happy 2nd birthday, change therapy!

happy second birthday ooops! i totally forgot my birthday – i mean, my blog birthday. today, december 19, it’s been two years that i’ve been writing on this blog. so i decided to go back to my 1st birthday post and rewrite it, in the light of the last 366 days.

it’s been an interesting 132,000 words to write (that’s how many words i estimate have accumulated here in the last year – about 24,000 more than last year)

what was the most surprising thing? i hadn’t anticipated i would merge my web site with my blog. from a technical point of view, that was a good thing. however, the “pages” section of this site (the old static web site) still feels a bit orphaned and static.

participating in some great memes and group writing projects has been a real boon. i got to know a lot of people through them. just to name a few examples, there is priscilla palmer’s personal development blog list, the W list, InspirationBit’s group writing project on – well, inspiration, and the fabulous 6-word project at middlezonemusings.

i still haven’t run out of topics – in fact, i have more than i can handle. sometimes i wonder whether i’m too general. but what can i say, i’m actually quite happy with the range of topics. here are the topics i was thinking about discussing on my last birthday post:

there’s an entry about a cognitive psychologist who has done research on our ancestors’ thinking – how people ten thousands of years ago used their brains. a book review about the supposed inherent violence of men. thoughts on men and obesity. on the difference between faith and hope.

i did write about the first topic – still love that image of the cavewoman, isn’t it great?

and i see that i still haven’t written a review of neil boyd’s book the beast within. i should do that soon – even more than a year after reading it, the book still stands out as an important contribution to both psychology and sociology.

men and obesity? not a thing. get on it, isabella! especially since nancy asked me to write more on overeating.

difference between faith and hope? meh. doesn’t sound very interesting right now (although who knows, maybe you’ll see me eat my words next month.)

other things i might write about are sam harris’ neurology paper on “primitive” beliefs and more on these topics: what and how to eat when recovering from anorexia, on quitting smoking, creative people, and on counselling theory, especially countertransference.

last year, i said i was happy how comments and conversations had started to happen and “if i would have been a little more confrontational, they probably would have happened faster.” there was a tiny bit of confrontation here and there, on the first article on the taser death here in vancouver, for example. but really, i’m not much into confrontation.

and stats – just like last year, an article on anorexia and sex had the most page views. the post on st. augustine, darwin, plato and freud had people glued to the monitor for the longest time, and one of the understanding “i don’t know” articles had the best exit rate (i.e. people didn’t get fed up with reading my blog after reading that post). it’s also nice to report that on december 19, 2007 i had six times more traffic than on december 19, 2006!

these were the things on my wish list for the blog last year

have some guest columnists
do more memes
have some sort of meaningful collaboration with other bloggers
have more conversations through comments – my goal is to have at least as many comments as posts by the end of february

i’m happy to report that all of it happened.

for the coming year, i’d like to

explore the possibility of monetizing the blog
do at least one big group writing project
get that #$&(@$ do follow plugin working
explore more interaction with readers – more comments but also more … what? social media type interactions? let’s see.

and again i’ll ask you, readers: what would you like to see more of, less of?

… following up on InspirationBit’s suggestion, this post became part of the blogging goals group writing project on daily blog tips. here is the list of people who participated in it.

14 thoughts on “happy 2nd birthday, change therapy!”

inspirationbit December 20, 2007 at 6:57 am

Happy 2nd Bday, moritherapy.org 🙂
InspirationBit turns one next week too 😉
And I got some ideas from you on how to write my anniversary post – thank you.
It was great to see those other links of your early posts, read the one on creativity and saw the cavewoman – brrrr 😉
Btw, do you know that Daniel from DailyBlogTips is hosting a group writing project on Your Blogging Goals with the prize of a free WP theme from Brian Gardner, you can easily submit this post to that project.

inspirationbit’s last blog post..A Bit Of Literature – The Sphinx Without a Secret

Nancy White December 20, 2007 at 7:01 am

Happy Birthday! I hope I’ll see you at Northern Voice 2008. Funny, I merged my blog and web page too! Feels good.

Nancy White’s last blog post..Time Lapse Mural Creation High Speed Art

Andrew December 20, 2007 at 2:51 pm

Dear Isabella,

Happy birthday to your blog. I wish your blog a wonderful third year of life.

Congratualations on achieving your goals from last year. Good luck with your goals from for this year.

I would love to read what you have to write about quitting smoking. I’m not a smoker myself and I have a passionate dislike for the tobacco industry, which is, in my view, a global industry riddled with corruption and dishonesty.

I think any help you could give people to break the habbit be wonderful for both their physical well being but also for their self confidence and respect.

Cheers

Andrew

Andrew’s last blog post..11:16am Empathy for colleagues who suffer misfortune

Karen Zara December 20, 2007 at 6:16 pm

I’m late, but… happy blog birthday! 🙂

I never pay attention to my blogs’ birthdays, so it’s unlikely that I’ll ever write this kind of post. Maybe I should change my behaviour…

What do follow plugin are you trying to use? Why can’t you get it to work? I don’t know if I’d be able to help you with this matter (I’m far from being tech-savvy), but who knows?

I don’t know how your group writing project is going to be like, but unless the topic is something I find impossible to write about, be sure that I’ll take part in it. 🙂

Karen Zara’s last blog post..How To Get Ideas From 66 Lists – part 3

Israel Jobs December 23, 2007 at 11:02 am

I’m even later than Karen but no matter.

Mazel tov on becoming a blog toddler. But I should talk, I’m still in diapers 🙂

Best wishes for another year of ups and ups

Jacob

Nickie December 23, 2007 at 3:18 pm

What a great milestone! I’m glad you started blogging and that you’ve stuck around! Your blog is definitely one of my favorites, and has sparked a lot of thoughts.

Nickie’s last blog post..Best Friends

isabella mori December 23, 2007 at 3:54 pm

thanks everyone for your very kind thoughts! i’m all warm and fuzzy now … really, it’s wonderful to know that my ramblings here contribute in a little way to people’s lives, and best of all, that this is one more little strand in the web of connectedness.

@inspirationbit, you certainly have been an inspiration, and i’m looking forward to YOUR birthday. and thanks for the tip re the blogging goals group writing project!

@nancy – yes, i’m definitely planning to be at northern voice!

@andrew – ok, you pushed the “quitting smoking” post up a little in the list of priorities. actually, i just read something really interesting about habits – when i get home from my vacation, i’ll see how that ties in with quitting smoking. if i don’t have a quitting smoking post by the end of january, will you remind me, andrew?

@karen, i’m so glad we met. and the plugin – i’ve tried three or four so far, and none of them works. other plugins work fine. oh well. all in good time. thanks for the offer, i might just come back to it!

@jacob – you’re right, this blog is a toddler now. does that mean we’ re going to have the terrible two’s?

@nickie – so good to hear from you. nickie, i’ll have you know, was one of my very first blog friends. she’s one inspiring young woman.

Ruchir December 29, 2007 at 12:07 pm

Happy birthday! And thanks for the link…

Ruchir’s last blog post..161 Most Useful Keyboard Alt Codes

pearl December 29, 2007 at 9:12 pm

well, I seem to be the last one but hope I am not and you continue to get more good wishes here! Congratulations on making it two years! wishing you continued success in the years to come and a very Happy New Year as well! tc and kit

pearl’s last blog post..Faith that Tests