I don’t post her much these days, but I’m not quite ready to shut this site down. This “final post” is a work in progress that I promised you here. What would you say in your final post? (Updated 04/24/14)
This is where the cowboy rides away
I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, but the triggering event for my blogging suicide came courtesy of George Strait, one of my favorite country singers from the modern era.
I was thinking about my love-hate relationship with ToughSledding (not my readers, but the “job” of blogging), when I made a rare trip to one country music station on my car radio. George did the rest with this verse — like me singing to my blog:
We’ve been in and out of love and in-between
And now we play the final showdown scene
And as the credits roll a sad song starts to play
And this is where the cowboy rides away
Yep. This is where the cowboy rides away.
When I launched this blog in 2006, I knew the day would come. ToughSledding can’t go on forever, nor should it. No one has that much to say, and I’ve already said far more than I’d ever planned to. I don’t want to start repeating myself, or worse, resorting to crazy rants and bathroom humor.
I could just stop posting and fade away. Hell, I’ve pretty much done that. But I’m a blogger, dammit, an ego-driven, lunatic blogger. Bloggers, like most who hang out in the social media, crave a certain level of drama and attention. That’s the paradox my cynical little mind finds in the world of the Social Web. The conversations are cool, but they seem secondary to the self aggrandizement bloggers and Facebookers get from being “out there.” While few will admit it, social media are ultimately all about us. It’s a self-absorbed world, and that’s sad when you think about the promise embodied in Cluetrain.
Have I enjoyed the conversations? Of course — just as I’ve enjoyed connecting to hundreds of interesting people I’ll never meet face to face. I’ve learned from all of you, and I hope you have taken something away from this site as well. And as I exit the blogosphere, remember: We’ll always have Facebook!
If I were truly a self-promoter, I’d use this post to share my traffic stats and my “Top 10 Posts” of all time — you know, the usual crap. But who really cares? I sure don’t. But if you’ve been a faithful visitor, you might be interested in the posts I most enjoyed writing. So here are the links — something for you to snack on as the cowboy rides off into the sunset. We’re fresh out of popcorn!
After 455 posts, I can’t narrow it to just 10. So here’s my “Top 12.”
Celebrating the genius of Pat Jackson
Does blogging call you at 4 a.m.?
When the going gets tough, the tough go surfing — at least in Cleveland.
Today’s PR Controversy? Would you believe gay sheep?
A letter to my students: Do as I say, not as I did!
PR crises can arise from the most obscure details — so sweat the little stuff…even the bathrooms
One PR man’s sordid love affair with Amanda Chapel
Let’s talk about Al Gore, PR and Ed Bernays — Whatdaya say?
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I love this idea of a final post – so glad I discovered your blog via Twitter. Hope you won’t be sending this one to the front page anytime soon. Cheers!
Thanks for coming by, Lara. I don’t plan to quit anytime soon. Just wish I could earn a paycheck doing this!
response your last comment,
don’t we all.
Hi
You live in a beautiful place
Good luck 🙂
I started (and killed off) a couple of blog attempts: it turns out I don’t have anything to say that is the least bit interesting…even to me. My posts on Facebook have become mere ‘shares’ of others’ content; if it wasn’t for photographs of our cats I’d have nothing self-created to post at all. My Twitter feed is mostly retweets (on the rare occasion I remember to visit), and I’ve yet to ‘pin’ anything on a Pinterest account that I opened years ago. You’re what I’d call a successful blogger: interesting and intelligent content presented just often enough. Kudos!