So That's Life?

Somewhere around the turn of the new millennium, (for the numerically challenged out there, the last millennium ended 12/31/2000 since there is no year ZERO) the web world was clearly divided into those who could control web sites and those who created content. The former were masters of hand-coded HTML, design tools like DreamWeaver and (gag!) FrontPage, script coders of all flavors, and tweakers of Apache, IIS, and even Zope. They had the necessary skills to manage content created by the lowly minions who only wrote and drew!

OK, maybe this distinction wasn’t especially clear. I tended to be in the former group, having been raised on servers and server software. However, there came a point when the plethora of software induced me into an impromptu Linda Blair impersonation from The Exorcist. While putting my head on straight, I realized that I had been booted into the lower level of hell known as “content developer”. Today, I can say this tongue-in-cheek, but back then, webmasters held a steady gaze down the pointy bridge of their nose at those pesky writers and artists who had to be accommodated. I knew that any talents I might have lay in wordsmithing and not binding books.

I distinctly remember spending countless days learning how to build a webpage that collected articles and displayed them in chronological order from a database. Inevitably, I would have missed some key command and everything would look like blind monkeys had stolen my keyboard and typed my prose in a fit of fermented banana juice rage! There had to be an easier way…

…And then, out of the darkness, there was a new buzz word on the lips of every wannabe geek-beat reporter: web log. Web log this, web log that, web log here, and web log there. Everywhere you looked, someone was writing about a web log. For those of you not born until my graduation gown was moth eaten, this term evolved into the blog of today.

It was a miracle. I didn’t need to code HTML, I didn’t have to create a database to hold content and metadata, and most importantly… I didn’t “need no stinkin‘ webmaster” to allow me to put content on the Internet. Although there are many flavors out there, WordPress was my first and thus favorite blogging tool. I was free to generate my text in any word processing tool, then copy and paste it to a shiny new blog of my naming and my (color-scheme-challenged) design. I owned every process from start to finish and, best of all, it was free!

My first and only serious blog was the Hawaii Election Watch that had a short run during the election season of 2004. If I remember correctly, it was a grueling 7-week run of daily posts on all things political. It was basically like writing a mini term paper every day of the week but it was a labor of love. Of course, I had no idea how to promote it and any new readership was through sheer luck and the generosity of a certain proprietor of the Hawaii Blog. I peaked at around 120 hits per day and was un-naturally ecstatic at each increase.

Since 2004, the blog tools have only become easier to use and readership easier to promote. Anyone willing to commit  words to monitor (or be committed) can create and maintain a blog page for any topic they desire. There have been some nasty permutations such as anonymous blogs without comment capability that are used to slander people and organizations. Also, there are the celebrity blogs that are just a mean, nasty, fact-challenged, and popular. I guess it’s the price we pay for having a tool that the good folk of the websphere can utilize to bring their unique perspectives to the world.

And thus, “So That’s Life?” was born

(For those of you enjoying the classic rock theme of my posts, you can look forward to “I’s Without a Facebook” and “Tweet Emotion” in the coming days)