jobsanger Celebrates Its Ninth Birthday Today

Today is the ninth anniversary of the birth of this blog. In those nine years, I have posted over 18,400 times and those posts have received more than 2.37 million page-views (according to Google). That's not too shabby for a single-person progressive blog emanating from the reddest area of a very red state (the Llano Estacado area of Texas).

As jobsanger enters its tenth year, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who read this blog. Your support is deeply appreciated, and buoys me in my effort to continue blogging -- hopefully for many more years.

In keeping with what has become a tradition on this blog, I repost below the very first post ever made on jobsanger:

Hello out there! This is my first blog and my first attempt at blogging, so if you do accidently drop by and read the blog, cut me some slack. I hope to get better over time. This is not meant to be a news blog. This is an OPINION blog. This is my place to gripe, whine or blow my top when I get disgusted with politics, religion or culture in general. I am a left-winger who is not afraid of the "s" word. If you prefer to call me a socialist, that is fine with me. I am not a religious person, but I believe all people should be free to practice whatever religion they wish or none at all. I don't get upset until you start pushing it down other people's throats. I am a political Independent, since I see both the republicans and democrats as being corporate owned. Although I am male, I am pro-choice and consider myself to be a feminist. I believe in EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE [no exceptions]. That should give you some idea of where I'm coming from. If you do read this blog, I hope you enjoy it and come back from time to time. Thanks!

jobsanger Is 8 Years Old Today !

The first post written for this blog was on March 16, 2006 -- which means this blog is now eight years old. It wasn't a great post, but it started me down this road and I've now posted over 15,240 different blog entries.

Google tells me that jobsanger has had more than 1.923 million page views. I was hoping to get to 2 million before this eighth blogiversary, but it didn't quite get there. Of course, that figure doesn't include this blog's posts reposted on other sites -- such as Best of the Blogs, Paperblog, The Rag Blog, or passed on to other publications through NewsTex.

Those figures fall far short of making me one of the "big" blogs, but it exceeds the wildest dreams of what I thought I might accomplish when I wrote that first post. And for that, I want to thank all of my readers. Whether you're a commenter, a regular reader, or just drop by once in a while, I sincerely appreciate it. You make this endeavor both worthwhile, and a lot of fun.

I still feel like I have a lot more to say, so I plan to continue to blog -- hopefully for a few more years. And I will do so without accepting any paid advertisements, so you can be sure you are getting my honest opinion (and not something I was paid to say).

Once again, thanks for reading this blog -- and I hope reading it makes you as happy as it makes me to write it.

(The image of the cake with 8 candles above is from acidstorytime.)

Oops! Forgot My Seventh Blogiversary

Well, this is embarrassing. This blog turned seven years old over a week ago -- on March 16th. And for the first time I forgot to mark the occasion on that date. I hope that's just a sign that I'm so used to blogging that such an anniversary means less now, and is not a sign of approaching senility. Either way, I'm not inclined to make a big deal of it this year. I just want to say that I've still got the passion to blog and hope to continue doing it for many more years. But most important, I want to say how deeply I appreciate you readers who choose to spend some time with me -- whether daily or occasionally. I hope you will continue to find something of value here every now and then.

Today Is My Sixth Blogiversary

Today jobsanger is officially six years old, and I'm happy to say it is doing better than ever. It took a while to find an audience, but the blog has experienced a slow and steady growth for several years now. The blog has about 600 readers a day now and recently passed the 1,000,000 mark in page views. That doesn't make me one of the "big boys" (like Daily Kos, for instance), but it's decent and that makes me happy.

I want to thank all the fellow bloggers who have been kind enough to include this blog on their blogroll or link to my posts. I also want to thank the sites who carry some of my posts (like Best of the Blogs and The Rag Blog). You have all contributed to the growing readership. But most of all, I want to thank all of the people who come here to read my scribblings (both commenters and lurkers). You are deeply appreciated.

Now it's time to perform an annual ritual -- the re-posting of the very first post on jobsanger. It wasn't a great post, but it did set the stage for everything that was to come later. Here it is:

Hello out there! This is my first blog and my first attempt at blogging, so if you do accidently drop by and read the blog, cut me some slack. I hope to get better over time. This is not meant to be a news blog. This is an OPINION blog. This is my place to gripe, whine or blow my top when I get disgusted with politics, religion or culture in general. I am a left-winger who is not afraid of the "s" word. If you prefer to call me a socialist, that is fine with me. I am not a religious person, but I believe all people should be free to practice whatever religion they wish or none at all. I don't get upset until you start pushing it down other people's throats. I am a political Independent, since I see both the republicans and democrats as being corporate owned. Although I am male, I am pro-choice and consider myself to be a feminist. I believe in EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE [no exceptions]. That should give you some idea of where I'm coming from. If you do read this blog, I hope you enjoy it and come back from time to time. Thanks!

jobsanger Is 5 Years Old !

This blog was started on March 16, 2006. That means that today it is officially 5 years old. And they have been a very good 5 years (as the five buttons above signify). It seems like only yesterday that I started blogging, and I was thrilled when the blog had 20 or 30 page views.

Things are different now. I have written 6,924 posts and the blog recently passed the half-million mark in page views, and the readership is growing with each passing month. I don't know whether I deserve it, but I am very grateful. And it's due to you readers. I want to let each and every one of you know that I am eternally grateful for your support (whether you are a lurker or a commenter -- both are appreciated).

I also want to thank Best of the Blogs and The Rag Blog, both of which allow me to cross-post some of my stuff, and Blogburst which offers my stuff to other media outlets. These guys have helped me to keep growing.

Now I must keep a blog tradition. Each year on this blogiversary I repost my very first post on the blog. As I have said before, it's not my best but it was my first. So here it is for one more time:

Hello out there! This is my first blog and my first attempt at blogging, so if you do accidently drop by and read the blog, cut me some slack. I hope to get better over time. This is not meant to be a news blog. This is an OPINION blog. This is my place to gripe, whine or blow my top when I get disgusted with politics, religion or culture in general. I am a left-winger who is not afraid of the "s" word. If you prefer to call me a socialist, that is fine with me. I am not a religious person, but I believe all people should be free to practice whatever religion they wish or none at all. I don't get upset until you start pushing it down other people's throats. I am a political Independent, since I see both the republicans and democrats as being corporate owned. Although I am male, I am pro-choice and consider myself to be a feminist. I believe in EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE [no exceptions]. That should give you some idea of where I'm coming from. If you do read this blog, I hope you enjoy it and come back from time to time. Thanks!

Today Makes Four Years !!!

Forgive me for the light blogging today, but it's kind of a holiday for me. Today is the fourth blogiversary of jobsanger. This blog was started on March 16, 2006. I can still remember being excited to see that 20 people were actually reading the blog. The fact that someone might want to read my ramblings was wonderful!

Since that time, the blog has been growing in readership -- not fast, but steady. It is still growing, and for that I sincerely thank all of the readers -- both commenters and lurkers. I love you all!!! jobsanger has now had over 4600 posts. And I've still got that "fire in the belly" and hope to continue blogging for a long time to come.

I would also like to thank BlogNetNews, Blogburst, Best of the Blogs, Lefty Blogs and other sites that list this blog. You guys have allowed me to reach thousands of new readers (even though those readers don't show up in my site statistics), and I really appreciate that.

On my first three blogiversaries, I reprinted my very first post. It wasn't my best, but it was my first. I guess it's sort of a blog tradition now, so here it is one more time:

Hello out there! This is my first blog and my first attempt at blogging, so if you do accidently drop by and read the blog, cut me some slack. I hope to get better over time. This is not meant to be a news blog. This is an OPINION blog. This is my place to gripe, whine or blow my top when I get disgusted with politics, religion or culture in general. I am a left-winger who is not afraid of the "s" word. If you prefer to call me a socialist, that is fine with me. I am not a religious person, but I believe all people should be free to practice whatever religion they wish or none at all. I don't get upset until you start pushing it down other people's throats. I am a political Independent, since I see both the republicans and democrats as being corporate owned. Although I am male, I am pro-choice and consider myself to be a feminist. I believe in EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE [no exceptions]. That should give you some idea of where I'm coming from. If you do read this blog, I hope you enjoy it and come back from time to time. Thanks!

Congratulations PTS !!!

Jobsanger sends his warmest congratulations to all the bloggers at Panhandle Truth Squad. That's because this week they are celebrating their fifth blogiversary. That's right. They have been spreading the progressive point of view (and being a huge thorn in the side of Republicans) for a full five years now -- and they've been doing it from one of the reddest areas of Texas. That makes them one of the oldest progressive political blogs in Texas.

If you live here in the Panhandle (or really, anywhere in Texas) and you've never read Panhandle Truth Squad's very funny and right-0n-target progressive political posts, I have to ask -- Were you dropped on your head as a small child? Get over there now and see what you've been missing!

The posters at PTS are a varied group, who each bring their own unique touch to the blog (and they're all nice people). They are:

• newsguygeorge
• R. Spacedark
• The Liberalator
• Prodigal Son
• It's only me . . .
• lequino
• Demophoenix
• pazamarillo
• Abdul Alhazred
• calamus venenum
• blogarillo

If you're in the Amarillo area, come and help them celebrate tonight at 7:00pm. For the details, e-mail panhandletruthsquad@yahoo.com. Once again, congratulations guys! We here at jobsanger have nothing but respect and affection for all of you.

Three Years Old !

On March 16, 2006, I started this blog and wrote my first post. I didn't really know what I was doing and had no idea how long the blog would last. I just knew I was angry with what was happening and I needed to sound-off about it.

Now it is three years and over 2600 blog posts later, and I'm still finding plenty to "sound-off" about. I hope to continue the blog for a long time. To my amazement, I've found there are even some who want to read my pathetic rants. The blog has shown a slow, but steady growth in readership over the three years and is still growing. For that, I will be eternally grateful to you -- the readers.

For the last couple of "blogiversarys", I've reprinted my very first post. It wasn't very good, but it was the first, and I guess it's sort of a tradition now. Here it is:

Hello out there! This is my first blog and my first attempt at blogging, so if you do accidently drop by and read the blog, cut me some slack. I hope to get better over time. This is not meant to be a news blog. This is an OPINION blog. This is my place to gripe, whine or blow my top when I get disgusted with politics, religion or culture in general. I am a left-winger who is not afraid of the "s" word. If you prefer to call me a socialist, that is fine with me. I am not a religious person, but I believe all people should be free to practice whatever religion they wish or none at all. I don't get upset until you start pushing it down other people's throats. I am a political Independent, since I see both the republicans and democrats as being corporate owned. Although I am male, I am pro-choice and consider myself to be a feminist. I believe in EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE [no exceptions]. That should give you some idea of where I'm coming from. If you do read this blog, I hope you enjoy it and come back from time to time. Thanks!