My First Blogiversary

Let the Finder Beware is one year old today! Yes, it was one year ago that I acquired a blog entirely by accident while trying to log in to post a comment on Caltechgirl's blog. I succeeded in logging in and posting that comment, but somehow (I'm still not sure quite how) by the time I was logged in, I had acquired a blog of my own.

So I decided to go with it, and a year later here I am, still blogging away.

I initially had some reservations about blogging, which I reprint here verbatim from my very first post on my blog:

1. I'm too busy, I don't have the time.
   

2. I detest the angry, vindictive mud wrestling I see on some blogs.
   

3. I dread becoming a slave to regular posting, so as to hang on to my audience.
   

4. I don't have the time.
   

5. I have no desire to become a magnet for the various wackos, psychos, and emotionally needy sad sacks I see on some blogs.
   

6. I've always commented under my own name, and made no secret of who I am, where I live, or what my line of work is. I've sometimes wondered if this will one day come back to haunt me, and see no need to aggravate the situation via my own blog.
   

7. I have a number of very colorful interests, but once we get past those (give it three or four months) either I run dry, or else I start repeating myself: either way, no thanks!
   

8. My personal website gets a modest but fair amount of traffic, and it's nicely situated in Google (hey, I'm #1 in Google for a search on yellowstripes). I see no good reason to divide my energies.
   

9. I've met a lot of great people and made some good friends in the blogosphere, but I don't know if I meet the entry requirements to be a blogger, since I fit in none of the following categories: (a) Libertarian; (b) Randian Objectivist; (c) vegetarian; (d) gay/lesbian; (e) Kevorkian right-to-die-er; (f) neo-pagan; (g) owner of automatic weapons; (h) genius-level high-school dropout; (i) person who has no TV set in the house; (j) atheist/agnostic; or (k) follower of the Atkins low-carb diet.
   

10. Did I mention, I just don't have the time??!

I find a year later that many of these reservations still stand. Though, like I say, here I am, 314 blog posts later, still blogging away.

At one point I did go on hiatus for six weeks, discouraged and on the point of giving up blogging; but I eventually returned. The moral of that story (see also #6 above) is, don't post stock movie stills or magazine article interview photos of Uma Thurman on your blog, because someone out there might take it the wrong way. ;-)

My thanks to everyone who's supported and encouraged me over this past year. Too many in all to name, you know who you are. Regular commenters, regular visitors. Some of you regulars I know by name, some I know only by recurrent IP addresses in my stats. Oh, one I really do have to thank by name, and that's my blogmom, Caltechgirl, who has encouraged and supported me in so many ways over this past year!!

I've got some more posts in the pipeline for this coming week. Something having to do with my interest in games. Something having to do with weird dreams. Maybe even another one of my occasional pieces of fiction. You know the drill. It's been a blast this past year. And I'm looking forward to Year Two.