Happy 11th Birthday to Proper Course.
Yes, it's 11 years ago today that I published the first post on this blog, Opening Lines.
I said in that post that it would be "a voyage with no destination and no charts."
I guess I got that bit right.
So, after 11 years of insane ramblings and random rants in 3,153 posts, here we are.
Where are we? I have no idea.
Was it worth it? I had my moments.
Maybe it's time for a change?
16 comments:
Congratulations to the whole team at Proper Course.
I've done some calculations and determined it would take at least six full-time staff to follow all of the blogs reported upon here as well as the political, scientific, social, and sailing news of the day, while commenting on all of the blogs you do and writing the well-researched, thoughtful, and entertaining posts published here.
I hope you're paying them all a fair wage and rewarding them for their good work.
Congratulations Team Tillerman! I'm sure you deserve that beer or rum or [enter choice here]
I wonder how many words that is in total?
You are very insightful O Docker. It does indeed take a lot of staff to handle the massive output of the Proper Course blog factory. Sometimes I feel like Santa Claus in that some people think I do all this by myself but Santa and I, in reality, have lots of helpers.
I have occasionally been tempted to outsource most of this work to China or India or Utah. I am told I could quadruple the income I receive from Proper Course if I did so. But I have certain standards and I doubt that Chinese or Indian or Utahnians would be able to do half as good a job as my loyal Azorean guest workers working in the basement of the Dunkin' Donuts in beautiful downtown Fall River.
Of course I reward them well. If one of them writes a post that gets syndicated by Scuttlebutt, Huffington Post and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, I treat all the Azorean guest workers to a lunch of Hartley's Pork Pies. If my Amazon affiliate sales exceed a million dollars in any month I let them all go home half an hour early on Sunday and give them all a signed photo of me in an RS Aero.
Happy Birthday - eleven years, have you ever thought of endurance sailing? or even endurance bloggging
Here's to the next 11.
Congratulations and Happy Birthday Proper Course.
I like your Santa Claus analogy, but I've always viewed you as the Shakespeare of sailing blogging - it is hard to believe that you have produced such a huge amount of content at such a high level of quality all on your own. I'm sure many, like me, suspect that you have top level writers producing material for you that is published under the "Tillerman" pseudonym.
For example, it it is highly suspicious that Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird and then nothing since then (if you exclude Go Set a Watchman which was apparently also written years ago). It seems clear to me that she's been too busy writing for this blog to put a new novel together.
Not only have you been entertaining and informative, but I believe you have furthered the sport in a special way. Sailing would have been less without you. We are all grateful.
Congratulations!!!!
Bursledon Blogger - that is a terrific idea. I think you have just invented a whole new sport. Endurance blogging. What would the rules be? Are bathroom breaks allowed?
Damian - you are so smart. Harper Lee has indeed been writing the occasional guest post on this blog. For example, she was entirely responsible for Exploring the Land Down Under and How to Get Killer Starts in Laser Races. Congratulations to Miss Lee on her outstanding performance in the Laser Masters Midwinters in Florida last week,
And thank you Jay for those kind words. I do like to think that I have made a unique contribution to the sport of sailing by inspiring a whole generation of old geezers to sail Lasers badly and write even worser about it. They know who they are.
I see that in my 2013 Happy Birthday post I mentioned these two things that also happened in February 2005 - the month I started my blog.
"In the US Congress, a brand new senator from Illinois became the only senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
And three former PayPal employees created a new video-sharing website on which users could upload, view and share videos. It was called YouTube.
I wonder what that young black senator is doing now and what happened to that crazy idea for a video-sharing website?"
Add my congratulations and thanks to the already long line.
Convincing evidence of Damian's Shakespeare theory is the plethora of pithy accolades from the critics, a few of which you display. Hard to imagine a single contemporary writer, even assisted by Azoreran elves, being "insane", "total nutter" and a "feculent maggot". Attracting such a range of plaudits could only be accomplished by a team, nay a horde, of successful and highly skilled wordsmiths.
And, by the way, I am one proud to be one of the old geezers who, inspired by you, indeed sails Lasers badly. But I have yet to try an Aero.
As I have only just started reading your blog as well as some of the others I can only say congrats to 11 years and keep up the great work and MANY THANKS for the words of encouragement and it is nice to see I am not the only one fighting for a good start! Congrats and here is to many more!
Dieter Hugel
s/v Tigi Too N41mkII
Lake Pontchartrain New Orleans
Thanks Dieter and KR.
I am hoping to inspire a whole generation of bad sailors to sail RS Aeros badly too so I will have somebody to beat.
Happy Birthday from Pam and me.
You're still the gold standard.
Thanks Doug and /Pam.
Congrats on the milestone -- and make no mistake -- 11 years is a huge milestone in the bloggoshpere! My blog got it's start because of one or your contests. For better or worse, you pushed me into this strange online world of rambling posts and occasionally incoherent writing, but it's been fun running alongside the "Big Dog" and you are the "Big Dog" in the dinghy sailing blog world. Let the future bring what it will ... but your writing has always been interesting, sometimes off-the-wall, sometimes Anglo-centric, sometimes local, sometimes global, sometimes a rabble-rouser, sometimes thought-provoking; many times humorous (and for those who still study dinghy racing - an essential resource - but I'm beyond that stage now); always a fun read! Thanks!
LOL Tweezerman. The Big Dog! Should I woof?
We were joking around about Lee Harper earlier in this thread. So sad to hear of her death earlier today, aged 89.
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