Three years of Doctor Andy

I looked back through my archives to see when my actual first post was dated; it's February 19, for those keeping score. Since I may not get around to it on the actual day, I thought I'd talk a little bit about my thoughts relating to the anniversary.

In three years, I've published 458 posts (+1 when this one is finished). I have 40 uncompleted posts waiting in the wings in various states of repair or worthiness (-1 when this one is finished). The most posts in a month has been 29, in July of 2006. The fewest has been five, which has occurred several times, including four of the twelve months of 2008. My blog has a 94.7% bounce rate, defined as people who only view the front page and make no other clicks. The last 3500 views have represented 42 countries.

The average number of visitors-per-day fluctuates between 10 and 15, and has a direct (but trailing) correlation to how much I post. The more I post inside a particular time frame, the number of people viewing gradually increases as people realize that I'm in one of my more reliable periods.

Over the years, I've trended towards longer and more infrequent entries. And yes, looking back on some of the entries does make me laugh.

I've been very pleased with both the execution and reception. I say in the first entry that I don't know what the blog's purpose is... and I would guess that's still true. Whatever it is supposed to do, it's currently doing it. This does not (alas) include making me wealthy, but perhaps in 3 more years...

My goal is, as it always seems to be, to write more. We'll see how well that works, moving into the final stretch of my doctoral study. Either I'll be very busy and update less, or I'll be procrastinating and update more!

Thanks to those who follow. It still takes me pleasantly by surprise whenever anyone says, "Oh, I read about that in your blog." What's even better is when people tell me intelligent things that turn out to COME from my blog.

Here's to all the times we've had, and all the times on the road ahead.