Status Report: The Big Three-Zero

Week Thirty – The Stats

Weekly Wordcount: 11,594 words (compared to 17,598 words last week)
Average: 1,656 words per day (compared to target of 3,001/day)
Most productive day: Tuesday 22 July, 2,966 words
Least productive day: Sunday 27 July, 595 words (excuses: went to North Berwick, climbed the Law; Law-climbing is not a successful writing lubricant, it turns out).
Year-to-date: 489,590 words (81,484 words behind target)

Goals for this week:
1. Write 500,000th word on (or before) 31 July.
2. Sort my shit out.

So yeah, a whole month behind and not as many finished products as I’d like for thirty weeks of toil. But I’m not packing it in. I might repackage it a few more times (see title change a few weeks ago) to soften the humiliation of flogging a dead Shetland pony, but this “Quest” still has it’s uses.

Even if it’s just putting something specious on the internet for people to trip up on when they Google:

rupert degas girlfriend
hidden pornos (no link coz even the Google search is dodgy)
childrens gumboot poems
i am behind the eight ball meaning

These are real searches that led people to this site. And like the above, 75% of the searchers must be disappointed (Google is not infallible!). Though I am proud to have been a walking, talking definition of “behind the eight ball” since March.

If you’re reading this after Googling Shetland pony trip, here’s a picture:

Really, I value these passersby. In the last 24 hours I’ve had visitors from Chennai, Winnipeg, Trinidad and Tobago, Vienna, Sevilla, Seoul, Bilbao, and Copenhagen. That’s pretty cool. [Mostly my visitors are from the UK (26%), US (25%) and NZ (25%).]

If you’re from Bilbao, is it worth visiting? Monster Magnet are playing there at the end of November. I can’t decide if I go there, Toulouse, or a three city Eastern Europe trek through Tallinn, Riga and Warsaw. The latter appeals the most at this stage. Especially as it looks like I’ll be off to the Greek Islands in September. I’m all of the mashed up Euro experience right now.

And then there’s the fact I can say I saw a heavy metal (slash “stoner rock” slash “boogie rock”) concert in Estonia.

Surely a story or three will come out of a trip like that!

Speaking of tours, the Tragically Hip are halfway through recording their new album, which may be released as early as September. This means another tour is imminent. I just hope they come to Europe while I’m still here or do a massive Canadian odyssey which takes in all the spots I want to see. Nothing like seeing the sights/sites (both words work) by day and hearing ‘At The Hundredth Meridian’ of an evening.