Post 100

Benji says "Happy 100, Paideia!!!"

Wow! When I started this project, I didn't really expect it to work out. Especially when the technical difficulties hit in mid-March, I was marking my adventures into blogging as a certain failure. Well, when you hit One Hundred blog posts in a single quarter of activity, then you can count yourself as a "blogger".

Yeah, plenty of my early posts are glorified "link" posts: a picture, a vid, a link, and a paragraph of brief commentary. But I've gotten better. My basic template is still pic/comment/vid/link, but I think that the quality and quantity of my original content has dramatically improved. For instance, look at my posts regarding Roman History:

In Beware the Ides of March, I hardly provided more than a pic of Julius Caesar and a Wikipedia link. There really is no point to this post, except to point of the historical significance of the day. Grade = F

The situation is improved when we get to the birth date of Septimus Severus in And Scorn All Other Men. My original content is considerably better in that I provide some historical information as to why we should take note of the date. Moreover, there is a premise that I assert; Severus is an interesting historic figure who frequently gets undeservedly overlooked. However, in both cases, it's a "bare bones" argument. I could have put more "meat" into it. Grade = D

Finally, The Wellspring of Good marks the birth date of the philosopher emperor Marcus Aurelius. In this post, I put a decent amount of effort explaining why I admire this historic figure. The accompanying vid is fairly informative. My links are helpful to any reader that has interest in learning more about Marcus Aurelius. Grade = C


Caesar, Aurelius, Severus


Alright, that still averages a D Grade, but the trend is positive. And that gives me hope. This whole blogging thing doesn't come easily to me. Being able to discern such rapid improvement over a two month period makes me happy.

As regards my readership, it fairly minimal at this point. However, I don't really expect too much more than that, seeing as how I've done zero promotion. My feelings are that, before I can go out and ask people to check out my blog, I need to have reached a certain grade of quality, quantity, and regularity. This post marks my attainment of the "quantity" pre-req. Hurray!!!

Now, I need to keep working on the quality and continue maintaining regularity of content production. I'm averaging a little under three posts per day over the last month. That's a decent production rate for an amateur blog, but it can be improved. There needs to be enough new material over the course of a week to make regular visit to Paideia worthwhile. Three posts a day is the minimum average, in my estimation.

So, to celebrate Post 100, here are the Top 5 articles, according to my readership's interests:

1) Gateway: Japan at the Torrance Art Museum. This article was my third museum post. My first museum post was about the Pacific Asia Museum in To Cross the Magpie Bridge, which was light on text and average on photos. My second post was about UCLA's Fowler Museum in Places to See: Fowler Museum at UCLA, which reversed the problem: good text and no photos. Apparently, Gateway: Japan got the combo just right. ;-)



Capitoline Donkey by Nobuhito Nishigawara


2) Sweet Music Soft and Mellow is another museum post, focusing on my visit to LACMA in which a saw a performance by Denise Donatelli and the Magna Carta. Woo hoo!!!

3) Demons of the Wind is another museum post, featuring a review of an exhibit of Roberto Cuoghi's work at the Hammer Museum. The readers seem to be coming from different areas for this post. Half are art enthusiasts looking for info on Cuoghi. Half are gamers looking for stuff on the demon, Pazuzu. Interesting combo.

Here's a vid that might appeal to either crowd:

4) That They Were Fair is an art post about the works of Daniel Chester French. I give my assessment of his style and provide a few links, and an interesting vid. Kind of an odd post to have such a comparatively high readership, but that's cool.

5) Precarious Transition from Girl to Woman is another art post, featuring the photo series "Sparrow Lane" by Holly Andres. It is my third post regarding the use of tableaux. I'm guessing that the readership for this post comes from Nancy Drew enthusiasts. Hmm. . .


The Pink Chair by Holly Andres


In any case, it looks like the area that generates the greatest interest in my readership is the "Art Blog" material. That's cool. I enjoy writing those types of posts, although they generally take significant prep time. As long as I can make time for visiting museums or galleries, I'll have some art blogging for you all. :-)

In any case, thanks for reading. Here's to the next 100 blog posts!!!

Enjoy!!!