This is an exciting time for me.
It might not mean much to anyone else, but I was thrilled to read on my statistical information that my blog, “What I Think About That,” passed the 10,000 page visits mark on Thursday, May 16, 2013.
More than half of those visits to http://toneyatkins.blogspot.com/ began occurring around and after April 15, the date of the Boston Marathon bombings. The audience record of the statistics indicated that the most visits were from the United States, but I was astonished to see that about half that number came from Germany and Russia, with a number of readers signing on from France, Belgium and China. I also had visits from the United Kingdom, Iraq and several other foreign countries.
I thank the friends on my contacts list for their support, not only for this particular blog, but for my second one as well, “Toney Atkins: The World Around Me.” That blog also showed a major jump in readership starting in April.
Previously, I had concentrated primarily on my web site, www.toneyatkins.com/ , using the blogs mainly to write opinion pieces, stories about visits to a local, small-town and, yes, even redneck diner, quoting some of the down-home humor and political observations that I heard there. I also wrote about personal frustrations and experiences before and after my father’s death. But gradually, I found my mental and creative juices were mysteriously fading. I would later learn that a blood clot was interfering with the blood flow to my head, impacting my usually active and inspired brain, along with seemingly speeding up glaucoma’s affects on my eyesight. Practically overnight, my hearing became distorted. It was easy to blame these occurrences on the aging process, but it was more than that.
Then, earlier this year, I found my newsman’s adrenaline starting to flow again. In observing and talking with neighbors and others, it became clear that they, along with many others in the world, didn’t really know much about the news happening in their country and around the world that could and would have an impact on them. Because I spend a lot of time cruising the Internet for all kinds of news and information, it occurred to me that I could use my blogs to provide headlines and links to stories that might be of interest to a wide audience.
Most of the people I talked with rarely watched anything except local news and the weather. What they knew about government and its problems came from second-third-fourth-and-fifth hand sources that were inaccurate. Many of these folks did not read the newspaper, but they would read things on the Internet, partly because of its novelty, its games and other distractions.
As a former educator and a newsman, I decided to use my idea, which was not unique, to produce blogs with news that people needed to be aware of, along with trivia and humor that they might not get on the news programs that they watched or the radio programs they listened to.
So, I began to diversify, adding to my own writings and creating my own news outlets or “computer newspapers by getting information from sources I knew to be reliable and providing links for my readers to check out the stories they might find interesting and informative, and sometimes they would be among the first to know about some events and issues. I tried to find stories that tied in to the main story to add to their knowledge.
For many days after the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon, I spent as many, if not more, hours at the computer as I did when I was working at the newspaper, and although I wasn’t getting paid, I was rewarded by the thrill of sharing information and news with others.
I thank you all for reinvigorating me, humoring me and tolerating me. You have made me happy.
Please continue to visit me at www.toneyatkins.com/ , http://toneyatkins.blogspot.com/ and http://toneyatkins.blogger.com/ . The door’s always open. You may not always agree with me, but maybe I can make you mad enough to think.
God bless!
-- Toney Atkins, May 17, 2013
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