

Hello, I’m James and this is my blog, ‘James Proclaims’. This is my 757th post on this particular blog. I thought it was going to be my 750th but I appear to have overshot by a week. Last Wednesday’s post, entitled ‘The Insurance Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know About This Simple Life Hack Which Could Save You Thousands‘ was actually my 750th post. It was one of my much-beloved ‘click-bait’ posts in which the content has little to do with the title. It was relatively well-received but frankly it wasn’t really how I wanted to mark the occasion. I wanted to mark the occasion of my 750th post by writing a disingenuous (and somewhat inapt) title which suggested I was giving up blogging forever.
I’m not giving up blogging. I will continue to write the same sort of malarkey that I have been producing with inconsistent consistency for the last five years. Lately I have been posting on a daily basis but I doubt that is going to be sustainable forever. I might blog less often in the future. I might disappear for a few weeks. Maybe even a few months. But eventually I will always be back to trouble the blogosphere with more of my inanities.
I have a feeling I would probably do this even if no-one was reading the stuff I write. But for some bizarre reason people are reading it. And apparently liking it. Or at least ‘liking’ it. Although it’s not entirely certain that people who click the ‘like’ button have read any of the words. But the people who comment generally seem to have read some of the words. Often in the right order.
Long time visitors of my blog might have noticed that I’ve updated it a bit aesthetically. The picture of me that was previously on the blog was taken in 2013, so it was already two years old when I wrote my first post. It still looked like me then, and really it still looks like me now. Nonetheless, I thought it might be nice to update it to a picture that was taken more recently. The new picture was taken yesterday so it’s quite an accurate representation of my current face.
I’ve also updated the blog’s overall look. I was quite fond of how the blog used to look but apparently the WordPress theme I was using had been discontinued and wasn’t massively compatible with the new (and widely acclaimed…) WordPress editor. So I changed it to a new theme, and tried to make it look as much like the old theme as I could. I have also updated the page that I like to call ‘Vintage Proclamations!‘ which is meant to be a kind of ‘best of’ section. Until recently if you’d visited there you’d be forgiven for thinking that my favourite posts were the ones I wrote in my first few months of blogging, which is probably not the best look all things considered.
I’ve also added a new page called ‘The Trove Of Proclamations‘ which is an archive of all of the posts I’ve written (currently 757), because it occurred to me that it was quite difficult to find my old posts using the built-in archive that WordPress provides. I don’t really imagine that anyone visiting my blog is going to want to read all of my old posts, but it occurred to me that I might occasionally want to revisit them for nostalgic reasons. That is much easier to do now, and indeed I have spent the last few days trawling through some of my old stuff. I quite enjoyed it if I’m honest. I’d completely forgotten about some of the older posts and it was like reading something that was written by someone else. It turns out that I’m actually quite a fan of my own writing. Which might be narcissistic but a bit of narcissism ultimately bodes well for a blogger I think.
Anyway, that’s it for the 757th post. There will definitely be a 758th post because I already have some posts scheduled to be published on here later in the year. But I might write something tomorrow. In which case that post will be my 758th, because that’s how the counting of blogposts works.
This is a real like. Sounds like you are a non-believer in this ‘like’ tosh as well. I now, sadly, ignore new likes and followers unless they like again and even then I don’t believe theres anyone remotely humanly connected to a like till I receive a comment. Then I might believe. Now, regarding those comments… Anywhatever, carry on, this real live boy enjoys it and you deserve a bleedin’ medal for getting to 757. I, personally, am in hiatus, sitting in a burned out corner gibbering after slogging to 350 odd. Posts, I mean. Then again, odd suffices too. Also, fu##ing updated WP editor!
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I’ve certainly come to realise that it’s best to view those all important ‘stats’ through a cynical lens. I find the trick to blogging daily is to employ absolutely no filter and post any old crap. It seems to have little impact on the quantity of ‘likes’…
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Good job. The new look doesn’t seem to be a whole lot different but I generally read in the reader.
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So do I. Essentially the blog page itself is predominantly for my benefit. It’s the difference between a plain ring binder or one with a novelty design. It’s fundamentally still a ring binder but it makes me smile.
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We all like it when you smile, James.
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looking sharp in the new pic loll
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I couldn’t deprive the world of my current face any longer
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Don’t keep looking at yourself in puddles – or alternatively write a blog about looking at yourself in puddles
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An excellent metaphor lost perhaps on someone who has actually written about puddles on multiple occasions this year alone
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Splash, but don’t look!
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Alas, the Firefox reader must just search the page for the biggest blob of text and assumes that must be the useful bit. Most of the time, it makes the right call. Then it just displays the text, black on white. Your bells and whistles are lost on me.
That effect where your photo suddenly increases in size, as the mouse rolls over it – that’s quite scary 🤣
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The bells and whistles are mainly for my enjoyment. I’m generally happy if people read the content in whatever format works for them. And effects resulting in a sudden enlargement of my face are probably down to WordPress rather than me. Although I would question whether my face can ever really be too big…
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I’m kinda reminded of one of those side-mirrors they have on cars in the US – it magnifies everything.
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The like button can be a nice ego boost, especially for new bloggers who may not have a large following. But ultimately, it is a questionable feature and I think most people just use it to boost their stats by drawing people to their pages because of it. To me it seems a bit weird when people like something they haven’t read. I mean what if they’re liking something that they don’t even agree with? Anyway, I’m glad to hear you aren’t actually leaving and we all need short breaks once and awhile. I haven’t clicked on your new picture to see it larger yet, and from the view on my phone, you look pin prick sized right now, so I’ll have to get a better look later. 🙂
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Not even taking a break – not intentionally anyway. Sometimes they just happen but I never announce them because I’m as surprised as anyone else when they do. I just like to write misleading blog titles. It’s kind of my new thing. It’s almost as if I’m trying to alienate readers but still they keep ‘liking’ my posts…
And I’ll leave it up to you if you ever decide to check out my face. I can’t comment it’s attributes, but I thought it would be nice to give people the option.
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As someone who has been visiting your blog for many years (in a variety of costumes) I had noticed the change. I do tend to make sure I’m visiting the blog itself rather than use the reader as I know, certainly from my own use of shapes and images, that the formatting and styling that can take a lot of effort to get right is simply missing in it, and sometimes the point (and in rare cases on mine, the joke) of the post goes with it.
It’s been great to have you back so regularly and it’ll still be great to enjoy your musings whenever they appear even if less regularly.. You could always re-run a series to fill the gaps… perhaps ‘Magic Penguin September’? 😉
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Magic Penguin has almost reappeared several times in the last few months, but ironically, even though they often look like the most shambolic posts they actually take the most effort to write. I have considered reposting old stuff but other than accumulating more ‘likes’ I’m not sure what I’d be hoping to achieve. I did enjoy revisiting my old posts for the comments sections though and it’s true, you have been visiting for a while and with a multitude of identities…
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I can only remember how brilliant my old posts were in my own imagination as I delete them entirely when in ‘destroy old me’ mode… so having 750-odd to choose from, for an occasional foray into old glories (more tat in my case) is not available to me.
Perhaps the ‘what it would achieve’ is just what I suspect you and I aim to do… raise a smile in an unknown reader somewhere, and make their day a little happier (or frustrating) for a moment.
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Either outcome would be worth it
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The speed at which some of my posts have been liked makes me suspect that some people have found a way of automating the button clicking.
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I don’t mind the bots, but it’s when another blogger hooks me in by pretending to follow my blog by dropping a few generic comments and then serially ‘liking’ my posts thereafter. They are often the first to click the ‘like’ button and way too fast to have read anything. And they ‘like’ every single post I write. Even I don’t like everything I write…
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Well, relief that’s a! Glad I’m so that give up decided haven’t you to blogging! (I don’t read them all, but those I do ‘like’ are genuine button clicks).
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The day I give up it will be announced by nothing more than my sudden disappearance.
I think that’s why the ‘like’ button is so frustrating – you know some people do read and like your posts, but you also know some people never read a thing, so as gauge for measuring anything it’s flawed. But generally I know who the genuine ‘likers’ are and a giveaway is the fact they don’t ‘like’ everything.
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Want proof?
Like.
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Not good enough – I’m going to need video evidence of you reading the post aloud.
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Excellent
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Damn! I really thought we’d got rid of you this time.
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If that PayPal transaction had gone through yesterday then we’d be in business. As it stands I’m going to have convince some other mug to pay me off.
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I’ll have a word with my mate Gavin. I believe he is keen on helping teachers.
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He does send us some nice emails from time to time
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You had me going there for a minute. I was temporarily bereft at the thought of losing such high quality drivel.
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And in the end it was the thought of depriving the world of that drivel that convinced me that I had a duty to carry on.
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It’s a public service really…
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You mentioned reading some of the words. I find that if you read them backward they make slightly more sense. Also you could never quit. Where else would you get all these clever insults
Stay well and Laugh when you can
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work in And. home at that of enough get I. insulted be to here come don’t I. reverse in read when sense more makes writing my that insinuate you dare How.
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See I told you. Hey look I can go anywhere to be insulted. You should be honored that I chose here
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Sorry to see you go😢
I totally read your whole post, and my like is entirely legitimate.
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I’ll be missed but it’s time to hand over my ‘platform’ for other voices to be heard…
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Lolz.
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I am almost as excited about the Trove of Proclamations as when I heard on Radio 4 that every episode ever broadcast of Desert Island Discs was available to listen to on – whatever it is you listen to past radio programmes on…
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I can only assume that you are very excited then. I’m particularly looking forward to revisiting the Sue Lawley era…
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Like! Like!
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😀
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I’ll bet you’re happy that James rhymes with proclaims as the word “proclamations” adds such gravitas to what you’ve written. Yes indeed, the power of a single word!
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It is certainly serendipitous
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