State of the blog review: Yesterday I reported there were 239 pages, or 3,581 blogs to review. This morning, we are working backward, and down to 225 pages, or 3,373 blogs yet to be touched, decided / processed.
And only 13 days in which to address the issue. You can probably deduct the last 72 blogs, as the "transition off of Spark" blogs, not needing to be saved or even touched. But still, 3300 blogs, divided by 13 days is... over 250 blogs a day!
Methinks it is time to modify the approach. I had started by going to the earliest blogs and reviewing them, keep, pitch, classify, etc. I think now I'm going to go back to the target certain time periods and preserve a selection of important milestones thing.
Both approaches are emotionally exhausting. When I get tired of it... I make poor decisions! So... I have to pace myself.
Meanwhile, in other news, I have always fixed it in my mind that August 4th was my "entering maintenance" day in 2010. This may or may not be true, but I have been thinking of it that way. For the record, my weight on that date was 128.6 pounds. This morning it was 148.1 pounds. Between those two dates, I have of course varied. During the most strenuous of my athletic endeavors, 2015 being the year in which I set the most personal best times, I was drifting around 115 pounds. During the worst of my post-retirement, it has drifted up as high as 160. Fortunately, it has never got as bad as my old "lifetime highest weight" which was 224 and change.
When I look at the graph since 2013, you can see the effects of both the heavy training, AND the post retirement struggles.
Also of interest is the seasonal cycle, of losing weight through the Summers and regaining in the colder months! As I was reviewing the blogs, I found one involving a conversation with my doctor, where he asked if I had such a pattern of cycling, seasonally. This chart clearly shows that I do. But at the time, I said to him, "Doctor, my weight cycles don't last months, they last years." Brutal honesty. "Well, let's see if we can speed that up a bit."
And, here we are.
Let's all get out there and live the best Wednesday, August 4th, 2021 we can manage, right where we are! After all, it's the only one we'll ever get. And we are worth taking care of, for Life is Good!
✨💖 Keep on Sparking!
The fact that you’ve blogged all that clearly shows how committed you are to being the best that you can be! How significant it is that you can look back and make those determinations about your cycles even now!
ReplyDeleteThe insights I am gaining just by going through this exercise are pretty amazing... things that just aren't an issue for me any more that I agonized over ten years ago, for example. And of course some things that are "ever with us" like the poor... poor thoughts?
DeleteI ❤️ data. 🙂
ReplyDeleteCharts tell such interesting stories, don’t they?
While 3K blogs is a lot, so is 2 weeks, if you have a fast internet connection..,
I wonder if you can set up a screen-scraper script, to save your pages as PDFs?
You would first need to set up a script to capture the URLs and then the second to parse through the list.
Just a thought...
If you build in a small random lag between page requests, you might be able to bypass DoS prevention software...
I have never set up a screen scraper and don't want to take the time to learn. Besides, I am making the conscious choice to delete a whole bunch that I figure are NOT worthy of saving.
DeleteI notice you have built an impressive "Way Back Machine" archiving old blogs! Well done!
And yes, charts do reveal a whole lot!
LOL about the Wayback Machine - I didn’t build it; I’m just using it and hoping SP won’t have them delete everything from that domain...
DeleteScreen scrapers are pretty easy to write; just pick your favorite language, and then tap into the existing tools. I probably would have used one to archive my stuff but I have insufficient bandwidth on this cellphone hotspot and the library wifi isn’t much better. And I don’t want to pay to use a server elsewhere in-line. 😉
But there is also value in decluttering, even electronically. Unplugging and deleting can be very liberating. 🕊
Whew! I need a break. Just went through all the Kevin blogs... from the immediate handling of his death through the Abbott Dash to the finish 5K in NYC. Heavy lifting. But it's now preserved for later contemplation.
Delete❤️
DeleteYeah, revisiting journal entries in order to save them reminds me of how it feels to pack for a move. There are the onerous nuts and bolts of the practical side of the process that need to get done according to a timeline.
And then there is the weird emotional labor involved that has its own timeline and sometimes even feels a bit like time travel, when the memories evoked are especially poignant.
Frequent mental “vacations” from the process are super important!
🫂
Oh, I'm not even bothering to decide anything at this point, just save and delete. I'll decide later! I wish you luck! It sounds like you are literally writing a book! Are you going to republish stuff on a separate blog here that you set up?
ReplyDeleteI have two other blogs set up at this point, where I am sloooooowly moving blogs essentially "as is" from Spark. Might clean up some spelling or add a photo, but as is. I'm giving them their original publication dates.
DeleteI have some loose thoughts about merging and massaging some of the smaller "themed" blogs into a "chapter" if you will on those topics... and those would be published as new / massaged material, perhaps on this blog, perhaps somewhere else.
My food logs show that during the summer months, when my weight goes down, lots of salads, fresh fruits and veggies are the greater part of my food day. In the cooler months, lots of soup and stir fries. Healthy choices all. While I remain active in the cooler months, it's just the same as being outside and staying busy with yard work. Snow removal (big ugh!!) isn't nearly as satisfying as seeing the well mowed yard and weeded beds. Cie la vie!
ReplyDeleteLOL! I am the exact opposite... I LOVE seeing the piles of snow and feel a great sense of accomplishment from doing all that lifting! Whereas the grass makes me sneeze, therefore I hire my mowing done while I go out and walk/run in Summer! As you said, though, C'est la vie!
DeleteDefinitely emotional going thru past blogs. Only saving milestones for myself.
ReplyDeleteThat was my first thought... but even saving only milestones, 11 years has a LOT of milestones, or at least it has had for me.
DeleteYou have already seen I view my life's journey mostly in pictures and I enjoy letting people "see through my eyes". Some I take, or have been gifted. The few that are in my head are the blogs that I kept. The ones so breathtakingly hard that there would never be photographs.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why I'm ready to quit Spark earlier than I thought. I'm no longer sharing pictures there.
I am blessed to have a few special photos that you took during some of our Boston meets. As I go back through all these memories... some are truly painful, some are uplifting, some are "meh"... and some make me laugh. I understand everyone making their own decisions about departure dates.
DeleteAnd you *do* have a blog home here, when you are ready to use it.
Of course much of my own blogging was in snips and snatches, in word pictures more than photos... but there are some of those, too.
I figure I'll capture what I can, and what I can't, I will let go. And if I burn out in the effort first... well, it is what it is!
i blogged for 10 years not sure what to do or where
ReplyDelete(( hugs ))
Delete"Don't get cocky!" You always seem to be ... cautious.
ReplyDeleteI use to journal allllll the time. Just for me ... in hand writing. One day ... I burned them all and never got back into the daily aspect of it. On Sparks ... I blogged for me ... and feedback from Sparkers.
My life seems to be a roller coaster of ... highs and lows. Right now I feel worse on increased thyroid meds. But I'm doing what the doc asked. I have OK moments and then spiral into despair over BFF's death.
Whooops ... there I go again.
And I still can't change my ... Comment as:
💛💛💛
I wish I could be more helpful, but I don't have a clue as to why your "Reply as:" looks different from mine! Could be your browser, could be if you're posting from a phone app, a tablet, a laptop, what operating system, etc.! Clearly it "knows" you as mtn_kitten because your id shows up on the comment.
DeleteMany hugs... and that roller coaster metaphor is such an echo for so many of us. I'm certainly finding it as I review the old blogs!
I’m watching the Olympics and wondering if any of the athletes have lost weight in the immense heat. You can definitely see how it has affected some more than others. I can’t imagine lounging around in those temperatures, let alone DO anything 🥵
ReplyDeleteI would not be surprised... but weight loss from heat is often hydration related, and I'm hoping that these elite athletes know enough about their bodies to take good care of them. I'm sure it is affecting the performance of many. I remember running a few races in 80+ degrees F, and seeing some drop from the heat.
DeleteI was able to click through this link on my desktop. I think it must have something to do with my cell phone not allowing me to click through. All blog links that I tested are working from my desktop.
ReplyDeleteI think we figured it out. They do NOT work from the phone! Glad you eventually got here!✨
DeleteI like the way you maintain an overview of everything. You're careful to record and watch things. I just sort of flop all around, not very aware of what I'm doing and going from this to that without thinking much, but you pay attention to patterns and cycles, and try to learn from it all. I really love it when you talk about alternating between "why try" and "I'm never going back there." So familiar and funny!
ReplyDeleteThank you. It's a natural analytical nature, nurtured by an analytical mother. I'd be willing to bet if you thought about it a bit, you aren't flopping around and as unaware as you say. I'm that way, too... but occasionally come up for air and look around and analyze that "big picture".
DeleteYou know me. Another data and graph junkie here. They really can be quite revealing and supportive. I never would have imagined that a weight graph and specifically drilling down to and focusing on rates of change could tell me *so* much!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the ongoing blog saving project.
~ JEANKNEE
Thanks! Onward!
Delete