My blogging years started in 2003. Do you remember 2003? Here's a quick refresher. This story must have authenticity after all.
2003 Was The Year That:
• Bush announced the attack on Iraq
• Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor of California
• Tampa Bay took the Super Bowl, no one cared
• Norah Jones was taking the world by storm and we all bought her album
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came to print — to PRINT
• Finding Nemo happened (P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Lane)
• Scientist discovered a dinosaur with 4 wings — creepy right?
• Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash died and we all cried
Thanks to the internet, that seems like a million years ago. I'm secure in my age and have no trouble saying it was almost a decade ago. The world wide web makes days seem like years and years seem like an eternity away. 2003 was a busy year and it was the year I started my first LiveJournal.
It was one of the first blogging platforms that was not only free, but fully customizable if you knew what you were talking about or had that cool friend who spoke HTML. This was 2003 of course, only a few people really know to do that kind of stuff. Not like now as teenagers can alter code in their LOL sleep.
I had so much so say. It was before everyone and their dog had a Facebook and there was no such thing as a status update, unless you were talking about your AIM status. We might not have had many followers or friends, but we had something to say. We had to work with words and fight for attention. It was a place to hone a craft and a place to vent about all the things we fit into 140 characters these days.
I still keep many amazing acquaintances and good friends from those days. We truly interacted with each other in a way that I will cross my heart and hope to die (ok not really), swear to you, that boosted the blogosphere that we know and love today. It changed the world and we were all on board to embrace the world ahead of us.
From there I began a writing career with Apartment Therapy Media and later Lifehacker. Since then I've been published in print in different books and mags. Just like that, what was a simple desire to gab about spray painted lamps became part of my daily life. Correction, it became my entire life. There wasn't anything about me that wasn't for a post. Photos I took, places I went, things I said, read, and shared. We'll take this time to note that this was truly the beginning of the end for me and I'll refer back to it down the road. You'll get brownie points if you remember and I'll in turn feel special for having loyal readers.
I've written over 4,000 entries and to be quite honest, I'm surprised that I had that much to say. I've tried my hardest to never repeat myself and always have something thoughtful to give back to my readers. I call them my readers, because we all think people pay attention to who we are, but truth be told, aside from a few snide commenters with little to nothing to do all day, no one gives a crap. I did my best to promote my friends, to give them face time on a big website that was sure to send traffic to them. It was the least I could do and I've loved seeing everyone take off. You deserve it. But part of me has always felt like I deserved it too. Does that make me selfish? Probably. I don't really care.
I feel left out of the race that I started running at the same time as everyone else. I became the commentator at a spectator sport instead of the one running past the 50 yard line and headed for the end zone. Guys dig chicks that make sports analogies right? What? All the cool girls nerds now? Crap, I'm so behind on the times. How about I'm Lando Calrissian and although I used to own the Millenium Falcon, now I just sit up on cloud City and keep tabs on everyone. Well until Darth Vader showed up and I'm sure he still feels really bad about Han and that whole carbonite thing.
I've decided that it's time to share my own thoughts once more, outside of a paid blogging platform and back inside my own head. A place full of horrible punctuation, spelling and the occasional misconception of classic phrases. For example, I only recently learned that one "chalks it up." I would have fought you to the death that it was "chuck it up." Yup, like vomit. Seriously, I would have taken you downtown. So that's what you can expect here and why I'm writing. I don't have anything ground breaking to share, but I do have my own words and they may or may not revolve around home decor or even positive experiences. So that's that.
Aww, LiveJournal *sniff* good times.
ReplyDeleteI like this :)
Ahh yes, 2003 and the days when I wrote so much more and enjoyed those moments of reflection that I don't make time for so much these days. Livejournal felt like a community where we actually interacted with people we'd never met, but who we admired because they had something worthwhile to say. (On Facebook and elsewhere these days? Not so much. No random friending, few thought provoking reflections and discussions.)
ReplyDeleteEight years later, we've still never met in person and it's clear that we have very different interests, yet I'm still here reading your posts. Like a good summer novel (not that I read those) it's a form of escape from the world I know all too well into somewhere else interesting: in part because it's so different and partly too because it's well and colorfully written.