Welcome to the pond

This post is a celebration. This post is a milestone, an important marker along my blogging journey. This is my 1000th blog post!

I started this blog in September of 2002. A month or two before that, a friend of mine told me she was starting a new blog. "What's a blog?" I asked. I had never heard that word before, and I don't think Blog or Blogging were mainstream words yet. She explained that it was an online diary or journal and very easy to set up. I read her blog as she posted over time, and one day I had the thought that I should set up a blog of my own.

I already had a website on Geocities, but it was not as easy to manage as I had expected. I was intrigued by the possibilites of blogs and I thought it was cool to read about other peoples' lives. I also thought it was cool that I could use a blog to communicate with the online world. I could post my thoughts, album reviews, stories about my life, or even creative writing projects. The possibilities were endless. Finally, on September 8, which was a Sunday, I started this blog on Blogger. I picked out a name for it (chosen because of the mascot for my college) and started posting and dreaming of the potential of this new form of communication.

One thousand posts later, I still keep that dream alive. I'm not one to say that someone's blog is crap or worthless. What's posted is not what matters. What does matter, to me, is the ability to say something, the ability to share whatever one wants with a larger world. I think blogging is great and I really enjoy getting a glimpse into the lives and thoughts of people who are thousands of miles away from me, and sometimes even in other countries. This is communication democracy in action, and I'm proud to be a part of it - even if being a part of it means mostly posting weekly memes. I do try to balance what my audience wants to read, and what I want to post. I blog for myself and others, and I think I do a pretty good job.

I want to thank each and every one of my readers for supporting me and reading the crap I post here. I'm not the funniest blogger, or the blogger with the most interesting things to say, and that's why I appreciate my readers so much.

I'd also like to thank Blogger (and its parent, Google) for giving the world free, easy, and relatively stable blog hosting. There may be glitches once in a while, but they are few and I realize that they'll happen no matter what software or service I use. I must say that I'm very satisfied with Blogger and have no plans of going elsewhere.

Most of all, I'd like to thank my blogging friend (she knows who she is) who got me into blogging in the first place. Without her, I wouldn't have this outlet for my creativity. Most of my time online is now spent either blogging or reading other blogs. I'm hooked, and I have her to thank for hooking me in and showing me the ropes.

Here's to the next 1000 posts!