The BIG day is coming!

We’re literally hours away from the big day (details about the wedding here).

And, with that, I thought I’d do something a little different and look back on how this blog came to be. (It does relate to the wedding in a strange sense; bear with me.)

I’ve always been interested in social media. Meeting people is something I really enjoy, and social media makes it easy to connect with people with similar interests and ideals. I’ve made quite a few very good friends and forged many relationships via social media (and I’ve met some real scums, too, but we’re going to focus on the positives here.). Actually, Cassie and I met in person at one of the social media “tweetups” that she used to put together [I’ve told that story before]; our mutual friend, Humberto, coaxed me to go, guaranteeing a good time. Well, it was a very good time, and I even met two other people whom I now consider very close friends, John Jordan and MetalFrog.

At that time, I mainly was active on twitter, but I was also using facebook to keep in touch with family. Years before, I used to write a blog that I stopped to focus on professional development, and I really had no desire to write a blog about anything or to expand my social media presence until I started actually delving into some of the local blogs that were going around and realizing that I had a whole lot I could say that could add to the community. Cassie was one of my motivating factors to start my own.

At the beginning, things on the blog were a little more random. I was posting about food and stuff early on but probably not on the frequency as I do now. All along though, I’ve maintained that I’m going to keep my own interests at the forefront. Sometimes I’m thinking about food, others, I’m thinking about music or television or some sort of entertainment. Occasionally, I’ll tell a story about a random experience. For me, as a blog reader, I start tuning out when content gets tediously repetitive. I always say the point of doing this is to have fun.

And it’s been a fun ride. I’ve gotten a lot of support from some local heavy hitters. Kristi Barlette and Steve Barnes from the Times Union have helped get my name out there, and Mary and Greg from All Over Albany continually link to my content and try to get me involved in their community events.

That’s a big word here: “community.” There’s a great local community that is comprised by the area’s dense social media “web.” I really have to say that the community around here has really made it feel like it’s worth it to keep up with the blog. And that’s pretty damn cool.

I’m really glad to have this space to be able to share somewhat personal things like our engagement story to photos of Cassie and me enjoying one of the local farmers markets, and I really have to credit Cassie for being there for support to encourage me to do it and also to continue to put up with it.

The next couple of days are going to be super busy, but it was nice to sit down and think about how everything here started and how it relates with my growing relationship with Cassie.

Next time I post, I’ll be a married man!