10:39 – Barbara is still cleaning up, inside and out. I’m doing year-end stuff, working on my submission for the SPARK competition, and thinking about new science kits for 2014.
I happened across an article the other day that mentioned early blogs, so I checked Wikipedia and found an entry on early bloggers. It mentioned Jerry Pournelle, of course, but not me. Jerry’s and my current blog archives both go all the way back to June 1998. The difference is, that’s when Jerry–who proclaims his site as “The Original Blog”–actually started blogging. I’d been keeping my journal page for years before that, but those pre-6/98 entries are no longer on-line. From the time I registered the ttgnet.com domain in February 1995, I posted entries/articles at least several times a week, and often daily. Before that, I ran a Gopher server, and before that I ran a multi-line bulletin board system, both with frequent journal entries. All told, I’ve been “blogging” for perhaps 25 years.
For the last 15 years, I’ve posted nearly every day, and many days I’ve made multiple posts. Call it a minimum of 5,000 blog-days. In the 10 years before that, I posted less frequently but not all that less frequently. Call it a minimum of 100 days per year, or another 1,000 blog-days. Alas, those pre-1995 entries are probably gone forever. I suspect I still have the 2/95 through 6/98 entries archived locally somewhere. Perhaps I should dig them out and put them back up on the Internet. I suspect there’s no other blogger on the planet who can match my record of longevity and consistency. And yet I’m hardly ever mentioned when someone writes about early bloggers.
Jerry’s blog goes way back before 1998. His Byte column was more a blog than a column, it was just published monthly in dead tree format. I remember reading Jerry’s column every month in the college library, and that would put it back into the early 1980’s. Actually, I remember walking to the drug store to buy a copy of Byte to read Jerry’s column, and that was back in the day when my computer had a 1 Mhz CPU and 8K of memory.
Well, on that basis you could count H. L. Mencken as a blogger. Mark Twain or Bat Masterson, for that matter.
1. Become a lesbian woman. Preferably black, hispanic, or some other useful ethnic minority. It would help if you have some unusual but not at all threatening religion.
2. Form a grievance committee (it’s fine if you’re the only member) and start lobbying legislators and sending out press releases. Point out the fact that Jerry Pournelle, a white, Christian man, is acknowledged but you, a lesbian woman of whatever ethnicity and religion, have been shuffled off to obscurity.
3. Profit!
Sorry Bob, I am betting that Jerry Pournelle has sold a few more books than you. Like 15 million or so (serious SWAG on my part). And the excellent Byte column (I too would read Byte just for his column).
You need to write a book like _Lucifers Hammer_ and watch them come flooding in. I just noticed that you cannot buy it anymore in airport bookstores (but it had a 30 year run) and apparently that is the sign of success for any author.
http://www.amazon.com/Lucifers-Hammer-Jerry-Pournelle/dp/0449208133/
I actually think that _Footfall_ is better, but, what do I know?
http://www.amazon.com/Footfall-Larry-Niven/dp/0345323440/
Preferably black, hispanic, or some other useful ethnic minority
Comanche, Navajo or Ute. Wait, Seminole! Too many Cherokee walking around (my wife is 1/4). Just claim it, nobody will check you:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/09/27/the-fight-over-elizabeth-warrens-heritage-explained/
[snip] Become a lesbian woman. Preferably black, hispanic, or some other useful ethnic minority. It would help if you have some unusual but not at all threatening religion. [snip]
A handicap of some sort would be a big plus. Ms. Quadriplegic Lesbian Eskimo wouldn’t even have to actually post anything to be hailed as a success. A Brilliant New Voice!!
It would be utterly unfair to expect Ms. Quadriplegic Lesbian Eskimo to post anything. She has ADHD and cannot sit still long enough to write more than one sentence at a time.