Holy Moley — I completely missed my Tenth Blogoversary. Yes, Ten Years Ago (back on 24 August), I was sitting at home alone, while Margie was off playing D&D at Doyce’s, and I decided to try out that Newfangled Blogging Thang that all the cool kids were doing.
What hath Blog wrought?
So here I am at 17,913 posts (including this one), 30,655 approved comments.
I started off using Blogger. In relatively short order (three months later), I changed over to Movable Type, and stayed there for quite some time until MT4 came out. Faced with making major changes anyway in order to upgrade the platform, I switched over to WordPress in February 2009, without any real regrets.
Of course, some today would suggest that my “real” blog platform is Google Reader and Twitter, which route through here. I do hope I get enough “new” content of size posted here to make the visits worth it.
My most popular posts, in terms of views (at least since I changed over to WordPress):
- Sarah Palin is a dolt (61147)
- WDW – Day 5 – Addendum: The Stitch Epiphany (16856)
- Doppeldribble (11213)
- Dwonka (8024)
- “Foosa aaaahhhh!” (7410)
- Disney Fairies (7176)
- TV Review: The Mentalist (6238)
- It’s all on the wrist, redux (6105)
- I think that’s the Plutonium Anniversary (4525)
- “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member” (3727)
Yeah, I scratch my head over some of those, too.
My most popular posts (based on comment count):
- Why U.S. Bank sucks, and Margie is marvelous – 224 comments
- Guns, guns, guns, guns … – 164 comments
- The Rules of Jaywalking – 52 comments
- Sarah Palin is a dolt – 49 comments
- The worst part … – 44 comments
What are the coolest things about having a blog?
- The people I’ve met (or learned more from) through dialog here.
- The chance to work through my own thoughts on things. No, really. Despite what it may seem, I try to consider the things I write, especially on the screedy side of things. That provides opportunity to research, and to change my mind about things, too. (And I’ve changed my mind on a lot of things over the years.)
- It’s like an extended memory. What was I thinking on Election Night 2004? Well, I can look that up. When did we go on vacation to Santa Fe, and where did we have that yummy dinner? It’s in the blog. (Assuming I can find it, of course.)
My biggest regret about blogging? That I didn’t start a couple of years earlier, so that I could have covered the birth and infancy of my daughter. Live and learn.
Anyway, here we are. Ten years later. Quite a bit grayer, hopefully a scosh wiser, but still blogging.
Here’s to another ten years!
Congrats! It doesn’t seem like that long, but it has been. I have many fond memories of reading your blog 🙂
You make it sound like memories of the distant past … 🙂
Ray’s turning 10 this year, too. How’s that for distant past?
Crikey!
Long time reader here, never commented, but had to say congratulations, and please, keep going. Thanks!
@Ellie – Thanks! I plan to do so, and hope you’ll comment again!
Congratulations! And a very good explanation of why blog. So glad you decided to try out that newfangled thing.
I also started blogging right around the time of 9-11, but my first blog is lost to the sands of history or something.
Which is – the reason you should maintain your own platform. Yes, you have Google Reader and such, but who knows what some external platform will do?
That is absolutely why I mirror as much of my external microblogging (GReader comments, Twitter) to this blog — because then it’s in my hands (well, my host’s). Not that I don’t trust Google, or Twitter, from a bad acting sense, but in many ways this is my personal journal — and I don’t care to have it solely in someone else’s hands, no matter how much I trust them.
Plus it let me track you down. Make of that what you will.
Congrats on ten years! I’m approaching that myself. Funny how it doesn’t seem like a long time and yet it does, eh?
Yup!