State of the Ramblings

I recently passed the seventh birthday/anniversary of writing Sean’s Ramblings which must be about 70 in blog years. Since I’m an old man in the blog world, please bear with me as I rant a little. Get off my lawn!



I feel like I’m the last of a dying breed. There just doesn’t seem to be many personal blogs these days that are updated regularly. When I started Sean’s Ramblings and during the first few years of my blog’s existence, I read dozens of personal blogs updated daily, many that I discovered through DC Blogs. Sadly, most of these blogs are now retired or updated only occasionally. I believe that there are several reasons for this. First, it can be difficult and time-consuming writing a blog. Starting a blog is fun and exciting but keeping your energy up writing post after post after post is hard especially if you aren’t receiving many comments or page views. Second, sometimes you run out of items to write about. There have been amazing blogs that spent significant time talking about the dating scene or television shows. After someone gets into a serious relationship or the TV show ends, there’s not much else to discuss.

Personally, I think Twitter has significantly contributed to the decline of personal blogs. It’s so much easier typing 140 characters that can be published instantly rather than writing a multi-paragraph post and scheduling the post to be published the following day. So with that, rant over. I’m proud to have longevity as a blogger and appreciate the other bloggers out there that have provided me countless hours of entertainment over the years.


(Get it...Slevin for Seven!)

Since this is the annual State of the Ramblings, let’s briefly look back at the past year. Obviously, the most significant, life-changing event from the past twelve months was winning the Ted Marshall TV death pool. I guess becoming a new father is a close second.

I’m happy that I’ve chronicled some of the experiences being a new father, but I wanted to make sure that this didn’t turn into a fatherhood blog. With that written, my first post after my child was born is one of my favorite things I’ve written in the history of Sean’s Ramblings, and I love reading it again as well as going through other fatherhood posts.

Other highlights from this year was interviewing author, amazing blogger and friend Sarah Wendell after her release of Everything I Know about Love, I Learned from Romance Novels and interviewing the founder of Steeler Nation Israel. I reviewed a documentary about Canadian pop music in the 1990s and admitted to a childhood crush on Debbie Gibson. I found that there are other Sean’s Ramblings (or should that be Seans’ Ramblings) and posed the question about whether gay marriage could pass in Virginia. Even though I haven’t lived in Pittsburgh in many years, my hometown city is still a central part of my life. Besides writing about Pittsburgh sports (including the third annual Best Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournament), I posted information about Pittsburgh being the center of rap/hip-hop universe and the home of Indian actresses.


(This picture of the Gilligan's Island cast has nothing do with anything in the post other than there being seven characters to match the seven years of this blog.)

As for the next twelve months, I don’t anticipate any changes to Sean’s Ramblings. With the Presidential election this year, I may have a few more political posts than usual, but otherwise, you can enjoy the same in-depth analysis and breaking news stories that you always do. That, or more about Pittsburgh sports, bad haircuts, Trivia Tuesdays, Metro experiences and ideally, another opportunity to have free food for a year.

Thanks again to everyone for reading and commenting this year and over the past 7 years. It’s amazing that Sean’s Ramblings has lasted this long, and I wouldn’t continue writing without your support.