Through the Eyes of a Pirate

Dear Readers,

Over the past year, you’ve helped grow Through the Eyes of a Pirate well beyond its original idea as a source for commentary of Canadian politics related to a few select areas. We had finished 2011 with an average monthly readership of 658, totalling a little under 8000. For 2012, we are currently averaging a remarkable 1551, and are trending to finish the year with a total over 18.5k. These are unique visits per day, so even taking into account a little bit of overlap, that’s still an impressive gain for an independent, non-publicized political commentary website. Thank-you very much for your continued support, and for passing us along to your friends and family.

We’ve greatly appreciated your visits, and in order to serve you better we increased our posting frequency over the course of the year. In 2011, we published 40 articles. Compare that to 2012, and you’ll find we’ve already surpassed that with 69 articles and almost two months remaining. We’ve also begun to diversify our authors, with our first guest posts and by signing on some occasional correspondants to provide additional points of view. TTEOP is actively seeking additional talent to grow our authoring pool, to provide additional views and more news in the coming year. We’d like to thank all those that have stepped forward in the past, and those who we will happily be introducing in the future.

November is a special month for me, as it is the annual National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Every year, tens of thousands of people use November to crank out 50,000+ words of a novel or novella. Having served as a very successful Municipal Liaison for NaNoWriMo in Sudbury, Ontario in the past, I can speak about the event at length. As an event dedicated to reinvigorating interest in the fundamentals of reading and writing, NaNoWriMo serves an increasingly important role in a society where learning has been reduced to memorizing information rarely of real value.

Actually taking the leap to imagine and create a 50,000 word novella is a fantastic way for people of all ages to do something that allows people to think, dream, and become more than just a consumer. NaNoWriMo helps to make people creators. It provides people with perspective as to how difficult it truly is to be a content-creator, allowing them to appreciate the books, music, and films more than they did prior to the attempt. Having successfully completed NaNoWriMo several times in the past, I have opted to engage in the endeavour once again.

As a result of this event, TTEOP may be a little sparse with updates this month. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and I ask that you be patient, as the updates will continue as usual in December. You may rest assured that the big news, as it develops, will still likely be covered during this month. So be sure to continue to check back regularly, as updates will continue, even if they don’t come as frequently as throughout the past year.

Thank-you for reading,

Shawn Gray
TTEOP Editor

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