Yup. One whole year! I'm at 10,382 hits on my sitemeter, broke 10K I think it was week before last - didn't post anything about breaking 10K though because that includes 292 hits for my own posts, which I tend to re-edit after posting & each republish adds another, plus every time I look to see if there are new comments from work (more often than I should) - all in all I'd probably shave at least 700 off that number as self-generated. Anyways - wow, yes, one year of my waterlogged randomness and dang, I'd love to talk more about this but I have a trifecta of deadlines that I'm dealing with (Lyn, that's why I haven't emailed back but THANK YOU THANK YOU for that additional & rather key info about the campsite NOT being right at the launch site, they said beachfront, I assumed, we all know the phrase about "assume", right?) and tonight it's Free Friday at the South Street Seaport Museum - I wonder if they'll let big people try the scrimshaw, that sounds like fun, plus they will have sea chanteys & a guided tour of an exhibit of traditional sailor's crafts - so I don't know if I'll have much time for any kind of retrospective post like you're supposed to do when your blog hits a year. In a way, though, how very reflective of my life - too many things I love to do so I never do any of 'em really well. Sure beats couchpotatodom, though.
Anyways, as I said I have a ton I have to accomplish in the next couple of hours, but I did want to say thanks to the people who've been stopping by, commenting or not. What a lot of really interesting people I've "met" - and in a few very cool cases, even actually met - over the year.
And that, my friends from all over, is all I have time for now! I am sorry about that - but I thought it would be fun (& make up in some degree for today's hurry) to repost my very very first post, in which I answered the question:
"What's a Frogma?" (Frogma Post #1, January 20, 2005)
I'm a sea kayaker.
Well, like most people, I'm a lot of things but I made up the word "frogma" while enjoying a flame war on a rather lively kayaking list server, so it came from a sea-kayaker frame of mind.
Kayaking is a sport with a lot of subdivisions - whitewater, flatwater & sea kayaking barely begins to touch it. That's part of why I like it so much - so many different avenues to explore & so far ALL of 'em fun. But then I just like being on the water in the water, around the water - I swim & sail too - as long as I can get out there in some way on a regular basis, I'm pretty much happy.
But to return to the point of the story - these subdivisions do sometimes produce divisiveness. Surprise surprise. Recipe for a great flame war - take a bunch of people who have been drawn by different routes to a sport that can be approached a lot of different ways. Make some of 'em fanatically devoted to THEIR approach. Make a lot of 'em opinionated New Yorkers just for kicks. Put them on a list serve where real names don't show, drop the temperature to 15 degrees, freeze the river they love to play on, stir in the resultant cabin fever and...yee-HA! Very amusing - from the sidelines anyways.
Anyways, I was following this particularly violent thread one day when the word "Frogma" hopped into my brain. I can't remember whether it was the one where paddler A accused paddler B of trying to lure beginners to an ICY DEATH after paddler B posted a winter trip notice or the one where an inflatable fanatic (I mean a fan of inflatable boats, not...oh, you know) went on this howling rant about the terrible dangers of decked boats. It's always about the terrible danger. Whichever it was, I was following the postings & almost got to the point where I felt like I was reading fundamentalist religious maniacs, it got that fierce. The unquestioning cleaving to certain sets of beliefs - the certainty that all others are doomed...Unbending, self-aggrandizing, dogmatic...only amphibious. Voila. FROGMA - the dogma of the semi-aquatic.
Rather delighted with having made up a good word like that, I did a Google search, found that the only other people using it was some band in Denmark or someplace, and stashed it away for future use.
Seems like as good a name as any for a semi-aquatic persons's personal ramblings.
As I mention in the description, btw - I'm starting this because it's too cold & dark right now to go paddling & I'm bored. There's a very good chance that it will last only until it's more inviting outside - and that's at the outside. I don't think I've ever managed to keep a journal for more than a week. But for what it's worth, figured I'd give it a try.
Hmmm...now the question is - do I tell the bloggers whose blogs I already read & occasionally comment on that I'm blogging, thereby giving my blog at least a base of people I know (and that's the weird thing about reading these blogs - I feel like I know these people but only one of 'em is actually a friend of mine) - or do I just keep quietly anonymous for a while & see what coalesces?
Final note on 1/20/2006 - Oh man. Have you seen Derrick's hydrofoil kayak writeup (I'm sorry Wenley I know you found it first, I just don't have time to go find it when Derrick just did his!)? Well, I thought that looked pretty interesting. But this is INSANELY cool! Go take a look! really! it's intense!
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