This is the 1000th blog entry I've posted in the "Irregular Blog". It's been nearly four-and-a-half years since I posted the first entry at http://magree.blogspot.com.
It hasn't been the most popular blog around; it took a long time to even get to over 20 subscribers per day and to get two followers.
I suppose it doesn't matter in the bigger scheme. I've gotten some ideas out of my head. Some of you, if you didn't get new ideas in your head, you might have gotten a little different view of some ideas. I do hope that long-time readers, if any, have had a few "Ah, hah" moments and a few chuckles.
Almost twelve years ago, newly arrived in Duluth and walking around, I was struck with the urge to write more than letters to the editor. I told myself, if you want to write, you have to write.
I did join the Lake Superior Writers Group and wrote a few essays. One was a collection of bear stories, but only Kyle Eller, editor-to-be of the Duluth Budgeteer, was the only one to show up that evening.
I started picking up the Northland Reader, which had ads for writers. I called Richard Thomas, the editor, and he said I should send something in. I sent in "Bear Stories". Lucky me, he published it in the 1999-09-30 issue.
Every few issues, I would send something more and he generally would publish it. Then I started submitting something for every bi-weekly issue. Then the Northland Reader became the Reader Weekly, and I started writing weekly. Then I was bumped down to bi-weekly. My guess is that I had about 160 fans; that is, something like that many people told me they enjoyed the columns.
I think I wrote over 200 articles until I was bumped one too many times.
I posted many of these at my website, http://www.cpinternet.com/~mdmagree and still have a few buried on my hard drive. I also started writing a blog at the same site. Then I discovered Blogger and started writing entries for it.
People often asked me what I wrote about. I replied, "What I damn well please."
I have continued that attitude with this blog. But now I don't have to meet a deadline. Of course, I like to post something everyday, but if I don't, I don't. However, if I want to write two or three entries, I can. I have no space limitation except my readers' attention span.
If you like what I write, please tell your friends.
Here's to the next 1,000 blog entries. No, let's be ambitious, here's to the next 10,000 entries.
