And now a word from our sponsor

I haven't done a shameless plea for new readers for this blog for some time.

Last month, you may recall, I plugged a new blogging venture, The Blog of Days, and I hope you've gone over to visit, and maybe even added BoD to your bookmarks or reader or whatever.

But what I haven't done recently is beg for new Second Effort readers.

Soon -- and I am working my way up to it -- I'm going to update the format of this blog. I've used a Blogger-supplied HTML template since 2005 that I've tweaked manually from time to time, but a lot of the cool whizbangs and gimcracks you see on other peoples' blogs simply aren't here. Why, I don't even have Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ buttons. (I do have an email option -- but that was all I could have in 2005. The other stuff either hadn't been invented yet or wasn't yet popular.)

Actually, you always could link from here to Facebook by copying the URL for the blog, or for any particular post, and pasting it into Facebook. It churns a bit and then provides a nifty-looking link, just as if you'd linked to an article from the Chicago Tribune or the Washington Post. Facebook might even give you thumbnail picture options. It's not hard -- but you do have to think about it. I want to make it easier. Because if you like something here, and you tell your friends, maybe a few of them will visit, too.

I said years ago that I'd know I'd made it as a blogger if I ever got a link to one of my own posts in my real (non-anonymous) email. It hasn't happened yet. Maybe adding those buttons you see at the end of everyone else's blogs posts will hasten the day for me. Maybe not.

But -- as with every human endeavor -- there is risk. I will probably lose stuff in the transfer. There's a lot to move. Not all of the Sidebar stuff will make it. I'll probably lose some links. I'm worried that some of the formatting on older posts may get lost. It would take me a long time to "fix" all the 1600+ posts that are already here.

But I'm going to do it. Soon. Because, even after nearly seven years, I'm still determined to be an overnight sensation.

(No, wait, that didn't sound right....)