anniversary – Jason Griffey

1500

This post is the 1500th here at Pattern Recognition, a monstrous amount of content by any measure, and easily the longest writing project I’ve been a part of. The first post to my blog was on February 10, 2003…2858 days ago. That’s better than 1 post every two days, or conversely, half a post a day, every day, for almost 8 years. I decided to dig in and see how many words this thing has. The number left me gobsmacked: 189,299…at least 3 decently sized novels worth of text.

Blogging has been very, very kind to me over the last decade. From the early days when a post about my Master’s Paper was picked up by BoingBoing, to being asked by Karen Schneider to take part in a panel about library blogging at ALA Annual 2006 in New Orleans. Another member of that panel was Karen Coombs, and it was after that presentation that she and I were approached to write Library Blogging. Being introduced to Karen C. and working with her on the book was how I met Michelle Boule, and the three of us joined forces to create the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase in 2007. The vast majority of any success that I’ve had in my career, I owe in part to these three amazing librarians.

So happy 1500th post to this crazy blog. It’s been on BoingBoing 4 times, made the Digg homepage once, and has generally been the place I’ve gone to vent, to think, to critique, and to speak my mind on all sorts of things. My attention may have wandered to other pastures (thanks, ALA TechSource and Perpetual Beta) but the home for my writing is here.

Thanks to everyone who has ever read my writing, and thanks to those for whom Pattern Recognition was my introduction. I hope that I can write another of these at 2000, 2500, and 3000 posts.

Missed my Blogoversary

Given my infrequency of posting, its obvious that I’ve been a little busy lately. Mostly it’s been Eliza based, but work is also nuts. This time of year is crazy, and you pile working 3 days a week instead of 5 AND building a new library…well, its a little slice of insanity.

I’ve been so nuts that I completely missed my 5 year Blogoversary!

February 10th, 2003, after an inauspicious start, I started blogging. Five years, 1241 posts, and 1445 comments later, and it’s still going strong. Over the course of those years, I’ve been featured on BoingBoing four times, Digg once, highlighted by the ALA, and it’s led to an enormous amount of opportunity for me.

Pattern Recognition also led directly to being invited to write a book on Library Blogging, which will at long last be out this Spring. Another writing opportunity has presented itself as well, which will be announced in the next few weeks…I’m not at liberty to say quite yet, but if you want to read what I have to say, you’ll have at least one more place you can be sure to see me in 2008.

Most of the above isn’t thanks to anything special I’ve done, but instead thanks to the readers and comments on Pat Rec…thanks to everyone who takes time from their day to read me. I appreciate it more than I can adequately express, and hope that you’re getting some value for your time.

All in all, this crazy blog has done a lot for me. Here’s hoping the next 5 years are as auspicious as the last!