LARGETONY Blog

A year ago, gas prices were around a dollar and quarter a gallon (in East Tennessee, anyway) and I was taking my first tentative steps as a baby blogger. Today, September 1, 2005, gas prices are at $3.10 for the lowest grade and the LARGETONY BLOG is officially one year old! That’s right! Break out the balloons and blow your horn! I am graduating to the toddler stage.

In the last 365 days, I have completed and published 126 posts. That averages out to a new post every 3 days, or so. Not so bad considering there were times I went 2 or 3 weeks completely dry. Those 128 posts have provoked 787 comments and countless e-mails from various readers and friends. And almost every comment has been a delight. The majority of them range from people laughing along with something goofy I’ve written to expressions of support and kindness when I was experiencing a rough patch to sharing their own point of view. A very small percentage of them haven’t been so nice. I have been called a grandma-obsessed closet case, I have been accused of being egotistical about my endowment, I have been told I will burn in hell, I have had my beloved Vols trashed, and I have had grammatical skills brutally challenged. But all that comes with the territory, right? What’s most interesting about the negative stuff is that 99% of the time, the commenter will not identify him/herself with an e-mail address or name. Friends ask why I won’t delete the negative stuff. The way I look at it is that if I can’t accept the bad ones, then I have no right to enjoy the good ones.

I have mentioned before that I was very reluctant to start a blog. It was something that RJ had really pushed me to do as sort of a companion to my website. I couldn’t see what connection there really would be to the two. If people were looking for “hot” pictures on the net, they couldn’t care less what the subject has to say. But, I’m glad I did it, because it turns out I was right. Other than my big goofy mug plastered across the screen, and a shared URL, the two are not as related as RJ probably intended. The blog has become a thing of it’s own. It’s way for me to express myself and “talk” to people about things that roll around in this ol’ noggin.

One of the greatest benefits of having done this blog is making the connections I have with people I probably would never have had contact with, otherwise. The numbers are many, and I want to take the time to name a few. I know I’m going to leave someone out, but please accept my apologies in advance. No one is purposely slighted. Many of my fellow bloggers have become great blogging “buddies.” The first of which was Jimmy, who helped me sort out a lot of things about blogging, and provided me with inspiration, good chuckles, and even a few tears (the good kind). Also, among the bloggers I consider buddies there are those that I’ve “known” for some time like Nicky, Moby, Corky, Paul, Rico, Tom, Jack, and Jonah. There are those buddies that I’m just starting to get to know like Curtis, Chad, Knotty, and Hunter. And finally those with whom I have become particularly close: Todd and Zeke. Thanks to you all for a great Freshman year. For those of you who don’t know them, I gotta tell you, it’s a great bunch of guys. If you do know them, then you know what I mean.

In addition to my bloggings buddies, I have to give a shout out and a thanks to at least a part of little circle of regular readers and e-mail friends that have come about in the last year. There’s my “girlfriends” Melissa and Sue, who for some reason put up with all us guys. And Jay and Tonka and Gregg and Michlt and Big18gunz and Oceanian and Dave and Ant and many many more. Lastly, I can’t wrap this up without a mention of Brian B., Kurt, Steve H., and the dynamic duo Len and Rick. You guys are all specia, yet for different reasons and in different ways. In fact, all of you out there reading this blog, whether I named you are not, have been a big factor in helping my in my growth in the last year.

And I feel like I have come a long way. In the past year, mostly through this blog, I have come to terms with a lot of my insecurities and esteem issues. I haven’t completely tackled them yet. But I have made some major progress. I have been able to keep my sanity in stressful moments, by having an outlet to bithc, moan, gripe, laugh, cry with all of you. Perhaps best of all, because you all have stopped in (and actually returned!) I have gotten back into writing again. It was something I had not with any regularity for almost 10 years. I’m not writing anything that’s going to set the literary world on its ear, but at least I’m writing. Because you read, I continue to write, and when I write, it makes me happy. So, what I’m saying is you folks make me happy. Now, if I could type for shit, I would probably be delirious!

In celebration of the one-year anniversary of the blog, I wanted to find a way to connect with many of you in some way. After racking my brain (smell the smoke?) I came up with a nifty little idea. RJ has designed some T-shirts for the website, one of which has the LARGETONY “T” logo on them (like the picture above). I have decided to get one of the shirts and have it pass through the blogging community and then have it come back to me one year from today. I’m calling it “The Shirt Heard ‘Round The World.”

The plan is for the shirt to pass person to person to everyone on my blog roll (and anyone else who would like to take part, for that matter). As each person gets the shirt, he (or she) will put their own personal stamp on the shirt. They can draw on it, write on it, whatever creative thing they want to do. It just has to include their name and blog URL. They then taKe a picture of themselves wearing or holding the shirt, which they will post in an entry on their blog. I will also post a gallery of their pictures so that readers can follow the path of the shirt. After that, each person sends the shirt on to someone else on the list of participants. After a year has gone by, I will post a picture here of me wearing the traveling shirt.

I have contacted everyone on my blog roll and the majority of them have agreed to take part (although there are 2-3 that I’m disappointed that I didn’t hear from. ). If I didn’t contact you, it’s because I don’t have access to your e-mail address. Also, if anyone reading would like to get on the list of participants, just e-mail me.

Hope the second year is as good as the first. I’m ready to cast off the training wheels and plunge down the big hills. Maybe even no hands!

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 1st, 2005 at 2:06 am and is filed under blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.