Today is this blog’s birthday. One year ago the first two posts were made and a very rewarding journey was started. The second post remains one of my favorites, it was certainly before I found “Sinner’s voice”, but still amuses me. Of course, this blog is really meant to amuse a single person (myself). If some readers are also amused, its all good but really doesn’t matter because, dammit, I slay me!

When I started out it was all about finding an outlet for “teh funny”. When that failed in spectacular fashion, I moved to a political commentary blog dished out with sarcastic humor. I found that I was lost in the crowd, didn’t have the imagination to ridicule the ridiculous, and my sarcasm was not up to the real events of politics. It takes a whole lot of sarcasm to overcome the natural state of the political world, let me tell you for a fact my friend. Try it for yourself, I can tell ya dogg, political pimpin’ aint easy! Props to da homies that do it so well day in and day out.

I think I really found my niche when I turned inward and wrote about my life, pop culture, game industry, censorship, food/cooking and a guerrilla approach to specific political issues. I really enjoy working on the blog and find it a great outlet for “teh funny” as well as for my personal ranting. Again, if anyone out there is amused, annoyed or made thoughtful because of something I wrote here, that’s a bonus.

Most of all this blog has really helped me to improve my writing skills (despite what cathyf says :P). The improvement is evident in a quick check of the archives as well as in my professional work. Sure, I could have written a journal, taken more classes (than I already have) or concentrated on essays and articles for trade rags to improve my skills, but there is nothing like writing stuff that actual people might read on a daily basis to get the juices flowing. Since starting the blog I have written a book, had lots of speaking engagements and a number of articles published. None of which would have been possible without the skills I developed and the discipline I learned by regular blogging. There are very few days in the past year where there wasn’t at least one post, even if that one post was “Meh” or “Feh” indicating my mood that day. (At least one fellow blogger appreciates my “Meh” posts.)

Like all bloggers, I want to be widely read and have large traffic numbers. I went through my “shameless link whore” phase and my “Instapundit sucks because I get no love” phase. I did finally get that elusive Instalanche as well as links from Ace, Jeff, The Llamas and lots of other blogs. Truth be told, I treasure the links from Trouble, DBS and tee bee much (much) more than the much sought after Instalanche. These people actually read my stuff and think enough of it to come back and to link. Isn’t that much more important than a hoard of hits that fly on to the next link Glenn posts without a second look at the rest of the blog? I say yes, but it probably makes me sound like a loser.

On this momentous occasion, I would like to thank all of the readers. Without readers, this would be, well.. more boring that it already is. In all seriousness, I appreciate every comment, trackback, link and private email that I get in response to something I wrote here. It makes it so much easier when I get feedback (positive or negative) to write on the days when I got nothing or when the words just don’t come to me.

What does the future hold for “7 Deadly Sins”? Darned if I know. For now I will keep plugging along, trying to get over my “Drug Lord” issues and spewing forth the brand of humor that just cracks me up.