Thursday, May 29, 2014
Please Hold and Enjoy the Music
In the previous post I pondered about the options that were before me concerning this underperforming blog. I have come to a decision. I have decided to postpone making a decision and let this blog stay on hold for the summer.
Since I'll be traveling for several weeks and my internet time will be sporadic, I'm going to find ways to limit my blogging presence so as not to feel a need to do too much networking for the purpose of promoting blog posts. I'll continue to make every attempt to respond to any comments my blogs receive and I'll will do my best to reciprocate comments--something that I haven't been doing very well at as it is.
For this blog I'll resort to the old standby of posting videos. Visitors here will still find weekly activity in the form of my music pick for that week. The clips may be dreamy, about dreams, or music that makes me think of dreams. You can stop by each week for a dose of dream music and let me know what you think.
It's kind of a cop out I know. In a way I'd compare my tactic to those phone answering services that put you on hold and have music playing while you wait. Hopefully my choices in music will be better than some of that hold music we have to listen to sometimes.
So my first song doesn't have much to do with dreams, but it seems appropriate to what's happening:
If you can't stay for the summer, I hope you'll come back in September to see where A Faraway View will be going next.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Should This Blog Be Closed?
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| CLOSED (Photo credit: Ben Husmann) |
As much as I enjoy this blog I'm thinking that it might be best to shut it down. I would hate to do this since A Faraway View is a bit of a favorite blog of mine. I enjoy the subject matter of dreams and the blog gives me a place where I can record dreams that I remember.
Prior to April this blog typically only received less than 100 views per post with an average of two comments per post. This is pretty meager return when I consider the time spent on my posts and the promotion involved in each. During the A To Z Challenge the per post views dropped further while the per post average of comments remained about the same as they had been. Since April the comments have remained about the same and the page views have gone down even further. At times I wonder if I'm mostly wasting my time with this blog.
Additionally, all of my blogs have been suffering in views and comments. Some of this can be attributed to my own cutback in visiting other blogs and commenting on them. To me this is strong evidence that the active social networking has a big effect on the activity at ones own blog. Four blogs may be spreading myself too thin.
Another option I've been strongly considering is to move this blog to Wordpress. I've heard so many arguments pro-Wordpress attesting to the superiority of the blogging platform and the greater reach for networking purposes that I've been tempted to start a WP blog to find out if this is all true. But why start another blog when I can hardly keep up with what I've got now. Moving an existing blog there would allow me to test the Wordpress platform by using a blog I've already got.
A third option is to just let this blog as it is now go to sleep for the summer. I'll be traveling a good bit and not very active on the internet. It's probably better if I let this blog rest until September and then decide at that time whether to keep it going.
So that's three choices that I'm looking at right now. Maybe you can help me decide. I'll let you know what I decide in next week's post.
Would you miss this blog if I were to just shut it down? (If I get enough votes to stay maybe my energy to blog here will be renewed) If this blog moved to Wordpress, would you continue to follow it there? Should I just let the blog sleep for the summer and come back to reassess things?
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Dream Fabricated Problem Stories
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| BMW X 5 stuck in the mud (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
In the previous post we looked at dreams that were related to conflicts with other people. These could be conflicts within dreams that are not recognized in real life or actual waking life conflicts transported to the dreaming situation. Either way these dreams are probably indicative that an actual conflict or fear of a potential conflict exists.
But what about dreams where we are trying to solve a problem of circumstance not necessarily involving relationships with other people? The problems could be actual problems that we have been facing in our daily lives, difficult situations that we may be anticipating in the future, problematic events from our past, or dream story problems that seem to have no relationship to anything in our waking life. In this current post we'll look at the latter of these types of dreams that have to do with problems or dilemmas.
The dream story might involve some sort of problem that occurs during the story or it may even be a series of problems. The situational difficulties might be what the dream is all about or they may be obstacles that hinder the progress of the dream story .
An example in my own dream life comes from a recent dream that I had.
... In the dream I have been contacted to work at a trade show or some similar event. As I begin planning for the event, gathering equipment together, and doing research about what I am going to be presenting, I learn that I am also going to be playing in an orchestra that will be performing as a part of the display I am to be working in.
The more I prepare, the more confused I become. I can't find things that I need. I have many self doubts about my skills as a musician and whether my instrument is still playable. I'm not even totally sure where I am supposed to go. After leaving for the venue, I encounter bad weather and other obstacles that threaten my schedule. I am flustered and insecure about everything I am doing.
Things are even worse when I arrive. Everything is in German--signs, contracts, show literature--and I can't understand anything. The music that I am expected to play is difficult for me to read and I have doubts about my abilities to easily sight read what I am expected to play. The thought crosses my mind that I could play by ear, but then I have doubts that I could even adequately play my instrument at all. I am nervous and dismayed...
When I woke up I felt tired and somewhat disheartened. As I thought back, I realized where the idea for the dream story had come from. The previous night I had been watching the film "The Glenn Miller Story" on television. There was a sequence where the band's vehicles broke down in bad weather as they were trying to get to their show in Boston. My dream reminded me of that sequence in the film. In fact within the dream I was thinking about this sequence of the film.
Typically in these dreams with stories where the problems are imagined within the dream, there are things that happen to hinder progress. This might come in the way of catastrophic events, poor planning or lack of preparation, a series of minor inconveniences that blow up into bigger problems, being thrown unexpectedly into a situation, distractions that get in the way of a mission at hand, confusion from sources unrelated to the original intent of the dream story, or any number of other intruding factors.
The activities in this sort of dream can be very exasperating to the dreamer causing fatigue and dismay. These dreams are probably related to some factor in the dreamers waking life--a real life problem or worry that becomes symbolically represented by the dream story. These types of dreams might be repeated over a period in the guise of different stories incorporating similar thoughts and feelings.
When you are faced with a dream such as this or especially a series of dreams of this nature, it might not be a bad idea to evaluate your life to see what waking life difficulties may be troubling you. These difficulties may not even be apparent to you and the dream might be a message that something is potentially wrong. The dreams might provide insight to your waking life once you've recognized the symbolism involved. If you're so fortunate, the dreams might also be providing you the possible solutions to the problems you are facing.
Have you ever experienced dream problems that frustrate and tire you? Do your dreams ever provide you reasonable solutions to the dream problem or the waking life problem? Do you ever have dreams that adapt something you've seen, heard, or read into a dream story that involves you?
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Sorting Out Conflicts
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| Working Together Teamwork Puzzle Concept (Photo credit: lumaxart) |
Recently an issue came up concerning an online collaboration that I am engaged in with others whom I have never actually met, but correspond with on an ongoing basis. A few members of the group were having some difficulty with another who was not doing what had been expected of him. It was a somewhat difficult situation for me since I was in a position where I needed to resolve the issue and ask the person in question to relinquish his position in the group if he could not satisfactorily defend past actions and commit to doing better in the future.
This was even more awkward from the standpoint that I had not recognized any shortcomings of the party who was being blamed for poor performance and I considered this person a virtual friend. I was expected to contact the individual and resolve the situation at hand. I was not necessary exasperated, but this was a matter of some concern to me.
That night during sleep I had a dream about this. In the dream I envisioned certain things associated with this person and was discussing the matters face to face with the person. Again, I will remind the reader that I have never met this person in waking life. All was well in the dream and the issues were resolved amenably. When I woke in the morning, though I couldn't remember the exact details of the dream, I remembered having the dream and felt better about the complicated situation that had faced me the night before.
Can we resolve waking life conflicts in a dream or are these settlements illusory? Does the working out of problems in dreams make it easier to come to waking life solutions? Do you remember a dream that helped you come to terms with someone with whom you were having difficulties?
Thursday, May 1, 2014
A to Z Reflections for the Challenge of 2014
An Increase in Followers for A to Z?
For starters, if you're reading this and not yet following this blog, I would appreciate it if you'd take the time right now to click on the "Join This Site" button at your right. I'd love to hit the 200 follower mark for the 2014 Challenge. Thank you in advance if you have done this. Let me know in the comments that you've done so and if I'm not following your blog already I will do so now.
During this year's Challenge on this blog my follower increase was relatively small which would be expected since my visits here were very low in numbers. As typical during April there were more visitors at the beginning and these dropped to about half by the end.
Putting it into actual numbers brings into perspective how poorly this blog did. During the first half of the Challenge I was getting an average of 15 to 20 page views per post with about 5 comments per post. After the letter "N" my views dropped by about half averaging a paltry 10 per day with 2 comments on each post.
Granted this is one of my lowest performing blogs. I don't do much to promote it either so I guess I shouldn't complain about the visitors. Judging from my stats though I can see how some A to Z participants might be disappointed if they were showing something similar.
Taking into account my own lack of promotion, my increase of posting to six days per week instead of the usual one, and the vast competitive pool of A to Z bloggers I was up against, my showing though not stellar was not stagnant by any means either. I had my usual visitors who remained loyal. If I were to measure weekly visits and comments without taking into account the number of posting days, there would be an increase of visitors and comments to this blog.
The 2014 Challenge Theme
I kept the theme simple with short posts. During April each post featured a film that had to do with dreams or had dream-like qualities. I had hoped that the nature of the theme would have attracted more viewers with more discussion. My films may have been overly obscure or it may not be a type of film that many people are interested in.
If you missed my recommendations I encourage you to review them and leave comments wherever you find one that interests you or where you have something to say about the film. I generally respond to all comments even when they are on old posts.
The Future of A Faraway View
This blog mostly exists because of my own interest in the topic and the fact that I do have a small pool of regular visitors. The blog has potential, but due to my current blogging load I will probably continue here as I have in the past. Posts may continue to stay short or even become shorter. Guest posts are always welcomed, but I have not been active in soliciting posts from guests.
My dream blog is not going anywhere--at least not yet. Since it is an underperforming labor of love it would probably be my first blog to go if I were to start dropping blog efforts that consumed too much of my time. Or if not dropped, this blog might go to sleep for an extended period. We'll see about that.
In any case, I want to thank all of you who visited A Faraway View. A special thanks goes to JoJo at Tahoma Beadworks & Photography and Lisa at Lisa Buie-Collard--they were constant visitors to this blog during April and I appreciate that support.
Hope to see more visitors and get more comments in the future!
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