Blog CLXXVIII (178): Honors to the Blog Again

Yesterday this blog celebrated a milestone: it had viewer number 100,000.  As I stated before,there were days when I wondered if I was only person reading my postings.

This blog started about three years before it went on-line. In the spring of 2006, I gave a talk about career management issues to the grad students in the history department at the University of Southern Mississippi, where I was a visiting professor.  It was a talk I had been wanting to give for years.  Later in July and August of 2006, after I had moved and taken a new job, I sat down and wrote a series of essays on things I had learned since I had graduated as a professor about the history profession and how it works. Since I was trying to write two books at the time, these essays sat on my hard drive for the next two and a half years.

A lot has changed in the six years I have been running the blog.  A lot in my personal life and a lot at work—all for the good I might add.  I ran through the early posts before the end of 2009 just as "In the Service of Clio" was starting to find an audience.  I still wonder at times if this is a wise investment of my time.  The three part essay “The History Ph.D. as a Novelist” (Blog CII, and Blog CIII and Blog CIV) took nearly 40 man hours worth of work to produce.  I am currently trying to write or finish three different book projects—the one on which I am under advanced contract is taking priority—but how much time this blog should get is a legitimate concern.  Needless to say, I appreciate all the visits.

Now, lets blog.