Monday, August 10, 2015

Pictures End

I began the matter of taking a picture of myself every day for the blog for the purpose of making me seem more 'human' and less inaccessible as a blogging pundit.  Most days it has been a simple matter to create a shot, sometimes taking advantage of a situation or the weather, then tailoring it a bit to put it on the blog.  I've been at it for seven months.

At this point, it is almost harder to stop doing it that it would be to simply go on.  But I remain unconvinced that it has helped.  Right from the start it was clear that many readers did not like it - and the last thing it has managed to do has been to increase my readership (other things have clearly been responsible for that.

So yes, I'm going to stop.  Today's picture is the last.  I know many of you have enjoyed them and I want you to know I've enjoyed making them.  But it is time to move on.

I remain a writer, always . . . but I am glad to put down the photographer.

Mmmpf.  At this point it would be appropriate to pull all the pictures into a video or something - but somehow after watching the death of the Jon Stewart show last week, that left a dirty taste in my mouth, I'm not going to do that.


For those who may see this in the days to follow, through seven months in 2015, ending today, I posted a pic a day of myself.

8 comments:

  1. I for one enjoyed them. You have an interesting eye but it's important to know when a project is over for you. So, yeah, kill it.

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  2. I also enjoyed them. And I saw, almost immediately, the purpose behind them. (Perhaps it wasn't your stated purpose, but I felt that it was a purpose, nonetheless.) Did it work, I wonder? Did it make you more of a person to your readers and less of a thing to be hated?

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  3. At best, I can suggest that the effort eradicated hateful comments that I would receive here or see elsewhere on the blogosphere; I haven't seen anything of that kind in months, I'm even thinking of dropping the comment moderation (!).

    At the same time, there are sites and sources for viewers that I used to see regularly that are completely gone. I must assume that links to this blog were removed.

    So, comme ci, comme ca.

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  4. I enjoyed the pictures, thank you for posting them!

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  5. I too enjoyed the pictures. It was great to see what you were up to as a person as well as a DM, and what kind of weather you face out west.

    I might have said this before, but I have often found the greatest insights of this blog superficially have nothing to do with D&D, but instead focus on life in general. The "life in general" that we saw in the Pic-a-Day definitely added to the whole Alexis we see on the Tao of D&D, and in some ways seemed to hint a little at what daily occurrences inspire you (if I'm not reading into the pictures too much) and may, perhaps, inform your D&D and the excellent content of this blog.

    I hope that, with fewer daily updates, you'll still be able to squeeze some great ideas onto the pages of the blog every now and then; perhaps the additional time between updates will be used to ferment your thoughts nicely?

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  6. On a related note, I've found I get very different reactions to an NPC if I print out an image I've stolen from internet artwork representing the character with an expressive face than I do if I just describe the NPC. The NPC's with faces seem to receive more respect, and be treated more as real beings rather than abstract characterizations. I guess that only makes sense.

    I liked your daily selfies, but I understand why you'd be ready to move on from it. For me, I think I'd have trouble viewing my own blog if my own pic was staring back at me every time I went to the page.

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  7. I never saw them in any of your posts here - might be due to the display on my iPhone. But I did catch a few recently and thought that it was pretty cool. Not a lot of bloggers share photos of themselves. Be true to you, though and do as you wish. Doesn't diminish the quality of your work and how much I have gained from reading your articles.

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  8. Yeah, I liked the photos too, and will miss them.

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