The problem with posting ahead

One of the things I like about Blogger and other platforms -- I'm also quite familiar with WordPress and others -- is the ability to write a post ahead of time for it to appear at a scheduled time. I can schedule a post to appear whenever I want. I certainly don't wake up every morning and write a post at 6:00 AM. I write them ahead of time and schedule them to show up then.

Often, I write the day or night before, but sometimes, I write well ahead of time. There are a few different reasons for this.

One is that I want to write about something, I have the time and have done my research, but I don't want to wait. I'm ready to go, but I don't want it to show up just then. I'll write the post, then schedule ahead of time. This is very common in blogging.

Another is that I'm going to need some time away, but I don't want this Website to sit dormant. I want content to appear, and will write something that isn't time sensitive, or if it is, schedule it accordingly (see previous paragraph).

A little bit of both has occurred recently. My schedule was difficult to pin down during the Christmas holiday period, and I wanted as much flexibility as I could. I have family that lives a few hours away, but there have been some sickness going around, so I didn't know with certainty that I would be able to make it. Even if I did, I didn't know when my schedule would allow me to drive the few hours needed.

In November, Thanksgiving plans were canceled while I was en route to visit family, because of illness. That remained a possibility during Christmas. However, with the bowl games, I was able to write up posts about that days games, tell when and on what network, and how to watch the game streaming. That made things easy right? Well, no actually.

Some games were canceled, or teams changed, or both. I had already written the posts, and with my schedule, I wasn't always in a position to make a change ahead of time. I spent the Christmas visitation time focusing on the family, and never once turned the TV to a news or sports channel. The little ones wanted to see Frosty or Rudolph or Charlie Brown or even Ralphie and his official Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time. So, the TV went to where the kids wanted. After all, as Ralphie's Old Man said, "It's Christmas, why not?"

What all this is leading up to is that you may see that some games in posts I listed were not actually played. The post was right when I wrote it, but then life happened and things changed, and by the time the post appeared as scheduled, the facts were no longer the facts. If I found out and went online that day, I made edits. I usually just did a strikeout on the incorrect text and added correct text to fix it. The reason for that was to show that it was a change. If someone said, "Hey, I thought Texas A&M was playing! Why does this say Rutgers is playing?" The text for that game showed Texas A&M, but lined through, with Rutgers next to it. The idea was to key the reader that it was a change.

As Allen Saunders (not John Lennon) said, "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." Life happens. And when posting ahead, life will sometimes mock you. And that happened. But you know what? We got through it. Kinda like 2021.

It's a new year, assuming I made it to today. After all, I'm actually writing this ahead of time, as my New Year's Day plans are still up in the air. So, unless life really did a number on me in the last couple of days of 2021, I'm looking forward to 2022, and seeing what the year brings. I may regret saying that. I may not. That's the thing about life. But, rather than get to philosophical about life, I'll keep my focus on where it should be: My Streaming Life. And yours.