Happy birthday to me.

Well, not to me, precisely, as that would make this November, and I'm not ready for cold weather just yet. But this blog is a year old today.

And an interesting year it's been.

I've found that I enjoy this outlet for writing.

In the past year, I've had 420 entries - slightly more than my goal of one per day. And not that it's been every day; sometimes I'd go 3 or 4 days without an entry; some days I'd have 5 or 6.
-- Another goal was to have at least 1/3 of the entries be reactions to or comments on events, about 1/3 be things about me (or, more interstingly, the cat), and no more than 1/3 be "fun" entries, however I defined that. By my count, the year's entries came out to be about 55% reactions/comments, 28% stuff about me and Mia, and 17% "fun" entries. Not entirely sure what, if anything, that means, as I usually felt that the balance was about right as I was going along. Perhaps I should write more about the cat.
-- One goal was to develop some consistent readership among people I didn't previously know. I know there are a few of you out there; a couple who I've corresponded with and a couple of lurkers. (I'll presume the latter are shy, and aren't just gawking with disbelief. People I already know do that enough as it is.) And a sub-goal was to hook up with a cyberbabe. Well, okay, some of these are "stretch" goals, and can go into next year's list.
-- Another goal was to develop a better understanding of how to design a blog, and I've gone from solely text to including comments and trackbacks, so that you can join in on the excitement, and recently I've started including photos. Baby steps, I know, and enhancements that other people have left behind long ago. But this is my blog, and I'll develop it at my own pace.

And my favorite posting of the year? The first one, about JFK's speech at Rice.