Happy Anniversary!

    This coming Monday, AOL Journals will be celebrating their Three-Year Anniversary, and apparently, according to Vivian, there seems to be lots and lots of celebratory goodiness going on to mark this special day.  I recommend heading over to her journal in order to stay informed on these things.

 

    Now, I've only been doing this journal thing since late February of this year, so, as a noob, I don't know if I'm actually all that qualified to really participate in the festivities, but, since I'm here, I might as well say one or two things about my impressions of AOL Journals, the overall journaling process, and the reasons why I chose such an odd medium as a means in which to broadcast my insanity.

 

    I have to admit, AOL Journals is ridiculously easy to use.  I mean, even in spite of the occasional outburst of chronic keyboard dyslexia, the ability to simply type on endlessly and hit save to post these thoughts for all to see seems almost TOO easy sometimes.  And, to think that anyone upon this planet with an internet connection and a little time to kill can simply go to a search engine, type in the typo "DPoem" and find all this chatter from me is freakishly intimidating.  For all I know, some guy sitting on a rock in the Gobi Desert is reading this as he bogarts his stockpile of yogurt and tends to his estate of sand and dirt.  Someday, he may read this and tell his wife, "Honey?  I want my cheese deep fried from now on, or I am going to leave you and move to Wisconsin where they deep-fry everything and even the mosquitoes have a binge-drinking problem." 

 

    Anyway, along the way I've learned all sorts of nifty tips and tricks, and I'm pretty sure that I'd start to develop some very suspicious troubles with my AOL account if I didn't mention that pretty much every trick I learned these last six months came from the exceptionally helpful Journal Editor Joe and his ever growing list of useful tips and pointers designed to make the ridiculously easy even easier. 

 

    And, since I'm doing shout-outs, I should say that for everything Joe does to help us make these things work, AOL's also got Blogger John Scalzi to help give us all something to actually put on these pages.  John's been blogging since long before it was even called blogging, and I can't even count how many times I've meandered my way around his entries to find something to spin my mind in the write direction. 

 

    Obviously, the whole Journals team isn't simply limited to those two.  But, without Joe and John, I'd be a lot more confused than I already am, and I'm pretty certain that I'd have been institutionalized after my first few entries.  Of course, that threat still exists, but at least now I can point to a legitimate source of inspiration for my madness. 

 

    As it stands, I know I've not exactly been updating as frequently as I used to.  I think that somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind still exists a sort of schoolboy mentality that demands I get out and enjoy this last month of summer vacation before September rolls around, and I've got to get back to work.  In other words, August is not for thinking about anything other than nice days on the beach and lazy afternoons.  Hey!  Don't blame me.  Blame the freakin' monks who created this calendar. 

 

    On top of that, I've also been working and writing.  And, I'm pretty sure by the time June rolls around, you're all going to be sick and tired of hearing me plug my book.  Of course, I'm not like John Scalzi who, it seems, can write a novel while standing in his kitchen waiting for a freakin' Pop Tart to cook in his toaster. 

 

    Finally, I think I've covered everything I wanted to say.  I hope you've all enjoyed reading this journal as much as I've enjoyed writing it.  So, thanks again AOL for giving a guy who's got a lot to say a place in which to say it, and congratulations on three years. 

 

     Now, here's the deadly, man-eating Chupacabra:

Tag: AOL Journals Anniversary