Sunday, June 7, 2015

A Year and a Day

Guess what today is!

Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday!

Wait, no, that's not it.

Today is our Independence Day!  (Cue triumphal music.)

Nope, not quite right, either.

Well, actually, today is the anniversary of my second blog post.  My first was actually on the sixth, so today is the historically, magically and legally significant "year and a day", rather than the precise anniversary of the blog.  Fits my posting routine and is meaningful!  How perfect.

I have to admit, I've really enjoyed writing this blog, although it's definitely been a struggle at times to find the time to post on a semi-regular basis.  It's been a good creative outlet, as well as a chance to hone my writing skills.  Hopefully you've enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

Okay, enough navel-gazing.

So we're a year in now.  37 posts (counting this one), which means I at least beat an every-other-week average!  In case you're interested, the post with the highest hit count is the inaugural entry in the Poor Driving series, Merging Edition, with 90.  The lowest hit count (that counts), at 17, is actually a tie between my post on the day of the CFB championship, and the latest entry in the Poor Driving series, 4-Way Stops Edition.  (Given how popular the other entries were, I'm wondering if some of you just missed that one?)

On this auspicious occasion, though, I thought I'd open up the floor a bit, and hear from you, dear readers.

What do you think?  What's worked for you?  What hasn't?  Favorite or least-favorite posts?

Are there any topics you'd like me to write (or write more) about?  (I'm happy to express an opinion on, or rant about, just about anything!)  Anything you'd like me to stop writing about?  (No promises...)

Is the post length too long?  Should I post on a different day?  Anything else you want to comment on?

I want feedback!  In the comments, on Facebook, whatever!

I also want to know a bit about you.  Who's still reading this?  If you're in a different country, do I know you (I think that's generally the case), or did you find this somehow (all the random hits from Russia and the Ukraine, I'm looking at you!)?  Who's the person mysteriously +1'ing most of my posts?

The floor is yours!


Finally, in case you missed any (or in case you feel like rereading any favorites), here are the links to my posts for the past year:

1) Hi there
2) The Year I Gave Up Sarcasm
3) I Suck at Small Talk
4) Romance is Terrifying
5) I'm Not an Expert, But...
6) An Ode to the Subjunctive
7) Futile Advice for the Internet, Part I: Online Arguing
8) Sex Ed
9) Politics and Facts
10) The Rumors of This Blog's Demise
11) Movies You Love More Than They Probably Deserve
12) Poor Driving: Merging Edition
13) Sports Discussions PSA
14) Why Marching Band is Awesome
15) In Support of Unions
16) Poor Driving: Freeway Speed Edition
17) Addendum to Poor Driving: Freeway Speed Edition
18) Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!
19) Grad School
20) Scathing Critiques of Children's Literature: Curious George
21) Nice Guy Syndrome
22) #Gamergate
23) Dads
24) The World's Largest Clarinet
26) The Sun Bowl Trip
27) Scathing Critiques of Children's Literature: The Railway Series
28) Why I'm Rooting for Oregon Tonight
29) Mental Cartography
30) Poor Driving: 4-Way Stops Edition
31) Scathing Critiques of Children's Literature: Little Blue Truck Leads the Way
32) Times that JBrad Ignored the Clarinets: Vignettes of Neglect
33) RFRA Why?
34) Movies You Love More Than They Probably Deserve, Part II
35) What is Real?
36) Read the Email!

4 comments:

  1. We knew each other from an old (seriously, wow, old!) message board called (I think, again, old) Stone Dog's Hold. My username was Mashiara86.

    Speaking of WoT...

    I would really like to hear your opinion on the last three books, as finished by Brandon Sanderson.

    As for how I found your site...Almost every day at work, for two hours, I am tasked with manning one of two circulation desks. While on desk, I am allowed to do whatever I want on the computer (within reason, obviously). I enjoy a good game of Words with Friends and looking up beach houses for sale in the Caribbean, but that can get old after a while. I also have spent time looking up people I have known in the past and a simple Facebook search brought me to your blog. As we use the same blogging site here at work, it is preferable to have my supervisor see me on a blog than say, watching Walking Dead on Netflix with the closed caption on (guilty). So, when I think about it, I stop by to see if you've updated.

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  2. Megan, I hope your first paragraph was for everyone else, because you don't have to remind me who you are. =) Man, good old SD's. I tried to find it a couple years ago when the last books were coming out, but it appeared to just be gone. Sad. One of my biggest (only?) regrets about not using AIM anymore is losing touch with the folks from there that I chatted with: you, Ruho, Case, Rhuarc... I even actually met Dallas Ann (although I can't for the life of me remember her board name now) a couple times: once to give a tour of the UW campus, and once in Chicago for dinner with Rhuarc.

    As for how you found my site... let me get this straight. You found me on Facebook, noticed I had a blog, have been checking on my blog regularly... but never in all of this thought to send me a friend request?! What's up with that?

    As for your request... you got it! Tomorrow's post will be just for you. I mean, not JUST for you; anyone can read it, and hopefully they do. But, y'know, it'll be your request.

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  3. Well, in my defense, I wasn’t sure if you would know me by my married name. :-P

    I agree on the AIM regret. It’s very hard to try and reconnect with people you only really ever knew by a username, and if you were lucky, a first name (I only partially remembered you. I had to search “Nathan Fluffy” and voila!) I particularly remember Sammy and Rijomu (sp?) with fondness. I don’t recall a Dallas Ann. The only college age female that comes to mind is Colleen, but I thought she stayed on the east coast? And Ruho! He’s probably a man somewhere with little Ruhos running around. Wow. I think that will take some time to recover from.

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