A variety of things that probably only I care about

Now three and a half months into 2013, I’ve managed to stick to my goal of posting every other day. Admittedly, a few of my posts were cheats just to keep on schedule (like this one, for example), and some of my reviews seemed a little more rushed than they would have been otherwise. In general, though, I’m really happy with the results. I remember the months-long drought last year when I fell out of the habit of writing, and I know I could easily do the same thing now that I’m taking care of a new baby on top of everything else. I didn’t have much hope that my planned schedule would last this long, and even with those questionable posts, I think the overall quality is improving.

I have noticed that some of my reviews end up being a little longer than I expected. Sometimes, it’s a lot easier to be wordy than succinct, and that may be a side effect of the posting schedule. On the other hand, my music reviews are often shorter, and don’t always describe the sound very well. I need to work on that.

Also, though I haven’t started recording statistics yet, I think that my average grade is dropping. I’m a lot more comfortable giving Cs this year, and I’m happy to see that! The grade distribution is probably closer to what I always imagined it. However, it does seem like I’m giving fewer high grades. I did just double-check that, and it’s not quite as bad as I expected: 1 A and 3 A-s so far this year. I have wondered if that’s the fault of the things I’m reviewing, or if my more hectic schedule (and life) is keeping me from appreciating the best ones as much. I don’t think that’s the case, but I plan to watch it closely. If this blog makes me enjoy my hobbies less, that defeats the whole purpose.

Despite that caveat, though, I’m enjoying this a lot. I think Cult of the New is closer than ever to what I intended it to be. However, I’m curious about what you think. If anyone reading this blog regularly thinks that things have gotten noticeably better or worse, I’ll welcome the feedback.

2012 was a crazy year for me. I started out blogging regularly, but then my wife’s pregnancy and an insane work project (complete with all-nighters and eighty-hour weeks) hit at once. I hardly blogged at all through the summer months, and it was difficult to get back into the habit once I stopped. I made up for that all in December, though, with 31 posts containing 59 reviews! Those daily posts were the only things to give my days structure during the initial sleepless weeks with my new daughter.

Where will I go from here, though? I’m enjoying this writing a lot, but I know that my life will get busy once I have to juggle work and fatherhood. I’m going to try switching to an every-other-day schedule, and I plan to build up a little buffer during my last days at home in the hopes that I can keep it going. Honestly, though, I’ll be pretty amazed if I can stay on pace for even a couple months.

Anyway, I like to take the first day of the year to look back at my reviews in aggregate. Though 2012 was inconsistent from month to month, its total numbers were surprisingly close to 2011’s: 109 posts containing 185 letter grades:

You can see last year’s wrap-up for more details on what I counted. The only thing that I’ll add here is that I don’t even start gathering these stats until the last few days of the year, so it’s a relief to realize that my grading curve held steady. I do think I can be a little too generous sometimes: When I went back through all this year’s grades, about 90% of them still felt right to me, but the ones that surprised me consistently seemed too high. I still think of myself as someone who averages a B- review, and that is true, but only because I was so stingy with the As this past year. Will it continue? I’m not sure – I still definitely intend to give grades item-by-item instead of trying to massage my stats over the course of the year.

If you’re curious, I have more detailed breakdowns by category below the fold. (Don’t feel obligated to keep reading; I do this summary mostly for my own sake.)

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Happy New Year, everyone! 2011 was my first year blogging, and I’m happy with how it went. Now I want to take a moment to look back on how my overall grades worked out.

Over the course of 128 posts, I assigned 184 grades. (This is for letter grades only. For example, I refrain from giving grades in my webcomics posts, and my Origins report used number grades to avoid “final” decisions.) Here is how they broke down:

That’s actually a much more consistent curve than I was afraid I would see! It looks like the grades are fairly distributed, with the average being a B/B-. I think I’m a fairly tough grader (the Bs are still recommendations, while a B- is a mild recommendation), but I also review the things that I choose to buy for myself, so it’s not surprising that I usually liked the things I chose. I expect to see this average drop slightly now that I’m becoming more comfortable with assigning lower grades, but as long as I’m choosing my own material, it shouldn’t shift much.

If you’re curious about details, I have my grades broken down by category with more commentary below the fold.

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