Friday, August 01, 2008

Five Years

Whoa, Nelly.
I'm taking a little breather at work. Literally. I had to interview a pair of docs today who run the anatomy lab. In their office. In the anatomy lab. They didn't tell me that. So I was riding up the escalator and thinking to myself, "something smells funny." Well, yeah. Then a guy wheels a gurney with a black bag by me. I kept thinking, make sure you're still hearing things; if you stop, you're going to faint. But I didn't. Still an hour of breathing formadelhyde is about fifty minutes too many. I need to breathe.

Five Years
This month, I will celebrate five years of blogging. I started blogging when it was just coming in to wider use in academia. My boss at the oru wanted to put a blog on the website. I don't know why I resisted; it probably sounded too trendy. I was reading Knitting Curmudgeon, and I started wondering if there were blogging stitchers. I asked my boss and my friend who was then blogging about his heart condition on Live Journal to tell me if they came across any stitching blogs. If there were any, none of us could find them. So I just started writing on August 21, 2003. I don't even know if anyone was reading--no comments back in the dark ages. I just kept writing into the ether. Soon, I started finding more and more stitching bloggers. And what a community it is! Eventually, there got to be so many stitching blogs I no longer felt obliged to read them all, well, not all the time.

Radical Change of Blog Policy
To celebrate this momentous anniversary, for the next year, I will be having a giveaway on the 21st of each month. Prizes will range from things stitched or sewn or crafted by me to things I buy. Because, let's face it...in the last five years I haven't really impressed you with my abilities to finish what I start. To win, comment on the anniversary post; I'll label it. Using a random number generator, I'll draw the winner on the 21st. I'll ship gifts worldwide because now I have stitching friends the world over. It's a good thing.

Thanks for reading!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK...

1) Ick on the formaldehyde. Really ick.

2) Congratulations on your five years as a blogger!

3) Giveaways are fun :)

Unknown said...

Congratulations on five years of blogging. I know how hard it is to keep writing for that long. I started posting to LiveJournal in April, 2003, and lasted only five posts (all reviews of SF books) before I just gave it up. Yes, I read and commented on LiveJournal for a couple of years, but didn't start a stitching journal (or do much stitching) before last year. Thank the programmers for software that makes it easy to post pictures and links! Now blogs are fun to read.

Kendra said...

Formaldehyde...makes me think of the biology labs at Purdue. That whole hallway always had THAT smell.

Congrats on the 5 years of blogging! Wow...5 years ago I didn't even know what a blog was. :-)

Unknown said...

Thanks for entertaining me all these years. You finish stitching far more projects each year than I even think about starting. Best wishes for another 5 great years!

I miss your blogroll. It was one of the ways I used to find other stitchers to read.

glamlawlib said...

Hey congrats on the five years!

I did a couple of forensic science modules in my humanities degree but hey, they didn't let us loose with anything as scary as a cadaver... ;) It was a contrast to the Lit, what can I say!

I'm all up for a giveaway too :)

Good luck for the next 5 yrs - I wonder if blogs will exist in 5yrs?

Caribbean Girl said...

Congratulations on 5 years of blogging!!! I really enjoy reading your blogs every day and seeing your finished work.

Donna said...

Happy fifth anniversary!

riona said...

Congratulations on the anniversary. Your blog is one of my five "must reads" ... there are only five on that list as opposed to the twenty or so on the "check in every so often" list. I enjoy your literary style, your range of topics, your wit, and your stitching projects. Thanks for all the accumulated moments of pleasureable reading.

Carol R said...

Congratulations on your 5 years blogging!

Anonymous said...

On your anniversary, congratulations!

I look forward to reading more and, especially, to seeing what great giveaways you come up with. You will post photos each month, won't you?

dd

Adrienne Martini said...

Five years! Soon you'll be starting kindergarten. How quickly they grow.

xeyedmary said...

Wow! 5 years??!! That really WAS in the dark ages. I did my search for "stitching blogs" about 18 months ago; happily, yours was one of the first I stumbled across. I use your blog as a standard against which to judge potential "bookmark-worthy" blogs:
1. Is it funny? (Preferably in a sarcastically witty way)
2. Does it have photos?
3. Is it updated at least once a week?
I also must say you're in my top 5
HAVE-TO-READ!
oh, and YUCK to the anatomy lab!

Aussie Stitcher said...

Congratulations for five years of blogging. EEEEEWWWWW, the black bag and smells.

Anonymous said...

Happy anniversary from me too!!

Yup, you are way up there on my list of must reads - everyday!!

Stephanie said...

Hey congratulations on your five year blogging anniversary - and well done for keeping going all this time :) Personally, I really relish your posts ;)

Sharon said...

Congrats on five years of blogging! Your blog policy change sounds great!

Melissa said...

Congratulations on five years of blogging. I believe I started mine in Feb. 2004. Back then I was afraid to comment on people's blogs. You know that whole dork factor, now I understand that commenting is what connects us all and reminds us that "yeah, people are out there and READING!"

Michelle said...

Congrats on five years!!! I am hoping to read your blog for five more. But, I have to admit that when I saw you'd tagged this post with the category of "smells", I had to check to see if there were more smelly posts.

Jenna said...

Whew! Five years? That's quite a milestone in the blogging world. You had to be a true pioneer! I'll be looking forward to your giveaways. :)

Real Live Woman said...

Congrats on your anniversary. I'm a fairly new reader, also in PA. I'm looking forward to the Olympic stitch challenge.