2612 weekdays of waking up at 5:30AM and writing til 7-ish.
520 weeks of following the Minnesota news cycle.
Two Presidential, three Gubernatorial, three Senate and 32 Congressional contests, plus five complete legislative election cycles and 11 Legislative sessions. One wrestler ushered out of office; one Senatorial plane crash and two electoral train wrecks covered. The decline of two major cities chronicled (keep checking back, that story’s not done). One complete conversion, from conservative public school supporter to implacable enemy and charter school zealot.
A national convention, three major state conventions.
A couple of dozen Instalanches, and heaven knows how many Hot Air-alanches.
Two desktop and three laptop computers gone through, along with three blogging platforms and counting.
Hundreds of Nick Coleman, Lori Sturdevant and Brian Lambert columns and “Alliance For A Better Minnesota” memes disposed of.
Dozens of leftyblogger attacks met, trashed, humiliated and, in more than a few cases, out-lived. One Soros publication outlasted.
Decades? One. So far. Working on number two.
This one kinda snuck up on me; Shot In The Dark turns ten years old today. And when I say “snuck up on me”, I mean, yeah – I knew after last year’s “ninth anniversary” that there would likely (God willing) be a tenth. But I woke up this morning and it kinda smacked me upside the head.
I’ve told the story a bunch of times – including every year on this anniversary; I started this blog in 2002, at a time when, after fifteen years out of talk radio, with two kids and working at a failing dotcom, I was keenly feeling the absence of an outlet for my inner pundit. I read an article in Time about the “New Breed of Conservative Intellectuals”, featuring – ahem – Andrew Sullivan. The piece mentioned Sullivan’s main outlet – his “blog”. There was a little sidebar piece on “What Is A Blog”, which led me to “Blogger.com”. At home from work that night, I started the original Shot In The Dark. And other than a week off at the end of 2003, and a few odd days off here and there, I think I’ve had something up every weekday, and most weekends, since then. At the time, I plugged it on a couple of E-Democracy forums, and held steady at about 10 hits a day for the first nine months or so.
My traffic has grown, and remained, really big by regional standards since then. But as I’ve said for years, I have always done it for me, and would still do it if I were my only traffic. The blog has brought an avalanche of blessings, the greatest of which has been a great group of friends – Brian, Atomizer, Sisyphus and Chad (an email from Brian was the first indication I found that there were other bloggers in the Twin Cities, back in mid-2002), Ed, John and Scott, Mr. D, King Banaian (whose blog is offline for the duration of his legislative career, which for Minnesota’s sake had best be long and successful), Brad Carlson, Michael Brodkorb and his various successors at MDE, James Lileks, Learned Foot, Derek and Nancy and Guy and the whole crew over at the Dogs, Katie, Gary, Sheila, Pianomomsicle, Ringer, Roosh, Bogus, and the entire True North syndicate, and the whole MOB, really, which led to the radio show (which is itself headed for an anniversary next month). Beyond that, it’s been a long train of personal and intellectual growth – or maybe “growth” – and a constant introduction to opportunities that I’d never dreamed of ten years ago.
So I’d still do it just for myself – but I’m glad I don’t have to!
Anyway – thanks to all your regular readers, and the new friends (and occasionally adversaries) that’ve popped up over the past (gulp) decade. God willing and with a tailwind, we can do it again!
Here’s to another 10, Mitch – we will raise a toast to you at the MOB Party! Congratulations and bravo for your great body of work. I always look forward to reading your information, opinion, snark, humor, hot guitars and war-time equipment, and occasional solemness. Blogging can be a hard “jerb,” but you’re always up to the task and an inspiration.
Cheers! – Nancy
Congrats, Mitch. I remain in awe of your ability to be simultaneously prolific and yet maintain a high level of quality. Most bloggers are barely able to pull off one of those things. As Nancy rightly points out, blogging is a tough “jerb,” but a joy for you. Thanks for sharing the joy!
Gratz, Mitch.
If you had spent your time in front of a computer playing World of Warcraft rather than blogging, you would be level 85 and running your own guild by now.
I hope you feel that you’ve made the right choice.
I disagree – very few of your 14,000 posts were “odd.”
Congrats on a major blog birthday (Jeez, Glenn Reynolds is celebrating 10 years too, and yet it all feels like yesterday) and may happy blogging returns!
Congratulations, Mr. Berg. I wonder how many others (like me) got into blogging because of shotinthedark.info….and the entire gang at the NARN.
Mitch, congratulations and I hope you keep the edgy look at the world. Your blog is a breath of fresh air each day to an inner city conservative like me. You are an inspiration!
Congratulations Mitch. If I recall correctly, the first time I read your blog, you had a greenish type background. I’ve enjoyed the blog quite a bit. Top notch conservative writing, and a very good balance between personal matters without going “TMI.” Here’s to another 10.
Congratulations, and looking forward to another decade or several. This remains one of my favorite blogs.
Cheers!
Yours was the first blog I started reading. It was a starter drug on the way to political blog addiction. Heck, I even tried blogging myself and found it to be too much work.
I still a waiting for Hot Gear Friday. Guns, guitars, girls, and gadgets.
Congrats on a great 10 years! It has been a pleasure reading your commentary.
I had a default load of tabs that I opened in Firefox every day in order: FOXNews, Strib, SiTD, True North, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Freedom Dogs, Anti-Strib. I don’t open the Strib anymore, and I never get to MM anymore either. There is only one site that I make sure I at least read the posts once per day. This is it. I love reading the local information/political outrages you consistently post about. Congrats on 10 years, thank you for your service to your readers, and looking forward to seeing you in a couple weeks.
Wow. I didn’t realize your blog only trailed mine by two days. Clearly, inspiration struck true geniuses back in February of 2002.
10? Seems like a hundred.
I remember (10 years ago??), Mitch explaining what a blog was through a series of e-mails, and if I’m not mistaken, I asked “why the hell would anyone do *that*?”
Hearty congrats, Mitch…you’re a trooper!
Congrats to one of the great ones!
Congratulations and thanks for all you do/write. I click to this blog first every morning just before going to HotAir and PowerLine. Here’s to another couple decades!
So if my math is correct, that’s close to 4 posts per day. That’s a good week for me.
This blog has been a daily read for me since about 2004-05. Thanks for hangin’ in there, Mitch! I’m proud to call you a friend.
Congratulations, and best wishes for the next ten years.
Congrats on 10 years Mitch, as others have said this is pretty much a daily stop for me, I enjoy your work immensely!!
Your blog (and Jo’s Attic) were what inspired me to enter the fray, in my eighth year now. You still set the high water mark for us all. Ten more years, if you please!