Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Tom's Blog! Yes, it was one year ago today that I started this crazy thing. I didn't know what to expect, but I sure didn't expect to post so much or enjoy it so much. In the process I've learned several things.

1. There is a LOT of content out there. When I started this blog I worried that I wouldn't find enough content worth commenting on or sharing with you, my seven* readers. It turns out that it's not hard to find interesting stuff out there. It's a big, crazy, interesting world. Truth is, I've had way more material I wish I could have shared than I have had time to develop good blog posts (or even the mediocre blog posts I've been reduced to lately!).

2. I've posted a LOT more than I ever expected to. I thought I'd post once in a while and that would be that. Maybe 2-3 times per week, max. Boy, was I wrong. While there have been times that I've missed several days in a row because I've been busy with work, it is more common that I had to simply pass on good content because I didn't have enough time to post and comment. As I type this I'm approaching 500 posts, which is way more than I would have expected.

3. Posting to this blog is therapeutic for me. So whether you, my seven* readers, like it or not, I'll keep writing. And I'll write about what I want to write about. Politics (and economics), strange humor, and business/technology (particularly Google) will remain the main topics. Because it's MY blog. All my blog are belong to me. (You haven't read my blog enough if you don't get the reference.)

I opened the blog with two posts. I did not post anything special on that first day, I just did what I did every subsequent time I posted: I talked about things that were on my mind, things I thought were interesting to share, no special message there.

On that first day I posted one article about healing: A physician's take on health care. And another about hurting: Karma's a Bitch. Again, not intentional, it just worked out that way.

As I get busier at work I cannot guarantee that I'll be able to post as much as I have this past year. But so what. I'll post as much as I can and have fun doing it. All that matters is that it's been a fun year. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. Thanks for reading.

* estimated readership :)

Where did the letter "J" come from?

Do you ever wonder about the words we use, even the alphabet we use? Did you know that the Romans only had 24 letters, but the alphabet later expanded to 26 letters?

One of the "new" letters was the letter "J." Where did it come from. Check this out, from Dictionary.com.

"Why is one man primarily responsible for the existence of the letter 'J,' and what letter did it split off from?"
http://hotword.dictionary.com/j/

Along these lines, did you ever wonder why the letter "W" is called a "double-u" when it's written as a "double-v"? Why a "Q" is almost invariably followed by the letter "U"? Follow the links in the above article, just keep surfing, to find out!

iPad self portraits

Here are some great, creative self portraits. They happen to have been done with an iPad, but any tablet or smart phone would do for these purposes. This is about human creativity. I was very impressed!

From Mashable:
"10 Ingenious iPad Self-Portraits [PICS]" by Amy-Mae Elliott
http://mashable.com/2011/04/07/ipad-portraits-pics/#view_as_one_page-gallery_box1077