My One Year Blogiversary

On the 23rd of March, 2006 I posted my first-ever blog post as Mr Angry. A whole year ago. Shit. Maybe it's true what they say - time really does fly when you're having fun. When I started I had the pre-conceived idea of posting at least one new thing every day for a year, hence the name of the blog "Angry 365 Days a Year". That was on my Blogger account, I started publishing on Wordpress as well a week or two later so I'm going to keep up my daily posting at least until I reach my Wordpress-iversary.

At the time I though it was an insane idea. A year seemed impossibly far into the future and maintaining a daily post rate for that time seemed like I was making a rod for my back. Add to that the fact that my intention was to, as much as possible, create original material rather than linking to existing material and even to keep the commentary on current events and other blogs to a minimum. And just to make it even more difficult, I decided to post as a persona, Mr Angry, who (strictly speaking) isn't me. The strongest elements of Mr Angry are doubtless really me but viewed through a distorting lens and amplified through a megaphone.

I don't have a problem with blogs that are all links and commentary, some people do this very well. But that was what essentially drove my thinking: there are enough people doing that already. In my vanity, I wanted to be the original content that other people linked to and commented on. Also, I've always like writing but historically I've been very undisciplined. Writing is a skill like any other, practice and you'll get better. I like to think the self-imposed discipline of regular writing has improved the quality of my writing over the last year.

It's certainly been fun. Being lucky enough to come into contact with an amazing range of people through blogging has definitely been the highlight of the past year. The strength of the conversation through comments and being able to enjoy other people's blogs has been a constant source of inspiration for me. Even though in big picture terms I'm still a nobody, I did not dare hope for this level of success in my first year. I've had a good time and it's given me the courage to keep going and try for greater things.

And for the curious, to save you going back through the links, this is the first thing I posted. Kind of a mini-manifesto:

So to start with: what’s the main thing that makes me angry? (besides people
asking me “Why are you so angry?”) In a word, it’s people. I’d be a hell of a lot less angry if it wasn’t for all the damn people.

Everywhere I go, people! I swear, do you all get together somewhere and formulate ways to make me angry? Because when I look at the average knucklehead making me angry I figure there’s no way they’re smart enough to consistently find new ways to frustrate me the way they do. The only logical explanation is that you’re all involved in a conspiracy against me.

I know, you think it’s all fun and games, but I’ll warn you right now: my time is coming. That’s right, you’ll have to answer for your stupidity one day – everyone who pisses me off goes on THE LIST. And when I’m running things everyone on the list pays! Think about that next time you cut me off as you change lanes without warning.

Don’t think it won’t happen. You’re on notice.

I'll ruminate a bit more on where I think I might go with this runaway train when I reach my Wordpressiversary (which will also be close to my 500th post). One thing's for certain, Mr Angry will be around for a while. There are way too many people in this world who piss me off for me to stop now.