In my post NaNoWriMo afterglow, which included an intense desire to do no typing whatsoever, I completely neglected to mention that the blog turned 1 year old on December 1st. After I was amazed to have 227 visitors my first month, I'd have been very impressed to know that the number would increase more than tenfold in the following 11 months.

I've mentioned this before, but having a blog has actually served a very useful purpose in my life. First, it gives me a place to rant, and a minor creative outlet, where I can at least pretend that people pay attention to me. Second, it has inspired me. I have actually found myself doing more, and getting out more, this past year because I wanted more things to blog about. That is definitely a good thing. Now, in one year, actually in 4 months, I've visited a 3rd world country, and written (most of) a novel. That's a very productive 4 months. Next year I have 5 weeks of vacation to play with. What shall I do with it? Now I want to go out and live adventures that are worthy of telling about, rather than just taking a couple of weeks to couch surf back east. Not that adventures cannot happen back east. Tentative plans include a trip to Hong Kong, to visit best friend Josh, who lives there, more camping and hiking (hopefully), at least one visit back east where I will once again put out feelers for the possibility of getting back there full time.

This blog has seen some regular readers and commentators come, and then go. For a while, Danielle and Kelley were both active commentators on my ramblings, and their input was very entertaining. Kelley is still in touch, but has been too busy to keep up with this, and Danielle just...vanished back into the oblivion of time immemorial from which she had unexpectedly emerged for a while. I've recieved comments from three Jens and a Gen. That gets confusing sometimes. I guess the only aspect of this blog I've been disappointed in is the lack of comments. I'd hoped for regular input.

NaNoWriMo Note: I've actually started to miss the daily writing. I don't necessarily miss the worrying about how I'm going to write X number of words before I go to bed, but I do miss the process. I guess that's a good sign. I've picked the novel back up and started to work on it a bit again. I guess I have to go ahead and finish it, since I came up with an ending I like and all.

369 days of Bloggins!