Eight Years of Blogging

Today marks the eighth year I’ve been blogging in some fashion or other. I never thought I’d keep at it for so long, but here were are in 2011 and I’m still writing.

In 2003 blogs were fairly rare, and most people had never even heard the term. I had seen a couple of blogs, but most of these were done by geeky young upstarts, and the concept of a blog as a fully formed communication tool hadn’t really gained ground.

I started my first blog as a programming experiment on a previous personal website. That site was far too self-centered, with my resume’, etc., etc. The blog itself was buried under tons of links, and I don’t think anyone every actually read it. I wrote the HTML/ASP code myself, and tied it to an MS-Access database. I updated it sporadically, but enough for it to qualify as a blog.

The following year, in 2004, we decided to drive out to Washington State, and that’s when RandomConnections was born. I took the code I had written for my blog and incorporated it into the new website. The original intent was for it to be a travel journal for that trip, with maps that could be updated so my mother-in-law (and others) could track our progress as we drove across the United States. I modified the database so it would accept image uploads, so I had a quick way to add photos from the trip. I also added a way for visitors to leave comments on the various posts.

After the trip was over, I decided I like writing and keeping an online journal. It seemed silly to disband the website just because the trip was over, so I kept writing. I merged my previous blog entries with the RandomConnections material, and pretty much left the old site alone. My resume is still there and is updated occasionally, but not much more than that. However, RandomConnections.com took over as my main website.

It turned out that the original ASP code I had written just wasn’t up to the job. I had too many recursive scripts, and it kept crashing my host’s server. They weren’t happy with me. I switched over to a WordPress platform, and there’s where I’ve been ever since.

Some pundits have declared that blogging is dead, that with Twitter, Facebook, and other social media it’s no longer necessary. Perhaps. However, I still love learning new things, exploring interesting places, and taking photos then writing about these experiences. As long as I’m able to do that, I think I’ll keep blogging.