BlogLily: Annual Report

The BlogLily Corporation, a privately held company, is pleased to make this first annual report to its shareholders, the hundred or so people who have left 2,572 comments in the year we have been offering this product (all 192 of them), quite for free, to anybody who wants to read it.

Of the many statistics that measure the health of an enterprise, one of the most difficult to measure and, thus, the most valuable to have on hand, is the Pleasure Experienced Per Unit of Production. (On cheery days, we refer to that as Pep -Up, but that is when we have been drinking too much black tea.)  Just how much fun was it to make the product? Did the employees sing while working? Or did they whine to each other and get up a lot to go the restroom, and on the way stop in the kitchen and eat a lot of junk?

We are pleased to announce with some degree of certainty, that Pleasure/Unit of Production was so high that BlogLily barely moved from her computer for an entire year, so enamoured was she of the entire enterprise involved in making this blog. She did not once regret doing it, wish she was doing something else, or complain about it. Others moaned a little about how the quality of the cooking was going downhill because of the blog, but learned to Make Do with burritos and pizza. The pleasure index for this enterprise is far, far higher than it is for most of the things BlogLily does, which means she is having a little crisis about how it could be that she is doing anything else at all besides writing this blog. That is a question she will answer next year.

Another indicator of the health of a blog is the number of comments left on the blog. In the last year, you commented 2,572 times. (Actually BlogLily left a good number of those comments in response to things you said, but we’re not going to go through and count them. That would be boring and the Pleasure Index militates against boring stuff.) A lot of people had a lot of interesting things to say. And there was a more than adequate amount of complimenting, agreement and flattery. For that, I simply say, thank you and bring it on!

The number and success of new product launches also tells us something about how an enterprise is doing. Quite scattered and more than a little enthusiastic, BlogLily has spun bits of herself off into so many places that on some mornings she is uncertain where to find herself. She has written about great, unsung blogs on BestBlog on WordPress, about feminism on What We Said, about her lunchbox obsession on the TiffinTin. She found solace and sustenance in creating a little record of living with cancer here. And, because she loves to talk, she began what she hopes will be a long lived podcasting career here. Oddly enough, just the other day, she decided she’d like to have a home for her notebooks. That can be found here, at NoteLily. In addition to these sites, she is also considering finding a person who’s willing to be her on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so she can get some work done and play with her children. They are not required to wear her wardrobe.

Her archives are bursting with interesting things, like a very full attic, including a description of how to find lost property, and how to improve your life by throwing away your couch. Some are forgettable. Some might be worth reading. But the one thing she does not want you to miss is the important fact that there is FOOD in here. The best way to find it is to search for it. See what happens if you search for any of these: cookies, potatoes, steak, lemons, raspberry jam, jello, brownies. Don’t eat them all together, but there’s something sustaining in there for everybody.

And thank you, all of you, for sustaining me in this last year with your kindness, your wit, your intelligence and your willingness to laugh at my jokes, even when they are not that funny. You are wonderful readers.

xo, BL