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Several times this year I have experienced the true joy of blogging. It exists, blog heaven, that blissful state where art and communication fuse and enter the technosphere in some synchronous near-spiritual way. I am not the only one to make it my meditation, my shaman, my drug of choice, my salvation, my funky dance. There are millions of us, many far more pretentious than even me.<\/p>\n
I get about 23,000 visitors a month. This includes about seven thousand actual readers, and a small but dedicated group of subscribers. I think. Even allowing for traffic generator “pimping” – how I love that phrase – Blog of Funk is doing quite well, internet traffic-wise, getting a steady trickle from directories and other reciprocally linked blogs, but what fascinates me is the ever-increasing traffic from search engines – the new dumb mind of the world, stumbling along, asking questions and arriving at Blog of Funk, and various of my dubious scrivenings. Looking at the logs, Toblerone<\/a> does the best, followed by “Bonking” Boris Johnson,<\/a> followed by These Boots Are Made For Walking<\/a><\/i>. Portland Road<\/a> does quite well, as do Adrian’s Haunted Trousers<\/a>. Fish, Sex and Sleep<\/a> is a constant runner.<\/p>\n At the end of 2004, my writing was a random mix of personal reflection, autobiographical anecdote, speculation, ranting and imagery, and I decided to tidy it up and find more focus. During 2005 I stuck mostly to the plan of one theme per month. Some of the time I knew definitely what the theme for the month was ahead of time – Valentine’s Day in Feb and the UK Election April\/May, for e.g. were obvious – but the rest of the time, I followed the curves of the year and responded by writing myself through it. <\/p>\n The bad months of 2005 were also my most personally productive – August and September were awful, but blogging – specifically, writing fiction – saved me. I wrote two short stories during that time, which effort lifted my game, and as person I survived somehow (yes it was that bad) some days only because of the dirty “d” word – discipline – that writing has provided me.<\/p>\n So, this was Blog of Funk, 2005:<\/p>\n December, I was on the MONEY<\/a><\/p>\n November, I was scared SICK<\/a><\/p>\n October 2005, I was MARKING TIME<\/a><\/p>\n September 2005, I MADE IT ALL UP<\/a><\/p>\n August 2005, I considered CREATURES<\/a><\/p>\n July 2005, was I being CURIOUS?<\/a><\/p>\n June 2005 I diced with DEATH<\/a><\/p>\n May 2005 I was UNWINDING<\/a><\/p>\n April 2005 I covered POLITICS<\/a><\/p>\n March 2005 I wrote about LYRICS<\/a><\/p>\n February 2005 I explored PLACES<\/a><\/p>\n January 2005 I examined LOVE<\/a><\/p>\n