One candle

Babble on.

I know it seems like I've been droning on forever, but as it turns out, it's only been a year. A year today, in fact.

Blogging is a strange hobby. It's like having a mosquito bite that you can't stop scratching; one that never goes away. I've discovered much this past year, but one thing in particular surprised me. I don't always enjoy the writing process, and I'm rarely completely satisfied with what I write. I'm regularly frustrated by online research that goes nowhere, and by a shortage of time to address certain subjects in the detail and depth they deserve. All the peripheral baggage that goes with blogging - trolls, technical glitches, lost posts, policing comments, and the rest of it - swarms around my head like a cloud of gnats, a distraction I don't want or need. But in spite of all of that, to my surprise, I've found that I need to write.

Thanks to all who have inspired this binary scribbling. I've said it to most of you individually over the course of the past year, but I want to say it again.

And thanks to all who read. I've had 63,404 unique visits in my first twelve months. Some of you have supported me, some have challenged me, and all of you have let me know by your simple presence that I'm not just yelling into a great, dark void.

Hopefully, I've done the same for you. And if I haven't...well, I'm going to keep trying, and we'll see how things work out: even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile. Wish me luck.

Babble off.