Cuban Nomad: Year One

One year ago I started shooting my thoughts out onto the Internet.  I had been doing so for many years beforehand, but this marked the day I no longer hid behind a pseudonym.  My goals weren’t very clear at the time—they still aren’t—so I armed myself with the desire to build this slice of the web into a place I could be proud of and I’ve been churning out posts ever since.

Some were articles, others confessions, the occasional personal dilemma was laid bare and I even had a picture or two.  It’s been good and hard times with this blog.  I’ve met pretty cool people through it and shared some special moments yet I sometimes struggled with keeping it going or figuring out what to say.

I can honestly say it is completely and utterly me, in all its flaws, achievements and nuances.  Here are some bits from the past year which have stood out.

Most Viewed Post

“Why vampire boyfriends and not vampire girlfriends?” is my top post.  It was the first article to jump out into the wild, appearing in links on blogs I had never heard of.  I’m not quite sure what skyrocketed it, perhaps vampires as a topic or the horror crowd at a writer’s forum I frequented.  Even though it was written at in the middle of 2009, it still gets hits every month.

The only thing to have come close to those page views was my post about “The Bisexuality of Torchwood”.  It also got a farther reach than expected, getting picked up by some Doctor Who fans.  It goes to show that vampires or sex will always be crowd pleasers.  Now I’ll just have to combine the two for a runaway success… oh wait, that’s True Blood… damn.

Most Misunderstood Post

“The Company We Keep” was about my struggles to find kindred souls in the creative field.  I used billiards as a metaphor since (for me) when you play against more skilled opponents they bring your game up, but when you play with those lesser skilled they bring your game down.  A couple of people I know took this post as a personal attack, thinking they were being singled out for one reason or another.

Misunderstandings happen, in text the tone can be interpreted in various ways.  These matters can usually be cleared up with a phone call.  What killed me was I didn’t find out about the perceived slight until months later, well after the damage was done and the time for healing had passed.  I was surprised and saddened that I lost friendships because of it.  I learned the hard way that you can’t control what people bring to your writing and sometimes things will get twisted in ways you could never dream of.

Learned The Most

I had the music bug for a bit and knocked out a couple of posts about it; “Music Unobscured” & “Songs That Strike A Chord”.  The former was about my issues with modern music techniques while the latter was about songs that resonated with me personally.

Those posts brought me a wickedly smart commenter named “kitty”.  She shared with me some serious knowledge about opera, providing not only great info, but a multitude of links to performances.  This was the first time I had my horizons broadened by a person who stumbled across my blog.

Those kind of connections are the fantastic serendipities that make blogging so satisfying.

Favorite Picture

This is from my very first post which was sparked by a workshop I attended by Clive Barker.  Being able to chat with an incredible talent like Barker motivated me to take my first steps.  This picture was a moment of pure joy.

What Next?

I still don’t have a clear direction for this blog, but that’s fine by me.  In the end I just want to be able to share my thoughts and start conversations with kindred spirits.  I’ve kept it going for a year solid and can easily see another year in its future.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.  It’s been fun, it’s been bumpy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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