It’s amazing for me to think that Fly&Dine is now over a year old. When I started the blog, I wanted to have an outlet to talk about the wonderful advances taking place in the food and beverage side of the travel industry. A year later, Fly&Dine has grown into so much more and it’s happened much faster than I ever expected. I’m truly grateful for your readership.

Since a new year is upon is, it seems like the perfect time to make a few resolutions for this year. Actually, it seems like the only time. Who makes personal resolutions after January? Weirdos. Definitely weirdos.

Here are 7 completely rational resolutions for all things Fly&Dine in the coming year:

1. More personal posts.

There are times when I feel like I just throw up interesting things I’ve found on the internet and hope that you like them. While that’s a fine strategy for the days when my other obligations get in the way, there’s no excuse for just reposting. This is my place to share my thoughts with the world and I’m going to make more of an effort to add a unique spin on everything I share with you. It’s my hope that you’re coming to Fly&Dine to hear what I have to say and I want to say it loud and clear. That said, I’m still going to post videos of jumbo jets doing crazy aeronautical maneuvers, because who doesn’t want to see that?

2. There will be an emphasis on food content.

Since I’m a proud member of BoardingArea, I tend to focus my content on what the general BoardingArea audience is looking for and that mainly means travel tips and frequent flyer topics. It’s a strategy that appeared to be working at first, but now feels like I’m undercutting myself. I am first and foremost a food writer and I need to stay true to that. As a professional food writer, I get to eat and travel all over the world for amazing meals and food experiences. By and large, I write about these meals for my larger outlets, but I want to start adding much more food content to Fly&Dine and not only the big stories. When I have a bad experience at a ramen shop (like yesterday), expect a post about the value of customer service across cultural boundaries. When I get to share in a fantastic food experience with my girlfriend and her hometown BFFs, expect a post about food as a common bond that transforms outsiders into friends. Fly&Dine will always cover the latest and greatest in food while you travel, but it’s also going to be a personal exploration of the role of food in humanity (how’s that for a lofty goal?!?).

3. Fly&Dine will be funnier.

This has been a personal point of contention for a while. Before I ever wrote about food, I was (and still am) a comedy writer. In fact, I’m a Writers Guild Award nominee for my work with The Office (NBC) and I’ve written everything from kid’s sitcoms on Nickelodeon to competitive break dancing on MTV — shout out to America’s Best Dance Crew. For some reason, I make Fly&Dine posts fairly dry and I think it’s a nod to my BoardingArea readers who are more used to straight-forward newsy posts. This stops now. Okay, stops may be a bit ambitious. This slows down now. I’ll do my best to better infuse my comedy writing into my Fly&Dine posts for your reading enjoyment. Or non-enjoyment as the case may be. If you find my jokes to be terrible, please leave me a comment on any post you find on View From the Wing. Alternately, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to your mother. She keeps telling me she misses you.

4. More posts.

I’ve been limiting myself to mostly one post a day while at the same time reading posts on other blogs that get posted all day long. Why am I stopping at one? If I have the time, I’ll try to throw up several posts a day so Fly&Dine can become one of the sites you check when you’re avoiding work. That’s not to say I’ll be constantly posting funny animal videos for your amusement, but if I find a wiener dog in an airplane costume, you might just see it here…

 

5. Ignoring the trolls.

I’ll admit it: when I get a troll in the comments, I’m not one to let it slide. I like to write back and that lowers me to their level. Trolls, feel free to set up shop under the bridge that is my comments section. I’ll no longer be feeding you.

6. Better engagement with you, my readers.

While I’m going to ignore the trolls, I will definitely attempt to get better at starting conversations with my active readers/commenters. You people are the lifeblood of this blog and I want you to feel like a part of the process. My posts are not just missives sent into the ether. They’re conversation topics meant to foster more discussion. If you have something to say, please weigh in. I’d love my comments section to turn into a forum for active participation.

7. Tracking down exclusive stories.

Over the past year, I’ve developed some wonderful contacts at airlines and, yet, haven’t used them very much. I hope to turn 2015 into the year where Fly&Dine starts breaking some news. I can’t promise it’ll happen because so much of that is dependent on the information I receive, but I’m going to be better about soliciting that information.

Fly&Dine is only going to get better as time goes on. Stick around and see what I’ve got in store for you in 2015 and thanks, as always, for reading.