IT'S POPTHOMOLOGY'S DECENNIAL! SEND ME TIN!

Guys!! HEY GUYS!!!

Popthomology today is ten years old.

TEN. YEARS. OLD.

I've spent a full decade of my life writing and creating things for this site.

That's a long time.

For some of you, this may be the very first post you've read here (and the last). Some other folks have read nearly all 2596 of them. In the beginning, when the site was named "Diarrhea Island," the readers were my existing friends and family, along with a few people from a Howard Stern message board. Then, via the magic of the Internet, people came looking for information about diarrhea (which did not exist until I wrote a post directing people where to go), then diarrhea and Chipotle, then all kinds of other stuff, from nearly every country in the world. I've even had logins from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and even the White House (they read a post called "BOOBS," no joke). Around the time when I started properly photographing concerts again after a 20+ year absence, I changed the name to Popthomology, a name that didn't suggest I ran a site for fans of fecal matter.

And I just chugged along, for many years writing a new post every single day. I didn't have a plan or a vision -- the content was just going to be whatever I felt like making that day. I thought on February 28, 2008, hey, maybe I could do this for a year. And now ten have gone by, and there is no question that my life was profoundly changed for the better because I started this blog, something I could never have predicted sitting down to write and publish that first post.

After spending most of my adult life burying my creative ideas like so many cat turds in a litterbox, I desperately needed a voice. This site became that, and it worked as this construct to keep pushing myself to do more and do better. It's staggering to me that there's been nearly 2 million lifetime page views here. Even if you throw half of that away to bots or creepers, it's still more than the five views I was expecting. It was never my ambition to be a big, important thing -- I didn't want to do ads, or obnoxiously promote myself, or, most critically, write about things I didn't want to write about. Everything here is something that was important to me, whether it was a record review, a fiction piece, something funny my daughter said in the car, a political rant, pretty photographs, thrift store oddities, fake children's books, snarky holiday cards, or about how hilarious goats are. I think I may have originated the worldwide goat meme craze, but let's move on.

Naturally, I'm not the same person today as I was in 2008. Older and wiser, one hopes, and I no longer feel voiceless. I no longer feel like I didn't do right by some of the talents I had. I've had my say for ten years, and there's something very satisfying about that. What you can't see here in the digital archives are all the friendships I now have that never would have existed if I hadn't done this. Friendships that give my life color and depth, that bring love and support, that expanded my world to all kinds of ideas and opportunities, and brought me in like family. I know "gratitude" is a bit of a hack buzzword today, tossed around with the saccharine "blessed" and the snore-y "mindfulness," but man, I am grateful, in that way when you you know things really could've gone the other way, or just remained still and stagnant and grey.

I've slowed down posting here -- WAY down -- as a matter of practicality and natural run of things. I'm not done quite yet, but my energies are focused more on my health and gearing up for some new creative challenges that I'm really stoked about. I'm also utterly determined to give Popthomology a damn proper party for its decennial, which will take place sometime this year in Seattle, and I am thinking it will be a lot of FUN. Watch this space!

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read here, thank you to WN in AU who put in countless frustrating backend hours here to make this Frankensteined Blogger site function, thank you to everyone who encouraged me along the way or let me know that I did a good job or that I could do better, or who have stepped in to guest post along the way.

Ten years! Wow.