The aging blog--a year of change facing unknown journeys

Aging journey, 4" x  5" watercolor

The blog(ger) is aging as an old year departs and a new one arrives.
It began almost eight years ago, into new media and unknown and undiscovered travels.
Like the blogger, it has changed, been vibrant, been ill, grown and grown older.
For a while, 2016 seemed like it was comatose in the depression of the fall campaign, but it awakened if not refreshed, at least lucid and creative.
Consider the few number of posts this year, with about a third of them in December--rescued by the blogger's Christmas cards and essays.
This blog led to the blogger creating a new class, Blogging for Journalists, and it occurs to him that this year's students--now juniors and seniors-were early teens when the old journalist launched into this new journey. Much has changed in technology since then--demanding more creativity to just be relevant.
The blog needs to change even more because 2017 will demand more creativity in a year of approaching journeys. As it was in 2009, those travels head for undiscovered territory, as does the solitary traveler in the little painting above, on a path past a tree.
Milestones for the blog this year included more than 32,000 page views, tweaking the layout, coming out of the coma, and reaching readers in 150 countries, up 10--the fact that intrigues the blogger the most about this journey. 

In 2016, the blog had readers from these 10 new countries:

1-9--Zambia
2-13--Syria
2-25--Mozambique
3-5--Uzbekistan
5-3--Benin
5-9--Senegal
5-10--Anguilla
5-11-South Sudan
5-18--Paraguay
12-20--Yemen

Here are the 150 countries of the readers

• Africa--Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Togo, Ghana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia, Gabon, South Africa, Mali, Mauritus, Mauritania, Cameroonx, Zambia, Mozambique, South Sudan, Senegal, Benin, Angola, Botswana,  --26
• Asia--Russia, China, Taiwan, Cambodia, S Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Kazahkstan, Azerbaijan, Japan, Mongolia, Armenia, Georgia,  Nepal, Uzbekistan, Macau, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Burma (Myamar), -26
• Caribbean--Caymans,  Sint Maartin, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, Anguilla, Netherlands Antilles,  St. Kitts and Nevis, Bermuda-11
• Central America--Panama, Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador-5
• Europe--UKx, Isle of Man, Francex, Spainx, Germanyx, Italyx, Switzerlandx, Monaco, Czech Republicx, Polandx, Croatia, Greecex, Macedonia, Netherlandsx, Icelandx, Norwayx, Swedenx, Denmarkx, Finlandx, Latviax, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Ukrainex, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Austria, Sloveniax, Belgium, Irelandx,  Bulgariax, Turkey, Portugal, Luxemborg, Slovakiax, Albania,Slovenia, Leichtenstein, Montenegro-42
• Indian Ocean--Maldives, Seychelles-2
• Mediterranean--Maltax, Cyprus,-2
• MidEast--Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait,Qatar, Bahrain, Palestine, Lebanon, Oman, Yemen-, Syria-14
• North America--US, Canada, Mexico-3
• Oceana--Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Indonesia, Guam, New Caledonia, Fiji-7
• South America--Colombia, Peru, Chili, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Bolivia, Paraguay-12

(Ignore the little x after some countries--those are countries I've written about on the blog. Also, the Flag Counter in the left sidebar is inaccurate, added after many of these countries had already be on the blog.)

Perspective: I don't have total page views by country by 2016, but here are the top 10 for the life of the blog, with 234,000+ total page views:

United States	133456
Russia	12661
China	11467
Germany	11057
Ukraine	10886
France	8872
United Kingdom	3801
Turkey	1396
Poland	1235
Canada	1158

Year-by-year postings

•  2016--137: December--39   
• 2015--136: December--26
• 2014--276: December--33
• 2013--252: December--39
• 2012--203: December--2
• 2011--134: December--15
• 2010--292: December--9
• 2009--339: December--47 (Started May 3)

(Note--most blogs start off strong (Note my record posts in 2009, even though the blog started May 3), and then sort of fizzle out. While mine has fluctuated, I'm proud it is still going, and being read. Thank you.)