Today is the one year anniversary of Water Cooler Wisdom. With the milestone, I had a natural inclination to reflect on my rookie season.
As I stated in my introductory post, I was hesistant to get into blogging because I don't like doing things halfway. I knew my work and personal schedule would make it extremely difficult to post daily or even every couple of days at times. That has held true, but still I'm satisfied with occasional posting. Had I tried to keep daily posting a high priority, I surely would have crashed and burned by now.
I started Water Cooler Wisdom with a
2 part post on Thaddeus Kosciuszko (see links at end of paragraph), a less well known yet extremely important hero of the American Revolution. I selected Kosciuszko as my first topic not only because my first post was on Independence Day Weekend and that he was someone I felt people should know about, but because he truly captured the spirit of freedom and liberty and values that I wanted to make a central theme to Water Cooler Wisdom.
If you haven't read the posts, this is a good weekend to do so (Part I, Part2).Here are a few realizations and observations from my first year:
On the hotter, more interesting topics, it's hard to find an angle or say something that isn't just regurgitation of what's been said on 15 other blogs more popular than mine. If I can't find a fresh angle or insight, I usually don't post on the topic at all.
I mostly read blogs to get information on politics, economic and foriegn policy. I tend to post more on those topics as well, but most of my favorite posts have been in the area of science and human interest. Maybe because it's a niche not as well covered in the M.O.B.
At least half of what I post is crap, but I do have a handful select posts of which I'm proud. Actually, in reviewing them, I was pleasantly surprised to find more than a handful. They way I look at it, if I can come up with one decent post per week, I'm doing alright. It's better than Barry Casselman does for the Washington Times.
Half the time when I put up a "too busy to post" or am blocked on what to write about, I end up leaving substantial comments on other blogs. Then I think, "Why the heck didn't I just post that on my site?" I rarely left comments on blogs until I started blogging. In the past year I probably write as much on other people's blogs as I do my own.
The M.O.B. really is a unique thing. Between on-line interaction, political involvement (what were there like 15 state delegates from the M.O.B.?) and Keegan get-togethers I have meet quite a few people that I can call friend.
I'd like to thank all of you who have read and commented on Water Cooler Wisdom and to give a special thanks to Surfergrrl for all of her comments.
I'm no longer a rookie, but you can still expect a lot of rookie-like errors.