Candidate for Procrastinator of the Year

You would think that someone who is retired would have plenty of extra time over the year to get stuff done – especially items sitting on the top of his to-do list since the first day of the new year.  What has turned out to be a surprising development, it feels like I am BUSIER than when I was in the career grinder.  No idea how this is happening … but it is.  Every day I’d wake up, check the list of things to get done that day, tell myself that it is finally time to get the 2021 blog summary done and then somehow get to the end of the night without it being checked off.  Procrastination isn’t a trait I would willingly label myself with, but when I choose to .. I like to think I’m the best at it ha.  11 months later we can finally scratch that item off the list.  One big catalyst is we are nearing the time when I need to produce the 2022 summary – which needs the calcs from the 2021 summary to complete – what a sticky mess.

Unfortunately, 2021 isn’t as fresh as it once was and thus difficult to really go into detail.  I can call out the highlights.  Covid was starting to lift and the race season was trickling up to speed.  Managed to erase a large blemish on my ultra race record by completing the 30K CMAR race (link here).   No worries about the heat this year, but it was replaced by 6 hours of nonstop raining that flooded the course.  At one point I was thinking the heat would be better ugh.  With that success, upped my game and took on the 50 mile Farmdale ultra.  Can honestly say the 50K was a cakewalk compared to the 50 miler (link here).  Made it through, but it took a LOT out of me and added another doctor’s visit to my list due to a badly injured ankle.

The birding front went very well this year.  Set a stretch goal of hitting the 300 mark for lifers.  As you probably already know by now, it requires a recognizable picture and a feature here on Intrigued to officially get the check.  Took me until the last part of December, but got it done!  Excited for what ’22 will bring.

Following on from the previous year’s goal, a heavy emphasis was placed on increasing the awareness of Intrigued.  This was the 14th year of blogging and feel we are really hitting our stride  in both overall image products and content.  Really seeing that effort pay off this year with the huge increase in readership and comments.  Note, we even figured out that WordPress has been undercounting those stats and were shocked how good they really were – we will be doing our own stats from now on.   For the existing fans as well as the new followers, we are truly thankful and honored you are willing to spend the one thing that is the most valuable in our lives – ‘time’.     I am also thankful for all the great bloggers out there that keep me entertained, push me to get better on every post and motivate me every year to keep going.

A few quick shout outs.  Ron is a big part of the Intrigued operation.  We often get the chance to get out in the field together where he is continually finding birds I might have missed, always willing to help me in the ID phase and graciously there to take on any predators that might attack us…well, he’s there, I won’t be hehehe.   Brad M.  is always there to point out syntax errors that somehow still make it through the gauntlet of checks each post goes through prior to release.  In my defense, I graduated from an engineering college where we dealt more with numbers and letters that were primarily of Greek origin hehehe.  There are rumors Brad might become a full time Intrigued member in ’22 …. shhhhh, don’t tell anyone yet!   Then there is Linda – our birding whisperer, travel guide, itinerary planner and overall business coordinator that keeps this site stocked with topics.  She won’t admit it publicly, but she has become quite the birder as well.

Well, it is time to look back on ’21 and bring you the performance stats.   If you are curious about the details, hit the jump to see the 2021 Life Intrigued blogs stats and accomplishments (mothership and the wild side).

Thanks again to all my readers that keep me committed month after month.

• According to the WordPress Stats: 2021 Total Posts 100 (17 more than ’20)  1,444 comments 1,530 comments (wow up 1,996!) along with 4841 likes (up 3,825 from ’20) – thank you thank you thank you.
• Total blog pages this year (according to MS Word): 939 (a pick up of 159 pages from last year – maybe a new record for me)
• Total number of words this year (according to MS Word): 111,088  (a gain of 20,826 from ’20).  Apparently the fingers got a workout on the keyboard this year.
• Post topics (some posts had multiple categories) 2021 / Total
  • Birds: 72 / 562  – up 9 this year – after all, it is all about the birds!
  • Fail: 0 / 6 – Slacked off on this category this year
  • General: 6 / 62 – up 3, although these are generally just race recaps, announcements or general holiday greetings
  • Insects: 4 / 29 – doubled my output in this category, but not really saying much ha.
  • Observation: 85 / 950 – yea, up 7
  • Phoadtography: 1 / 17 – well, finally added one this year.
  • Products: 0 / 22 – eh
  • Projects: 8 / 90 – with retirement was able to add a few of these this year.
  • Ramblings: 0 / 11 – definitely good for you
  • Recollection: 9 / 148 – big uptick here
  • Service: 0 / 53 – this is not meant to imply no one in the service industry pissed me off this year, more like I didn’t take the time to write about it.
  • Wildlife: 75 / 679 – up another 5 from last year – the trajectory is looking good.
• Posts this year by month
  • Jan: 7
  • Feb: 12 – doubled my self-imposed quota!
  • Mar: 10 – productivity trend continues.
  • Apr: 6 – back down to earth
  • May: 10 – back in the saddle
  • Jun: 9
  • Jul: 10 – cranking them out
  • Aug: 6
  • Sep: 7
  • Oct: 9
  • Nov: 8
  • Dec: 6 – finished a little weak, but a good year none the less
• Comments this year by month- combined from mothership and wildlife stats (comments / likes) – note, these numbers are up HUGE from the previous year.
  • Jan: 283 / 89
  • Feb: 484 / 124
  • Mar: 583 / 137
  • Apr: 355 / 128
  • May: 431 / 142
  • Jun: 475 / 133
  • Jul: 473 / 133
  • Aug: 365 / 128
  • Sep: 298 / 86
  • Oct: 433 / 172
  • Nov: 336 / 121
  • Dec: 325 / 137
• Posts with Most Comments
  • GRIAT – 37
  • Tummy Duty – 33
• Posts with Most Likes
  • Icky Trunks with White Stripes  – 84
  • Rudy Can’t Fail – 71
• Number of images used:
  • Birds – 589 up a whopping 233 from the year before – finally putting a dent in the backlog of images.
  • Other Wildlife Photos – 26 – this was a drop from last year of 34, but more than made up for it with bird shots.
  • Insects – 32.  Apparently the year before I didn’t have any insect shots
  • Other Photos – 241, eesh a drop of 164, but if I remember correctly, I didn’t get to the Haunted Trail images this year which is probably why that is so far down
  • Videos – 5.  New for this year!
  • TOTAL: 895 which is a bump up of 74 from ’21 and that would have been a LOT higher had the Haunted Trail shots been included in this year.
• Completed Life List Items:
  • Really good race season this year – atoned for my DNF at the CMAR 50K even with it raining on me for 6 hours straight.  Then added my first 50 miler at Farmdale in the Fall.
  • Pretty sure I hit a run total record this year with 1,252 miles.  A lot of that was due to the ultra race training and the extra time now that I am retired.
  • Blogging for the 14th year successfully hitting my self-imposed 6 post/month quota
  • Hit my goal of 300 official bird lifers
• I set a goal for myself to increase my bird lifer count with a stretch up to 300.  For the official count, that means a picture taken and a featured post here on the Intrigued blog.  Guess what folks!?! …. yep, I did it hitting the 300 mark in December.  What a great feeling and looking to add a bunch more in ’22 (future Bri says this has been progressing well in the new year ha)

That’s a wrap, Apologies for being so late with the ’21 summary.  Won’t be long before I have to start over again for the ’22 summary.  The best thing about 2021 can be summed up easily – my first full year of retirement and it was awesome.   2021 is finally officially closed – once again, a big heartfelt thank you to my readers, your time spent with me is truly a blessing and greatly appreciated.