21 Days (or so) of Self Indulgence
It has been said that if you do something for twenty-one days straight, it will become a habit. I’ve never actually seen any clinical outcome trials or research to prove if this is true or not, but it feels right. Thus, I usually try to implement the 21-day plan into my New Year's resolutions. Instead of planning to, say, floss for a year, I instead promise myself to floss for the next 21 days and hope that after that it will be a habit. Flossing, I’ve learned, does not become a habit after three days. I wish it would, because by January 4th of the last three years I’ve given it up.
That said, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what I’d like to do with this blog. Since Jen and I returned from the big trip, I have slowly been losing interest in writing things here. My life has become more routine and I often struggle to find things to post. Writing has always been an effort for me, especially when I’m not out there learning about new cultures, meeting interesting people, or taking strange trips. I fear that if I put more of an emphasis on the mental part of mental wanderings, I’ll end up writing about such exciting topics as flossing.
One of the points of pride that I’ve gotten from this website is that people have found it useful when planning their own trips. I’ve always liked that there was a practical side to this site and that even inspired me to add the glacially growing Gulch Guides section. Since I’ve become popular with the search engines, however, I’ve noticed that I get a lot of traffic for random stuff that has nothing to do with this site. In fact, here are a few random search terms from the last three hours that people used to get here:
Americans pronounce aunt map
Japanese idols photos nude
famous quote from serial killers
kind of rims do the United States make
space heater reviews and recommendations
top quality kitchen scales from europe retro style
Somehow, these terms cheer me up. I really love the concept of the Internet and I believe that one day it will contain a complete written account of the human experience. If someone is looking here at Gulch for how a guy from Montana might pronounce “Aunt Map” (I pronounce it “Ant Map”), there might be things still worth writing. Rather than abandon this site, I’ve decided to put it on the 21-day plan and just write about, well, anything. I’ll put a new entry up every day for the next 21 days and maybe after that it will be a habit. It will be self-indulgent but, hey, it’s a blog. I still have some travel stories to share, maybe some fiction inside somewhere, and I even know a joke or two. Hell, if I get desperate, I could even write a review of my space heater or explain why europe retro style is the coolest style of kitchen scale.
Check back in a week to see if this site is in better shape than my gums.
Update - Oh, man. I'm taking weekends off. And possible Tuesdays. Maybe Thursdays.
