Happy First Blogoversary Atlanta ROFTERS, Take Two

Okay, let's stuff all the toothpaste back into the tube, and try writing my lost post out again.

Coincidentally, this is roughly my tenth year of being online, too. I started out in usenet, which even back then was becoming degraded with spammers and chest-thumping toilet-stall defacers. But I honed what ability I have for pithy editorializing there. I still participate in some ngs, such as alt.quotations.

I discovered blogs via James Taranto's Best of the Web feature at Opinion Journal, in the mid-1990s. From time to time he would link to a site called Instapundit, and away I went. Through him and his prodigious linking, I quickly discovered most of my favorites on the blogosphere, including those who offered space to comment. Well! As an old usenet hand, becoming a comments regular at a dozen or so blogs came naturally to me. And I could always be sure at least one other person was reading my pearls of wisdom.

So why did I start blogging? I guess I just finally caught the bug. I actually started blogging before this, with Sorry For Not Blogging. But that was just a way of easing into blogging, never a serious enterprise. My photoblog is just a way of putting the more interesting pics in my photo collection online. And this blog started out as a running reflection on articles in the conservative Catholic journal First Things. Since then, I've branched out a little, and have had three notable hits:

A Parisienne Posts From Rioting France.

Cobb County Evolution Stickers Have Their Day In Court

American Islamic Leaders Warn Of Anti-Muslim Backlash Following Next Month's Nuking Of Tel Aviv

A first-hand report I found on usenet, a bit of citizen journalism, and a news satire collectively account for the bulk of my traffic. But I've had fun writing all of it. I've especially enjoyed going back through the First Things archives and rediscovering favorite old articles. So thanks for visiting, and thank you Jody Bottum and Richard John Neuhaus for all the food for thought over the years.