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1,000 Bottles of Beer

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This is post number 1,000 on Trail Baboon, all written by me or as guest entries by various baboons.

I’m exhausted, and proud. The total overall number is a convenient landmark because all I have to do is count the guest posts to know that TB is an amazing 16.4% reader-written.

beerwall

That’s better than the New York Times, by far.

It didn’t seem very long ago that we observed reaching the landmark of post number 500. That was an achievement, but this is better. I would almost say it’s exactly twice as good.

And so through stubbornness, determination, or simply as a result of habitual behavior and lacking the creativity to do anything different, we have moved into 4-digit territory, post-wise. And one of the things that sets blogging apart from books or a pile of paper newspapers is that all the writing we’ve done remains online for people to stumble across as if it had just appeared – fresh and new to each set of eyes that beholds it for the first time as long as they don’t look at the date or read any of the obsolete references included in the text.

That’s a form of immortality, isn’t it? Or longevity, at least?

And taken together, one could argue that we’ve collaborated to write a very long book that is “scattered and unfocused in subject and style, featuring a variety of occasionally compelling and sometimes incomplete characters drawn with varying degrees of skill.”

I put that line in quotes because I’m pretty sure someone’s actual book has been reviewed that way.

If you measure success in terms of readership, as opposed to simply counting raw numbers of posts, you would have to say Trail Baboon is consistent but certainly not growing.
Here’s a screen shot of our monthly readership statistics since January, 2011. We appear to get between 60 and 90 visitors a day, with each reader refreshing the page 4 to 7 times.
That adds up and it starts to look like a lot when you view it on a monthly basis, but in truth our community is rather small. But loyal!

Remarkably, our total numbers for the month of July 2011 and July 2013 were almost exactly the same though two years apart – 13,096 vs. 13,094.

Screen Shot 2013-08-03 at 8.47.16 AM

At any rate, congratulations, Baboons. Our achievement puts me in mind of a classic anthem sung by high-achievers throughout time:

One Thousand Bottles of Beer On The Wall,
One Thousand Bottles of Beer!
Take One Down, Pass it Around.
Nine Hundred Ninety Nine Bottles of Beer on The Wall.

Nine Hundred Ninety Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall,
Nine Hundred Ninety Nine Bottles of Beer!
Take one down …

How do you pace yourself to reach a distant goal?

82 thoughts on “1,000 Bottles of Beer”

  1. Good morning, baboons. Congratulations on reaching the 1000 posts mark, Dale and everyone who has contributed.

    How do I pace myself to reach a distant goal? It’s the old “how do you eat an elephant” question, isn’t it? Or in my case, perhaps “the longest journey starts with a single step” is a more apt metaphor. I want to lose 30 pounds so the idea of eating an elephant doesn’t work real well, but being more active does. Essentially it’s a matter of committing to the goal, and that works best for me if it’s my own idea. Since I do the vast majority of our grocery shopping and cooking in our household, you’d think it would be easy, but as I’m sure most of you know, losing weight isn’t easy. Because I don’t think crash diets are a good idea, I’m making small changes that don’t feel like I’m depriving myself of anything. I eat whatever I want, only less of it, I commit to going to the Y three times a week, and reward myself for incremental goals reached along the way. By November 1st I’ll have reached my goal if I stick with my plan, and I plan to stick with it this time.

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  2. I remember bottle number one. It was put on the shelf; it was barely passed around; and it was the beginning of an amazing gathering!

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  3. thanks dale, 1000 posts old… seems like just yesterday we were wondering what to name this thing and how to go forward andnow look… we can walk.

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  4. I just updated the post to include some statistics for those who enjoy that sort of thing. And to confound those whose minds are numbed by numbers.

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      1. over on the far right is the view vs comments stat. must be a long running one. 8 views to 1 comment. 578 000 views to 72 000 commernts i am guilty of 3 or 4 of those but usually i have something to share with you all. or a jacque says when freshly back form georgia… all y’all.

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      2. At a guess, I’d say the “visits” is discreet visitors, not page views (each visitor may have more than one view of the page…which would happen with a page refresh), and is agnostic as to whether or not we comment. It’s possible that I sometimes wind up being two “visits” in a day if I check in from home and again at work (sorry if that toys with your stats, Dale…).

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        2. I don’t spend too much time thinking about the stats, Anna. It might turn out there are only about a dozen of us who actually look at the blog!

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  5. Good morning. Happy 1000th, Dale and Baboons! You have done a great job of pacing yourself, Dale, to keep us on the Trail.

    When I was a sophomore in high school I ran the mile on the school track team. No one can run full speed for a mile so you have to pace yourself. I tried to keep up with all the other runners at the start of the race. I was never the one to set the pace. A miler who is good at setting the pace might have some one on the side line giving him his time for completing each quarter mile lap. I was not that kind of runner.

    I tried to not be too far behind at the half mile mark. Having made it to the half way point I told myself I was now more than half way done and the rest was all “down hill”. Then I would more or less maintain my pace for the third quarter and try to pick up my pace toward the end of the race. That wasn’t a winning strategy. I did manage to place 2nd or 3rd in a few races. I was always aware that I would be totally exhausted at the finish if I ran too fast and I never did that.

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    1. Glory be, Jim, I was a miler too! I used the very same strategy. In my first race, I finished fourth out of four runners. In my second and last race, I was third out of three. Having accomplished that, I retired.

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      3. Well, Steve, at least you gave it a try. I hate to tell you this. Your strategy was a little different from mine. You were staying behind everyone. I finished ahead of some of the other runners in the races I entered.

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        1. Ahem! That was not my strategy, Jim; that was my result. When the starter gun went off, the others took off like greyhounds, and my goal for the race was to not be lapped by the leaders! I thought I beat one kid in my second race, for we started with four, and I finished third. But he dropped out after the first lap, so I’m not sure I can be said to have outrun anyone. Since I was such a slow runner, it is a darn good thing I was so good looking! 🙂

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      1. I know what it is like to have that bursting lung feeling because I tried running the quarter mile once or twice. Quarter milers have to come close to sprinting the entire race and that will definitely leave a runner like me totally exhausted.

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        1. When I ran track, the quarter mile was perhaps the harshest of all races on the runners. The guys who ran 100 yards never felt any pain. It was all over in the time a person can sneeze. The half milers and milers were out there a long time, but their relatively slow pace didn’t mess them up. The guys who ran the quarter mile often hit the finish line and began barfing. The quarter mile hurt.

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        3. Gentlemen, I confess that I was also a half miler. Not very fast, but determined.
          The 440 was my brother’s race, though I did run it in a meet once.
          I thought the 880 was tougher, though because it was more than twice as long. Or at least it was the way I ran it.

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  6. First of all I blab about it to everyone I know to help hold myself accountable. Then I put off doing it for as long as I can get by with. Then I buckle down and do the darn thing, usually with the aid of coffee and red bull.

    1000 is a mighty big number! Yay for us, but most of all for the trail and Dale. Hey – that rhymes!

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    1. 1000 is a mighty big number
      yay for us all, for the trail and dale
      i’ll have a sandwich topped with cucumber
      with cheese on some rye bread with some kales and an ale

      ill celebrate solo thanks to singular oneness
      but its familiar to be a solo blog writing dog
      it doesnt diminsh the blogular funness
      mental fitness consists of a jog on the blog

      donna is with us because its the summer
      during off summer months she is teaching and preaching
      when she is gone its a most certain bummer
      conversations of carlos far reaching go screeching

      but the blog with the baboons is a thing we all trust
      with guest blogs and regular posts by its hosts
      the topics and attitudes do get discussed
      music and planets..linda cant boast rye toast

      the foodies on trail baboon the folkies the bookies
      all meet here with leaky boats to bail and set sail
      for destinations that very from showtunes to cookies
      thanks to our fearless leader the trails alpha male, our dale.

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  7. Procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate, and then panic and get it done. Not a great method and I don’t recommend it. I’m not a long-term goals type of gal.
    My goal for the coming week is to see as many Fringe Festival shows as I can. I’m hosting two (unrelated) out-of-town guests. I saw the New Yorker’s show last night – Fabulous!. I’ll see the Californian’s show tomorrow. I suspect I may see Dale ushering or box-officing somewhere along the line.

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    1. Have fun at the fringe, Lisa!
      I’m not volunteering this year – I just don’t have the stamina for it in addition to the other stuff I’m supposed to be doing.
      But we might make it to a show or two before the week is out!

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  8. Meanwhile, someone else in my house has a long term goal, a grim one.
    There was a hole in my stucco and the repair people did their first application of stucco-stuff on Wednesday.
    It seems, as I had suspected but forgot to set-a-goal-to-deal-with, that hole was someone’s home. Now I have a little Cask of Amontillado going on and that little someone is trying to chew his/her way out, I think.
    I’m hoping that it’s a little chipmunk because I think its chewing would be less effective than if it were a squirrel (and I don’t think that squirrels would choose to live in a building with all the lovely trees about).
    I hear the chewing less frequently now. A sad way to go.

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    1. Oh no, Lisa. Poor little thing, whatever it is. Sorry to tell you this, but it’s more likely a squirrel, very aggressive little chewers they. We’ve been battling them for years, but seem to be squirrel free at the moment.

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  9. A thousand Huzzahs!
    Congrats to Dale and all of us keeping this going.

    I read a story recently about a man unloading a coal car. (And it was probably on here so I apologize for using someone’s story and having such a random short memory! Haha!)
    He said the secret to unloading that coal was not to look at how much was left, but to keep your head down and just keep shoveling.
    For me, whether it’s unloading wagons of straw, plowing or planting a field, or mowing a pasture of weeds, I look at each round as progress. Yesterday I was working a field and also keeping an eye on the clock as I had to be somewhere. So it was 1:40 (minutes and seconds) each pass and I had 15 minutes to work yet and 5 passes so I was good.
    Hey, sometimes you do the math just to offset the boredom… 🙂

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    1. Ben, I also do the math to keep myself going and make it to the finish. That is now I manage get some books read. I make calculations see how far I have read: 1/4; 1/3; 1/2; etc. .

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      1. I’m a calculator too.

        I’d say I was a procrastinator too, but I think it would be more accurate to say that I am a researcher. I research a thing to death, then make what looks like a snap decision.

        I also employ the Donna method of telling other people, which nets me a motherlode of free advice & nagging 😉

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    2. doris kearns goodwin learned math by figuring out batting averages in order to report to her father how the red sox did on a daily basis.
      my oldest did math exercise to pass the time all he was growing up. count backwards from 700 to 350 by 6’s and the like. he is math genius today. not sure if one steered the other or vice versa.

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  11. My basic method with major projects is the same as Lisa’s: procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate, PANIC, finish the project. That program served me well through about 40 years of being a professional writer. And then it totally failed me, and I am now an ex-writer. More or less. Sort of. For all practical purposes.

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    2. i always loved leave it to beaver and his attitude that you dont need to get all upset about it the world might come to an end by then and you would have done all that worrying for nothing

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    3. Steve, as long as you’re creating guest posts for Trail Baboon, you’ll be a writer. And as long as you keep sending me last- minute revisions, you’ll be a professional writer. Amateur writers don’t care that much.

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      1. I’ve found that when I wait several days to re-work a guest post that it turns out better than if I write it and send it in the same day. Which is why I made Dale’s last deadline by only an hour. I wrote about the raspberries, then waited several days, or a week, before I looked at it again. It turned out quite different than what I first imagined.

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  12. I want to know if all those cans of beer in the picture are yours, Dale.

    I am not very good at long term goals. I do better when it is something concrete, so I suppose something like drinking 1,000 bottles of beer would be an obtainable goal for me (if I liked beer) because it’s something that I can see and touch (and taste). Then I would do just one a day for 1,000 days. Except sometimes I get so driven to meet my goal that I do things much faster just to get it done. That probably wouldn’t be a good idea with beer.

    Dale, most of the congratulations for 1,000 posts goes to you. I am amazed at how you can come up with something new almost every day of the week and almost every week of the year. As others mentioned yesterday, for some of us this blog has been much more than an entertaining read. Thank you.

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  13. Congrats Dale — it’s been a happy 1,000 for me at least.

    I am not good at pacing myself at all… but not due to procrastination. It’s that as soon as I have a goal, I want to go at it full strength. This works pretty well unless it’s truly a goal that needs time… such as losing weight or growing things in the garden. Flinging myself at those goals doesn’t work as well!

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  14. I want to join those congratulating you on your remarkable achievement, Dale. Having written a few of these, I know how high a standard you employ. You have accomplished something of rare quality.

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    1. Thanks Steve. Trail Baboon would be a very different and much less interesting project without the small crowd it has attracted. Most days the comments and the ensuing conversation become the real attraction.

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  15. Greetings! Congratulations — woohoo for us and hip, hip hooray for the Alpha Baboon! Such an accomplishment. As others have said above, I will procrastinate, panic and then do what needs to be done. The only time that doesn’t work is in karate. Practice, practice, practice until you’re ready for the next belt, stripe, form or whatever — and then Mr. Z decides when I’m ready. It all works out.

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  16. Rise and Shine Baboons?

    I was quite busy this morning, with the nap and all, so am finally settling into “reply mode.” Dale, thanks for the blog–first the idea and then the long term staying with it part. Does the blog qualify for a “play” of Old Love yet? You used to set a rigorous standard for playing this dedication. For so many years I awoke to TLGMS. Had the blog not been here to ease my way out of the habit, the situation, that is my adjustment problems with a world without TLGMS, would have been much worse than it was.

    Long term goal right now? Planning our trip to Europe. WE HAVE SET A DATE! We will fly out April 10. Lou and I have been saving the money for a long time. This trip will celebrate two birthdays ending in 0’s this year, a retirement, and 20 years of marriage. Both of us are actually really good at the long term goal thing. Set the goal, break it down into steps, take the small actions, then EXECUTE. With our trip we are now at the “taking the small actions” part of setting dates, making reservations, and spending the saved money! WooHoo.

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    1. enjoy jacque and lou. europe is fun. ill bet doing it with reservations and such is an interesting way to do it. i am sure i miss lots of opportunities by refusing to lock it in but my long term goals are flexible and respond to the situation of the moment just like real life. plan a with a b and c option and so on and so on… when i lock in to a plan i get taught what is wrong with that even more so than the way i do it.
      which countries?

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    2. Does this event qualify for a playing of “Old Love”?
      Sure, though it might be more appropriate to spin “Old Blevins,” particularly the “blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah” chorus.
      This is the only Neal and Leandra version of Old Love I could find on You Tube – it has been posted here before but who’s counting?

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  17. This topic has me reeling because I just can’t think of a time in my life where I set any goal at all! I seriously missed this developmental stage and have somewhat successfully managed to spend nearly 70 years without goal-setting. Oh sure, at each month’s start, I do my banking and bill-paying. Are those goals, though? Or just operational tasks?? Perhaps I don’t even know what makes a “goal” any different than getting stuff done in a reasonably timely manner? When I went through two masters’ programs at the U, my “goal” was to graduate. My life has gone by remarkably absent any long-term plan (goals?). Maybe I’m meeting tons of goals and just not realizing that’s what they are? I suppose flossing my teeth every night for 40 years could be construed as having the “goal” of healthy gums. Xmas shopping may be connected to the goal of satisfying my obligations or bringing a smile to a grandchild’s face.

    Having always been a day-to-day person, I can’t imagine setting a goal of any kind. Perhaps I’m the odd one out who’s taken “living in the present” a bit too far?

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    1. Holland, Norway and Scotland. Our favorite way to travel is to rent an apartment and explore from there–very do-able in Amsterdam and Edinburgh. In Norway it will be looser and we will do some unreserved travelling there. We are doing a family history tour there. Lou’s Norwegians are meticulously documented and they even know where the family farm is. Stilled called the Amdahl Farm.

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  19. Yay for 1000! It’s been a grand adventure. Like most I either fall prey to procrastinate procrastinate procrastinate panic get it done – or, like Jacque, I break whatever the big goal is into smaller goals (writing 7 sections of 10 or so pages each, plus an introduction and conclusion was a whole lot easer that sitting down to write a whole 90+ pages of masters thesis). Failing that, there is the “get so overcommitted that you can’t complete anything and wind up falling over instead of getting to the goal”…but that’s hardly productive. Tomorrow I shall tackle a bunch of sorting (cleaning out the front closet, which tends to get loaded up with “well, this doesn’t have another place, I’ll shove it here” – pressed into actually getting it done because we have someone coming in a week or so to repair water damage in the entryway and closet…see option A above). If you find me sitting on the front steps in the sunshine reading the newspaper or staring idly at the weeds instead of sorting mittens, you will know I am still somewhere around step 2 of the option A and not yet to “panic”…

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    1. I did this yesterday, too, in my art studio, which is fairly unused during garden season. Then stuff accumulates there, keeping the spiders and other dead insects company. The door can be closed and locked, so if company is coming, it is an even better camouflage. I cleaned it up yesterday! Feels good.

      The weather this weekend is sublime. I spent all kinds of time in my glider yesterday.

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  21. Hi all,
    Congratulations on 1,000 posts! This is truly a landmark event for all of us but especially for our Alpha! Well done!

    I’m terrified of last-minute, panicked efforts to accomplish something that I promised to do. I’m always tempted to procrastinate and have even tried that mode on occasion but the panic that follows makes me stupid and the result is less than ideal. I’ve trained myself to get the job done immediately and spare myself the stress and grief of a poor result due to panic. That said, I haven’t set very lofty goals for myself, especially recently. Some days it is enough to get myself to work and deal with the stress there. I’ve been taking it one day at a time and remembering to breathe. That’s working so far.

    Happy birthday to Sherrilee!

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  22. I’m not big on goals, either. Just keeping up with daily life is challenging enough. My strategy is to just try to do a little every day and check off a few tasks on the to-do list.

    My task today is to add my birthday wishes for Sherrilee to the baboon chorus. Happy Birthday, VS!

    Check!

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  24. On my latest solo voyage in the BWCAW, I bit off an intimidating itinerary. A six-day trip designed for tandem canoers and paced accordingly, only done in FIVE days by me, solo. Also, I managed to plan the route backwards in terms of the worst portages becoming uphill labors rather than going with the flow more and taking them in reverse route, which would have made the toughest portages go mostly downhill.

    My mantra after day 1, which was relatively short and easy, was “One step at a time.” Going solo, I didn’t have the luxury of tripping and breaking an ankle or wrist and having my partner do all the carrying while I limped along behind him. Each step could have resulted in an injury, and even more so when lugging 70 pounds up a rocky, rooty, wet, muddy portage trail while ducking under tree branches or stepping over huge fallen tree trunks. And each portage was just, “One portage at a time.” Get through this one, control your breathing and pulse, don’t work too hard and get a heart attack. On each new lake (24 in all, plus three creeks/rivers and 28 portages totaling about 7 miles, which I double portaged, meaning I walked 21 miles(across the portage with one load, back to canoe, then canoe and small pack across the portage a second time), it was “One stroke at a time.” An old wrist injury and a suddenly sore rotator cuff nagged at me with each stroke of a kayak paddle, so I went back to my regular canoe paddle–slower, but easier on the sore spots.

    After each day was done, the next day began with “One day at a time.” New lakes, new portages, new sights, new challenges. Just accept what comes, deal with it or enjoy it as is appropriate, and relish the entire BWCA trip, good and bad. That’s why I wilderness paddle. The sense of adventure and unexpected. Handling whatever nature serves up: wind, waves, bugs, bears, blisters, impossible (or IMPASSABLE) portages. One portage had flooded, thanks to an industrious beaver or two, to waist high water for about 100 yards. I ended up paddling the canoe across the “new pond” after wading the water with my pack the first trip. Normally that portage might encounter a lot of mud and a few ankle deep (or so) puddles.

    Step by step. One thousand minuscule victories that made up a successful day. Pay off one night was a spectacular clear sky show from the Aurora Borealis. Priceless!

    Chris in Owatonna

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  25. And congratulations, Dale, on 1000 posts! Quite a milestone. I haven’t even hit 100 on my blog yet, and I thought I’d achieved some longevity with that number. (Hah!)
    Chris in O-town

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