19/09/2017

The archive contains older posts which may no longer reflect my current views.

1000 posts

This is my 1000th post here at Social Thoughts. Normally, that would be a milestone worth celebrating but the way I've reached it really illustrates just how much blogging has changed for me.

I moved to this site in April 2008, almost nine and a half years ago. That's a crazy thought in itself! The change from .me.uk to the .blog domain happened back in March.

While I took a number of breaks, and became a self-imposed blogging exile for quite some time, there were only 358 posts from 2008 to February 2nd this year.

That's a ridiculously low posting average. If you factor out the times I wasn't blogging it works out somewhere around a post per week.

Compare that with a total of 642 posts in the 228 days since I first announced that I would be integrating microblogging here at the site, almost three posts per day, and you have quite a stark contrast.

While I am pleased and proud to have reached this milestone it is tempered somewhat by the changing nature of what I've been doing.

On the other hand, I am enjoying blogging now more than I have in a long time. The addition of microblogging greatly removes the burden of constantly writing essay pieces and the clamour for perfection that it instills. And that's something to be thankful for.

So, you know what? I'm going to let myself enjoy it!

6 comments: click to read or leave your own Comments

# There are times when I'm standing on the tube wanting to type but the 6S Plus is too big to comfortably use one handed while holding on with the other.

The one handed keyboard in iOS 11 aims to solve that but it still feels incredibly awkward to hold the phone while typing one handed. The weight of the phone makes it feel like I'm constantly going to drop it as you still don't have a solid grip. Yes, everything is within reach of a single thumb but it's pretty precarious.

Interestingly, what does feel quite natural is supporting the phone with my left hand while using the right-aligned one-handed keyboard with just my right thumb. It's obviously not the way it's supposed to be used - cue the cries of "you're holding it wrong!" but it feels surprisingly good.

I’ve got relatively small hands so the reduced distance my thumb has to travel makes for quite a nice experience (at least for me) even though the tap targets are significantly reduced.