In which Mixed Meters Turns Five

On September 16, 2005 - exactly five years ago today -  I posted the first three articles to this blog Mixed Meters.  Yes, three in one day.   Here's the entire first post "In Which David Fails to Find An Interesting First Comment":

Every new adventure begins with the words "Why am I doing this?" It would be so much easier not to bother trying new things.

If you, future person reading these words, discover that this blog hasn't changed in months . . . years . . . then you'll know I couldn't find a good answer for the question.

My philosophy will be . . . keep it short.

In the following two weeks I published 14 more articles:

• In which David Reveals What He Listens to While Listening to NPR
• In which David Rewrites the Pledge of Allegiance
• In which David Plugs Ham Hocks and Cornbread
• In which David Introduces a New Character
• In which David First Refers to His Hair
• In which David Eats Cheese Before Bed
• In which a Docker Award goes to Oolon Colluphid
• In which David Hears Things
• In which David Envies the Leisure Classes
• In which David Collects Random Thoughts
• In which David Doesn't Often Go To the Movies, But...
• In which David Links to Writers He Respects
• In which David Has A Clarinet Flashback
• In which David Rants About His Wireless Router

Read all of them, in reverse order, by clicking here.

Today, in 2010, after more than 500 posts which are always way longer and much less frequent than those early ones, I realize the utter foolishness of me ever trying to keep things short.  And the question "Why am I doing this?" has as yet to find an answer.

And ... I'm still blogging.  Go figure.

Here's a picture of me on my actual fifth birthday - in 1956:

After a period of practice blogging I formally announced Mixed Meters in an email on Nov. 1, 2005:

To Friends, Relatives, Colleagues, Clients, People With Whom I've Exchanged At Least One Email Within Five Years, People Who Send Me Repeated E-mail Promotions and Others:

DAVID OCKER HAS BLOGGED.  It's called MIXED METERS.  I know you're all thrilled.  Please check it out.

I've been posting to it for about a month.  It's mostly about the music I enjoy, but there are also remarks about politics, movies and the pop culture to which I'm subjected.  Plus silly rants and pictures. Lots of links.

You can listen to selected 30 Second Spots.  These are half-minute low-fidelity Midi pieces which I've been writing.  Click on "Read about 30 Second Spots" for an explanation.

I've even created the Docker Awards - presented only to fictitious characters so far. They're kind of like Grammys or Oscars, only more pointless.

I try to keep everything short.  Expect a new post two or three times a week - at least until I get bored.  That will happen sooner if no one is reading.  So you know what to do.  (And please tell your friends.) Thanks.

I like it when people read what I post, but let's face facts - Mixed Meters has not set the Internet on fire.  I do seem to have a few really engaged readers.  I am very grateful to you for returning repeatedly.  My range of subject matter can't make Mixed Meters easy to understand, so I assume that on some level you're kindred spirits.

Sometimes I claim that Mixed Meters has only three readers.  That's supposed to be a small joke.  On the Internet the important metric isn't readers, it's hits.  Here's the five-year history of MM's daily hit counts:

Pretty erratic, huh?  Some of the features do have explanations.  Letter A, for example, represents the initial email announcement above.  Letter B is my first post about Frank Zappa, an article entitled Varese, Zappa, Slonimsky.

Letter C marks a post called In Which David Is Confused By The Second Coming.  I wrote about a hip hop artist, Juelz Santana, who had used the Dies Irae in a track which became part of a Nike television commercial.  I was interested in Dies Irae while other people were interested in Juelz.  Fortunately that wore off.

The single busiest day was November 16, 2008 (D) when Mixed Meters was hit up 415 times.   A few days later I posted about Hitler, Wagner and Ring Festival LA for the first time.  You can plainly see that the hit count has declined steadily ever since.  The increase in green on the graph suggests that some people have begun exploring Mixed Meters once they get here, not just landing on one page and then surfing off again.

Also notice the mysterious trough at letter E.  I don't know what it represents.  Maybe it was some sort of glitch at Google.  A large portion of MM hits originate from Google.

All in all, I think Mixed Meters has been good for me.  I'm happy when I'm working on it.  I think I'll keep doing it.  Its real purpose, I suppose, is to reflect my interests.  It's just that I have no real clue about what will interest me next.

Please feel free to explore what's already here while I figure out what's to come.  Here are some starting points ...

• Mixed Meters is my only online visibility - except for this, this, this or this.
• It serves as an ongoing unofficial autobiography.  For example, read this, this, this, this or these.
• I occasionally post my doodles, make references to penises, rail against silly religion or show pictures of half eaten avocados.
• Once I helped a friend, Mister Composerhead, who thought he also wanted his own blog. He was wrong.
• I write about classical music, about the death of classical music, about music critics and about my own favorite music.
• I post pictures of my local community, Pasadena, CA, I write about the books I read, about my spouse and about our cats and our dog, Chowderhead.
• For a holiday which I don't celebrate, I sure do write about Christmas a lot.
• I even have a Best Of category - although truthfully, I have no sense of whether my writing turns out well or badly.

... plus much, much more.  You could try searching the so-called archives.  Let me know what you find.

Things that happened on September 16, 2005, according to the L.A. Times
Things that happened on September 16, including 2005, according to Wikipedia.


Mixed Meters Tags: Mixed Meters. . . David Ocker. . . blogs