This blog celebrates 10 years!

Ten years ago today, I started this blog. A decade. Man, a lot has happened since then.

The biggest change in my life has got to be with my daughters, who were only 4 and 2 when this project began. Sophie will be entering high school at the end of this month, and Chloe will be in seventh grade.

Wha' happened?

Another MAJOR event in my life was the meeting of Dina in 2014 and our marriage. We celebrate our second wedding anniversary in two days.

This blog has put on display how my writing life has developed. After working for newspapers for 13 years and covering the NBA for seven years, it felt great to create this blog as a homage to Gen X pop culture. Then, my dad, the XMan, unexpectedly passed away in 2011, and I took the blog in a whole different direction.

So that is the major personal stuff in my life. But I bet all of us Gen Xers can sit back and revel in what has happened over the past 10 years to all of us. We went from flip phones to smart phones, got rid of landlines, watched the news cycle change as well as CNN and media, had Trump elected president and much, much more.

Much more happens in 10 years than ever before, and this blog will continue to follow my journey, our journey.

Maybe writing is like a golf swing. There are so many nuances, but it always goes back to the fundamentals. Write what you know. Write what you care about. Writing, and art, enhances life; it doesn't replace it. Let the club do the work.

This past year, I committed more to this blog and for the first time examined its analytics. It has gotten 1.16 million hits in its lifetime, and that averages to 9,500 views per month. Who knew? So there is traffic, even though I have no marketing plan and vow to never take advertising money.

I also committed this summer to doing daily posts and am in the midst of the 100 Nonfiction Books I Recommend. With the additional posts, I expected to see a spike in hits, but, uh, not really. Regardless, I enjoy the project and see value in it, so I'm sticking with it.

Some might say that blogs have become passe, and I've heard many students tell me "nobody reads anymore." Well, I do, and the Snooze Button Generation blog is unique and worthwhile to me — and some readers, too.

So I'm sticking with it. Man, if I make it another 10 years, Sophie and Chloe will be 24 and 22. Who knows what 2029 will look like? I hope my girls enjoy the ride of the next 10 years. I know Dina and I will.