Ten Years of Blogging

Photo from the 10th anniversary celebration held last night.

Today marks the tenth anniversary of this blog. This is the 1,164th post. Originally the blog was titled Riku Writes, which in retrospect was a dumb name. I don't recall exactly when I changed the name although at some point I could dig through the archives and come up with a date.

For the first several years I wrote mostly about movies and sometimes my posts were linked on the IMDb. I wrote about old films and new films. I made lists of particular kinds of films. Gangster films, Westerns, Pre-Code films etc. I wrote about particular directors, actors, years. I wrote about movie villains, movies with train scenes, I wrote about great lines in films. Then I stopped. There were three reasons: I had a tendency to liberally garnish my film writings with adjectives. Many of the same ones over and over again. Classic, masterpiece, compelling, brilliant etc. I tired of this and it betrayed a weakness in my writing. The second reason was that I ran out of interesting things to say about films. Still today I'll come up with an idea for a film related piece and soon realize that I already wrote about it. The final reason is that I found other topics more interesting to write about.

Several years back I started writing short stories and they have started to make up a sizable portion of what I post. I've also increasingly used this blog as a confessional. I write about past misdeeds, particularly those related to those days when I abused alcohol and drugs. I also write a lot about my struggles with mental illness, particularly depression. These kind of writings have been most therapeutic in a way that a diary could never be. Something about "putting it out there" for the world to see is refreshing and liberating and I flatter myself that a few people who also deal with depression or addiction have found some measure of comfort in reading about another person's inner battles. I've also utilized this blog to write about my youth and my family. I hope that my progeny can learn a little about my life and previous generations through this blog. Also I've written a great deal about teaching, an occupation I've been in for over 30 years. In fact, my three part series on advice for aspiring teachers has been used by my current employers.

This blog has been great for venting, whether about the horrors of commuting or politics in the age of Trumpie ,or the types of social missteps one is daily exposed to, be it idiots riding bicycles on sidewalks or louts hanging their dirty socks in the gym sauna. I've shared highs and lows here. It's been a travelogue and it has also been where I've shared my sorrow over  the passing of friends and relatives. My brother, two good friends, a former colleague and a former student have all died since I started this blog and I've been privileged to honor them as best I could on this blog.

I'm proud of much of what I've written but I strongly suspect that after I retire and I review all my posts I'll do a lot of wincing too. I feel safe in assuming that many of my old writings will enter the cyber trash bin. I may be at 1,164 posts now but at some point that number might actually shrink.

This blog also inspired a spin off, Sandwiches of Despair, my poetry blog.

For the best of this blog see the label Favorite Posts over on the right hand side.

I conclude here by re-printing my first ever post. It seems quaint given that all that has followed, but in my life it is a historic piece having launched this blog that means so very much to me.

                                                  NOT PRETENTIOUS

At the Safeway check out counter there was a book called," An Idiot's Guide to Nascar." Here's my question: Who else would want a guide to Nascar?  

I am about to go read some F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories. Telling you this along with my jab at Nascar perhaps seems pretentious. I can't help that. It's actually far worse to edit your life in order not to seem some way than it is to be that way in the first place.  

Hey, before going to the store I watched the latest episode of "The Simpsons" and a chunk of my day was taken up with baseball so I do indeed have the common touch.  

First blog post completed.