Apr 4, 200610:22 AMThe Life

Time flies when you're goofing off

A decade of wasting time with blogs developing online communication skills:

On April 4, 1996, I started posting journal entries on HTML pages that I hand-coded with a basic text editor. Then I uploaded those webpages online with a rudimentary piece of FTP software.

Back in those days, none of us realized our silly little diaries would be called "blogs" by future analysts.

The term "weblog" was finally coined on December 17, 1997, and automatic blogging software appeared during the next year.

So I guess you could say that I became a blogger ten years ago today. I've created postings at home, in the car, on mountaintops, and near raging floodwaters. I've blogged during lunch breaks, in the middle of the night, and on vacation. But I never dreamed I'd end up teaching it for the University of California, much less doing it as part of my day job.

What a long, strange trip it's been.