2013 State of the Ramblings

Sean's Ramblings celebrated its 8th anniversary last week. When I first started writing Sean's Ramblings, Twitter wasn't around yet and Facebook was less than a year old and only available on college campuses, so if you wanted to share your thoughts online, you had to do it through a blog. Of course, less and less people want so spend time writing blog posts now when you can share immediate thoughts in 140 characters or less instantly. Therefore, I am a dinosaur in the blog world.

When I started Sean's Ramblings, I was in my very late 20s and newly married. Now, I'm in my mid-30s (though some people would say late 30s) and have a child. Having a kid has been an amazing experience (see my fatherhood updates here and here). The only downside is that I don't write nearly as much as I did in the past. Although 203 posts in 2012 seems like a significant number, this is the least amount of posts I wrote in a year since this blog's inception by far. While I can't promise that I'll write more in 2013, I have no plans of retiring. I still enjoy sharing my thoughts on a wide variety of topics, and I hope that you enjoy reading this blog.

So what happened in the past year? I was introduced to an amazing and supportive Pittsburgh Bloggers community. I just wish that I was able to attend some of the events, which is difficult seeing that I live in Northern Virginia. Staying with the Pittsburgh blog topic, I think I'll continue the Best Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournament in 2013 making it the 5th annual event. It's a lot of work, but I like being part of the Pittsburgh sports blog community, even if I don't write much about Pittsburgh sports anymore.

In case you missed it, here are some of my favorite/best posts of 2012:

- Since it was an election year, here is my political platform.

- I looked back at a shooting at my high school 20 years ago.

- I interviewed Laurie Koozer, author of What Happens on Sunday

- My escape from South Florida before Tropical Storm Isaac

- The best London Olympics preview.

- I tried to revisit my 1997 road trip, but I didn't get very far.

- I had my first Twitter battle.

- I ran a 5K without trying.

- I saw Van Halen in concert so naturally, I wrote a concert review of the opening act, Kool & The Gang.

- I applied to be on MTV's The Real World.

- I shared my memories of Pittsburgh's Civic Arena.

Thanks again to everyone for reading and commenting. I really appreciate your support!