Blogiversary

Today marks three years of blogging for me. I had the alarmingnews.com domain since day one but it used to redirect to Kashei.blogspot.com, where you can still see my pre-Movable Type archives. Dean Esmay moved me off Blogger and helped me a ton in getting this site set up. He also got me into the RNC convention in NYC to cover the event. So, basically, Dean rocks and I continue to be a huge fan.

I started blogging for the usual reasons. After 9/11, I found myself emailing articles around pretty frequently and kept adding people that were interested to my list. So, I figured this would be a good way to have everything all in one place.

The first blog that I read and loved was James Taranto's Best of the Web. It remains one of my favorites. Through James I discovered Instapundit and a whole world of sites I hadn't previously traveled. I told Peter about blogs and he started one (and then another and another and another), Pandavox. Seeing him publish his thoughts with such immediacy made me want to start one too. Peter was one of the first people to link to Salam Pax, the famous first Iraqi blogger, which got us mentioned a couple of times in his book. My first post was about a Victor Davis Hanson piece and how I felt Bush wasn't being tough enough with the Middle East. Today I've been emailing with Victor about having him on 'Hoist the Black Flag' and I think Bush has gotten much tougher. The first big site to blogroll me was the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler. I'm still thankful for that.

Dawn Summers was completely uninterested in the whole blogging thing for months after I started. I remember the day that changed. Her side of the conversation: 'So, you have a wishlist of things you want and strangers have just bought you stuff off it? Huh. Hmm. So, how do I start blogging and how long before people buy me things?'

I remember when I first started blogging, I was jealous of other blogs' commenters. I had a bunch of trolls and I would frequently have to delete comments because they were just off-topic babbling. Now I have some of the best commenters around and y'all make me so happy when I check in to my site and see the discussions in progress. So, thanks.