3-23-2012

One year of blogging.

There are few things more annoying than folks who proclaim with no subtlety that it is their birthday.  What?  You want some recognition for another 365 days of respiration? 

But a milestone is a milestone, and more importantly an excuse for an easy blog post.

Since the internet is where everything happens almost instantly I suspect that one year here counts for more than one human year.  Or even a dog year.  Certainly at the one year birthday parties I have seen in our kitchen the main attraction is not philosophical musing but smearing cupcake frosting on all available body and furniture surfaces.

But here goes.

Thanks to everyone who drops in.  In the past year Detritus of Empire has evolved from a minuscule blog frequented by fans of Roman archeology and of dogs in silly costumes.  Why, it is now a tiny blog favored by the above folks plus everyone who gets misled by search engines and is expecting something scholarly.

In particular I must issue several thousand apologies to people who went looking for information on the English Civil War and instead ended up with this nonsense.

On the other hand I am rather proud of my number one all time post Three guys versus the Asian Carp.  As the Carp Wars intensify I like to think this will become a classic along the lines of All Quiet on the Western Front.

Roman archeology was the starting point for this blog.  It was in a sense an evolution from the daily email postings I used to send home from my annual digs at Vindolanda.  Only a little more than a month to wait for another series of same, as I am scheduled for two weeks of trowel time in May.  Hopefully that is, as past trips have had various logistical challenges including an erupting Icelandic volcano, and with aging parents one can never really predict when plans will need to be tossed out. 

It is heating up to a torrid political season here in the States.  I have noted that political posts are seldom popular, it must be supply and demand, there is just no shortage of people out there with opinions and keyboards.  It does appear that I will be in Washington DC in a few weeks, and it is hard to imagine not seeing something remarkable there. 

It is fun however to have the occasional near monopoly on a topic.  If you google up middle school combat robotics or amputee baseball you will find my ramblings occupying a lofty spot in the search results.

Special thanks to Next Door Laura who got so sick and tired of me sitting around unoccupied in sloppy late winter weather that she encouraged me to emulate her own blogging efforts. 

Spring beckons and it looks like a good time to get out and see a bit more of the world in all its resplendent oddness.  Expect more news of digging, and of the state of America, and of adolescents hammering together the first components of Skynet in my robotics classes, and....oh, and more dogs whenever possible.

Three times a week then, more or less.  Unless I am on the road.  That tends to result in varying rates of posting depending on how much fun I am having and how far from the modern world I wander.


Tacitus