100th Posting!

Photo credit: David Levene, UK’s The Guardian

This is the 100th posting on ‘Raufer Updates,’ and it certainly has been an interesting experience over the past seven years. I started it after I left the U.N., because I didn’t want my website to become completely stale – and I viewed it as essentially part of an extended c.v. You’ll note that in the first posting, I mentioned that I didn’t really consider it a blog, but rather a place to list ‘new and interesting projects’ that I’ve been working on.

The rest of the world seems to think it’s a blog, however – albeit one of the slowest moving and lethargic ones on the internet! I tend to post in clusters, rather than individually; often several weeks after an event, rather than in real-time; and I don’t allow comments or feedback. My three daughters – each with her own active blog and continuous stream of Facebook commentaries, instant messaging, phone texting, etc., etc. – consider it a somewhat Luddite venture, indicative perhaps of the efforts of someone from my generation. And despite such minimalist activities, I’m constantly besieged by internet companies who assure me that I can increase my rankings, or increase my ad revenue, if only I sign up for their two-for-one linkage swaps, special SEO deals, or similar packages designed especially for me.

I do enjoy writing these postings, however, and you’ve probably noticed an evolution over time, away from a strict listing of project work towards something that looks more and more ‘blog-like.’ I’m definitely not there yet (& still can’t afford that amount of time!), but I do very much look forward to the next 100 postings — whatever the subject matter & wherever they might take me. And a major, major thanks to Ms. Krissie Gatti, my web master/posting guru extraordinaire, who takes care of such things for me, and has been there since the very beginning!