Last time I checked Andrew Collings' ridiculous book had leapt from 10,000 and something in the charts into the 800s. This is the power of the podcast! I feel like a kind of god. Admittedly quite a useless god with pretty limited powers who doesn't make much difference to anything. But it's better than having no power whatsoever.
Seriously though it's quite interesting, because if I could guarantee that 15,000 people would not only download our podcast, but be interested in everything we did then that would be enough to pretty much do anything we wanted! It would be nice to step entirely outside the process of having to bow to the whim of executives and just be able to get on with stuff.
Of course that's pretty much a pipe dream, but like I say, it's interesting enough.
It's gratifying that all this work on the blogs and the podcasts is getting noticed bit by bit though. I was out for another 6.75 mile run today (took almost five minutes off the time I ran last week). I passed a group of people walking along in the sun. I got a few paces beyond them. "Richard Herring?" came an incredulous cry. I turned round and waved, still running. "I read your blog," said the man who had recognised me. "I am running away from you," I replied with mock fear in my voice, whilst realising that it would be quite good if I ran everywhere and thus never have to deal with potential stalkers. Unless they were super fit. Luckily most stalkers are lazy and would choose a less physically dynamic micro-celebrity to bother.
But it was cool to get the gesture of recognition at such an unexpected time - and I am also delighted that it only happens every now and again, it would be awful if everyone I passed knew me - and to know that that man would then probably read about himself in the blog that he (supposedly) reads.
So anyway, thanks to all of you for the support. Now keep away from me. Or organise yourselves into shifts where one of you recognises me about once a week at a time when I am moving too quickly to have to engage in actual conversation.
This evening I went to a 90s themed party, which was fun. But I found I was able to dress in clothes from the 1990s without having to go to a fancy dress shop, as I still have some clothes from the 1990s. I went in a Beavis and Butthead T shirt that Tom Binns gave to me in 1995 after appearing in "Richard Herring is All Man." It has a joke about Uranus on it and there had been a sketch about that in the show. I haven't worn it for ages, but it was sobering as usual to realise that I still have an item of clothing that is 13 years old (I have a Newcastle Brown T Shirt from about 1993 too). It's always worth keeping some of your clothes in order to save money in the future when there are nostalgic parties based on previous decades. I also wore some trousers that I had bought in the late 90s, so was almost entirely authentic. Both trousers and T shirt were rather loose on me though - the T shirt in particular was very stretched out, from having been worn by a heftier me. Most of you might end up too fat to wear your old clothes, so if you want to make this saving then it is worth really eating loads of food when you are young and getting fat, and then gradually losing weight through your life so you can still fit into the old clothes.
