkash – the only other person to create an entry for me, Evan, Jess Baker, and Stackhouse) but it’s just not time well spent. If I didn’t mention you and you read often, my apologies but in the give-take portion of my blog… Once again, this site will not be shutting down but you’re probably better off checking in weekly opposed to daily. I’ll keep up to date with any other projects I do.

So yesterday was my birthday and I’m happy it’s over. I just don’t like the whole idea behind a birthday and the “forced” fun your supposed to have. It just comes off as extremely fake to me. To add to the falseness of a birthday is the facebook wall posts from people who don’t really know you. I’ve considered just writing an equally false response to all the people who false cared wrote on my wall. I probably won’t do it but I think it’s a funny idea. “Dear long lost friend, thanks for caring enough to write a birthday message on my wall. I assumed that since we barely communicated in high school, never talked through college, and I haven’t seen you in 10 years that we’ve grown apart. Glad to know you still think of me. How’s life?” I’m going to guess that not too many people would expect this or know how to respond. Anyway, I’m pretty happy I survived my birthday and this is the longest time away from when I have to deal with it again which is a good thing.

The whole getting older thing is sort of a bummer too. Generally getting older isn’t something that you have to think about on a day to day basis but your birthday just throws it right out in the open. Yes it’s cool when you turn 21 and now you can legally get wasted at a bar but everything after is just not exciting. Like it really sucks. I’m amazed people get as pumped up for their birthdays as they do. I think that some people don’t go all out every weekend so their birthday is an excuse to get wasted. My regular weekends aren’t really that much different than a birthday weekend so that could also be partly why it doesn’t lift my spirits. I’ll use another post to go over a few things that have been going on in my life but I want to stick this post to why November 6th, isn’t a special day.