Back to My Blogging Roots

On hiatus this weekend at Yosemite and very much recalling my travels of yesteryear. I hope to take advantage and get out some next month in between interviews for the NextBigGig in my oh-so-linear mission to save the world (at least a little (ok, microscopic) bit, every day).

The Wall Street Journal, of all publications, wished a Happy Blogiversary to all — declaring the 10th anniversary of the blog, complete with videoi and top billing in the editor’s picks sidebar. And somewhere, Rupert Murdoch is smiling, or perhaps this is just a sign that Dow Jones truly is in his back pocket. OK, it actually is a cool feature, check it out, but I don’t see where it admits to WSJ’s blogibviousness… only WSJ’s LawBlog is a regular read in my newsfeed, and it’s been around less than two years. It appears there are more here. But it seems nothing existed at blogs.wsj.com before late May of last year, according to archive.org. (Am I missing something?) Nice of them to acknowledge blog, of course — even if it’s just the Saturday paper. I always thought Justin Hall was credited as the first “blogger,” circa 1994, but whatever.

My first attempt at blogging was 8 summers ago. I was teaching English in Ecuador and documenting my experiences and travels for myself, my family and friends. It was pretty outstanding, circa 1999, being able to hit a cybercafe in virtually any city in South America on the cheap, and most served beer (a pleasure I rarely enjoyed again before I moved to San Francisco for this summer where there are places such as Bean Bag Cafe — with microbrews on tap for $1.50 and free wi-fi).

With the help of one BJ Freeman, I set up some archaic message board on this Web site (Click to see the remnants of this message board and posts — I can only find the European 2000 stuff), in hopes of spurring conversation and comments on my travels and thoughts. Of course, since many didn’t understand the “blog” concept — which was what it was in principle, but not in name — I had to simultaneously send my dispatches in the form of mass e-mails (bcc style). I continued this practice — after virtually breaking the discussion board format — kinda like this.

Click here for photos and commentary from Yosemite.