Third Blogiversary

Today is my third blogiversary. January 25th of 2008 was the day when I embarked on this adventure.

As always, it is a reminder of how quickly time passes, subjectively. I am amazed by the realisation that I have been writing for three years already. I guess Rohrstock-Palast has now officially left the wee youngsters behind and joined the ranks of the middle-aged spanking blogs. Not quite old and venerable yet, but middle-aged. The phase of life when the real king Ludwig I named myself after became even stranger and more bizarre than before, until serious questions were being raised about his ability to rule. A bad omen? We will see. The real Ludwig never had a mate like Kaelah to keep him grounded. By the way, Kaelah has now been actively blogging for one year and five months herself, so she is not a wee youngster anymore, either.

Looking back at my second blogiversary, one year ago, I notice that I finished with this passage: "In rock music, they say that it is a band's third album that 'makes it or breaks it' .The first album is your debut, usually well-received. The second one is a sophomore effort that builds on the first. But it's the third album that really, really counts. Does the same apply to spanking blogs? I'll approach my third year as if it did."

Damn, I wish I had not written that. The third year of blogging was definitely my weakest one. As it turned out, I was occupied a lot by non-kinky tasks, I also had some burnout and a bit of a dry spell creatively, and I ended up making much fewer posts than before. Had it not been for Kaelah jumping into the breach, the blog might have run out of momentum altogether. Well, maybe that is the "make it or break it" lesson in my particular case: that I can keep going through a dry time, if necessary with a little help. My thanks go to Kaelah and to the readers who remained loyal followers and active commenters.

That said, with fifty-six posts altogether, many of them having the usual substantial length, it was by no means an unproductive year of blogging by any normal standard. Moreover, while it was also more quiet than 2009 in terms of filmmaking, with no epic productions with the likes of Mood Pictures or Lupus Pictures, I had two very enjoyable shoots with Pandora Blake and Leia-Ann Woods (okay, the latter involved my second F/M scene on camera, so it wasn't enjoyable all the time...). We made some very good "chamber music-style" spanking videos there, which has a charm all of its own compared to the more "orchestral" stuff I had done before. And I was very happy about having Kaelah in front of the camera with me. Filming as a couple makes for a very different, interesting experience as well. The results of these two shoots have not been published yet, but they will be this year, as free content.

Speaking of free clips and filming as a couple, I am very happy that Kaelah and I finally managed to publish our first spanking video just before the end of the year, as a Christmas present for you. That one had already been filmed in 2009, of course. I had never found the time to edit it. But now it is out at last, the response was great and it ended 2010 on a highly positive note for me blogging-wise and filmmaking-wise.

So, Enter the Dachshund is probably my favourite post of last year. The preliminary shoot reports which Kaelah wrote about our work with Pandora and Leia are a good read, My First Day At School - On Camera! and Top or Flop?. There will be more about that. We did a small, fun video with Kaelah getting spanked as a Starfleet ensign, which is what you the readers had voted for. Kaelah was thought-provoking as usual with many introspective posts about her kink, such as I Don't Need No Education, Love, Peace and Happiness and Egoist?!. My personal highlights in terms of writing were probably The Old Man and the Sea, the story of our good friend Peter from the UK, and Paranoia 101, which started out as a little throwaway idea and became what I thought was a really funny post.

As I said, maybe it was not such a terrible year of blogging after all. Still, I plan to make 2011 a better one. I am reluctant to make any specific announcements before the eggs are hatched, but there is definitely some diverse and interesting content in the works. I have been feeling quite inspired these recent weeks and I think that I am over my dry spell. I am looking forward to putting my ideas out there, together with my mate, and I am looking forward to the next times when we will be visiting kinky friends.

The long-term future beyond 2011 is unclear to me. I am not sure that I see myself still doing this another three years from now, so it is quite possible that I am past my halfway mark as a blogger already. On the other hand, who knows? As time passes, I may find that I still have the drive and the ideas to keep going on and on. I honestly don't know. Right now, I feel good, I am enjoying the ride, and I am thankful as always for your continued interest.