Happy Blogiversary

Today marks the beginning of the fourth year of this blog.

Thought I'd give a very brief history of how this electronic heap of ASCII characters got to this point.

I've had my eponymous website since 1999. (Actually, for about a year before that, I ran it off my computer at home with just the IP address. My employer at the time provided DSL for me at home.)

It functioned mostly as a bulletin board for family and friends, and when our son John was adopted in 2001, it became a place to share photos with families and friends.

I started the blog in January 2003 for the same reason. The blog was essentially an electronic baby book, where I could record John's early days, and where family and friends could check in on him. When we adopted Hanna in 2003, she became part of the story. As the blog progressed, I did less and less with the website, except for adding some photos.

The blue colors, and my avatar (name floating above water), were chosen to go with the "River" theme.

And, because it was meant only for a small audience, the URL for my blog's homepage is rather clunky. I am mulling over how best to address that.

In addition to the kids, though, I've always recorded my thoughts and musings on various topics.

I am an aspiring writer, and the blog was good practice and good discipline to keep writing, even if it meant just writing something.

Around July 2005 though, I decided to change the focus of the blog, to try and "take it national", so to speak. To become part of that great discussion going on out there.

I talk about politics when it's something I'm passionate about, but I tend to focus on issues of national security, international relations, that sort of thing. I tend to have an analytical mind, and I think one of my strengths I can bring to the blog is to take seemingly disparate elements and see in them a larger, coherent story. Perhaps it's because of my educational background. I have a B.A. in physics, a B.S. in Computer Science, an M.S. in Astronomy, and later this spring, I should complete an M.S. in Software Engineering. All of these disciplines require logical, step-by-step thinking, and as I try to make sense of the world for my own benefit, that style of thinking tends to shape what I write.

My fiction writing has influenced the blog in another way. Some advice I picked up in writing short stories is to always incorporate two ideas. Don't make the story about just one idea. I try to do the same with the blog. When possible, or when it makes sense, I try to blend at least two ideas in a post, and relate them together.

Since last July, I've had a ball. I've met a number of very talented and personable bloggers through the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers (MOB). Ben, Leo, John, Ron, Robert, and so many others have been very kind.

The Mudville Gazette and The Military Outpost have been very kind in linking to me often. I've had big traffic days from links from Hugh Hewitt, Michelle Malkin, Power Line, Radioblogger, The Corner, TKS, JunkYardBlog, Gates of Vienna, and Fraters Libertas.

Certainly, I appreciate the links from my fellow MOB blogs, friends of the blogs, or blogs that found their way through one way or the other, often through a link provided by someone mentioned above.

And, I especially appreciate those readers who take the time to stop by regularly.

For the remainer of the post, I'll pick out some past posts over the history of the blog that have been favorites or notable to me for some reason. Thanks, all.

The post that started it all

The origin of this blog's name

I absolutely loved the novel Possession by A.S. Byatt

My first, and to date only, Useless Pop Culture Trivia Quiz

The Columbia is lost

Some thoughts on Jonathan Franzen

Our first trip to see Hanna in Kostroma, Russia

Our trip to bring Hanna home from Russia

I will get back to the novel I'm working on after school and other things are done

Another edition of book nook

John discovers the world isn't always a fun place

In which I find I am somewhat left-hemisphere dominant

I finished the Calculatrivia quiz, and got a T-shirt out of the deal

I read War and Peace. and Anna Karenina

We take the kids camping for the first time

I get a free subscription to the Weekly Standard

Soccer Badgers!

An essay on the game of baseball

Iraq, the US and books in the same post

Bush is reelected

More books, I eventually did read all of them

My Theory of SF and Fantasy Linguistics

Deep Space Nine has a thing about "three days"

Some Christmas Prophecies

Some thoughts on patterns

The origin of some last names

Some math jokes

What is drama?

In which I get a new Toyota Tacoma

My definition of art

In which I get XM Satellite Radio, and I discover I like electronica music

Klingon software developers

I make my first short story sale

John and Hanna's beginnings

It was around July 2005 that I began to change the focus of the blog.

Sandra Day announces her resignation

Terror attacks in London

Spices and their impact on history

A proper war

Terrorist attack the innocent

The truth in fiction

Scientists are hardly the new priesthood

Did the Wall put us in danger?

I begin a closer look at Iran

Context or Cnntext?

Self-Control

Blog Prostimotion

Differences between Left and Right

A look at the Sheehan circus in Crawford

Courage

My post dissecting Michael Yon's Gates of Fire piece was well received

One of my most favorite Dispatches from the Front

Did God cause Katrina?

First day of school for John and Hanna

Tending our own patch of ground

Remembering means we never forget

Rulers of rubble

Slouching towards a John Roberts confirmation

Victor Davis Hanson perfectly defines the Left

The debate between Galloway and Hitchens got me going

Cervantes and the novel

I did a number of posts on the military's help in the aftermath of the hurricanes

I also did a number of posts tracking intelligence successes in Iraq

A definition of peace

Russia's declining competitiveness

I did quite a few blistering posts on the Harriet Miers nomination

I did a number of posts on the Iraqi forces

A review of Serenity

I did a number of posts on the relief efforts following the Pakistan earthquake

I did some posts tracking the foreign facilitators killed in western Iraq

The Blue Screen of Death to Conservatives

The Screaming Eagles in Iraq

I completely stunk at Radioblogger's Blog of the Week

Anti-sniper warfare in Iraq

Undimmed by human tears

Pinching the ends

I did quite a few posts on Operation Steel Curtain

Conflicts in Africa

The jasmine mind of a terrorist

Press on, about the need to steel our will in the difficult times

The Postmodern Left

Russia's worsening demographic problems

The Iraqis are providing tips, contrary to what Murtha thinks

Mosul and Ramadi

I did several posts on Russia and the way it uses its natural gas as a tool

Tyranny is the subjugation of will

The stones in the mosaic

The Steven Seagal game

Did Germany release a terrorist to free a hostage?

The Bear and the Dragon, about Russia and China

Fighting the real propagandists

An insurgency collapsing inward?

I've done a number of posts on the Humvee

The Eagle and the Dragon, about the US and China

Oil deals in the Far East

Jihad's Funniest Bloopers