My 1st Blog Anniversary

I'm sorry for the lack of a weekend post, but I ended up spending the night last night at my uncle's place and when I got back home I had to run off to a middle school reunion, which was pretty interesting. There's so much going on right now, but I would like to focus on the fact that exactly one year ago today, I reluctantly embarked on the creation of my own blog in response to seeing so many prominent techies doing so. I'd like to think that my blog and I have evolved over the course of the past year so I thought I'd do a review of some of my best stuff. My very first few posts were actually more in the vein of most techie blogs: focused on a single topic, like Microsoft vs. Google. Then I started talking briefly about what was really in my head, like slavery, in addition to a couple of other things going on and a meme. My favorite such post was probably one related to CS. What's fun about looking back is looking about things I didn't know anything about, like the Spring semester or trying out Linux, and laughing at myself. The problem with this format was that my posts were too short and I didn't cover much ground. So, I went for a more open structure where I talked about movies and technology in general, like this one about homosexuality, but I kept them relatively tame with just a handful of topics and very little one each. If they did go long, I split them up into more paragraphs. Then, my posts started getting really long because I didn't realize that I should do more filtering of the news. Some of my favorite posts from this era were when I would really reflect on stuff, and I should probably take more opportunities like those, but I also haven't been inspired by a class in a while.

In March, I got into the more structured format you see today though a bit more bloated, like this one after I beat Half-Life 2. I didn't shirk from controversial stuff even then though, and had a little spat about abortion and second homosexuality one. Another fun thing about looking back is remembering the good times, like when I went back home for Easter, went to the beach, went to Schlitterbahn, saw the Dalai Lama, went to ACL (days one, two, three), saw Audioslave, or seeing my cousin come back safely from Iraq. I did have a couple of inspired posts like one from a cool speaker at the Island Party who really got me thinking and another regarding CS as an artform. There are also historic highlights, like the showcase of new consoles at E3, the Hot Coffee craziness, controlling the Internet, or the new iPod. I also had a few posts much like this one in review or prediction, like the end of Freshman year, the end of summer (and subsequent new semester), or the end of the Fall. Then there's the fun ones, like why chicks should dig nerds *ahem*, trying out hookah, getting a car (part two), or UT beating Ohio State. And of course I just have to blab about the movies I've just seen or new CDs, like Batman Begins, Sin City, and Late Registration. Times weren't always good, but I learned from them producing great stuff like this.

I'm pretty amazed that I've lasted this long, to be honest. I started out with like 10 hits a day and not even a handful of loyal readers, and now I get upwards from 60 hits a day, more than 3/4 of those being unique visitors. I hope that I've come to deliver the stuff that you all want to see. I started out with no direction and now here I am with 315 posts under my belt I've molded this blog to give you the information that I consider to be the most important from technology and movies with occassional sidebars. How do you like this format? Or do you prefer one of my previous structures? Please let me know. I try to keep them as short as I can nowadays without sacrificing the good stuff. I'd like to think that my blog is more than just an hour of my day I blow and is more a window into my life without getting boring and too specific. Like I have no problem telling you that my brother gave me an iPod Shuffle and I love it, but I wouldn't dare go into the details of what all I did yesterday. You can count on my still being here for another year hopefully as long as you guys keep coming back for more. Thank you all for making this blog what it is and for the new friends I've made (you know who you are ;).

I was going to post about a select few news articles, but I got held up fixing a neighbor's virus problem (ugh, I should plead ignorant and pretend I don't know about computers) and it was so convoluted that I have her still scanning for it. So here's my Monday Madness:

1. Name 1 toy you owned when you were younger, that meant a lot to you.
I didn't really have a meaningful toy as such, but I did play with my little Captain Planet action figure a lot. I was pretty sad when I lost it and never found it again. Oh well, it happens.

2. Name 2 games you enjoyed playing as a child.
Monopoly and I guess basketball. I wasn't a balla or anything, but my brother and I would just shoot the ball rather than play games since he was so much bigger than me and just race to see like who got to 100 first or something.

3. Name 3 foods you didn't like as a child, but do now.
Broccoli (my mom started fixing it with cheese when I grew up), biryani, and paalak paneer.

4. Name 4 foods you didn't like as a child, and still don't like.
Spinach (how does anyone eat this stuff), potato chips, gizzard and I can't think of other stuff. Sorry!

I think I'll conclude this post with one of the few drawbacks to going to school outside of Houston: