400!

After publishing my most recent post, WordPress helpfully informed me that it was the 399th entry on The Cutter Rambles.  Using my advanced math skills, I was able to determine that my next post would be #400.  Since that’s a big round number, I felt like it merited some sort of recognition.

And it has officially been recognized

Even the Undertaker has trouble getting excited for the third big anniversary show of the year (Image source: Flickr)

The problem is that I just celebrated my five-year blogiversary a couple of months ago.  Now, I could do what the WWE does, and celebrate any sort of milestone or anniversary with a “very special” episode of Monday Night Raw.  (That reference was specifically for the two or three wrestling fans that read my blog) But this usually results in three or four “very special” episodes a year.

Would my readers really want to read yet another post celebrating the fact that I’ve been blogging for a long time?  Doubtful.  So instead, I’m going to offer you an apology.

I’m going to apologize because I feel that the blog’s quality has been somewhat sub par recently.  This isn’t entirely surprising, as for some reason, I always seem to hit a bit of a creative slump in the summer months.

I don’t quite understand it.  I’m generally more active in the summer, which should lead to more ideas and topics to write about.  But even if I do get a good idea, I have a tough time translating it into a good blog post.

No more posts about this guy! (Image source: Flickr)

Part of the problem may be that I’ve had to dilute my writing focus.  If you’re one of the few people who enjoyed when I blogged about sports, you may have noticed that I don’t do that anymore.  I’ve been writing for another website about the Philadelphia sports teams, so any sports related posts have gone there.  (If anyone wants to read my opinions on the Phillies and Eagles, let me know and I can point you in that direction.)

For those of you who never liked my sports posts *cough* Mrs. Cutter *cough* you probably find this arrangement to be an improvement.

I’ll also admit that I’ve been doing less reading of other people’s blogs lately.  I used to browse through the WordPress reader a couple of times a day in addition to making dedicated visits to some of my favorite bloggers’ sites.

Lately, I haven’t been doing that as much.  I have noticed that it helps if I follow a blog on Twitter or Facebook.  If I see a link to a new blog post on one of those sites, I’m more likely to click on it.  (In other words, it’s probably worthwhile to promote posts on Twitter and Facebook)

I’ve got to regain my mojo, baby. (Image source: Wikipedia)

Hopefully, I’ll re-gain my blogging mojo soon.  I enjoyed writing that last post about using the bathroom at work, so maybe that’s a sign that things are on the upswing.

That leads me to a question for my readers: Can you tell when I really enjoy writing a particular blog post, and does it improve the quality?

There have been times when I really enjoyed writing a particular post, but I wasn’t sure how enjoyable it was for people to read.  On the other hand, I’ve received compliments on stuff that I thought was actually kind of lousy.

For all my fellow writers out there: How do you feel?  Do you think that the posts you enjoy writing the most are your best posts?  Do your favorite posts tend to be the most popular or liked?

So there you have it: 400 posts on The Cutter Rambles.  Feel free to go back and re-read them all.  Except for this one.  I didn’t do a very good job on that post.

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