A Blog About Nowt: Year 2, Day 1

HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY TO ME!

On Friday night, I said to Wife, "Y'know, maybe I'll just stop tomorrow. One whole year of blogging, then 'So long, and thanks for all the fish. I've been * (asterisk)... Good night!' That sort of thing."

"Yeah, right," she said. "You couldn't do it."

Truth is, maybe I couldn't. Actually, I think I could, as it happens. But, like with drinking alcohol, why would I stop? I like it. It tastes good.

And I've met a lot of what I could almost call friends here in blogland. I don't mean that in a disparaging way when I say "almost". Simply that it's quite difficult when you've never met someone -- in some cases never even seen their faces or know their names -- to consider them friends, but it is amazing how closely you can connect with people out there.

The way you feel when:
people shut down their blogs, and you just want to know they're okay;
people are ill, and you know there's nothing you can do for them;
people experience personal loss, and you just want to hug them;
people have a new baby, and you want to feel her squeeze your finger;
people take more than three days off, and you worry about them...

But there can be personal contact, too. Red and/or I have sent and/or received packages to at least four different bloggers. Again, people we have never met other than in this weird and wonderful Blogger space.

I never would have figured the way things would go, way back on Saturday 11 March 2006. It was just a bit of fun, a way to record some stuff that I might do with the missus, an outlet from the boredom of work a couple of times a day.

Now... Well, let's just say I could easily fill a day going to my favourite blogs and writing my own new posts. Is that insane?

And what else has blogging done for me, except take up much of my spare time and give me lots of new friends?

Well, let me count the ways...

It's made me far more of a photographer than I've ever been before.
It's allowed me (rightly or wrongly) to share some of my music with "the world".
It's reignited my enthusiasm for film-making (albeit thus far in a rather limited way, time constraints being what they are).
I've now got a Flickr account, two MySpace accounts, a YouTube account, several blogs...

All in the space of a year.

It's kind of made me realize that the Internet is so much better than I knew for so long. We are at the dawn -- well, perhaps elevenses -- of a really exciting new era, and I'm happy to be able to share it with a cool, interesting, and diverse group of people based all over the world: the UK, Italy, the United States, the Philippines, Hong Kong...

Most especially, though, of course, I'm most glad that I've been able to share it with Red, who was cynical at the outset. I'm so glad she (graciously) conceded to giving it a go. It wouldn't be half the fun without her.

So, guys -- here's to Year 2. Thanks.