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100 days, Blogging, journalism, language, Publishing, words, writer, writing
On 13 December 2017, I published an article titled, “Send Our Trash Into Space.” That began a streak of 100 consecutive days of posting an article. I had no grand plan to start publishing daily, but after a week it became addictive. I decided to go for two weeks, then a month. Now it’s been over three months, and I’ve discovered something about writing every day. It’s about me.
Personal View Writing is Historical, Not Instant Analysis
Writing on a frequent basis is not great for the reader. There is a saturation point at which I passed a long time ago. To keep someone’s attention over the long-term usually requires a mystery, sensationalism, a serial-type plot, or some other device to capture a reader’s mind. I write in an episodic style that is observational. My readership numbers ebb and flow depending on the topic, but I’m not writing to attract an audience.
Our world has become obsessed with instant analysis, interview the person on the street, report the story before we have the facts, and/or assess the pulse of our society based on what is trending on social media. That is not necessarily bad, but it is not news. That is ‘entertainment.’ Its focus is attracting a bigger audience.
News organizations have always fought for market share, but in the days of Watergate and before, journalistic integrity was the foundation and audience size was secondary. Now all the media organizations are investor-owned and viewer/listener/reader body count is the center of the news world. When the goal of ‘news’ media is based on the size of the audience, the focus turns to the most outrageous, most shocking, most disgusting stories.
We have made the news into a for-profit business, and that means its primary focus is to entertain, not report. What is needed is an alternate view that is not about trying to entertain to attract an audience. The perspective of the individual writer, devoid of concerns of the accountants, is the last remnant of what was called journalism.
Witness To a Calamity
I am convinced we are in a time of crisis. We are the frogs in the pot that the heat has been slowly turned up to a boil. Many are in a state of denial, but no one can deny that our society is in upheaval with a severe conflict in process.
I am not the one who can judge the effectiveness of my writing but I hope that by offering my perspective, not for entertainment or market share, that it will give the sense of the time of this crisis. Our country has made horrible mistakes that the future needs to understand.
I’m sure people in the future will wonder at how we allowed these Republicans and this President to rise to power. In part, my political writing is to give my viewpoint in how and why that happened. Writing is a recording of history and the United States in 2018 is a time of dire history.
My Method
Not all my writing is about politics. I also try to interject subjects that interest and/or amaze me. I’m not sure I can claim to have a method in my writing. Most of the time I create a working title for the topic a few days in advance. Usually, that is all I have to start with when I start writing. I don’t plan out, nor outline my articles. If I have multiple points to make in an story I will sometimes write draft headings to remind me.
Typically, I do some research on the issue, but sometimes that doesn’t occur until a reach the point in the article that I’m trying to say something that should be backed up with a fact or source. I link to my sources rather than footnote the source. If I’m writing a reaction piece to an event or act I will link the article or include a quote.
I’m not held to any standard of truth, but my own. There have been times I have started writing about a topic and changed my opinion about the issue during my research. As a liberal, I know I have an opinion, but I it also means that I have to support my opinion. That doesn’t make my opinion correct, but it is absolutely required in a decent society.
The Score
In 2016 I wrote 40 articles using 22,085 words (an average of 552 words per article.) In 2017 I wrote 53 articles using 23,954 words (an average of 452 words per article.) So far in 2018 I’ve written 82 articles (including this one) using 47,337 words (an average of 577 words per article.)
I don’t know if I will keep going on the streak. I have other writing projects that I would like to finish and I find that writing at this pace is difficult to maintain. Regardless, this has been very rewarding for me. I hope it has been of some benefit to you.
Looking Back
Here are the articles I’ve published during the last 100 days (and more):
DECEMBER 2017
| DATE | TITLE | WORDS |
| 13-Dec-17 | Send Our Trash Into Space | 271 |
| 14-Dec-17 | The End of the United States of America | 225 |
| 15-Dec-17 | School Vouchers Are About Religion and Racism, Not Choice | 625 |
| 16-Dec-17 | Journalists Using Uneducated, Uninformed Opinion As Fact | 237 |
| 17-Dec-17 | Government Regulation Makes USA Business Great | 412 |
| 18-Dec-17 | Redacted Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi | 477 |
[NOTE: Articles from 19 December 2017 to 28 February 2018 are not currently linked. This is being corrected.]
| 19-Dec-17 | What Happens In Sixty Years | 304 |
| 20-Dec-17 | Senator Dean Heller is Still a Stockbroker | 298 |
| 21-Dec-17 | A New Year’s Earthquake? | 386 |
| 22-Dec-17 | Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi | 217 |
| 22-Dec-17 | Failure to Diagnose: Right Hemisphere Strokes | 482 |
| 23-Dec-17 | SpaceX and Mars: The Illogical Strategy | 453 |
| 24-Dec-17 | GOP War on the Spirit of Christmas | 326 |
| 25-Dec-17 | Can Venus Be Made Habitable? | 475 |
| 26-Dec-17 | Illogical: Commercial Real Estate Price Boom in an Internet Economy | 183 |
| 27-Dec-17 | Religion Controls Equality For Women | 398 |
| 28-Dec-17 | Dear Republican: Your Party Left Without You | 345 |
| 29-Dec-17 | 1929 is Coming | 216 |
| 30-Dec-17 | Are You Not Breathing When You Sleep? | 670 |
| 31-Dec-17 | Understanding Global Warming and Cold Weather | 530 |
JANUARY 2018
| DATE | TITLE | WORDS |
| 1-Jan-18 | Why a Bigger Government is Being Fiscally Responsible | 507 |
| 2-Jan-18 | Need a New Plan for Gaining Political Support | 285 |
| 3-Jan-18 | Nevada’s Pot Business About to be Smoked | 401 |
| 4-Jan-18 | Telsa Powerwall Has Product-Killing Questions Unanswered | 1000 |
| 5-Jan-18 | Trump Corrupt Public Relations: Using Business PR as the Model | 393 |
| 6-Jan-18 | 12 Days in 1968 | 956 |
| 7-Jan-18 | 1968 Mystery: Four Subs Lost In Four Months | 626 |
| 8-Jan-18 | To Sleep, Perchance To Dream | 327 |
| 9-Jan-18 | Panamá versus Oklahoma: Transportation | 457 |
| 10-Jan-18 | Zuma Fail: Why Space Is No Place For Private Business | 509 |
| 11-Jan-18 | Rapid HR Hiring Process Required In Professional Environment | 477 |
| 12-Jan-18 | ICE Solidifies Itself As Trump’s SS Police | 555 |
| 13-Jan-18 | About This, About Writing | 412 |
| 14-Jan-18 | Panamá’s Caribbean Afterthought | 805 |
| 15-Jan-18 | Why You Won’t See A Tax Cut | 338 |
| 16-Jan-18 | Why Trumpsters Don’t Understand Anti-Trump Reactions | 377 |
| 17-Jan-18 | Should the Nuremberg Code Be Applied to Internet Data Collection? | 1212 |
| 18-Jan-18 | Government Shutdown An Opportunity | 416 |
| 19-Jan-18 | NASA’s Orion Capsule: A ‘Look Busy’ Project? | 1067 |
| 20-Jan-18 | Total Lunar Eclipse January 31…Western United States | 243 |
| 21-Jan-18 | Popes That Damned Women, Choice, and Humanity | 708 |
| 22-Jan-18 | An Indictment Against NPR Journalism Standards | 745 |
| 23-Jan-18 | SpaceX Falcon Heavy-Lift Rocket: A Soviet-Style Disaster? | 865 |
| 24-Jan-18 | Why the Stock Market is Like a Strip Club | 316 |
| 25-Jan-18 | Trump and GOP Causing Emotional Numbness? | 455 |
| 26-Jan-18 | Employee Relations: The You’re-Not-Getting-a-Raise-Letter | 342 |
| 27-Jan-18 | Why We Elect the Wrong People?: #1 Business Wants Dumb Politicians | 428 |
| 28-Jan-18 | The Day Business Killed The NASA Space Program | 1246 |
| 29-Jan-18 | The State of the Union of the United States of America | 1069 |
| 30-Jan-18 | Why We Elect the Wrong People?: #2 We Don’t Understand the Purpose of a Republic | 592 |
| 31-Jan-18 | 2018 Blue Moon Lunar Eclipse | 499 |
FEBRUARY 2018
| DATE | TITLE | WORDS |
| 1-Feb-18 | Zuma Mystery: It’s Classified and Invisible…Apparently | 777 |
| 2-Feb-18 | Should You Become a Parent? | 789 |
| 3-Feb-18 | The Plantar Wart and HPV | 385 |
| 4-Feb-18 | Housing Prices Edge Closer to Catastrophe | 419 |
| 5-Feb-18 | Stock Market Symptom of Great Depression, Not Cause | 629 |
| 6-Feb-18 | GOP Memo is Last Straw | 343 |
| 7-Feb-18 | SpaceX Falcon Heavy Defies the Odds | 484 |
| 8-Feb-18 | 66 Years Ago: A Princess in Africa Becomes Queen | 392 |
| 9-Feb-18 | North Korea Bizzare Olympics Stunt | 382 |
| 10-Feb-18 | Snowpack is No Longer a Viable Water Supply | 583 |
| 11-Feb-18 | 500th WordPress PAULx Post: Milestone of Words | 553 |
| 12-Feb-18 | Forget Stock Market & Bitcoin, Invest in Mendadent Toothpaste | 329 |
| 13-Feb-18 | Reno Nevada Mayor Schieve Declares She is Uninformed | 804 |
| 14-Feb-18 | To Love Your Child, Be Honest With Them | 652 |
| 15-Feb-18 | Corp USA: “The Stock Market Requires We Underpay You” | 312 |
| 16-Feb-18 | Space Exploration Isn’t Profitable, It’s Transformative | 707 |
| 17-Feb-18 | McDonald’s Shake Machines Legendary Unreliability | 551 |
| 18-Feb-18 | Mass Shooters Not Criminals Before They Picked Up A Gun | 341 |
| 19-Feb-18 | Are These People the Next Mass Shooter? | 353 |
| 20-Feb-18 | Center of the Milky Way: Update | 608 |
| 21-Feb-18 | Second Amendment: A Well Regulated Militia | 501 |
| 22-Feb-18 | Victims of Major Mass Shootings Since Sandy Hook Elementary | 709 |
| 23-Feb-18 | David Brooks is Wrong Again on Guns | 473 |
| 24-Feb-18 | Five ‘Facts’ About the Equinox? | 529 |
| 25-Feb-18 | Trumpster ‘Hillary’ Excuse Proves Russian Influence | 1701 |
| 26-Feb-18 | Hiding Journalists Behind the Paywall | 527 |
| 27-Feb-18 | My Imaginary Interview with Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal | 499 |
| 28-Feb-18 | SpaceX 2018 Launch Schedule Is PR Gold or PR Nightmare | 681 |
MARCH 2018
| DATE | TITLE | WORDS |
APRIL 2018
| DATE | TITLE | WORDS |
| 1-Apr-18 | April Fool’s Day is Donald Trump Day | 368 |
| 2-Apr-18 | Tax Breaks Don’t Work When Everyone is Giving Them | 502 |
| 3-Apr-18 | Should Federal Dollars Go To States With Low Taxes? | 451 |
| 4-Apr-18 | The Dichotomy of Small Towns: Good People, Small Minds | 608 |
| 5-Apr-18 | My First and Final (gulp) Imaginary Interview With Terry Gross | 833 |