Two years ago today, I started blogging. Happy Blogiversary to me! I’m just about due for a mid-blogging crisis. So I hope you will understand if I take a break from new material to be completely self-centered today. This past year I went from being an unemployed disc jockey to being a full-time professional blogger. I wrote about what that's like, in case you're interested. It’s not this site that’s paying my bills, in fact, it takes several sites to do that (and then just barely)! But this blog led me to the others I contribute to, and this is still home base for me. Indulge me now as I post a timeline of the history of Miss Cellania.

 
August 22, 2005 was the date of my first post on Miss Cellania. I didn’t tell anyone about it for several days, unti l got the hang of things with the Tomatoes post.

One of the first things I ran into blogging was dealing with real-world news events. It was Katrina, and if you ignored it, you were ignoring life. But what could I say that thousands of others hadn’t said already? My friend Dawn in Lafayette helped out by sending reports of how the flooding in New Orleans affected her hometown.

Images of Katrina (When the Levee Breaks)

Jan 4 2006 I lost access to Blogger. I couldn’t see my site or anyone else’s. I could still post, but the only way I could see the published product was to go to the template preview. This got old really fast. After months of trying to get help from Blogger Support, I gave up and looked for a new host.

April 2006 Alex at Neatorama tagged me for a meme, so I responded by writing about Kentucky, and was featured at  Neatorama’s followup.

May 8, 2006 I started posting at Squarespace. I had bought a hosting package and a domain only a few days earlier, and was testing the waters. I had hoped to continue at Blogger for at least a couple more weeks, but the html fairies must’ve conspired against me because I was forced to go live the next day.

May 9, 2006 I lost all ability to blog when my Blogger site froze. Ironically, the last post, the one that stayed on top for months, was about how you can tell when a blog is going downhill. I could not post a redirect, so most of my visitors thought I had died or quit or something. My redirect was finally posted months later, with help from Saskboy, but I predated it so it would make sense.

July 2006 YesButNoButYes recruited me to join their group of authors. I jumped at the chance, since I’d been a fan of the site for some time. You can find an archive of my YesButNoButYes posts here.

August 15, 2006 I co-blogged with Neatorama on Toilets.

August 22, 2006 was my first Blogiversary. I celebrated it by posting some of the my weirder incarnations courtesy of various generators.

August 23, 2006 I posted the exclusive video, Computer Trap Shoot, a short produced by my brother. It got a lot of traffic, but I got a lesson in what it’s like to pay for the bandwidth of hosting a video. A year later, we retired it to YouTube.

October 12, 2006 Alex pretty much drafted me as an author at Neatorama. He never gave me a chance to say “no” (not that I would’ve)!

October 16, 2006 I coblogged with Grow-A-Brain on the subject of Lunch. Hanan is a real sweetie!

November, 2006 Cheryl White started a new blog called Grumpy Old Bitches. Of course, I am quite qualified to join. Here’s my first post there. The site hasn't been very active lately.

January, 2007 THE Michael had a dream of uniting his eclectic online friends in one blog, and Freedom’s Place was born. I was shanghaied into the group, with no complaints. It was a glorious experiment while it lasted, but eventually became more trouble than anyone thought it was worth.

January 22, 2007 With the advent of Blogger2, I was able to repair my old Blogger site and resume posting. I renamed it Miss C Recommends, and started posting interesting stuff anytime I have a minute to do it. Now it’s updated two or three times a day, including the Video of the Day every day.

February 8, 2007 I began blogging at mental_floss with a post on unusual cemetaries. Will Pearson had asked me to join up and even interviewed me over the phone, like it’s a real job or something! You can find an archive of my mental_floss posts here.

April 2007 I always manage to work my way around technical problems. 

June 2007 I began another job for mental_floss, researching the Morning Cup o’ Links in the sidebar of the main page. Every weekday I post 10-15 interesting, funny, or bizarre things you can read. You won’t see it in the slightly different version of the homepage if you’re reading it in a feed.

In the past two years, I’ve made a ton of friends online. I’ve found new jobs. I’ve even met a couple of bloggers in the real world! A big thank you to everyone who made it possible: those on my reading list, in my blogrolls both here and at Miss C Recommends, affiliates, commenters, linkers, sources, those who send me material, and everyone who visits Miss Cellania. A big kiss for all of you!

Thought for today: Blogs are whatever we make them. Defining ‘blog’ is a fool’s errand. -Michael Conniff

Miss Cellania blogiversary anniversary blogging