Being an old fart, I think I come to blogs from a slightly different direction than some…

I didn’t grow up with electronic media, as a kid we had one B&W TV (that we didn’t get until I was six), it had three channels, only two of which actually came in well.

I grew up playing outside, with guns at a young age, and we were pretty much fearless.  We tromped through the woods on just about a daily basis, hunted squirrels, fished, played sports (football, baseball, basketball), and read…

We wrote real letters, and didn’t have a phone on our hip all day every day…

When we went on deployment, we suffered through 4-6 week turnaround on letters, and trusted our significant others and friends back home to take care of problems.

We didn’t jump on an airplane to go somewhere for the weekend, we planned for months to get a two week vacation and wrote letters and made the occasional phone call to coordinate our visits.  And we drove…  Sometimes 16-18 hours to get home or more…

I started in the computer world with BBS and Compuserve, 300 baud modems, text only…

And moved up to forums; guns, cars, technology…

And started seeing folks who’s opinions I valued on those forums…  Tam, Lawdog, Matt, Peter and others…

That is what led me finally to blogs.  I didn’t start a blog until May of 2007, six years ago this week.

I didn’t start it to get famous, or make money, or for any other reason than simply to kill time sitting in hotels on the road…

But it has lead to a whole new group of friends (and I don’t use that term loosely), a chance to meet folks across this country and around the world who share a passion for guns, a myriad of other interests, and an amazingly smart group of folks…

I still spend way too much time in hotels and on the road, and these blogs have literally kept me off the streets and out of the bars (well, MOST of the time).  And I find that the blogs offer a variety of ideas, thoughts, views, perspectives, introspection, humor and sadness that often make me think and force me review ‘my’ perspectives (usually for the better), and I’ve learned a TON from folks…

Sometimes, it’s the ‘little’ things…  Daddy Bear’s Thoughts on the day, Opus perspective from a female POV,   Julie and Pax view from an Aussie perspective, Brigid simply for her evocative writing (and our being able to reconnect after mumble years),  Jay G for his rants, Chris Muir and his fantastic Day by Day cartoon. Oleg for his photography and his perspective on America as seen from his Russian upbringing; LL, Duke, MSgtB, Murph, and the other LEO/mil/ex-mil bloggers for their varied perspectives and humor…

I could go on and on about those on my sidebar, but you get the idea.  And then there are the writers, Larry Correia, Marko, Michael Williamson, and now Peter…

I can remember reading Larry’s stuff on TFL, THR and other places, and being amazed he hadn’t been published… And now, well he done good!

And the other thing is the giving nature of ‘our’ little corner of the net… Not just the money, but the caring; the support (real and via comments and emails) to those in need, the willingness to reach out to others and give them that proverbial shoulder to cry on, bitch at, etc…

And a special thanks to Barron for the willingness to host this blog and help me through the transition to WordPress, without his generosity, I wouldn’t be doing this post today…

And the blog meets!  A chance to meet folks in real space, shoot nice toys, eat way too much good food, and the conversations!!! You’d need to be a two year old on a sugar high to keep up with the multiplicity of conversations and the depth/breadth of them!!!

And this is already way too long, but I really want to thank all three of my loyal readers for reading my random brain droppings over the past six years… I truly appreciate all of those who take the time to stop by, comment and occasionally poke me (and correct me when I screw it up)…