On December 18th, 2007 this blog rolled past the one year mark. It has been a remarkable year of learning and growing. After one year, I still have miles to go but three key aspects of the past year stand out as worth sharing about:
- I’ve made some kind and talented friends through blogging.
- After that, the technical “self-schooling” on Wordpress and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) has been broadening and satisfying.
- Finally, evolving my own blog-style of writing and routine makes me feel accomplished.
Making friends on the internet is a funny animal. I’ve had Giraffes, Zebras, Warthogs, Lions, and turtles (and so many others). What counts are those who’ve lasted. People who read www.postcardsfromthefunnyfarm.com after a year are my true “compadres” and if you’re reading this out there, you know who you are … thanks for hangin’ out and reading this blog. The main reason I keep this blog is as a pipeline to new friendships. May they continue in 2008.
Learning CSS has been the most profound aspect of my first year blogging. To many out there, blogging is just about picking a theme and writing regularly. For me it’s more about aesthetics and being a graphic artist. I started out with a minimal theme called “cub-reporter” and went through hundreds of subsequent theme experiments. I’ve settled at the year mark on a one-column theme. In my opinion, the sidebars just clutter the presentation. I use CSS styling that I have taught myself through examining others’ work. I can make every post fit in a category “look” through using it. I’ve also become a serious student of the Wordpress.org platform. Wordpress.com is a busniess that requires payment to be tweaked. I pay my 6 bucks a month for hosting and that’s the limit for me. Wordpress.org is a database driven set of pages and templates that can be added to any domain. There has been some confusion with my readers going to Wordpress.com thinking that is the one I am praising. It’s ok, but nothing as flexible and fun as Wordpress.org. oh what a difference an extension can make! I am happier with my blog’s appearance now than I ever have been but it took me a lot of trial and error to get here. Those who have followed my since the beginning can attest to that.
Finally, I have built a platform for my content that I enjoy. My friend Nick Mercer calls his blog “an old friend.” That’s how I feel. There is a comfort level I enjoy now that I didn’t have before. My blog is a tumblelog/blog hybrid. By that, I mean I post snippets of stuff I run across every day on the web as well as longer, elaborate posts. This may sound like a simple mission statement, but it took me a year to be able to understand the parameters of what I do here and what the value of the blog should be to me. It’s a place I feel at home in. Every day I browse the web, emails, and the news to make posts. I examine my life and reflect on the crucial stuff to hopefully make interesting posts. I started this blog with the domain “Riley Central,” wanting to have a place where all my online stuff “came together.” After a year I have chosen to give the blog an evolved and more trendy name, “Postcards from the Funny Farm.” You can interpret this any way you like. In a nutshell, I have experienced utter craziness in my life of 38 years. This world will drive you crazy if you let it. My posts here come from a place of surrender. I’m not trying to impress anyone or make money off stupid ads. This is my raw art in the form of a blog. I think when we try to appear “sane” all the time in our choices of what to post or write, we become conformist. I hereby declare myself a non-conformist: mentally, socially, spiritually (yes I believe in a spirit … even in this atheist infested place called the web!) Having said that, I welcome any atheists to read my blog, it’s just the snotty ones I request stay home.
I wanted to write a meaningful post for my year anniversary. I guess I’ll end with two thoughts that I might offer a new blogger just starting along their way:
First: Just write at first. Forget categories. Forget themes. Just write. You can’t sort laundry until you have articles of clothing out of the dryer. You can figure out what to keep later and where to put it away.
Second: Prepare to change your style, look, title, topics, attitude, on a daily basis. People will complain about how much you may change, but just take it with a grain of salt. You’ll never know what you can be as a writer/blogger until you experiment, risk, and try. If you want perfection and stasis at first, you need another hobby.
Happy anniversary to me, and thanks again to my readers. I hope you’ll enjoy coming here as much as I do in 2008.
-or- 
I'm Damien Riley, author and teacher. Here you'll find "think outside the box" posts on psychology and inspiration. 
