187,273 words

My strongest memories of my days as a university student — a short, unfocused, uncompleted part of my life — are sitting in front of a Sanyo MBC-550 (a “somewhat PC compatible computer”) at 3:00 a.m. trying to squeeze out another 125 words into an essay so I could meet the minimum 1,000 or 3,000 or 5,000 words dictated by the professor.

I’m sure many in the readership have been in the same place faced with the same daunting challenge. And you probably employed many of the same stretching techniques I did — “he moved” becomes “he changed his location,” and, presto, 2 more words!

While I’m certain I learned some things during that aborted year, the pleasures of the pen was not among them.

Which is why it amazes me that, in the 42 months that this website has played its current role, I’ve written 187,273 words here. That’s an average of about 140 words per day.

Now of course idle musings about the state of the local telephone company, the ramblings of my wee son, and whatever illuminated animals have taken over my neighbourhood hardly compares to serious ruminations on the relationship of Pliny the Younger to the Praetor of the Centumviral Court.

But I do enjoy it. And that’s something.

Comments

Wayne's picture
Wayne on January 8, 2003 - 14:07 Permalink

It’s everything, really!

Kevin's picture
Kevin on January 8, 2003 - 14:36 Permalink

What I find interesting about these 180+K words is the degree to which they mean something to folk. If we were to go to scripts used by CBC / CTV / Radio folk / The Guardian (as it “Covers Prince Edward Island Like The Dew” — best tag line of the 20th century) and count back 187K words we would find that your blog has perhaps lifted the dew from the land a bit and allowed the warmth of gentle thought to burn down to the roots of our collective consciousnes and spur a bit of growth — and the graceful thing about it is that your suff is more a catalyst than a pronouncement (like that Tran blog we used to produce). I guess traditional print and broadcast are corporate media and the web is much more the peoples’. Congrats on the 1000th posting, the nicely rounded 187273 words (friggin’ time to pick an “anniversary”!) and best for the rest to come.

Wayne's picture
Wayne on January 8, 2003 - 17:05 Permalink

He is right. It is pretty good, for a guy from away!