Blogiversary

It's hard to believe, but it was eight years ago today that I started The Musings of Kev. Why did I begin this? Well, let's review what I said at this time last year:

I began blogging for several reasons: To have an outlet for creative writing; to vent about a few things in a larger forum; to satisfy the journalism bug that bit me in college (writing CD and concert reviews, among other things); and, well, because a lot of my friends were blogging at the time (I guess that's the "all the cool kids are doing it" line of reasoning).

I started out doing very short posts--things that would probably be Tweeted today. Eventually, the Blogger software went through a few updates, and suddenly, my posts had headlines, tags and so on. As I learned more and more about HTML, things like links and embedded videos would make their way into various posts. As I read more and more "A-list" bloggers, some of their styles inevitably crept into mine.

And in the year since I wrote those words, The Musings has run into its most formidable adversary: Facebook. I finally caved and joined the social networking behemoth a year ago this month, after holding out for quite some time. It's been a great experience, as I've reconnected with plenty of old friends from college and high school, kept up with former students and met a lot of new brothers in my fraternity, Sinfonia.

So what does all that have to do with blogging? Well, I've always had a limited amount of computer time during the business day, since I'm teaching lessons or directing ensembles for most of the day. And when something as immediate as Facebook (which I read and update from the phone) gets the bulk of my attention, my other forms of online presence seem to suffer. (I've also been practicing and arranging more this year, both of which also cut into my limited non-teaching time.)

But nonetheless, I remain committed to this blog, and one way I've done is by a slight duplication of effort. Every Sunday has become a recap of the new music I'm listening to in the Kevmobile (which itself grows out of a daily series of tweets on Twitter that simulpost to Facebook), and some of the shorter posts on Facebook about the unusual things I run across in daily life (such as the perennial "Kids Say the Darnedest Things" series) will become posts here as well. I may not always have time to do a long post with links (as has been the custom over the past several years), but I usually have something to say every day, so I may end up saying the same thing (in various states of brevity, or not) across all three platforms. If nothing else, my blog readers, Twitter tweeps and Facebook friends don't have all that much overlap, so it's not as if too many people will be bombarded with the same post several times a day.

And for those of you who stop by regularly, whether for a short time or for the entire eight years (is there anyone out there in the latter category?), I thank you for your patronage, as well as for your patience when I do get backed up on posting. It's a big, wide Internet out there, and I appreciate your visiting my little corner of it. (And if you really want to get this thing going bigger, start up a discussion in the comments. It's nice to know the thoughts and opinions of those who read this.)