Has it Really Been Four Years?

Yeah, it has. First post went up on 7/17/2006. I was 37, and this was supposed to be a refuge from the flack I had been taking on the PA Forum. Now this blog covers about 10 percent of my life on this planet. Let's celebrate with something a bit more upbeat.

Granted, critics will argue that Bowie's artistic apex occurred in the 70s, but to me this video represents a different kind of finest hour, and it's one that speaks to me louder in my dark moments moreso than Ziggy Stardust. So let me indulge a bit.

What's happened in the four years?

The forum itself got a new home, leaving the initial post with a mess of broken links. It's gone through some turnover in people, but from what I hear, the topics recycle pretty regularly.

This blog turned up a whole new social graph for me, much of it centered around the frustrated writings of Digger Jones. He's gone quiet, as have many of the anonybloggers, including Therese, whose writings and conversations I miss very much. Fade to Numb and Have-the-T-Shirt went private. Anais, Cat, Trueself, and Drunken Housewife still blog away. Dad's Life and Tom Allen still post occasionally. FADKOG is still writing her megasized posts true to form.

As for my real-life... The marriage that this blog intended to save died about a year into the blog's existence. My kids have grown by leaps and bounds, and now both of them are in school.

I got myself out of the dead-end startup and channeled a huge amount of energy into rebuilding my career. I've come along farther than I ever hoped, but the past year has been an increasing drain on me.

How did I celebrate the blog's anniversary. It was pretty uneventful. Took my dog to the groomer for a much needed bath, brush, and nail trimming. Took the kids out for a late lunch. Enjoyed them as they labored away on little art projects, much of them taken from a Disney themed "make it yourself" book that I had as a child.

This evening, I got my resume uploaded to the four big job boards, making it anonymously searchable. For now, my geography preference is set to "no relocation". We'll see how many nibbles I get from the recruiters and how clueless they might be.

I've been flirting with the idea of finally putting a profile up on the mother of all social networks, but I can't quite bring myself to do it. I fear there are too many demons from my past that will be summoned with the friend requests. I think that Google's Paul Adams is onto something about the need for friend compartments in social networking apps. Those of us who have unspoken social graphs need such things.