The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

The first blogiversary of The Gamer’s Nook is coming up on Monday. This surprised me a bit, since I assumed that Scott was around before me. I thought he was one of those established bloggahs that knew all the tricks. It was kinda the same with some of the other blogs I have come to annoy enjoy this past year. I noticed that quite a lot of them started around the same time I did, but my impression was that they were old hands by the time I crashed their comments. It got me to thinking (a dangerous passtime, I know). How did you meet your blog friends?

The main way we introduce ourselves in the blogosphere is by commenting on someone’s writing. It seems a little rude at times. We walk in the door of a stranger’s house, criticize the furniture (even if it’s a good comment), and invite ourselves back over whenever we feel like it. Some of us are good at making this connection without engendering permanent hostility. Some of us turn it into pretty good friendships. Some of us are just irritating and rude.

As a veteran annoyance, I can recall some of my first comments on other people’s blogs.

For Scott, it was a comment on his new haircut. I didn’t know this guy, and here I was being snarky over his appearance! (Actually, I think it was a positive comment, but how would I know it looked better than before?)

On Robyn’s blog, I left a really helpful comment about an e-mail masking utility (ASS Maker)… and, of course, screwed up the hyperlink.

“Stupid like a moose, Dib. Stupid like a moose.” (Hi, Michele.)

With Bill, I used the cheesiest introduction line ever: “It’s good to be a mammal!” (Hey! How would you congratulate someone for winning a best boobs contest?)

I’m sure there have been other classics. I don’t have access to the databases on your blogs, so I can’t do a quick scan to find out. BUT I do have access to my own… And it’s kinda cool to see what topics trigger comments from certain people. So, without further ado, here are the first words you spoke to me on my blog (even cooler when taken out-of-context):

ZMama (7/7/02) – “WTG! It is a lot of work to set up MT, but well worth it. You did a great job. Let me know when you figure out that TrackBack bit… I still don’t get it ;)”

Theresa (7/29/02) – “ketchup and bologna, ewwwww. but i’m just as bad… we used to eat ketchup and cheese sandwhiches when we were little. icky.”

Scott (7/31/02) – “Yeah, who IS Bill?!?!?”

Bill (8/1/02) – “Well, I’m Bill and I’m pretty sure it’s not me. ‘Cause they didn’t send me a fruit basket or anything.”

Lisa (8/6/02) – “I tried it and decided I didn’t like it. I think my browser kept crashing when I was trying to read posts and then it would think that I’d read them. Now I use NewzCrawler and am much happier. It’s a Windows based app though, so it might not be for you.”

Jason, as F. McSweeny, (8/15/02) – “I agree with #13. Am I a fascist or just hopeful?”

Roguechick (8/31/02) – “My thoughts on the strike not happening was ‘So what!'”

Kim (8/31/02) – “My favorite: Where ever there’s Squirt… there’s fun!”

Kat Lively (9/3/02) – “Northern Exposure, that’s where I had seen that guy before! Thank you! I did enjoy the movie myself, too. That could have been my big, fat Catholic wedding up there on the screen.”

wKen (9/4/02) – “Two, no three points…(a long commentary on Eminem, edited for length)… Sorry for being so long winded. You made a great post.”

Christine (9/8/02) – “I went to see this for lunch on Thursday (shh! Don’t tell the boss!) and I LOVED IT! It made me laugh, it made me smile, it made me say Ooompah!”

Michele (9/9/02) – “I didn’t have time to watch is Saturday, as you suggested, but I think I will watch it later when I have some time to myself. THanks.”

Kamel (9/14/02) – “Awesome! lets misguide all the Britney Spears fans! woo hoo! and lets get some of them American Idol fans in here while we are at it 😉 all we gotta do is blog about the TV show American Idol ;)”

Brian (9/27/02) – “He also uttered this pearl:

Liberals are in my estimation just not bright people. They don’t think deeply; they don’t comprehend; they don’t understand. … They have a narrow educational base, as opposed to the hard scientists.

I suppose the two sentiments go hand in hand as far as he’s concerned. The only reason he’ll be missed is that he’s giving up his leadership post to Tom DeLay, who is even worse.”

Mordant Carnival (9/28/02) – “Ulp… didn’t mean for you to take it personally, pal. I like getting the extra 80 hits per day, truth to tell. I’m just an fussy ol’ evil overlord who likes everything just so.”

Kat (10/1/02) – “i cannot wait for this movie. the trailer is outstanding. cannot wait. =)”

Robyn (10/2/02) – “It was very lovely, wasn’t it? :-)”

Joel (10/4/02) – “Me too! But I dread that it isn’t!”

Mark Lane (10/12/02) – “A wonderful redesign. Busy without being overwhelming. Much more readable. (The old one had some serious legibility problems in some of its color schemes.) I hadn’t realized before the blog was part of projects. Much improved.”

Tim Hall (10/16/02) – “Like it! Thought something looked different!”

Mandie (10/18/02) – “thanks for pointing this link out. I’ve loved all those travel shows he’s done and will definately spend some time tonight playing on this site. :)”

Sekimori (10/21/02) – “Your only other option is to go back to the MT default way of displaying Extended Entry…the link goes to the Individual Archive page.”

Bran (10/22/02) – “sometimes, when it’s really late in the day, and the birds have all flown home, i walk down the road, and the Amish try to run me down with their buggy carts o’ terror.”

Gretchen (10/24/02) – “Hey i just want 2 say that wKenShow is da bomb to all U haters!. wKen iz very talented writer and so what if he’s got the orgazmatron, at least he’s gettin some which is probably more than the rest of you,your just jealous. His blgo is the best and so what if he talks about his sexual epxriences, he’s keepin it real. so dont hate, yo, love wKen cuz he love U 2.”

Dragonleg (10/24/02) – “What in the name of Grape Ape is going on, indeed. Hey, quit your swearing. No one likes a potty mouth”

Hoopty (10/28/02) – “Stalag 17. Not only a great movie but William Holden’s best, if you ask me. I’ll take that one. I’ve been wanting to see Wages of Fear, though.”

Tess (10/28/02) – “I’ve stopped blaming the spammers. I now blame the idiots who apparently make it profitable.”

PromoGuy (10/29/02) – “That same creep got my site too. I am watching all these threads for a solution, I don’t want to deal with this again.”

Statia (10/30/02) – “c’mon pal, let’s go, I’ll kick your ass!!! :oP”

Peat (10/31/02) – “monkeys frighten me. especially monkeys with knifes. may I send my wife’s stupid beagles to protect those in harms way?”

Nicole (10/31/02) – “I marvel in wonder at those brave enough to tackle the writing project. It seems like certain death to me…”

Miguel (10/31/02) – “Feh, this is going to be a piece of cake, we have an entire month. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written in three days.”

kd (11/1/02) – “*tsk* these kids today, eh? well, you can tell her my daughter-person trick-or-treated till she was, i think, 18 or so? no, no one likes the big kids, but if they’re nice and act cute? it can go on way past the respectable age. plus those big kids can carry more and move faster. LARGE pillowcases of goodies. i’m just sayin'”

D (11/4/02) – “Tried Nano last year. Got half way through the month, wrote half of a pretty decent book. Got bored, gave up. Its more effort than you may realise…”

Kat (11/4/02) – “Oh, don’t pout. He neglected to include what I do for a living and chose to focus on two stories I told him rather than all the brilliant things I had to say about blogs. And he messed up my quote. What, me bitter? If it soothes your furrowed brow, he’s from Alabama (of course, so am I). Glad you like my blog. Whee!”

Su(zi)e (11/5/02) – “I just read what you wrote about I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings — ‘If you don’t tell kids about prejudices, they won’t have any.’ Priceless!”

Les (11/7/02) – “I just noticed them in my refer log today myself. Seems they last hit my site yesterday. This has piqued my interest and I’ll need to do some digging to see if I can figure out who the hell they are and why they’re scanning my site. Verrrrry interesting.”

Annessa (11/7/02) – “*sniff* I’m Solonor’s minion. Mom will be so proud. But just to let you know, I’ve already given my soul to someone else, and you’ll have to ask if he’ll share.”

GeekMan (11/7/02) – “Bread is upset about not being designated Overlord of an Evil Minion Master Day. When I patiently explained to him that in order to become one he would have to overthrow the current Overlord, he issued the following statement;

‘I challenge Michele and Bill to a no-holds barred Bikini wrestling match in my personal Honey Filled Cage of Rage for Minion Master rights on their designated days. Winner rules all. Call Ticketmaster for tickets and showtimes.’

Please guys, don