2612 weekdays of waking up at 5:30AM and writing til 7-ish.<\/p>\n
520 weeks of following the Minnesota news cycle.<\/p>\n
Two Presidential, three Gubernatorial, three Senate and 32 Congressional contests, plus five complete legislative election cycles and 11 Legislative sessions. \u00a0One wrestler ushered out of office; one Senatorial plane crash and two electoral train wrecks covered. \u00a0The decline of two major cities chronicled (keep checking back, that story’s not done). \u00a0One complete conversion, from conservative public school supporter to implacable enemy and charter school zealot<\/a>.<\/p>\n A national convention<\/a>, three major state conventions.<\/p>\n A couple of dozen Instalanches<\/a>, and heaven knows how many Hot Air-alanches.<\/p>\n Two desktop and three laptop computers gone through, along with three blogging platforms and counting.<\/p>\n Hundreds of Nick Coleman, Lori Sturdevant and Brian Lambert columns and “Alliance For A Better Minnesota” memes disposed of.<\/p>\n Dozens of leftyblogger attacks met, trashed, humiliated and, in more than a few cases, out-lived. \u00a0One Soros publication outlasted.<\/p>\n Decades? \u00a0One. \u00a0So far. \u00a0Working on number two.<\/p>\n This one kinda snuck up on me;\u00a0Shot In The Dark <\/em>turns ten years old today. \u00a0And 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. \u00a0But I woke up this morning and it kinda smacked me upside the head.<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0I read an article in Time <\/em>about the “New Breed of Conservative Intellectuals”, featuring – ahem – Andrew Sullivan. \u00a0The piece mentioned Sullivan’s main outlet – his “blog”. \u00a0There was a little sidebar piece on “What Is A Blog”, which led me to “Blogger.com”. \u00a0At home from work that night, I started the original Shot In The Dark. \u00a0And 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 <\/em>up every weekday, and most weekends, since then. \u00a0At 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.<\/p>\n My traffic has grown, and remained, really big by regional standards since then. \u00a0But as I’ve said for years, I have always done it for me, and would still do it if I were my only traffic. \u00a0The blog has brought an avalanche of blessings, the greatest of which has been a great group of friends – Brian, Atomizer, Sisyphus and Chad<\/a>\u00a0(an email from Brian was the first indication I found that there were <\/em>other bloggers in the Twin Cities, back in mid-2002),\u00a0Ed<\/a>, John and Scott<\/a>, Mr. D<\/a>, King Banaian <\/a>(whose blog is offline for the duration of his legislative career, which for Minnesota’s sake had best be long and successful),\u00a0Brad Carlson<\/a>,\u00a0Michael Brodkorb and his various successors at MDE<\/a>, James Lileks<\/a>, Learned Foot<\/a>, Derek and Nancy and Guy and the whole crew over at the Dogs<\/a>,\u00a0Katie<\/a>, Gary<\/a>, Sheila<\/a>,\u00a0Pianomomsicle<\/a>, \u00a0Ringer, Roosh, Bogus, and the entire True North<\/a> syndicate, and the whole MOB, really, which led to the radio show (which is itself headed for an anniversary next month). \u00a0Beyond 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.<\/p>\n So I’d still do it just for myself – but I’m glad I don’t have to!<\/p>\n Anyway – thanks to all your regular readers, and the new friends (and occasionally adversaries) that’ve popped up over the past (gulp) decade. \u00a0God willing and with a tailwind, we can do it again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. \u00a0One wrestler ushered out of office; one Senatorial plane crash and two electoral train wrecks covered. 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