Wednesday, October 8, 2008

parentheses, italics and hyperlinks: one year in the life of a blog

Generally I hate when people celebrate birthdays/anniversaries for things that aren't humans.

"OMG my car turned 2 today." Ugh.

"Tomorrow is the eighth anniversary of us living at 34 Yancy Street!" Groan.

But I am going to do it anyway in this post. A year ago today, 10/8/07, I wrote my very first post on this blog: "things i don't like." (As you can see, from the very beginning I've been a cantankerous 78-year-old man trapped in the body of a lanky 22/23-year-old.)

In all seriousness, a lot of changes have taken place in the past year. I moved from New Haven to New York. I found out I was lactose intolerant. I got a Blackberry. I saw Ed Westwick on the street. And, yes, I've started holding onto the handrails on the subway. Major things have happened in these past twelve months, yo.

Like most things, when you think about blogging for too long, it starts to seem really, really weird. Why write a blog when you can write in a diary, write stories... or, uh, write e-mails to your friends? And who wants to read the poorly articulated thoughts of some random dude who really loves hummus? I have no well-reasoned answers to these questions; to be honest, I try not to think about it too much (see the first sentence of this paragraph). All I know is that with every post, I feel myself letting my guard down a little bit more, feeling freer to try something a little bit zany, revealing a side of myself I never really felt comfortable revealing before. It just happens. And you don't have to really think about it. And it's nice. And all these people who read what you write are on the roller coaster with you, too (just follow me on this metaphor, plz). And that's nice, too. Because riding on a roller coaster with people you like is always more fun than when you ride it alone.

3 comments:

Sam D. said...

congrats!!

Anonymous said...

there should be more people like you in the world.

Anonymous said...

wait. back up.
"I saw Ed Westwick on the street."
you can't just casually drop something like that and expect us to let it slide. doesn't this encounter deserve its own post?