![daily dish](https://baristanet.typepad.com/barista/takeoutcup.jpg)
December 31
...serving up your daily dish.
It's hard work trying to wrap up a whole year, looking for the big profundities. And then God has to go throw a big curveball at humorists by smashing Asia with a huge tsunami, killing 120,000 people, and all but obliterating the fun of year-end snarkiness. (Yes it's about us. Us us us us us.) We could go into our own New Year's Resolutions (here are a few from our local celebs, Yogi and Michael Strahan), but then there's nothing particularly original about wanting to lose 10 lbs or back the computer up more often.
But two things caught our eye (or ear) in the last day that we thought worthy of reporting. Reader Ken Shane sends us this story: ABC News named bloggers the People of the Year.
And then, public radio's Marketplace reported last night that Americans now spend more time online than they do watching TV.
According to the Marketplace report, based on a Stanford study, Americans now spend 3 hours daily online, compared to 2 watching TV. There are, however, some drawbacks. For every hour a person spends online, they spend 23 minutes less with their family and get 8 minutes less sleep. And 14 minutes of each day are now spent either dealing with spam or other computer problems.
Some statistics from our little enterprise. We've clocked 73,000 visits since we first started posting in May. We've written 935 posts, and those posts have generated 2,715 comments.
So thank you, gentle and not-so-gentle readers, for helping us launch Baristanet this year, and for being part of this new online community.
Happy New Year.
p.s.
It won't be long (mark my words) before the liberal elite start blaming blogs for the downfall of western civilization now that TV is second fiddle.
Posted by: Right of Center | Dec 31, 2004 9:58:14 AM
Happy New Year Barista.....Debbie, many more to come...
Posted by: wayne robbins | Dec 31, 2004 11:20:17 AM
Gee, what a surprise to see the first two posts belonging to ROC and including a slam to the liberal elite. He woudln't wanna disappoint. Probably half those 2715 comments belong to ROC having conversations with himself and fixating on the "liberal elite"
Happy New Year, Debbie. I really enjoy Barista and it's one of the daily blogs that I check out!
Psst...it's generally not the liberal elite who blame blogs or television for the downfall of society..it's the radical religious right who think we should all spend 24 hrs a day w/ our noses in our bible and our legs crossed.
Posted by: butchcjg2 | Dec 31, 2004 2:43:44 PM
I too wish the people behind Baristanet a Happy New Year. But also (since it's key) a prosperous one. May the site make tons of money, in other words. Or at least enough to keep it going for another year,
Posted by: cathar | Dec 31, 2004 3:09:57 PM
Kudos to Debbie and staff for a great local community online place to hang, learn, complain and be entertained. Happy New Year Barista!
Posted by: Thom Kennon | Dec 31, 2004 3:24:42 PM
glad to be a Person of the Year with you... happy new year!!!
Posted by: gigglechick | Dec 31, 2004 6:54:30 PM