Four More Years?

This month marks four years of the Andrew and Lisa blog. Here’s a screenshot from four years ago:

snapshot

Anyone remember that? I looked back and found that my first couple of posts were just sharing interesting links I found. The subject matter was diverse, and included a surprising amount of technical information. I posted about things like politics and Firefox, this cool new web browser I had just found.

At some point, I decided I wasn’t going to further the echo chamber that the blogosphere can sometimes be.  I decided it would be more interesting if I only posted original content.  I’ve been on and off of this wagon since making that decision.  A lot of this original content has hovered around two topics: faith and terrorism.  Sometimes I mixed topics. I can’t easily point to a cause for this, except that these things happened to be on my mind.

Some pieces I’ve written are, no doubt, embarrassing when viewed from the distance afforded by time.  That’s the hazard of writing in a searchable, accessible, archived medium.  Bonus points for you, Shinnfans, for posting links to the poorly-written, immature, or embarrassing stuff in the comments to this post.  As a matter of fact, I’d love to have you share links to your favorite posts, as well.

We’ve done movie reviews, humorous pieces, and lots of serious stuff.  This was my first posted piece of original material of any length, and is still one of my favorites.

There have been months that I haven’t posted very often.  But I’ve always returned to blogging.  When I’m truly honest and listen for God’s call on my life, I often suspect that the most important thing I’ll leave behind when I die will be a piece of text.  That’s one of the factors that keeps me returning: I suspect that someday I’ll have something very meaningful to say, and I want to have a pre-cultivated platform ready for the endeavor.

Many of my recent posts have been like some of the first ones: someone’s funny video intead of the early off-beat web links.  I’ve posted a lot of pictures, and I’m starting to get into original video.  What kind of material would YOU like to see as we continue on into the future?  Should I keep going with this blog?

Most of all, I’d like to thank all of you who read on a regular basis.  After 414 posts in 22 categories with 184 tags, you’ve left 811 comments.  If you’d never commented, I wouldn’t have continued blogging.  Comments are like food to a blogger’s psyche: when you put up a blog post baring your soul, the worst response you can receive is an apathetic silence.

Can we make a deal going forward?  If YOU don’t let my psyche starve, I’ll try to be as responsive as possible and post the kind of material YOU want to see.  Let me know if you’ll agree to this deal by leaving a comment below.

Thanks for a great four years!

At the coast!

Lisa, Liam, baby X and I are at the coast until Friday. We’re meeting with and shooting high school senior clients here. We’ll also take some time and do a little reading and relaxing. Look for a few good blog posts, including:

  • A current listing of Liam’s vocabulary (to the best of our recollection)
  • What Andrew’s reading now
  • Lots of cool coastal photos 🙂

Enjoy!