A Benchmark, Two Announcements and a Thank You...

A Benchmark:

Earlier this afternoon, "Reasonable Conversation" was visited for the five thousandth time...


Five thousand times....

That blows me away...

  Back on May 2nd, when I wrote the introductory post, I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew some friends would follow it, but beyond them, I wasn't sure. I began to broaden the scope and work on spreading news about the blog and quickly the readership began to grow. I've written 217 posts which works out to be about 54 a month or almost two a day. I've received comments from readers on about half of the posts directly on the website, with many more via third party websites like Facebook, Politico, and various message boards.

  I think I've maintained my goal of writing in a "reasonable" tone. I've yet to receive any emails that suggest I'm a wolf in sheep's clothing, which I'm proud of. Some readers have agreed with my take on things, others clearly haven't. Which is fine. The conversation has been intelligent, respectful and educational. This has been as fun as I hoped it would be, which is important. There's no sense of  "I have to write today, ugh..." at least not yet. It still feels fresh and I'm very excited looking forward to the Presidential campaign. There will be so much to write about, its not funny.

 I've been asked if I plan on adding a podcast to the Reasonable Conversation website. Someday, I will, but not this year. I would love to do interviews with interesting people who can add something to the conversation we have here. RC is a work in progress and I ask you to be patient.

Announcement #1:

 A few weeks ago I was approached by Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia and asked if I would be interested in providing content from Reasonable Conversation for their College newspaper website, The Senate Floor. I quickly agreed and began to cross post for that audience. The feedback has been very nice and I'm told my articles are pulling some solid traffic numbers, which is fantastic. So far, I've simply cross posted content from RC. Over time, I'll create some D & E specific content just for the newspaper. There may be other projects I'll be involved in with the school down the road. I'll keep everyone posted as things develop. Thanks to Adam and his staff for a smooth start up. I look forward to enjoying this very neat relationship.

Announcement #2:

  Unrelated to Reasonable Conversation, I've been able to take a step forward in another area of my professional life. As most of you know, I am a working musician in my "regular job," usually entertaining Seniors in Southwest Ohio. I've done this, and nothing else, for about 15 years now. Next year, I'll enter the world of motivational speaking. I've had people through the years comment on my ability to relate to Seniors and my audiences in general. Its been described as uplifting, refreshing and therapeutic. I'd suggest that whatever is going on is more likely attributable to the people and the music. Nonetheless, a well known International charitable organisation has asked me to provide music and deliver a presentation at a seminar next Summer. I'll be visiting this organisation several times over the next few months as I prepare my remarks. I've never done motivational speaking before, at least not without music, so this will be a fresh challenge. Music and the spoken work have motivated me all of my life, since I was a child. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. If it goes well, the opportunities for me that will open are a little frightening. I don't have a cheesy "system" to pimp, so who knows?

A Thank You:

  I'd like to thank everyone who's felt motivated to click on one of my posts and give it a read. I don't know how many different sets of eyeballs have looked at my writing, but I imagine its several hundred. (My own visits to the website are not included in the totals Google provides me.) I have visitors to the website from the US and Canada of course, but also a healthy number from places like Germany, the UK, Australia, Japan, Russia and even Laos. The top three posts in terms of traffic have been:

1) "Is the Department of Veteran's Affair's banning the use of God at Military Funerals?"  
     Which you can read here...


2) "Resign Mr. Weiner". 
    Which you can read here...

3) "Who ran up the higher deficit, Bush or Obama?"
     Which you can read here...

  Thanks to Dave E., Sterling F., Joe D. and anyone else who sent me ideas or posted interesting material on facebook for me to look at. My ideas come from everywhere, and guys like them have pretty good radar.

  That's it. I felt five thousand views was a good time to stop and reflect a bit, plus I wanted to share some of the cool things happening with you. 2012 is shaping up as a really interesting and great year to be alive and paying attention. Toss in an awesome family, two perfect grandsons and a CD project also scheduled for next year and all I can say is wow.

  Thanks for reading, I appreciate it...

Bill

  PS: I've said it before, but maybe I should bring it up again here. If there's something you feel would be good material for Reasonable Conversation, please pass it along. Links are best of course, but if there's a subject you feel isn't getting sufficient consideration, let me know about that. Keep in mind this is mostly a political blog, so if you want me to write about something not of that world, I may pass. I'll consider anything, though...