Ten years ago, I started blogging. Literally: the first post to appear on my first blog — hosted by a small press called TNI Books, now sadly defunct — was dated November 19, 2000.

Looking back at it, I find myself laughing and cringing in equal measure. It looks about like what it is: the writings of an overly earnest guy prone to digressions, prone to oversharing, prone to a deep enthusiasm about books and music.

In the fall of 2000, I was halfway between freaked-out and elated: I started blogging between dot-com job no.1 (duration: seventeen months) and dot-com job no.2 (duration: three months). The first post on my blog came days before my first trip out to the Northwest: five days in Seattle and two in Portland that still resonate with me. (It’s one of the reasons I’m eventually getting  some representation of the Steel Bridge tattooed on my arm — though whether that’s tattoo no.2 or no.3 is, at this point, still unclear.)

Ultimately, it’s those first few words that still set the tone, and that still bring a smile to my face.

2:06 AM right now. Red Forty’s discography is on the stereo.

It’s a start.

(And every once in a while, something like this, its timestamp suggesting I was blogging well after 4 in the morning:

aol just crashed on me.
this is the essence of what I was trying to say in a rather legnthy  [sic] post which is lost now: Portland is very, very nice. Trying to find non-chilled Henry’s Dark in Portland is kind of a nightmare. But it’s possible.

And that, too, warms a fella’s heart.)

This whole strange system of — if I might borrow Blogger’s onetime slogan — “push-button publishing” has been good to me. I’ve made friends, learned new things, had questions answered, given license to explore. Here’s to the next ten, whatever they may hold.