Have you ever gotten a backhanded compliment? Or one where it's hidden under a disguise of malice or negativity? Sometimes it takes a day or so for you even to find it buried under all the trash.
This week I had two such instances. The first one was an attack on me regarding this blog and my day job. The second was a misunderstanding. Both involved reviewing of restaurants.
I don't want to get into details about the work one. My friends already know the whole story and it might even exacerbate the situation even farther with this post. Suffice it to say, I sort of got in trouble for a restaurant review. But after a couple of days of dealing with it, I realized something. This attacking person apparently thinks I have more reach with this blog than I really do. And that I am going to take as a compliment and just say, boy, I wish that were true.
The greater Sacramento urban/suburban area has a population of about one million people. My total page views of the review on the day in question - 155. Not even a drop in a big barrel.
The thing about blogs is, they are personal online diaries. First and foremost, they are an outlet for the owner. A way to express their feelings and opinions. Because they are on the internet, they are available for others to read. Whether a blog develops a following or is read by anyone else at all... I like to think that I contribute something to Sacramento by having this blog. That's why I have it tied to places like the Bee's SacConnect blogger site and the News10 Community blogger site. I'm trying to reach more people. But my readership is small and I rarely get comments. I guess it's better to get no comments than bad ones. Anyway, my impact is pretty darn negligible.
Many people get to my blog via Urbanspoon.com for my restaurant reviews. Recently I went past my 100th. Before that I had tried to see if I could get one of the better restaurants to comp me to be my big 100th review. I just didn't want to waste #100 on one of my cheap eats. I found out from a friend that some of the restaurants thought I was threatening them. Give me a free meal or I'll write a bad review. Unfortunately they misunderstood. I'm on a tight budget. Some of the restaurants in Sacramento can be over $100 for a meal. I just wanted a way to get to review them for my 100th anniversary review without having to shell out that much money. And if they read my site, they would know that I rarely write a downright bad review.
As I've explained in past posts, my palate isn't one that can taste every nuance in a dish. My writing skills aren't super descriptive or all that great. They are just passable. In the end, though, I had to take it as another backhanded compliment - that they thought my blog was bigger and more read than it actually is. Thank you for that. Again, I wish it were so.
So here I am on my personal blog with my personal thoughts. Will anyone read this? Probably only a handful, if that. But I get to say what I want, how I want, and I'll take any criticism, even negative, as a sign that I might have more reach than I think.