General: My Blog's Future

The last two days I've been lying in bed sick. Just a minor flu, nothing to worry about, but you know how it is. I was too weak to get out of bed, but I wasn't tired enough to sleep. That gave me an opportunity to think about my blog. I've been writing for eight years and have no intention of stopping now, but what should I do with it? Should I leave it as it is or take it in a different direction?

Before any of my long term readers start worrying, the main focus of this blog is films. That will never change. What I'm asking is whether I should include more off-topic posts on other subjects that interest me. Should I tell you more about my life? (There are already random comments about my life scattered in my posts over the last eight years, enough to tell you a lot about me, but they're so thinly distributed that a new reader would have problems piecing them together).

One thing I would like to do is add frequent photos of my grandson Oliver. I look after him five days a week while my daughter is at work. The time I spend with him is the biggest pleasure in my life, and I wish I could document it. The only reason I don't post photos is because my daughter doesn't want any photos of him posted online. She's worried that paedophiles might copy the photos and post them on their web sites. I consider this fear irrational, but I can't change her mind. If she looks at Facebook she'll find that most proud parents post pictures of their children. If she looks at YouTube she'll find thousands of videos of wobbly toddlers taking their first steps. Oliver is in no way endangered by being shown online. I hope that she'll eventually think differently.

If you look at my alphabetical list of posts – it takes a while to load – you'll see that I've already written off-topic posts in the past about everything from trivial family arguments to important issues like font design errors. I even reviewed the games in the 2013 World Chess Championship. However, my off-topic posts have been kept to a minimum. Should I write more? Should I write regular features on other topics? What do you think?

I'm calling on my readers to tell me what they want me to write about. I can't guarantee that I'll do what you want, but I'll definitely take your wishes into consideration. Please leave your suggestions in the comments box below. The comments are moderated, which means that they aren't published until after I've read them. If you want to send a private message to me, write in the comment that it's private and I shan't publish it. That's a promise.