300th Post Has Past

I posted my 300th post this past weekend. It was the post about my first long run of 9 miles in almost 3 It's Good To Be Back.

Image: Driftwood along beach in Puget Sound

years,

Of those 300 posts in the past 6.5 years:

• 106 are from the previous running blog I had.
• 28,070 pageviews so far.
• Only 44 have been guitar related.
• 19 relate to Cigar Box Guitars.
• 150 (1/2 the posts) were posted in 2014 (Wow! I can't believe anyone has kept reading my posts this year.)

It is fitting that the 300th post is about running since my first post on my previous 1000K blog (which has been combined with the Droolfactory) was about running. That first post was about my goal to run 1000 km in 2008 to keep motivated with running. I did pretty good that year and have kept running (off and on) since then.

I've really enjoyed how blogging has pushed me to explore my writing, encouraged me to capture events in my life, and rekindle my joy of sharing my passions.

I hope you've enjoyed reading it.

Blogging Tips To Keep the Posts Flowing

A family road trip including a ferry ride produced
a wealth of photos for blog posts.

Ok, I will be the first to admit now that I am back to work after an almost 5 month hiatus doing home
keeping, that blogging while working full time is hard to pull off.

So, how am I keeping up with as many posts as I have been doing? Here are some tips:

• Track Your Ideas: I have a blog ideas folder in a Notes app. I write down any idea that comes to my head and a couple lines if they come to mind so I can develop the idea more when I am sitting at my computer writing. This pipe of ideas can be very helpful when you have a few minutes to spare to write but can't think of what to write; just crack open the ideas file and start writing.
• Plan Ahead: I trace out what the coming 2-3 weeks will look like for posts and lay out the posts for that timeframe. Leaving holes to fill in as things come up I want to blog on immediately. I do this in a fancy tracking software program called a "1-subject ruled notebook". It's quick and easy and helps me track how the next few weeks look.
• Pictures Tell A Story: I have started adding pictures to each post to make the RSS field and posts to Facebook/Google+ have a unique image. I also look for photos while I am out or doing something since it might launch a post idea or be a great shot for a post.
• Learning By Teaching: I look for topics I am currently doing or interested in (like Guitar) to turn into a series of posts as I learn more about the topic. This inspires me to learn more on the topic, write it down, and remember it better. It's a win win!

I hope that helps you get ideas for more posts.

Thanks for reading,

Mark

Where Do I Get Blog Ideas From?

I've had someone ask how I post so much. Ok, so where do I get blog ideas from?

Strolling the beach on Vashon Island, WA.

When I was finding my blogging voice again, back in January, I found that I did not know what to write about some days and coming up with posts was difficult. So I did some research, and one of the best posts I found on Blog ideas was 101 Blog Post Ideas That Make Your Blog Hot.

I tried a couple of them and rejected a lot as too cheesy or just not me.

You'll recognize some of the posts as coming from ideas in that list including:

• #2 Review books/products/films - Ya, did a couple of these:
• Book: 1632 (Ring of Fire)
• Comic: Age of Reptiles
• Book: David Byrne's, How Music Works
• ...
• #9 Tell a Personal Secret - less a secret than something I have never told others was my series of posts on flying
• Night Flight Into Clouds
• #16 Write a Song
• I have posted a couple over at my svbtle page: http://mthistle.svbtle.com/
• The Hacker
• Red Track Suit
• #17 Create a list of something, ie. a Top 10
• 10 Things People Don't Tell You About Being a Runner
• 10 Things People Don't Tell You About Being a Programmer
• #19 Share your Goals/Dreams
• I shared a dream to travel abroad to do humanitarian work.
• #23 Write a response to a recent post of news
• That's what I did after I read a tweet soliciting developer feedback on the switch to iOS Storyboards.
• #29 Tell a Joke
• A funny interview story was The Sleeper.
• #41 Tell about your latest event experiences
• I did this after a night out to see live music, when I went to see Carly Calbero play.
• Or my report on the Seattle Mini Maker Faire 2014.
• #55 Publish a longer About Me Post
• Done and added an About Page to my static pages.
• #60 Post about your most popular posts
• I did just that in a post about My Top 5 Posts
• #84 Write a series of blog posts - started with the 3 String Cigar Box Guitar Tuning Series
• Starting with Open G Tuning for 3 String CBG and more to come.

So that has been one way I kept my posts flowing.

Good luck blogging and if you have a blog, post a link in the comments so I can go check it out.

Thanks for reading,

Mark

About Me

I am assuming that the majority of people that read this blog know me. You are either a friend, a coworker, or family.

There are some that don't know me and as such I thought I'd share a bit about me. So I posted a new static page with just that: About Me

My Top Posts

Traffic at Droolfactory since creation.

I have had periods of active, not so active, and non-existent posting on this blog. That said, I have had a pretty steady number of pageviews for my inactive periods. How is that?

I am currently hovering at about 1700-1800 pageviews a month. I only just broke past the 1000 pageviews a month this past January 2014. Obviously due to my increase in posts.

Of note, I made only 25 posts from 2010-2013. This year I am over 118 posts. That said, those daily posts are likely to start to die out. With full time work, it is much harder to research topics, and find time to write. But that is for another post.

So, after almost 5 months of regular posts, I thought I'd break down some of my top posts, highlighting them and explaining why I think they continue to have good traffic. For some, years after I have posted them.

So here are the top five and some stats and my thoughts about them.

Number 1: Mac OS X Lion: kernel_task with High CPU

• Original Post Date: August 28, 2012
• Pageviews: 3740
• Why?
• It's a problem that drives people nuts. Your Mac's fans go nuts. Your battery gets eaten since the CPU is running all out. 

Number 2: Fix for Twitter-OAuth-iPhone Due to Twitter Mobile OAuth Update

• Original Post Date: February 3, 2010
• Pageviews: 1969
• Why?
• Lots of devs have used the Twitter-OAuth-iPhone library, from Ben Gottlieb, to write Twitter apps against the Twitter mobile website. I guess many still do and they are using this hack around the Twitter API.

Number 3: Adding Twitter + OAuth to an iPhone App

• Original Post Date: December 23, 2009
• Pageviews: 1400
• Why?
• Again, Twitter's growth in 3rd party apps drove a lot of searches to this page.

Number 4: OCMock observerMock and unrecognized selector

• Original Post Date: August 19, 2011
• Pageviews: 749
• Why?
• Apple's developer testing toolset is getting better with each release of Xcode but Mocks are something they still have not added. This library fills that hole and is used by many developers and testers to write better apps. The library can be a bit to get your head around so this one is still popular.

Number 5: Fixing dyld image not found on Mac OS

• Original Post Date: July 18, 2012 
• Pageviews: 712
• Why?
• As a dev writing libraries and frameworks to include in other apps, frameworks, and daemons by other teams I have had to help debug multiple linker issues. Especially for bundled libraries that are running in non-standard locations. This is something others deal with as well and hence this post still draws traffic.

Those are my top 5 current posts. I think it will be a long time before some new post unseats these posts. The top two still rank highly in my weekly and monthly traffic numbers. Often being the top 2 for a month.

I am working on a post series that I will be very interested to see the traction of. That is the new posts about tunings and scales for 3 string Cigar Box Guitars. I think these will be posts that gather interest over time as people search for how to tune and play their CBG.  We'll see how they fare in a year or so.

Consolidation Of Running and Personal Blog

I've decided to consolidate the 1000K blog into DroolFactory. DroolFactory has evolved to cover all my passions and as such I am going to continue to post about running, training, riding, etc, that used to be on 1000K at DroolFactory.

There should be no changes for readers of both. The old 1000K posts still exist but they have been imported into DroolFactory and at a later date I plan to mothball 1000K and redirect it to DroolFactory.

So, expect more running and exercise related items appearing on DroolFactory.

Thanks,

Mark

Three Month Check In

It's been 3 months since I resigned from BlackBerry and left to do a stint as a Stay At Home Dad (SAHD, is the lingo apparently). Here's a check in with how things have been going.

My primary reason for resigning was to concentrate more on my kids and help my family out. That has been going very well. We are still getting used to Dad at home but I am happy to say that my youngest is doing great with the one on one help and attention he has been getting. My wife has been happy that there are more meals being prepared by me and that things around the house are getting done, slowly, but still getting done.

As part of my time off the past three months I have been able to volunteer in both of my sons classes. So far I have taught 2 Computer Science classes to my older son's grade 2 class. For my younger son, his teacher has graciously let me come in 1-2 times a week to help his Kindergarten class. I do mostly math, some exercise/active games, a little reading, and a little art (basically, whatever she needs help doing). I have become a celebrity with his class and the kids are all excited to see me there. Teaching and interacting with the kids has been one of the high points of my time off.

As an outlet for my creativity, I have been very happy with the blogging as a place to express my opinions, share my multitude of ideas with you, and connect with my readers (mostly friends or family). When I began this blog it was a way to share my latest doings with friends, a bit with family, and a lot with colleagues. My technical and Mac troubleshooting posts are still my most read articles. Since I have gone off to be a SAHD, I have expanded my writing more into my other areas of interest as I have had more time to explore them.

Of course, we can't forget guitar. I have gotten worse, since I have been adding singing, and better at playing since I went off. I would not hire me to sing at your wedding but my jam partner and I are having a blast as we continue to rock out each week.

While off I have dropped 10 lbs but I am still far from a healthy weight and where I want to be. I have done ok the past 3 months with better eating and exercise but am not satisfied with my progress. This is why I am dedicating April to fitness so I can kickstart one of my other loves, running long distance. I look forward to how the month turns out and planning the next phase with running.

Lastly, since I started the DroolFactory, I have meet more people, become active on social media and watched as my readership has expanded. It's always exciting for me when I see a comment from someone, a retweet, or like for an article I wrote.  Thanks to all of you for reading my ramblings and continuing to come back. You make this site worth working on.