SSTOL: Year One (well, it worked for Batman)

Hippo birdie two ewes.

One year ago today, SwanShadow Thinks Out Loud first carved out its happy little space on the World Wide Web.

And to think, they all laughed.

Thanks to each one of you for enjoying Uncle Swan's Wild Ride so far. Rest assured, I have no intention of hanging up my keyboard anytime soon. I have a considerable amount of thinking out loud yet to do.

Sometimes the question comes to me: "What is your blog about?"

It's a telling question, since it offers conclusive proof that no one can tell that my blog is actually about anything. As if having it be about something were the point, really.

SSTOL is definitely not a diary or journal. I very rarely post here about things that go on in my personal life. In fact, if I were writing here about the goings-on in my personal life right at this moment, you'd be either shocked or amazed, depending on your point of view. Trust me on this. But see? That's all you get.

This isn't a political blog, although I occasionally write about things that reflect or reveal my political perspective. Which isn't really a political perspective. Politics as such don't interest me all that much. The things politics show us about human nature interest me quite a bit.

This isn't a comics blog, even though I have Comic Art Fridays (and occasionally holidays) and touch on other comics-related subjects from time to time. Comics and comic art interest me, but I'm interested in many other things also.

(But speaking of comic art, it just wouldn't do to have an SSTOL anniversary celebration without a little comic art, now would it? So here's my newest Mary Marvel, drawn with flair by a rising young star in the comics firmament, Brian Shearer, creator of GravyBoy. Shazam!)



Most directory sites and blogrolls list SSTOL as a pop culture blog. It's that as much as it's anything, I suppose. When I have to choose a pigeonhole for it, that's the pigeonhole I most often choose. Most of my posts latch onto something that's in the American public consciousness and worry it to death like a puppy with a rawhide toy. I don't know that I'm often terribly insightful or analytical — I just have a peculiar way of looking at things sometimes. Some people respond favorably to that, others most likely don't.

Mostly, SSTOL is exactly as advertised: the random musings of my mercurial mind. I doubt it will ever be anything else. You either enjoy the soup I'm slinging here, or you don't.

In the year I've been blogging, I've met (virtually, of course) dozens of fascinating folks. I was invited to speak to a college communications class about the blogging phenomenon, as if I knew what I was talking about. I've read tons of blogs in an attempt to figure out what I'm doing here, and finally decided that I'm just going to keep doing this voodoo that I do, and you'll either keep reading or won't, as the case may be.

I hope you will.

Thanks for all the support. (E-mail and comments are fantastic. Cash is good too.) I'll do what I can to make SSTOL: Year Two at least as interesting as Year One. In the words of sports-talk maven Jim Rome, I'll keep having a take that does not suck.