Five Years!

Today, dear readers, marks the fifth year since I started this modest little blog. It was a different time back then. I didn't know The Rules. My sidebar was much, much smaller. I thought any blog I came across was interesting. I still do, but you'd better impress me if I'm going to add you to my Bloglines feeds. I didn't really know what I was doing with my blog back then. Ironically, I think it was really more of a journal back then, like it should be. The posts were shorter, and I talked a lot about school. I did a couple memes, but nothing like the large number I participate in now.

Look at me now! Five years later, my blog has emerged into something fairly consistent. I do many memes, yes, but I've dedicated myself to them so I can't help it. I think you still learn something about me from reading them, so are they really bad?

I don't have anything like school to blog about, so the ins and outs of my daily life have been shoved aside for bigger things. I do quite a few reviews now. I review albums, I review TV shows, I review concerts. I share with you my photography, making this a partial photoblog. Once in a while, I'll go into my own head and post an opinion or a rant. Cherish those moments, because they don't come often.

Where do we go from here? What do I want my blog to become in the next five years? I think the past two months have offered hints and clues. I want to rededicate myself to blogging as best I can. I've tried to re-examine what is and isn't bloggable. All those little moments when I see something and say "that's interesting" or have a particularly profound those - those are the moments I need to write about on here. I realize links aren't exactly original content, but I want to share them with you anyway. I'll try to at least offer my take on what I'm linking to.

The future of this blog is in the features I create. Every Saturday, I give you a good sampling of whatever interesting photos I see on Flickr. I don't know how many of my readers look at them, but I hope those who do get some enjoyment from it. I've started a new feature, the "Pond Prompts." Those questions are more personal in nature, which will balance things quite nicely. I've reloaded the "Blog Roundup" feature - perhaps I'll do the same with a few other things I used to do on here.

Of course, the memes will continue, but I want to expand this blog as much as possible. My goal, right now, is to provide at least one non-meme post per day. I may slip up from time to time, but I'll give it my best shot.

I don't usually beg for comments, but on this occasion, I think I'll offer the opportunity. The comment box for this post is your place to tell me what you like about my blog, what you don't like about my blog, ideas you have for my blog, or just your general thoughts about my little place on the internet. Thanks for reading, and stick around for the next five years!

It's after midnight and I'm not quite in bed yet. I was surfing around on the internet and it hit me - it's now September 8. Today is a very special day, because it's the day I started blogging! It's my blog anniversary again!

I've now blogged on here for four straight years. That's a long time! I usually have something profound to say on this day, but I don't really have much to say this year other than - wow, four years!

Much thanks to everyone who reads my stuff here. I realize I'm not the most exciting blogger, what with all the memes every week. But even those memes can be useful, for they document my opinions, thoughts, loves, hates, and things going on in my life. Each of the answers to the questions shows a little about me on that particular day. I really enjoy looking back at some of them. I think I may do that again later today, in honor of my blog anniversary.

Ok, guess I lied about the profound statement. Not bad for a four-year veteran. I just thought of something else to discuss, however: the FUTURE of my blog.

Blogger, as many of you know, is rolling out a new beta system. I haven't been offered to switch yet and I'm not sure I will when that time comes. I want to let Blogger get all the kinks out before I make any drastic changes. Yes, I could switch to their new system and get all the cool new features, but I'd probably have to pick a new template. I like this template just fine. I've had it for years. If I can keep this one and have their cool new stuff, I'll do that. But you never know, maybe I'll pick a brand new layout to use. I'll have to think about that at a later time.

What won't change are the memes and the occasional rants and various other posts. I'll even keep up the album reviews, provided I remember to do them.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I'll try to make this next blog year just as good as the last four.

Today is a very important day for me.

Three years ago today, I started this blog!

I can hardly believe I've been writing here that long. It's been quite the ride so far. I've had slow times and exciting times, short posts and long posts, and thankfully very little drama. The direction of my blog has changed over time, but in the last year it's really caught fire and has become a very active place. Except for the time when my computer was dead in February, I don't think I've missed more than three days of blogging in a row in the past year. I really hope I can continue growing this blog and making it a place people want to visit often.

What has been the best part of blogging so far? I think my favorite thing is that I'm now part of a community. Most of the websites I visit now are all weblogs and journals. I've really come out of my shell as far as commenting is concerned, and that has rewarded me with many new visitors. I've made some pretty good friends, even if those friendships rarely leave the comment box. I really feel that weblogs, even with all their problems, give us the potential to connect with others and improve our ability to communicate. Even if I mostly post memes now, I still appreciate having this outlet for expression, no matter what way I choose to express myself, and I'm glad that people want to read what I write.

I'd like to thank each and every one of you who visit this blog, whether you comment or not. I look forward to continuing this adventure and I'm excited to see where my blog will go in the next year.

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY, POND BLOG!!!!

That's right, folks, I've been blogging for two years now. My blog has changed a lot from the first day I published. I started talking randomly about things that I did during the day, as well as recaps of various U of O sporting events. Then I started blogging a lot about school (because that's what there was to talk about) and then I started doing more memes and tests and things of that nature.

In May (I think) of last year I started my poetry blog. Then, after graduation, I started posting less and less, and what I did post was mostly music-related. That brings us to today, when I'm still writing mostly about music (because that's a huge part of my life) and trying to update every other day if I can. So I suppose I've come full circle in those two years. I can promise you this, as long as I still have internet access, I will probably be blogging. I have NO plans to give this up in the near or even distant future. I may not always have something interesting to say, but I'll try to keep coming up with posts. So hang on for the ride!!

Let's take a look at my first blog post, at 5:51 PM on Sunday, September 8 2002!!

"Welcome to my blog! I'm not sure what will be here, but I'll try to post something every day, or every few days. For now, go check out the cool information at Educk, a cool site about my favorite team, the U of O Ducks!! Oh, and before I forget, a BIG thank you to Raven at Raven's Shadow blog for introducing me to blogs!! Love ya Raven!!"

That was the beginning of it all!!

I'm writing this post at 3:30, but I'm going to publish it as 5:51 so as to make the post officially two years since I started.

Last thing: Thanks a bunch to all my readers!! Whether I know you read or you're anonymous, or even if you're just reading this once, I appreciate you all and thank you for coming to read what I have to say.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POND BLOG!!!

That's right, folks, exactly ONE year ago today, I started this blog. I can't believe it's been that long already. Well, here's to many more years of blogging, hopefully!

I'm sitting here right now listening to my "Live at Sin-e" CD, which arrived on Saturday. I love it!! Jeff performed amazingly well throughout. His guitar playing REALLY amazes me. Some of these songs take my breath away, they're so beautiful and so well performed. So it's definitely worth buying for any Jeff Buckley fan. I must, however, say that I'm getting just a BIT tired of hearing the "Grace" songs allll the time. They're not BAD, it's just that I've heard them over and over and over again. Still, they're good songs and I could never write songs THAT good. The covers he does on this CD, though, are spectacular! The Buckley Estate should put together a compilation of his covers, although I'd imagine most of them would be from albums that already exist.

Sadly, I would imagine we are coming closer to the end of the existing Jeff Buckley material that can be put on CD or video :( He left us so long and we're lucky to have more than just "Grace" and "Sketches."