Blog Update: October 10th, 2014

It has been a little over a month since I last posted a story on here and that one was mostly photos of kayaking. Did I run into writer’s block? Well kind of, sort of. I started to write a story about The Middle East and it got very complicated and very long. Often I would have 10 Google tabs open for reference points. The whole deal was becoming more of a book than a short story. Man what a complex subject! In the end I decided to scrap the whole thing. I started thinking who would want to read a 40 page story about The Middle East written by some guy on Vancouver Island? I haven’t totally given up. I will write an opinion piece on the state of affairs in The Middle East today and broad brush some of the details.

I’m not totally sure what I expected when I first launched my blog over two years ago. I knew that I had a lot of stuff stored up in me that I wanted to get out. I also knew I wasn’t getting any younger and that I better get started at it while I had most of my marbles.

I think my goal was to get about 50,000 readers. I pictured in my mind that an NHL hockey stadium holds about 20,000 people. 2-1/2 times one of those stadiums wouldn’t be too shabby. I’m still quite a way from 50,000 readers even with over 42,000 hits on Left Coast Mumblings so far because a number of those readers have checked out my blog a number of times.

It may or may not surprise you that I type using one finger in the hunt and peck method. Years ago I managed to use 2 fingers but for some reason that advancement regressed. I still don’t know how and where other people learned to type using most of their digits. Is there a special room you went to?

I don’t claim to be a brilliant writer but I do believe I have a better memory than most. I suppose that there are times when I could flesh things out a bit more but I am sometimes hesitant to because the objective of my writings on here is to create a “short” story.

I’m pretty sure I have driven the “Typo Nazis” crazy a number of times. I try to edit what I write but sometimes things get missed. To these people I say “You know you are reading my stuff for free right?” And just for the record I do know how to use Spell Check.

Nostalgia

Wikipedia defines nostalgia as a sentimentality for the past, particularly for a place or period in time with happy associations. I guess it’s a good thing that I called my blog Left Coast Mumblings and not Colin’s Nostalgia because everything I write about things past is not always happy. That’s just the way life works.

I’ve never been that keen about people who rewrite history to suit their own purposes. I get the idea that it can be unpleasant dwelling on things uncomfortable but if that is part of the story I’ll probably write about it.

I think that people who have sustained life-long friendships that date back to their childhoods or high school years deserve some credit. You picked your friends well those many years ago. You need a certain kind of personality to manage that. It seems to me that women have deeper friendships with other women than men do with other men. Woman often have an emotional connection where as many men are often content enough knowing that their friends also like golf or MMA fighting and pay for a round once in a while.  

One of the things I have noticed in e-mails I have received from some guys is that they can remember quite well who they got drunk with 40 or more years ago.

Never the less there are many who are a lot better at sustaining long friendships than I. I’ve seen a lot of friends come and go in my life. Sometimes it was just people going in different directions and other times it was just simply moving on to other things.

I have to admit to taking a few shots at some people in my writings. I’ve never been a big fan of being betrayed. It isn’t as if I want to settle some old scores. I’m not the kind of person who thinks that if you screw me around once we are done. You usually have to screw me around several times. I do have a problem with people who are hypocrites in particular. Life’s too short for me be a party to that. Sell that to someone else.

 

Feedback

I have to say that it is quite rewarding getting nice compliments on my stories. I appreciate the fact that someone would take the time. I receive a lot more e-mails than I do comments on my blog. I’ve had a number of interesting conversations with people I never knew back in the day but are familiar with what I am writing about.

Once in a while I get something from somebody who is pissed off at something I wrote but not very often.

One of the stranger things is receiving a comment from people who calls themselves “anonymous”. It’s a bit like receiving an unsigned birthday card.

The Montreal Stories

I’m thinking seriously about writing a book about Montreal in the 1950s and 1960s with a lot more depth than the stories I have already written about the city. I promise most of it won’t be gloom and doom. Would you buy this book? What if I promised to have it edited?

Blog Stats

Here is a list of the top ten most popular stories I have written.

#1 NDG, Montreal…From the 1950s to the 1960s (By far the most readers.)

#2 West Hill High School, Montreal

#3 A Brief History of The Montreal Alouettes

#4 Gone Fishing

#5 Remembering Frank Crabbe

#6 Georgeville and Stanstead, Quebec

#7 Willingdon School, Montreal

#8 Confessions of a 1950s Child TV Addict

#9 Port Alberni, BC 1974

#10 Road Trip Back East-Travels With Cooper

Top 10 Countries Where People Have Viewed My Blog (Approximately)

#1 The US 16,000 (About 2,000 more viewers than Canada)

#2 Canada 14,000

#3 France 2,500

#4 Germany 2,000

#5 Russia Under 1,000

#6 The UK Under 1,000

#7 Ukraine Under 1,000

#8 Turkey Under 1,000

#9 China Under 1,000

#10 Poland Under 1,000

Oddest Location To View My Blog

A US Air Force base in The Indian Ocean. About 20 hits. It must have been a quiet night.

Pageviews By Operating System

Windows 71%

MacIntosh 9%

iPad 4%

iPhone 3%

Android 2%

Blackberry 1%

iPod 1%

Pageviews By Browsers

Internet Explorer 31%

Firefox 24%

Chrome 23%

Safari 11%

Opera 4%