Happy Blogiversary to US

This humble blog first appeared 10 years ago on June 1, 2004.  Cleverly titled, "At the Beginning" Unsolicited Opinion's initial post promised "interesting commentary on events".  One thousand six hundred eight posts (not counting this one) later, I definitely lived up to the commentary part.  Events varied in significance--from war, economics and culture to rants and bike rides.  Whether it's been at all interesting is your call.


The early years at Unsolicited Opinion featured many more long form essays than these days.  Back then I had more time to read and comment on other blogs which stimulated my own thoughts.  I particularly enjoyed the writing since it helps me clarify and understand my thinking.  More recently, working full time in a job that involves a fair amount of computer work and writing leaves me disinclined to spend even more time on a computer during my non-employment hours.  I still write and use a computer outside of my job but I keep it limited.

All that said, expect more of the same on whatever schedule I maintain from here on out.  Most of all, thank you to all who have visited, commented, linked, or otherwise noted his humble blog in the past decade. 

Welcome

A new blog, This Crowded Skin,  showed up on the list of referring URLs today.  I checked it out and see that the writer is a woman from a location in British Columbia that does not appear on Google maps or Mapquest (her profile does say "almost the middle of nowhere").

A quick skim of recent posts finds her in the early stages of learning violin.  She also kindly lists this humble blog on her side bar for which I am very grateful.  If I were a more technically accomplished blogger, I would do the same.

I can say, "Thank you."

Credit Where Credit is Due

Two days from now, on June 1 to be exact, this humble blog will celebrate its eighth anniversary.  Unsolicited Opinion may be a backwater in blogtopia (ysctp!) but it is a long-lasting.  Eight years is a long time in internet years so I take a certain amount of pride in keeping the show going, despite low traffic.  I write because I want to say things and publishing forces me to clarify my thoughts.  If I were doing it for the recognition or high traffic volume, this site would have been dead a long time ago.

Although traffic here is miniscule by Big Box Blog standards, it has been picking up of late.  May will be the third month in a row that more than 400 visitors stopped by.  May's total might even top 500.  My average daily traffic has inched up from the high single digits to the mid-teens.  A large part of that growth is due to links on other blogs, especially on The Galloping Beaver where each post on Unsolicited Opinion appears on their masthead until it is superseded by other blog posts.  Some days virtually all of my traffic comes through TGB.  I'm especially pleased that a fine Canadian blog recognizes me.  I'm hardly the only US blog on their masthead but I am pleased to show our neighbors to the north that all Americans are not batshit crazy.

Three other blogs, Herlander Refugee, Disaffected and It Feels So Good, and Under the LobsterScope are also feature my most recent post on their masthead the same.  I see them show up occasionally as a referral source.  I appreciate the recognition and have added all three to my blogroll.  I guess the truly proper thing would be to figure out how to return the favor and show their most recent posts on my masthead but at the moment I don't know how that is done.  Regardless, a blog with readership in the mid-teens is unlikely to generate much in the way of traffic.

In all ways, I appreciate the support of fellow bloggers and am happy to return the favor.

Happy Blogiversary

Mimus Pauly at Mockingbird's Medley is celebrating the third anniversary of his blog. Not only is Mimus a thoughtful, articulate blogger, he had the perspicacity to invite yours truly, among others, to join The Medley as a co-blogger. I have enjoyed the opportunity to post there and to read contributions by my fellow co-bloggers, BadTux the Snarky Penguin, The CultureGhost, Michael Hawkins, Rainbow Demon, Scorpio and skippy the bush kangaroo who, of course, is known for coining the phrases "blogtopia" and "blogiversary".

As part of the celebration, Mimus is posting the "Best of The Medley" this week, including his own "I'm Not A Clinically Insane Bastid, But I Play One On the Internets..." as well as highlighting some of the contributors' posts.

Three years of blogging is hard. Many blogs don't last but Mimus has shown he can continue to offer ideas and opinions in a very penetrating manner. If you look through his archives, you can even learn how a print shop works.

Congratulations, Mimus, and thanks.

A Referral

How one visitor arrived here.

More Milestones

Milestones are better than kidney stones. I've had two of the latter, the last now fortunately ten years past. The milestones are still happening, though. Last month saw another spike in traffic. Unsolicited Opinion had over 600 visitors in March. (I'm coming up behind you, Kos, any decade now.) March was the third straight increase in traffic and my average daily vists have more than tripled over last year. The end of March also witnessed my first extended comment string. All of this is pretty small potatoes in the blogtopian (yes! skippy coined the root of this phase!) universe but it tells me that my words and ideas are circulating and being read. Always satisfying to this writer. I even met fellow blogger, Minstrel Boy for breakfast in March. He's only the second blogger I've met in person outside of YearlyKos last year.

Beyond blogging, March was the 25th anniversary of moving from Richmond, Virginia to Phoenix, Arizona. Ten years ago in March I moved to the Navajo capital in Window Rock, Arizona. I am often caustic and skeptical about the city where I've ended up but I have no regrets about moving here. Leaving Virginia was difficult. I had never lived anywhere else and the idea of giving up everything I knew scared and saddened me. But I came here anyway and found much that I recognized, many new friends and a whole new world. I had always thought of the desert as a forbidding, desolate place. Living in Arizona quickly disabused me of that notion. The Sonoran Desert, which stretches from Phoenix south into Mexico is one of the most beautiful, striking places I have ever lived. It harbors an amazing array of plant and animal life. The night sky is like nothing I have ever seen in my life.

I never planned to stay in Phoenix. It was a stop along the way that turned out to be far more interesting than I had anticipated. I met my life partner, Maggie, and in those first months. Work was interesting. I went hiking whenever and wherever I could with the Central Arizona Backpackers. I explored much of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado Plateau and so many of Arizona's remote mountains and canyons: the Mazatzals, Pinelenos, Galiuros, Chiricauhuas. As a photographer, I met many artists and poets. When I did leave, I went to northeast Arizona and discovered a whole new set of adventures and friends.

Not a bad set of milestones on this first day of April 2007.

More Blogrolling

Ever since the Great Blogroll Massacre at Daily Kos I've been spending more time reading smaller blogs instead. Among the blogs I've been reading are The Needs of the Few by Evil Spock, Blue Gal and Shakespeare's Sister so I figured it's time to add them to my highly valuable blogroll.

Give 'em a visit.

Milestones

This humble blog achieved a few milestones this week. In addition to the Carnival of the Liberals, I recorded my 3,000th visitor since adding a sitemeter in February 2006. Not exactly a significant volume in the world of big box blogs but welcome nonetheless. February was the second record setting month in a row--over 800 visitors dropped by in the past two months. And this blog is now averaging about 20 hits per day. At this rate traffic should be into the middle two digits in a year or so.

One of our visitors this past week was notable. After posting this piece on my meeting with Representative Shadegg, someone from the US House of Representatives checked it out three times in short succession, spending 18 minutes during one visit before clicking over to my profile. Here's hoping that what the visitor found there reinforces the message our group delivered to Rep. Shadegg last week. On the other hand, I'm probably on some sort of watch list which more than likely puts me in good company.

Speaking of company, courtesy of Kindea, I have learned that Unsolicited Opinion is a "C-List Blogger" based on the number of links in the past six months. I have some good company, including Evil Spock, Harp and Sword and Whole Wheat Radio.


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As long as we're talking abour ratings, Technorati ranks Unsolicited Opinion at 297,641 in blogtopia (y!sctp!) based on links. Pretty far down the list but it's a damn big list with over 50 million blogs in 2006. That puts this blogtopian backwater in the top one percent. I'll go with that.

So there you have the fruits of almost three years of blogging. I'm not making any money at it but I am having fun and, most important, I have the opportunity to put my ideas and opinions out for anyone to see.

Carnival of Liberals 33

Your host has been recognized in the Carnival of Liberals 33 at Blue Gal. Always glad to be noticed.

Check out the other entries, too. Evil Spock, whom I have endorsed for president in 2012 is there. So is Doctor Biobrain with a very thoughtful piece on foreign policy.

All the entries I've read so far are good and I am honored to be in their company. It's a good way to see part of blogtopia (y!sctp!) that you might otherwise miss.

Besides, where else will you find results given in limerick form?


[Update 03.02.07: I omitted the link to Evil Spock's Carnival entry in the original post. It's there now.]

Blogroll Update

Please welcome to our blogroll, Any Which Way written by Scroff. I've recently come to this blog via Alternate Brain and found not only the kind of thinking I care to be associated with but also a link to this obscure site. I am proudly returning the favor.

Blog Rolling, Rolling Along

The brouhaha over blogrolling ignited when Kos purged his The DailyKos blogroll has produced some spirited responses, most notably skippy and Maryscott O'Connor. skippy, in particular, has taken his blog in the opposite direction from Kos and will now list every blog that links to him. Since I've linked to skippy since I put up my first blogroll, I am now part of what no doubt will be the biggest blogroll in blogtopia (and Yes! skippy coined that phrase).

All this discussion of blogrolls got me to thinking about my own roll, which is pretty modest. It also doesn't amount to a hill of beans to be listed here since my average of 12 to 15 daily visitors is nothing compared to skippy or Maryscott who get about 1800 hits per day, which in turn pales next to Kos with somewhere around half a million hits each day. Rather than generating traffic to sites I like, I see my blogroll as acknowledging other good sites, some of which I read regularly and others that I visit occasionally.

With that in mind, I updated my roll today and added a few more names. Two are regular stops for me. Harp and Sword is home to Minstrel Boy who writes on an ecclectice variety of topics including politics, food and music. His post on knife fighting is a chilling reminder of war's bloody reality. BadTux the Snarky Penguin writes on an equally wide range of issues and is a fellow re contributor to Mockingbird's Medley, where I also post. The other additons to the roll are my fellow contributors at Mockingbird's: The CultureGhost, Spontaneous Arising, Coffee House Studio and Eccentricity. I stop in at these less frequently but always find something interesting. I think I got all the correct links. If you find any that don't work, leave me a comment and I'll make the needed change.

I'm not inclined to delete blogs unless I find that they have somehow become something I no longer want to associate with or if they stop blogging all together. No "amnesty" here at Unsoliticed Opinion.

Oh yeah, I updated this site to Blogger. Once I saw that Mockingbird had gone over, I couldn't handle the discrepancy on my dashboard.

So there you have it. We now return you to regular programming.