‘Twas the Ides of March in 2003 that I first began blogging with thee posts: a naive piece about Turkey denying us the ability to launch troops from their soil in the liberation of Iraq, a post on the liberation of Iraq that I stand by to this day, and a so-so blurb about a NY Times article.

A fairly prescient start because in the two intervening years I find that at times I am incredibly naive (or downright ignorant), sometimes I get things absolutely right, and usually, of course, I am somewhere in between.

When I started I expected that blogging would (1) give me a place to record information that I come across rather than in my email “sent items” folder and (2) determine if I had any skills at this at all. I have achieved both objectives: I have my repository of information and I have determined just how limited my skills are.

In the process I made three unexpected but very welcome discoveries. First, I missed my life’s passion; if I had to do it all over again I would have majored in Poli Sci with a Journalism minor. Second, I am more informed and politically aware than I ever thought possible, although I now know just how impossible it is to know everything about everything no matter how much I try.

Third and most importantly, I have been educated and my opinions shaped by commenters and those who have sent me email — for which I am eternally grateful.

My blog idols remain pretty much the same — Bill Hobbs and Donald Sensing, although I have added John Ray. My esteem for true journalists has gone up quite a bit — I wish I had invested in some training when I was younger. The list of bloggers that I have come to respect has grown to be too large to enumerate. Please know that if you are on the blogroll it is because I think you offer something special. (Although I am as bad at updating my blogroll as I am in answering email — I have several more in my RSS reader that do not appear on the blogroll. Have to fix that. Maybe after I get my taxes done.)

In the early days I had but one goal — to crawl out of the slime and walk on dry land according to the Bear’s ecosystem. I still remember the excitement of discovering that I had become a flappy bird — I even made it to Playful Primate a couple times (which was not exciting because I knew it was an undeserved fluke). Since then I have refined my goals and steadfastly refuse to set my sites higher for fear of becoming too obsessed with this “hobby” of mine: I want to stay in the top 500 in traffic, a task that grows harder as more good people start blogging.

And on this, my second blogversary, I want to say thank you.

• Thank you to AlphaWife, for the patience and understanding she has shown in allowing me to work the many, many, many hours on this obsession of mine.
• Thank you to readers, for without you this would have been a short-lived experiment. Your interest has driven me more than I thought possible.
• Thank you to supporters: those who link to me and those who stop me in passing to tell me that you read something interesting.
• Thank you to those better than I stopping by. Reading my referrer log is truly humbling.
• Thank you to the Watcher of Weasels for allowing me to serve on the Watcher’s Council.

I often toy with stopping this experiment, for reducing the time I spend is impossible. Once I start I find that I must post story after story, sometimes just a link, sometimes an excerpt, sometimes an observation or opinion. But there is so much to record, which is why I have made 3,630 posts in the last 730 days, or nearly five posts a day, every day.

These are the times that shape the future of all mankind and we must be informed to decide how we will exert our tiny efforts to influence that shape. Separate we are insignificant. Together we build a future.

Thank you for allowing me to participate in this way. I think I will try to keep at it a little while longer.

Oh yes, and one other thing I’ve learned: posts tend to grow far beyond that which you originally intended.