Been This Way, Ten Years To The Day

This didn't seem that important at the time. It was just me signing up for an account on a site so I could comment on things that my pal Lewis Smith was posting. Little did I realize how that decision would alter my life and how I approached both the Internet and my own work.

It was ten years ago today that I began blogging. Well, that's mostly true. I had previously made a halfhearted effort to write a "weekly column" on my old GeoCities site, but it was hand coded and died after only two weeks as a result. I don't think that quite counts. But a full decade ago, I sat down in front of my computer and posted the first entry on my LiveJournal. That really was, as I termed it, the beginning of "the end."

Most of my entries on the old LJ are hidden now, which is something I'll discuss in more detail another day. And it took me awhile to actually start posting regularly even after I started my own blog. In fact, it wasn't until the waning days of 2003 that it became an everyday thing. By this date in 2004, there was pretty much no turning back for me.

I guess there's a lot I could write here, but the simplest thing is - Thank You. I never expected anyone to care that much about what I had to say. The fact that people have cared over these last 10 years still amazes me. The fact that I can have an idea, sit down and write it, and get immediate feedback, all within a matter of hours, absolutely floors me. My fanzine was a lot of fun in its day, but it also felt like shouting into a void a lot of the time. Now, every entry I post gets seen by more eyes than an entire issue of a 'zine I'd spend months putting together.

Blogging has also led me to make many new friends - friends I might have otherwise never met. I won't even try to name them all. I've lost touch with some over the years, but that doesn't make me any less grateful for them. All of them touched me in some fashion, and shaped who I am today. Again, thank you.

I'm not feeling especially clever or philosophical at this moment, so I'll leave it more or less at that. It's been a fun ride, these last ten years, full of ups and downs. There have been all sorts of blogs along the way. I'm glad I do this, and I'm glad you decided it was worth your time to read it.