This post is the 200th entry on my blog.  I have entries that date back to 2005 on here.  It is true that this domain and WordPress were not always the home of my blogging, but to me, it is all the same.  It is the collection of my thoughts, feelings and emotions.  I have blogged on a few other services over the years.  In fact, the other day I re-discovered probably my first ever blog (if that is what it was called at that point) over on Blurty.  The earliest post on that blog was in December of 2003, go figure.  I have been at this on-and-off for a while it seems.  What you find here did originate in a different place, but while I have had a few names and domains it is really all one collection.

I have been writing since at least the beginning of high school.  The first journal that I ever wrote in was given to me by may father.  it came with one condition: If I were to fill it up, he would get me another.  Well, I did fill it up along with a number of other books.  They all remain private and tucked away on my bookshelf.  To tell the truth, I don’t even remember the last time I opened them.  I am sure that there is stuff in there that would make me smile, laugh, be embarrassed and more today.  I should do that at some point, take a trip down memory lane, it might be fun.

I think now that I feel like I have a real permanent home as a blogger here on this domain I have become much more regular and active with my blogging.  This is also the home of the article that I wrote about photography for theatre.  I am building a recipe book here and hopefully people will send in some recipes.  I would be happy to try them out and maybe even feature them in the future.  Needless to say, this site is home to a lot of my words, musings, ponderings, rants and more.  It is a new adventure every day and I hope that all my readers are enjoying the ride!  Speaking of my readers, at the time of this writing I 15 listed followers (I bet there are more of you out there) which is pretty cool!

I blog for myself, just to put my thoughts down in writing, to have something to look back on in the future.  The fact that there are people out there who have found my corner of the internet and take some kind of interest in what I am posting here is kind of cool.  I would love to say that I do this for all of you (my followers), but you guys are really just the icing on the cake.  I am not sure what it was/is that makes me find it interesting to publicize  the thoughts that I post here, but I appreciate the support, feedback and community that my followers bring!

While I was working on my presence here on my blog I also discovered some great blogger friends through the 20SB blogging community.  I helped start up a blog-swap event with a bunch of people from there that we named Bloggerstock.  The kick off event was a great success and the second event is shaping up well with sign-ups underway.  So I think that I am finally being noticed on some part of the blogsphere, which, I suppose, no matter what anyone says, is an underlying ideal for all bloggers.

The journey to create a web-presence for myself has been fun.  I have learned a lot of things from coding to finding ways to write.  I have received many tips from many people including my brother.  It is great.  Getting to 200 posts is a pretty cool landmark, and it makes me feel like I am kinda “dug-in” here.  So, to my readers, thanks again for joining me on the journey.  Here is to the next 200!

As I understand it, blogging is a two way street.  While sure, I have to write something that other people might want to read, it helps if I read what other people have to say.  Frankly, reading other blogs is probably a lot more interesting than reading the newspaper every day. You can probably get the same amount of world news by reading the right blogs every day as well, you just get more biased viewpoints, which is probably not a bad thing.  I mean, the newspapers and media agencies all have their own slant, especially here in Salt Lake City!

There have been a few blogs that I have been following for a while but I wanted to figure out how I could expand who I was reading and then maybe expand who found me.  It really is a strange fascination that many of us have in wanting other people to read what we write.  I mean, sometimes I wonder if I really have something to say that anyone cares about.  It isn’t like anyone listens to me at work, I have been here for four years and sometimes I wonder who notices!

The three blogs that I have been reading regularly are: Photofocus by Scott Bourne, MonsteRawr by Stephanie Van Sandt, and Youngest Around by Jessica Watson.  Photofocus is a great read for photographers with lots of interesting and useful information.  MonsteRawr is just a firend of mine who I met through ControlBooth.com, and Youngest Around is Jessica’s blog documenting her solo circumnavigation sailing adventure.  Also I have recently started to read Jim on Light as we have started to have some interactions on Twitter.

Not that I really have any idea how many visitors I get, but those that I do will probably notice that the look and feel of the site has changed. I found a great deal on a hosting package and decided that I would host my blog/site myself.  I also really like tweaking and learning all the coding and everything, so it is kind of fun to play around with self hosting.  I suppose it means that those visitors who came from wordpress.com won’t see the same features, but everything else should be working with the same URLs like feeds and such.  Please let me know if you have any issues with the site (technically) or if you have any comments/suggestions.  You can use this form to contact me!

Well, I am poking around with wordpress and getting that all set up while trying to tech through “Touch(ed)” at the theatre.  If things slow down a bit I will get this site a little more organized.  Additionally, this blog should forward over to my Tumblr blog as well.  In the mean-time I am going to enjoy the awesome music in the show!

I don’t really get all of these new social networking and blogging sites that seem to spring up every day. However, I spend a lot of time sitting in front of the computer (which probably isn’t good) and it seems that everyone has the next new thing. I mean, I have Facebook (which I have had since it was new), Twitter (in multiple accounts), slathers of IM accounts, Google Wave, my own websites (with blogs), and now Tumblr. I guess I will see if it is worth it.

Really, today I was just sitting around since I finished working on the Leg Lamp for “A Christmas Story” and I just need George to give an OK on it. I don’t actually have the lamps that I need for the front of the car in the show because the ones that I thought I would use are not correct. It is I good thing that I didn’t need them for “Miss Saigon” last season when I bought them. So, new headlamps are on the way that will actually work with the battery system that I plan to use.

So where does that leave me? Sitting in my office reading all the tweets that come in from people going to LDI 2009, which is making me kinda jealous. Hopefully next year when LDI is in Vegas I will be able to convince the theatre that they should send me. It is professional development, and I deserve to go. I will probably go no matter what, but if they pay for it, that would be awesome. I think that the University offers some grants for professional development so I might have to look into that as well.

Then of course there is this whole thing with possibly setting up my own company so that I can do the job that ETC wants to contract with me. That would be really cool. I have other options and I don’t know what is going to make the most sense. it may all come down to how much money I will take home when everything is said and done. i have a local company who would be willing to take me on their payroll, thus covering me with their insurance to be able to do the job, the question is, after they take their cut to cover overhead, what will I walk away with? So, we shall see.