Anecdote #100 ~ 10,000
Entry posted by munkeymunkey
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Reaching 10,000 posts is one of the major benchmarks of BZP achievement, and right now, I find myself on the verge of that number. It's just six posts away...
I'm not going to reach it tonight; it's too late, and I've already posted 21 times since I awoke this morning. (That's about three times as much as normal.) However, I can confidently say that I'm set up to achieve 10,000 sometime tomorrow.
The anticipation has been mounting since mid July, when I reached 9,000. One day while in the shower, I started to calculate what it would take to reach 10,000 before my third year here was complete. It was a daunting task... I would have to post at least 15 per day until school began, and then about 8 per day until February 20. I took a deep breath and plunged in. On August 30, the day before I went back to school, I took a new assessment. I happily discovered that I would only need to post 7.03 each day. I posted about 60 that week and brought the "magic number" below seven. From that day forth, I determined that I would always try to post at least seven each day. I have done that, and more so (obviously, seeing as there's more than a month until February 20). Each day, I've crunched numbers on the calculator, especially that "magic number." My friends at school have heard me shout it out to 6 decimal places every day, although they have no idea what it's for. When I return to school next week, there will be no magic number. Ten thousand is going to be reached.
It's been a long time since that snowy February morning in 2004 when I first joined and was so excited that I made over 80 posts in my first week. I've tracked my number of posts each day and have spreadsheets and graphs to show the shifts and flows of my posting.
(For instance, October is my driest month, July my most abundant. The most I've ever posted in a week is 181, the lowest 34. I've only ever posted more than 30 a day twice, and my highest is 40. I posted over 3,700 in my first year, but only about 2,700 in my second. (My third year is shaping up to be about 3,500.) Interestingly enough, if I keep pace until January 20, I will have 6 months in my third year in which I have posted in more than either of my previous two years.)
I can actually track my life by my posts, though. The few times I've been away from a computer for a day or two, there are noticable drops in the weekly post count. During Easter vacation in 2006, I had a major spike as I neared 7,000 and resolved to start posting more again... There is a giant drop-off from summer to cross country season, spikes at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I find it fascinating. My family rolls their eyes at me like and laugh at my intensity.
Last Sunday, I reached 9,900, and I couldn't contain a steady pace any longer. I've posted 94 posts since then, and I'll make it an odd 101 after tomorrow (if not more... who knows what I might encounter in S&T tomorrow). And as much as I'd love to reach the big 10,000 tonight, it's already Sunday where I live, so it will still be the same date.
It's been an incredible journey, and that last major goal of mine here is about to be reached. (My other two were finishing an epic and becoming staff. Those are accomplished.) I'll shoot for 15,000 and 20,000; definitely. But I doubt that I'll make another 10,000 posts in under three years.
Here I come...
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