This personal blog on mine was born 22 years ago today on November 25, 2001. Over the years I’ve used a variety of tools to write it including many years on TypePad before moving to WordPress.
As I look ahead where will it be in another 22 years? Where will I even be then? Perhaps an AI partner of mine comes along which is more creative and writes better than me. Your AI partner can read what it creates and respond accordingly! Robot to robot.
Let’s hope there’s more humanity to it than that however. While this blog has seen an amazing evolution in technology around it over these 22 years, my sense is that nothing is slowing down. I hope our world benefits from these changes to actually improve for all and to overcome some of the negative events than seem to continue to emerge around the world. We’re capable of so much better.
Today is the 20th anniversary of the start of my personal blog here using the sjl.us domain. It all began on November 25, 2001.
In my first post, I wrote about Amazon having free U.S. shipping on orders over $99 (that’s changed since then!). In a second post that day, I wrote about an article in the San Francisco Chronicle talking about why writers enjoy living in the San Francisco Bay Area (I wonder whether that’s changed – given the current cost of living, etc. in this area!).
I had played around earlier creating a personal web page (using an early Microsoft web page editor named Front Page) but when I started this edition on November 25, 2001 I was using Radio Userland (built on Dave Winer’s Frontier). Sometime later I migrated it to TypePad and later again to WordPress.
It’s somehow appropriate that this 20th anniversary is also Thanksgiving Day here I. The United States!
I didn’t start a blog because I had something to say, I started a blog to find something to say.
And:
Most writers don’t write to express what they think. They write to figure out what they think. Writing is a process of discovery.
I started this version of my blog on November 24, 2001. Ironically, it’s a link to a San Francisco Chronicle story about why writers enjoy living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
So why is it authors multiply here like cheap noodle restaurants?One reason the Bay Area is such a good place for writers may be the same reason it’s such a good place for arbitration lawyers and podiatrists – it’s a terrific place to live.
So much has changed in the almost twenty years since that article was written. Local bookstores, great restaurants, group events, …
After the last few weeks of fires, heat, etc., recent articles seem to talk much more about the problems – asking “why bother living in San Francisco (or California)?”
The cityscape resembles the surface of a distant planet, populated by a masked alien culture. The air, choked with blown ash, is difficult to breathe.
There is the Golden Gate Bridge, looming in the distance through a drift-smoke haze, and the Salesforce Tower, which against the blood-orange sky appears as a colossal spaceship in a doomsday film.
San Francisco, and much of California, has never been like this.
California has become a warming, burning, epidemic-challenged and expensive state, with many who live in sophisticated cities, idyllic oceanfront towns and windblown mountain communities thinking hard about the viability of a place they have called home forever. For the first time in a decade, more people left California last year for other states than arrived.
Indeed. Life is so rich…it’s all about finding something to say.
…my blog is about technology, a little about life, some photography, some analysis, and some personal interests, which range from fashion to baseball to travel and food.
His recent post about the camera business was particularly interesting. It’s an industry undergoing fundamental shifts – as cameras have become universal, in each of our pockets included with our cell phones.
He quoted Scott McNealy:
A long time ago, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy quipped, “Technology has the shelf life of a banana. By the time you buy it, implement it and train people on it, it’s obsolete.” He was talking about servers, but I can’t help but think that his words are just as true for cameras.
Om recently shared some beautiful photos of Catalina Island made with his iPhone 11 Pro. Like me, he’s enjoying the camera system in this latest iPhone Pro!
Admiration. That’s what I have for street photographer, blogger, and vlogger Eric Kim. I started following Eric’s blog several years ago as he began actively writing about the joys he found in street photography. His blogging efforts led him to pursue teaching street photography classes in various cities around the world and, more recently with his partner Cindy, an active publishing (both open source and for sale) and photo gear related business (see his product page).
Eric’s blogging has evolved beyond the mechanics of street photography into his philosophy of life – his joys, his worries, and his endless pursuit of creativity. I enjoy reading him for his quick comments and insights – almost always stimulating my thoughts off in an unexpected direction. Reading his work and watching his talks open my mind in new ways.
Recently, Eric gave a talk at Google which is available for watching on YouTube. One of the best parts of his talk – much of which is focused on his approaches to creativity – starts at about 19:30 into the video. He shares one of the photos of an older woman with a big smile that he captured years ago on the streets of New York City. His description of that image, how he shot and and his interaction with the audience about the photo is just great. (He sells a signed limited edition of this print on his website.) He’s written about this on his blog as well.
As for me, Eric’s had an impact recently – he’s helped jumpstart me back into more actively writing for my blog. Watching his work, I’ve come to realize that sharing is both worthwhile and also easy to do with today’s blogging tools. I’m able to quickly have an idea and – on any of my computers or mobile devices – being drafting a blog post on that idea.
This post is a great example. While waiting for my coffee to brew this morning, I was thinking about Eric and that segment where he shares the store of the smiling older woman. That got me thinking about how I admire what he does – and what he’s been doing for years now. And so here we are. Thanks Eric!
Today is the 17th anniversary of the start of my personal blog here using the sjl.us domain. It all began on November 25, 2001.
In my first post, I wrote about Amazon having free U.S. shipping on orders over $99 (that’s changed since then!). In a second post that day, I wrote about an article in the San Francisco Chronicle talking about why writers enjoy living in the San Francisco Bay Area (I wonder whether that’s changed – given the current cost of living, etc. in this area!).
I had played around earlier creating a personal web page (using an early Microsoft web page editor named Front Page) but when I started this edition on November 25, 2001 I was using Radio Userland. Sometime later I migrated it to TypePad and later again to WordPress.
On Monday, November 25, 2013, we’ll celebrate the 12th birthday of this personal blog of mine.
It’s gone through many difference phases over those years – beginning initially as a simply weblog linking to stories I found interesting (a very common use of Twitter these days is doing exactly that), starting what evolved separately into PaymentsNews.com, and then a transition to more of my photography passion as that interest grew in importance over the last few years.
I just took a look back at the most popular web pages here on my blog during the last twelve months of 2012. The most popular pages – based on page views – weren’t written this year – but they’ve stood the test of time – at least as far as Google and the other search engines are concerned.
Here’s the list of top 10 posts based on page views during 2012:
My Life in a Sling! (Nov 10, 2009) – The story of my rotator cuff surgery – and an amazing community of others who’ve also been through this rough surgery.
A Floating Faucet Fountain (Jun 13, 2009) – One of those fun stories that brings back childhood memories of home shows and the like!
Look at that list – no posts from 2012 made the top 10! It’s kinda crazy how long the long tail is. In the case of my blog, the top 3 posts accounted for over 50% of this year’s page views. The remaining 40+% were spread out among hundreds of other posts. I wonder how this distribution might change in 2013?
Clearing Winter Storm – Golden Gate Bridge – San Francisco, California
As we’re wrapping up 2011, I took a look back at what posts on this blog generated the most page views during 2011. Here’s the top twelve list (in honor of 2012!) – along with my commentary on each post:
Next week, this little blog of mine turns ten years old. In some ways, this seems hard for me to believe. It actually feels like I’ve been writing here forever – but, of course, that can’t be! Perhaps it’s the sheer number of blog posts I’ve done over the years – many more over on PaymentsNews.com than here – but plenty here, on my recipe blog ScottsKitchen.com, on InMenlo.com, PaymentsViews.com and a few others.
Adding them all up, I’m sure I’m in the 10,000 hour club that Malcolm Gladwell talked about in Outliers: The Story of Success when it comes to blogging!
The first presence for my personal website in the Wayback Machine is dated December 5, 1998 – and, from the text on that page, looks like it was originally posted on October 19, 1998 – over thirteen years ago. Ah, those were the days!.
So, as we think about things to be thankful at this time of year, I’m thankful for blogging and how it’s worked magic in my life. By writing, it helps me clarify my muddled thoughts. By sharing with others, I often hear from them – even from strangers. And I welcome the increase in serendipity in my life that blogging contributes to in a meaningful way. Maybe writing here isn’t the best thing I’ve ever done, but it’s plenty good! And many thanks to those who inspired me to write and taught me many new things along the way. Lots to be thankful for!
when it comes to blogging!
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