Wednesday, August 27, 2008

separated at birth

Happy Birthday to Me

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday, dear busywolf, happy birthday to me!

This blog has just turned two (years old). The stats are nothing to brag about: roughly 6,000 hits. I know, the counter says fewer, but for the first few weeks I didn't have one, due to my reduced (make that totally absent) technical prowess. Although I have gained some skills since, I am still not very good at it.

Most visitors just touch down and go, but every now and then someone takes the time to read a few pages and even leave a comment. Somewhere down the line I decided to moderate comments because of the spammers. Those are the "deleted by administrator" comments.

I made Haveil Havalim once, and I thank Barbara('s Tchatzkahs) for the mention. Also Elaine over at Aaron's rod linked me as a favorite, but she stopped blogging almost a year ago. I hope she's busy doing other (good) things. She even sent me a meme, but I wasn't exploring other people's domains at the time (i.e. I wasn't reading eight blogs), so I let it go. I mean I was, but how does one tag LGF, Mypetjawa or Eureferendum? The one blogger who really got me considering my own space and who was very kind to me and replied almost instantly whenever I wrote to him was Randy at Rightwinged.com, whose blog seems to be no longer online. I hope he is doing fine and I want him to know that I miss him and I am in his debt blogwise.

Therefore, fellow bloggers, whoever and wherever you are, although I nowadays frequent mostly Jewish and Israeli pages, dear talented and devoted people, although I am a frequent visitor and even leave an occasional comment on your blogs, please understand why I don't have a blogroll or "favorite links" list: I fear I might put a jinx on you. Even Barbara's blog was vandalized after she mentioned me and I understand that Soccer Dad had to help her put it up again. I was also linked by other blogs, although I can't locate those mentions any more, but I remember however that a talkbacker on none other than the Guardian's Comment is Free (or rather Cheap, but that's a different story) recommended a post I wrote about Azmi Bishara. (Unfortunately the anti-Semitic Guardian remains immune to my noxious influence). Oh, and last but by no means least, I got to be mentioned by someone whom even the Grand Master Lizard quotes ever so often: Brian at snappedshot.com.

I lack the discipline to post daily, and I still haven't made up my mind about the topics I want to cover. But I am working on it. However, my daily dives into the blogosphere (contributors whom I admire and look up to as sources of inspiration) reveal that my role models also dwell on a variety of subjects, which suits me just fine, because the way I see it, human beings resemble chemical elements: multiple valences yearning to form bonds that satisfy our intellectual curiosity and our need to communicate. So perhaps I won't work too hard on it and I'll blog about whatever takes my fancy or drives me mad. We'll see.

By the way, I got the NC-17 rating for content because of my wanton choice of vocabulary. Yeah, right! But be warned anyway!

Still, it only proves that I am Passion-ate about blogging for Israel (yes, I registered to attend the Nefesh b'Nefesh Jewish Bloggers Convention in person, yet I only managed to watch it online. So I apologize if I prevented anyone from taking part). Which means that I have to focus more on Ingenuity and Fusion as soon as I work out a coherent way to integrate them into my rants.

I also learned that it might be a good idea to post about personal issues, such as children (did anyone say pets?). So I will consult my children and my pets and write something about them when I've obtained their informed consent.

So that's it for now. Welcome and enjoy!

One last word: I would not have been able to put up this blog and many things on it without a special someone who would probably rather remain anonymous, and whom I love very much.