Eight Years Deep : The Blog Birthday Post

This blog is now 8 years old. A lot of blogs have come and gone during that time. I can’t think of too many sites I used to like 8 years ago that is still around and if they are they are not the same.  Other than the 50 different template designs I have chosen over the years I think I’ve been pretty consistent.  I tried a few website word counters to see just how many words I have written on this page. I didn’t come up with a good total but I am guessing there are thousands of words that featuring my thoughts, struggles, comedy, pain, tragedy, pride, and all the other aspects that make life what it is. Some of it was real good. A few of them were real wack. I'm sure there's a few things I shouldn't have posted. Hopefully someone got some entertainment or enlightenment from it. 

Besides getting to know some cool people and opening doors to do things like a segment on CNN, the one thing I have gotten from doing this is a higher respect for people who write professionally.  It’s one thing for a person to keep a journal or a notepad at their house to scribble their thoughts in from time to time. That’s private and personal. If things went south for me or I said something I shouldn’t have on this blog I could always hit the delete button and get rid of the words or the entire blog altogether if I needed it.  It’s a whole other level to express how you feel about something, entertain people with it, take their criticism, then shake that off and do it all over again. This is especially true in the Twitter age where I see writers take a beating from the public and yet they keep putting things out there.  I have admiration for everyone who does that even the ones I don’t agree with.

I was going to let the Crib retire but I can’t do it until I sit on my porch 100 times and this Saints season is over. The Post Bounty-gate season will be too interesting not to have something to say about it. In honor of my eight year anniversary I want to give everyone eight things to use for blogging and life.

1.    Never react to the first version of a news story when you see it on the Internet. The rush to be first to break a story means that some of the details may be missing at the beginning. Wait at least 24 hours when all the facts are there.

2.    Never assume you have reached an age where the things people do should make sense. Stupidity doesn’t have an age limit.

3.    Unless you have enough resources to live and support your family, never say anything that will cause you to lose your job unless talking about certain things is your job. That’s not selling out. That’s being realistic.

4.    You may be the only person around that feels strongly about something the way you do and that has to be okay.

5.    Putting your favorite Internet model’s name in multiple blog post hoping one day she would be vain enough and Google herself, scroll through the results, see your page, then send you an email so you could become friends doesn’t work.  If Buffie sends me an email later we’ll just take this one out.

6.    You never know who is watching, reading, or listening to what you say and do. Make sure those things reflect who you are and what you stand for as much as possible.

7.    You can never place a high enough value on having good friends and having a good reputation.

8.    As much as you try to fight time I can’t. You can’t go back in time and you can’t stop it from going forward. All you can do is make the best of what’s going on right now and try to make the future better.