Nine Years

To my surprise, it seems to have been a few years since I last acknowledged the anniversary of my journal. Today it's been nine years since I started this little folly - wow!

I don't post as much as I once did - once upon a time I posted frequently enough to be a member of the Often Webring (raise your hand if you remember the halcyon days of Webrings!), but these days 4-to-7 entries seem to be about all I can manage. Some of this is because of the homebrew software I'm using, which somewhat restricts the convenience of posting. Moreover, the format I'm using makes it awkward (for aesthetic reasons, if nothing else) to post very short entries. All of this is why I'm considering (and, really, slowly moving towards) re-launching my journal under a new domain using modern blogging software.

Inasmuch as this might be my last anniversary with my current set-up, I wanted to briefly acknowledge the event.

At this point I've outlasted most of the journals which were founded in the last millennium. The oldest journal I was ever aware of was Justin's Journal, which apparently hasn't been updated since 2003. The oldest journals I know of that are still going are Willa's Journal, and Mary-Anne Mohanraj's Ongoing, Erratic Diary.

A number of journals from back in the day have moved to LiveJournal, such as The Mighty Kymm, or Lucy Huntzinger. Some journals continue on but experienced lengthy hiatuses (I think Diane Patterson's Nobody Knows Anything had one year which contained two entries). Some - such as Ceej or Anita Rowland - have simply changed format, or software, or something.

On the one hand, I'm kinda proud to still be here and still be doing pretty much the same thing in the same place, but on the other hand I do sometimes feel like a bit of a dinosaur: No comments, single-page entries, a gradually declining readership, etc. Not that I've ever been one of the brighter lights in the journalling firmament, but still.

Heck, my journal predates the coining of the term "weblog" by about four months. How 'bout that?

Funny story: At WisCon this year I was in the con suite and overheard the end of a conversation where someone said he thought many men adopted the term "blog" because they thought the term "journal" was too girly, or something. I interjected that back in the day, men adopted the term "journal" because the term "diary" seemed too girly!

Anyway, I don't mean to make this sound like a wake: I've loved journalling for this whole time, I've met many fine people and made several good friends through the experience. My future plans are really just intended to make journalling more fun for me, to do more of what I want and be comfortable writing whatever strikes me at any time, and to be able to more easily post from wherever I happen to be. That's all, really.

I hope to be around for a good, long time.

Stay tuned.