Hat Trick Fam - You Aren't Original

I am talking to the men. You people are becoming SO predictable. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for every reader...every view that I get. Let me tell you about bloggers. Most of us measure success in daily views and most of us measure them with three digit numbers; a few have turned the corner and measure in four digits or more.

Relative to the big writers and further reaching blogs (like Bleacher Report, for example) we are acutely aware of how every minor action affects our levels of readers. So I get up this morning and see that, by 10:00 a.m., I have the number of hits I often have in an entire day this time of year.

I'm feeling good! I'm thinking, "Wow! I am writing things that are interesting and thought provoking." Then I look at the search terms: "Erik Spoelstra wife...Spoelstra girlfriend....Spoelstra girl hot". Hmm...then I look at which posts are getting the views.

You guys are a bunch of pervs and I love you all! I am just disappointed that I thought you wanted to read the articles and instead, came to check out our chick pic from last week featuring Miami Heat Head Coach Erik Spoelstra's alleged significant other, former Heat dancer Nikki Sapp. Regardless, I am thankful for every one of you.

Now I know how the writers at Playboy and Maxim feel.

Image from www.heat.com via www.blacksportsonline.com

Times-Picked Off? :-O

New Orleans' only major newspaper, the Times-Picayune, announced that it will soon only be published in the paper format three days per week due to necessary cost reductions. The Times-Pic publishes the beat writing for the New Orleans Saints and is the paper for which Pro Football Hall of Fame Committee member Peter Finney writes. I don't have the words to tell you how disappointed I am to hear about this. I also heard this story on a Houston radio station yesterday and saw a short write up on the blog Dueling Couches that prompted me to speak up.

I was born and raised in New Orleans and live just 90 minutes away in Baton Rouge. I would pick up a copy of the Times-Picayune at stores here in Louisiana's Capital City just to keep up with news back home and, frankly, it is a better newspaper than the local paper offered here. I may have to rethink how I define a "better paper", however and The Advocate, for now, will still be an available everyday newspaper.

That the TP will only be available in paper form on weekends is almost unfathomable to me. I am only 37 years old. I run this blog. I get it with the Internet. I don't get how a major city does without an actual news PAPER. They are two different products.

I can't fold my computer up and sit quietly in the basement cafeteria (where the wireless signal sucks) and eat lunch. I can't (or won't) take my laptop into the bathroom in the morning with my coffee. I can't really (practically or comfortable or affordably) take my laptop on an airplane and read the news.

This is a cost of technology, not a benefit. Sad.

Another one bites the dust.

Image from www.usatoday.com