My Birth Year as a Blogger is 2007. This is the year that I was able to maintain a blog for more than a month, and have been able to create and modify templates and codes… on my own.

Let me take you back to the time when I first felt envy of my friends Jetlogs, Waukeen and Anitokid, who were blogging on a daily basis for a long time before I even discovered what a ‘blog’ or weblog is. I then set out to buy a domain and a hosting package. I decided to avail of website services from a local service provider, with the mistaken notion that by being able to call them as often as I like, setting up my blog will be a lot easier. I did say ‘mistaken’, didn’t I?

Me: Hello. My wordpress blog looks funny, I think I f*cked up somewhere in the php templates. Can you help me?

CSR: We don’t provide support for website development, we are sorry. Is there anything else?

I don’t remember which combinations of google search words I used, but I finally landed on the savior of all newbie bloggers, the Asian master of Wordpress design, the designer that provides premium-quality wordpress themes for FREE… Small Potato. And that’s when I really got addicted to themes and templates and ul’s and li’s and div’s. My current site isn’t perfect at all, but thanks to the RSS feeds from SP, I’m getting better.

One highlight of my sojourn in the blogosphere is my discovery of Jessica Zafra’s blog. The author of the ‘Twisted’ books that I worshiped in my teens, and inevitably influenced my current writing style. I blogged about it here as soon as I found it, and have been going back to her blog as often as I can. One secret: Although I joined her blog as a subscriber and have the ability to comment, I don’t, because I am too starstruck. Another secret: Whenever I post something and read the post over, I always ask myself.. “What would Jessica think?”. Fanatical bullsh*t, you say? Go visit her site, JessicaRulesTheUniverse, and find out why I idolize her so much. *winks*

And then I joined Entrecard. In retrospect, maybe this is the “ramp” (see John Chow’s definition of The Ramp) that made my blog at the very least visible to people other than my close friends from Ragnarok Online. Through this social networking site I met:

Antibarbie - who scares me a bit (ok, a lot), but compels me to come back over and over to read her newest stories.

Sam - the controversial marketer whose ascerbic wit and brutally unconventional opinions held me in a spellbound trance for a long time and shocked me to the core (despite my pretense at unshakeability… which he also saw through).

Saphrym - my new paragon of self-discipline when it comes to dieting, blog events and writing.

Manly Policeman - who can make light of things, despite the seriousness of his job.

Gorilla Sushi’s Mr. Jason - who shares my generation’s love for alternative music, and has a thing for funny photo captions.

Buraot - who can dish out romantic posts, strongly-principled human rights activist views, and irreverent humor.. all at the same time.

… and the many others who made the start of my blogging life very memorable in 2007. Thank you.