Posted on by bunnyhugger

New update schedule

I mentioned in my (late) anniversary post that I was thinking of changing my update schedule. This post is to announce that I am following through with that and this will mark the end of daily updates, a schedule I maintained without exception for over a year. During that time I posted at least once a day. Every day I had a sidewalk stamp or other sidewalk feature except for a scant few times when snow made it impossible to find anything. It’s hard to give up a habit so solidified, but I have to admit it is time. As regular readers will have noticed, it has become difficult for me to find stamps from contractors that haven’t already been thoroughly covered in the blog on my daily walks. (It hasn’t helped that the recent heat waves forced me to walk after dark, which limits where I can walk and how many stamps are illuminated.) I would rather update less frequently than subject you to five Cantu & Sons stamps each week.

The other issue is that in-person work has begun for me again, increasing my weekly commute from zero to eight hours. I will have less time for blogging, and my daily walks – a habit that previously intertwined with my blogging habit – will often be in the city where I work instead of in Lansing.

Previously I also had a rule that a stamp I posted had to have been captured that day. I never broke this rule, even though it sometimes meant choosing the best of several good stamps I saw on a walk and throwing the rest of the photos away to force myself to go back for the others later. A few times this caused me to temporarily lose track of where I saw one, and I had frustrating moments walking back to where I thought one was only to be unable to find it. In the future I will try to stick to stamps photographed as recently as possible, but I won’t totally bar myself from banking photos anymore.

I am planning to try doing an update schedule of three times a week, and see how that goes. I haven’t decided which days yet and may need to experiment with that a little while before settling on it. Thanks to everyone (anyone?) who has actually been reading so far.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

Anniversary

I realized last night that I had forgotten to observe the anniversary of the blog. It launched on August 7, 2020, with a photo of an undated O & M stamp on Regent Street. On the anniversary, without intending it, I also published a photo of an undated O & M stamp on Regent Street.

I have posted here every day for over a year, and have featured a different stamp or sidewalk feature every day. I also had a rule that the photo had to be taken that day. If I saw more than one interesting stamp, tough; I didn’t let myself bank any. This was partly so that my blog and my daily walking habit would mutually reinforce each other. It worked; I also have not missed a day of taking a walk in over a year.

Still, I told myself that once a year had passed I could re-evaluate the blog. Perhaps I could start banking stamps for later, or drop to three- or four-times-a-week posting. The fact that I have begun finding it difficult to find new contractors or unusual stamps to write about on the east side (my usual walking grounds) is part of the incentive to scale back. The other part is my impending return to in-person work and hours of commuting every week.

As Aristotle knew, though, it’s hard – even painful – to break a habit this solidified. I’m also much better at being perfect than being good. Being good slips away from me quickly. For another couple of weeks I will probably continue daily updates, but will make a shift to less frequent posting once work resumes. In the meantime I have to decide what that will look like, and how to be religious about it.