Today marks the eighth anniversary of this blog. My first tentative post was on January 26, 2005 at my former location on the blogging platform provided by my employer Case Western Reserve University. I moved to FreethoughtBlogs on January 10th of last year so this month also marks the first anniversary of my move.

I must say that I have enjoyed blogging far more than I thought I would when I started doing it. For one thing, it has enriched my own education since the effort needed to research topics in order to provide informed commentary and analysis requires me to read around subjects a lot more than I would have otherwise. I feel that I now know far more about a lot of topics. The act of writing regularly and so much has also benefited me in that I think I have greatly improved my writing ability, enabling me to put my thoughts into words more quickly and efficiently than before.

It has also put me in touch with many people from around the world who have added greatly to my knowledge and broadened my perspectives on issues.

I often wonder when (if?) it will happen that I will suffer from burnout, when blogging will cease to be fun and seem more like a chore. I know that this has happened to others. But so far, there seems to be no indication of that. In fact, I am writing more now than when I started.

So, onward and upward to year nine and beyond, spurred by the immortal and inspiring words of Linus, “Sydney or the bush!”