Today marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of Bark Bark Woof Woof.
A lot has happened since that Saturday afternoon when I hesitantly clicked the “Publish Post” button and came up with this first post. Back then I was living in a little apartment out by Miami’s Metrozoo, and I was looking forward to getting Howard Dean nominated and then elected as president in 2004. Since then I have put up over 8,000 posts, all written by me (one exception; Brian wrote a “he’s okay” post for me during a hurricane in 2005). Since then I’ve moved twice, changed job assignments once, lost a car, came up with a merchandising plan, made it to off-off-Broadway, and made a lot of friends. Indeed, I cannot begin to list the people who have made a deep and lasting impression on me as both a writer and a person. I’ve also been honored to be asked to contribute to some very important and impressive blogs, including Shakesville and The Reaction. And of course a lot has changed in our world in the last five years for good and for ill, including the amazing election that happened five days ago. I feel blessed to be here to see it.
Some things haven’t changed. This is the same template that I launched with five years ago (although plans are in the works for a remodel), and I still try to not take things too seriously. I know I’m not a big blogger in terms of site hits — as of this morning, SiteMeter reports 282,538 visitors since November 8, 2003 — but I didn’t get into this to be a big dog with 4 million visitors and 400 comments on each post. To this day I don’t think Atrios, Andrew Sullivan, or Josh Marshall know I exist, and that’s okay. I like being a little dog — like Sam.
I owe a lot of thanks to you, the readers who stop by and read my meanderings, endure my bad puns, and put up with my occasional rants and silliness. You are the ones who get the credit — or the blame — for keeping me going.
So, let’s keep going. What’s next?