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The year is over

Head Rambles Posted on by

I first launched this site on the 22nd of October 2006.

It was done as a joke. It was also done as an experiment, because I knew nothing about blogging.

If I had read other blogs before starting this, I might have adopted a completely different style. But I knew nothing, so just wrote whatever came into my head.

It has been a bit of a roller coaster of a ride. It has made me many friends; some real, some virtual. I have been introduced to the world of podcasting. I have been asked to write for the Irish Times. I have appeared on television. All because of the blog.

It hasn’t been hard work, because I enjoyed it. I probably got most pleasure out of the comments. Many’s the time Herself has told me to shut up, because I have laughed out loud at some comment or other.

The site has grown in popularity for some unknown reason. Last week alone, I was visited by 17,000 people who read 29,000 pages between them. That is a lot of people.

Anyway, when I set out, I decided I would do it for a year, and that I would try and do a post every day. In fact I wrote 524 posts and received over 6,200 comments. Wow!

And now the year is over.

Thank you all so much for reading.

Good Bye.

 

Comments

The year is over — 44 Comments

  1. Grandad,

    If that is meant to be a swansong, you’ll have to do better.

    No-one has been shot, there have been no bizarre encounters, and the world is still a dangerous place.

    In Garcia Marquez tradition, we might at least have expected you and Herself to float off into the azure on a magic carpet!

  3. So that’s it then, you’re out of here? Not what I was expecting to read this Monday morning. Are you going to start something new?

  5. You best not quit blogging now.. if you do, I shall bring the missus and visit Ireland. We’ll hang out in your local pub and beat everyone at darts while regaling you with tales of life in California. We’ll be loud, brash and rude, and we’ll wear Hawaiian shirts and take pictures of EVERYTHING, so we can post them to our blogs upon returning home. Our friends will read about it and see the pictures, then they’ll want to come, and come they shall.. in droves..

    ..I’m looking forward to your next post.

  7. Happy Blogbirthday Gdad!
    That goodbye is a goodbye as in the goodbye at the end of a post?
    Why would you stop writing when there are so many people who love to read all that you decide to share with them in your blog. Of course if you are moving on to other projects and you don’t have time or that you had enough of doing this, fair enough. Speaking for myself, I’d miss your head rambles if you were to stop writing here.
    Best of luck though, if it is actually THE goodbye.
    Cheers,
    Gx

  8. The years are flying by aren’t they? Happy blogbirthday.

    I’m pretty sure you are joking about giving it up though. I bet you can’t 😉

  9. The Irish blogosphere, in fact the whole country, owe you a debt of gratitude for your handling of the tourist epidemic and the constant entertainment you’ve given us over the past year. I’m sorry to hear you’re going and feel that there should be some sort of send off.

    Maybe a ten gun salute or a “Tourist dash” through Trinity College in Dublin. See how many tourists you can bag in a minute. It would only seem fitting to me.

  10. TPM = tourists per minute
    Hmmm? Me bethinks this gives me an idea.
    Let me get back to you on this one.
    (evil laughter ensues)

  11. Don’t quit now! This brave new world of blogging may help keep us young and active forever. At least that’s one of my excuses for doing it, and my blogs aren’t as popular as yours (by far).
    Seniorwriter from Chicago

  14. Grandad, I feel I’ve only just arrived here and have already developed an unhealthy attachment to your blog. I look to you constantly as a source of witticisms to plagarise inspiration. You can’t up and quit on me.

  15. I’m going to cry now. I just found this wonderful site last week after whining about the fact that no one writes blogs for fun anymore, it’s all about marketing and selling crap that no one wants. The world needs humor and you have an ability that I envy. I do understand the need to stop but I hope that you find another way to share what you have with people who need the laughter.

  16. I’m hoping you’re not serious about quitting? Headrambles has become part of my routine in the mornings – log on, check mail, check webmail and check for new posts on headrambles…i can’t do any work until i’ve done all that…

  19. Happy blogbirthday.

    I don’t believe this Goodbye Sh*T!

    Katharine Hepburn. Drew Barrymore. Vanessa Williams. Frank Sinatra. What do they have in common?

    They all said goodbye and they have all had comeback stories.

    Now we await yours….

  20. Son…

    Cheap theatrics in order to garner more applause is unlike you.

    Okay, it’s exactly like you, but that’s not the point.

    The point here is that your friends (both the real one and those multitudes in your head) have come to rely on you for your sheer outrageousness and unless you want those voices in your head to get louder would be greatly disappointed were you to dump them stop and rest on your spreading laurels.

    Buck up, now, lad. Make a cuppa and soldier on. If it helps, think of England! {Oh, well…maybe not so much with the England thing, huh?} Think of Herself and her anguish at you having nothing to do all day but bother her displeasure at your being unmanned by a simple technology.

    Hell, man, think of the world, Switzerland and the almost guaranteed Nobel! What a loss.

    ~

    …’course, on the other hand, I can see where it must be a strain on a man your age to be clever every day. And for what when all is said and done?

    That’s right, kick back and enjoy your well-earned retirement.

    That will leave you that much more time to entertain myself, Nora and the Asta’s when we move in with you.

  21. Alright Grandad dont make me get out my tourist clothes and make the hunter become the hunted. Because a lot like a charging Rhino it will take a lot more than one shot to stop me

  22. Your kidding, aren’t ye? this is some sort of plot to catch the tourists offguard or something, isn’t it?

    Grandad Tell me it’s not so! please tell us it’s not so :'(

  23. Blimey, 524 tourists dead and 6,200 seriously injured? That’s brilliant. Keep up the good work. Oh sorry, I didn’t have the right glasses on, seem to have misread that.

  24. What the hell are you all on about???

    I never said I was stopping?

    I said I was going to do it for a year, and I did.

    There are plenty more tourists next season??

    Nick – I can’t comment on exact numbers. It may prejudice my chances at the Irish Tourist Shooting Association Awards at the end of the year.

    Doc/Dad – Cheap theatrics? How dare you! Is this the abuse I get for thanking all the people who visited in the last year? If you weren’t my adopted dad………….

  26. I think it’s been said before, JC. In fact, I’m sure I said it last week when I shot that builder on the roof next door.

    If it’s an expression of approval, then thanks!

  27. Ha, imagine if you broke a leg and had to go into hospital for a few days while your cast was set and that.

    The suicide rate among American blog readers would probably double.

    And happy anniversary.

  28. Great idea, Daz! I’ll stop blogging for a month and see how far the population of America drops?

    And thanks 😉

  29. Well done Grandad and happy bloggybirthday. But I’m convinced you have more ‘stickability’. Look forward to 2008

  31. Baino – Don’t be wishing you life away!

    Flirty – I do write for the times. But the Irish Times, Sunday Times, London Times etc. didn’t ask me. Their loss.

  32. Grandad, I never knew my own grandads – you’re a bit like a surrogate. Stick around pops. The blogosphere needs your anarchy.

  33. I suggested you to that Ed in the Times because I thought people would really like to hear what you have to say. Your traffic and the number of comments you’ve received in a year proves that.

    Do what I did – take a break and come back. It’s like a holiday, but without the sangria and patchy tan.

  34. Damien – I am happy to adopt you if you like. Just don’t expect any Christmas presents. [Moran, that is. Mulley thinks I’m dead]

    Sinéad – I am forever grateful for that. You and my readers are a better judge of quality than the Irish Times 😉

  37. happy blogday,looking forward to hearing from you tomorrow.i like the sound of that church too!

  38. Thanks Cooper.

    It looks like that as well as starting a new political party, I’m going to have to start a new religious movement.

    Grandad’s Curch of Latterday Non-Spenders?

  39. Grandad is dead!…uh…Long Live Grandad!…uh…I think 😉

    Happy blog birthday Grandad! So glad I found Head Rambles! Blog on sir, blog on!

  40. Ah man, I actually enjoyed reading your site. I only pretend to like the others so that they’ll link me.

    Happy trails.

    OFTR

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