A mostly true history of astrofish.net, &c.
I would guess, then that’s like The Leo, and the Royal “we” in the title, Feeling our way along. But it applies, as there’s not much guidance, and at this point, this stage, I am here to amuse and enlighten, as best I can. Amuse myself, and apparently, enlighten some others. I can’t vouch for results.
Feeling Our Way Along
This is long, meandering, vaguely historical, and based solely upon my own recollections. However, I’ve got enough anecdotal evidence to support the claims, so there is that. Think: (citation needed).
Started with a nod from the old school, and I wrote my first horoscopes, circa 1987, or thereabouts. I was living in a cold-water, bedsit in the turbulent student barrio near the corner of University and Mill Ave. Tabloid journalism, at its finest.
There’s a long hiatus, travels, adventures and then, I was in Austin, old East Austin, far removed from that Tempe (AZ) address, at the inception, the old grad student barrio just east of Austin’s Hyde Park. I wound up in older (south) East Austin, but the newsletter was already in electronic distribution by that place in this historical narrative, my horoscopes a monthly set of horoscopes gradually garnering larger audiences.
First one is 7/93.
I was an early adopter of AOL, I was online, I had that AOL address, and that’s where I commenced my electronic distribution — included in the price of an account.
- Those early horoscopes were also posted on a back server as an experiment by a grad student. Interesting.
It all went up on a second server by Xmas of that year, and from that, it went to weekly in July of ’95, with a Monday publication date. Sometime around the end of the decade, maybe Y2K or so, I quit the monthly as it was too much with the weekly, as well. However, in those first dozen years, I wrote at one time or another: daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly horoscopes.
In Y2K, I’m thinking, I moved to a “Thursday” publication date. The goal, the way I recall it after a discussion with my online editor, had to do with targeting weekly newspapers and other print media. The online editor was supposed to market me like that. The column still appeared online on Monday.
So from Y2K to the end of 2020? It’s been a Thursday publication date — rolling out at 11 on Wednesday nights. Plus or minus, but been pretty regular. That means I’ve had a column in regular publication — non-stop — since July of 1993, and weekly, non-stop, since July of 1995. The date it rolls out, though? Used to be every Sunday night. Then it was late Wednesday evening, for a Thursday date.
Been like that until this year. A little over 20 years with a mid-week publishing date. Non-stop.
Feeling Our Way Along
So feeling our way along, I was going to go back to my roots and just do a monthly set of horoscopes. Seemed to fit, the latter stages of the pandemic political panic.
I did that, originally targeting a mid-month publication date, like, the 15th each month for the following sign, like January 15th for Aquarius, and so on. I did a rough sketch of that, saw what it looked like, and thought it was OK, and it was, until recently, I go that itch to write again. Or the urge to write more, not less. So I was thinking of filling in the rest with the weekly again, but jumping back to the web-only version — look at my roots — and do a Monday publication date. Which brought up the idea of a Tuesday publish date, and that sounded good, but for the rest of this year, it looks like I got stuck on a 7-14-21-28 cycle.
On into the next year? I thinking about going back to the Tuesday date. Subject to change, and the whims of the systems — the call of the wild?
Feeling Our Way Along
So when the publication dates get messed up, and there’s not a current horoscope when you’d like it?
Think I favor each month on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th, how it looks. Recall, none of this is engraved in stone, yet.
KramerWetzel.com
I’m just trying to find that old rhythm, whatever works best for me.