The End (and The Beginning of a New Blog)

New Blog: http://loganpaschke.tumblr.com

It's time to move on.

It's hard to believe that it's been a year and a half since I started this blog and it's just as difficult to let go.

In one way it feels like I'm giving up, but I know better. I don't give up. I'm a very persistent person.

What are the reasons I'm shutting down this blog? I will count.

1. Blogger is not well-suited for actually writing. When I type something out and preview it I expect it to look exactly the same. It does not. There's always formatting problems, always double spaces, and it is always frustrating. Blogger may have the most blogs, but it is not best for the writer. And that's what I am. Blogger is also very anti-Web 2.0 which means if you want to connect to other web applications you can't do it easily.
2. I have a long history here. Nearly 250 posts to be exact. The problem is that far too many of those posts don't represent who I am now. You have to understand that this blog has constantly oscillated between being an echo chamber or a watchdog chamber up until I realized what was going on. I managed to salvage what I wanted this blog to be and even felt satisfied about it. For a while. I have now realized that it is simply beyond repair.
3. Frankly, no one comments. I know, I know, I should expect that. I'm not well-known, I don't pastor a church, I'm not an awesome writer, and I don't usually respond to comments. Got it, thanks. But, my most popular post had over 600 unique visitors and not a single comment. It is utterly frustrating to write something that is popular but no one comments. Whereas I can post something on facebook or twitter and someone is bound to at least like it or comment on it. I should note that this point is a minor complaint compared to others.
4. Working on a book makes you a lot more cognizant of who you are and what you are saying on the internet. I fear that I have been too stupid with my words. At my new blog, I will post much more wisely and focus on the book I'm working on.
5. Speaking of which, when the book comes out and I eventually get the the new blog linked up with the domain, I would rather be proud of it rather than embarrassed by it. I'm happy to defend the work I've done here, but it's a hesitant defense. For example, when a Christian attacks street preaching I defend the street preacher. It becomes a problem when the street preacher I am defending turns out to be a heretic. Now, I know I haven't written anything heretical here, but I have at times been Pharisaical which is utterly wrong.
6. Simplify. I want to make blogging simple again.
7. All topics. I want to blog on all topics of life and I feel constrained here.
8. Original Content. I want to focus more on writing and not pasting.
9. Daily Blogging. I want to blog daily and blogger makes that difficult.
10. One less thing to worry about. With this blog shut down, it will make life a little less complicated.

Around 30% of visits came from outside the U.S.A.
Top twenty countries/territories

1. USA
2. United Kingdom
3. Canada
4. Australia
5. Brazil
6. Germany
7. Philippines
8. India
9. Belgium
10. New Zealand
11. Singapore
12. Indonesia
13. Sweden
14. Spain
15. South Africa
16. France
17. Italy
18. Netherlands
19. Kuwait
20. Poland

Over 90% of people who visited were new visitors
Over 10,000 page views by over 7,000 unique visitors
Viewed in over 55 different languages
Viewed in over 100 countries/territories
Has been accessed from every region on the earth excluding Middle Africa

To the commentators who commented, thanks!
To the bloggers who put me on their blog roll, thanks!
To the readers of this blog, thanks!
To the friends I've made, thanks!
To the haters, thanks!

all for Jesus,
Logan Paschke