That is a ridiculously ambitious target which he's not destined to meet until 2037.
And yet it can be done because I've hit that very same target with today's post.
Because This is the 10,000th post on diamond geezer.
That is one heck of a lot of posts.
Ten thousand mini-essays, ten thousand times I've pressed 'Publish', ten thousand times I've had an idea and decided to tell the world about it.
You could have done the same, the software's free, all you need is a heck of a lot of spare time and the ability to look at the world around you in a vaguely interesting way.
It helps to have an audience, thanks, and it helps to have feedback, ditto. But I suspect I'd still be producing this stuff even if I wasn't getting <checks> a million visitors a year and 10,000 comments too. Thanks again.
That said, some of my ten thousand posts haven't required a lot of effort. Some are just photos, some are barely a couple of sentences, and several of the early ones are only a few words. They've got much longer since the early days, as you'll have seen this week, but today's milestone is solely about quantity not quality.
Also in my case ten thousand posts doesn't equate to ten thousand days. If I'd only written one post per day it would've been at least 2030 before I reached today's milestone because 10,000 days is a massive 27½ years. Instead I've often doubled up, even trebled and quadrupled, so I've got there a lot quicker.
Here's how the average number of posts per week has evolved over the years.
Back at the start in 2002 I was churning out 12 posts a week, generally quite brief, the numbers topped up by lists of weblinks and themed daily series. That weekly total gradually decreased as I got used to writing longer, more substantial posts. In 2009 it dropped to 8 posts a week, i.e. typically one daily post and an extra post slipped in. And that's where it's stayed, really quite consistently, apart from a slight uplift during the pandemic when I threw in that weekly summary of Covid-related news.
That'll be why my first 5000 posts took just under ten years and my second 5000 posts took over just eleven.
And what have I been writing about for the past 10,000 posts? I don't mean what are the longest running series I've blogged, because I made a list of those last year. I mean what are the typical characteristics of a diamond geezer post? When faced with another blank online template to fill in, what tropes do I fall back on?
Here's my first attempt at a list.
• I went for a walk
• I went on a journey
• I went sightseeing
• I went somewhere seemingly mundane
• I visited disjoint linked locations
• I spotted something unusual
• I invented a silly challenge
• I went to see something new
• I see TfL have done something
• I wouldn't have done it like that
• I disapproved of some marketing
• I considered the human condition
• I dug into some data
• I made some lists
• I scoured a map
• I made a quiz
• I looked back in my diary
• I was inspired by today's date
• I reacted to the news
• I am being sarcastic
These are all very geezeresque themes.
A lot of blogs tend to be more "this is my life", "let me tell you what I've been doing" or "here is my obsession", whereas I tend to be more observational and diverse.
A lot of blog-based media tends to be "here's something we've been sent" and "here's how you could spend time and money", whereas I try to be more analytical and eclectic.
I'm not saying my way is the best way, but you wouldn't still be here if all I did was moan about events or regurgitate press releases.
I then tried to slim those 20 themes down to 10.
» Let me tell you about a place
» I followed a specific route
» I'll list some observations
» I think this is interesting
» I saw a one-off thing
» I asked myself a question
» I never told you this before
» This could be done better
» They are taking the piss
» I am taking the piss
