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Thursday, April 28, 2022

Musical Interlude: Blogoversary!

Note: I also team blog at DEPLORABLE Bloggers Alliance (previously called Infidel Bloggers Alliance), founded by Pastorius, and used to post at NorthernVirginiastan.

So, here's the story of Always On Watch....

Seventeen years as of April 28!  I came to the blogosphere in frustration because of the whitewash of Islam — despite the Islamic terror attacks of 9/11.  To this day, if I have to recommend one book to read on the topic of Islam, I still recommend Serge Trifkovic's The Sword of Islam (2002), a book written from the historical perspective.  It is the book that awakened me in December 2002.

Now, of course, I have often moved on to topics besides that of Islam.  Why?  Because of something Friedrich Nietzsche wrote and because I really didn't have more to say on the topic of the threat of Islam to Western Civilization.  Look at the evidence and come to your own conclusion.  But don't look too long into the abyss.

HERE is my first post (April 28, 2005) at my first Always On Watch blog, using a Blogger template before Warren customized a template for me.  

After my first Always On Watch blog, because of troll wars I next moved to Always On Watch 2 (July 24, 2006-November 29, 2010); Always On Watch 2 uses Warren's customized template as does Always On Watch: Semper Vigilans, the blog you are reading right now.  Team member Silverfiddle often posts here, too, and keeps this blog running when Warren and I are too busy to do so.  Grateful for you, Silverfiddle!

It is through the blogosphere that I met and made the closest friends I now have, too many to name. I must, however, now mention Mustang, my first cyberfriend.  At the time of our  meeting here on the web, we were both new to the blogosphere and had to stumble our way through HTML, Java Script, and the like.  

Many of my cyberfriends became "real life" friends and helped me in different ways during the horrible 11.5 years after Mr. AOW's stroke in 2009  especially Patricia, former blogger The Merry Widow, who came from Florida to Northern Virginia to stay with us several times to lend a hand.  At one point, she stayed with us for eleven months.  Eleven months!  I needed her help through kidney surgeries and complications thereafter.  She literally saved my life and saved Mr. AOW from confinement in a nursing home.  TMW passed away suddenly on March 29, 2020.  I miss her every day.

And, of course, it is through the blogosphere that I met my beloved Warren  and even the best man at our wedding The Beak!  And The Beak is the one who introduced Warren and me at The Electronic Bar.

Because of my original intent with my blogging, the following has been suggested as my theme song:


Maybe the song below should have been my theme song, although it keeps disappearing from YouTube:


About Islam...Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the critically-important topic, even to this day: Is Islam a Religion of Peace? Worth your time.

28 comments:

  1. I admire your tenacity, keeping a blog going with everything that has happened with your life over the last 17 years! I barely have time to make comments anymore lol. My life burdens are no where near what I imagine yours have been, so blogging as long as you have is quite an accomplishment in my eyes. I'm happy to have been around from the start. At least you kept the Rosie the Riveter avatar I suggested for you lol. I blogged from 2004 - 2012 or '13 I think, but memory holed it all...(Burn the evidence!) Lost my taste for blogging, I guess. Well, happy blogiversary! 17 years freakin' flew by.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I came late to the party, but glad I made it. I too have 'met' some great people in our little circle here in Right Blogistan.

    Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SF,
      Better late than never! And you are such an excellent team member here at Always On Watch!

      Delete
  3. Mr. Beamish,
    Thank you for the congrats. I'm nothing if not tenacious. LOL.

    Originally, I was using the state seal of Virginia -- all that I could come up with on my own.

    Two hilarious memories involving you and most in our little circle back then:
    1) vile troll John Brown
    2) the gasmask on Renoir's Girl with a Watering Can -- to irritate Duck

    And your satire of the Koran? Pity that's no longer available.
    Back in those early days, I barely knew how to create a hot link; Mustang showed me how.

    Blogging now isn't what it once was. **sigh**

    ReplyDelete
  4. ((((Beamish the Thought Criminal)))April 28, 2022 at 7:51:00 AM CDT

    It was much more fun when I had time to Photoshop stuff like that lol.

    Unfortunately most of my "art" no longer exists.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beamish,
      Unfortunately most of my "art" no longer exists.

      What a shame!

      Delete
    2. It is a shame, but I understand. When I shut down my blog, I burn down all my photoshops as well.

      Delete
    3. SF,
      I guess I'm too much of a packrat to destroy so much. Besides, I hate to destroy my work.

      Delete
    4. I felt a certain bit of liberation from wiping away my bit of vandalism to the blogosphere. There were other factors involved - somehow my old blog came up in a background check for a lucrative job (eek!).so I scrubbed it so that doesn't happen again (I got the job, but... the loss of anonymity blurred my paranoia and self-awareness together). I probably overkilled it with removing everything, but nuke from orbit just in case. Anyway, this ain't about me lol. Congrats again on 17 years!

      Delete
    5. Beamish,
      somehow my old blog came up in a background check for a lucrative job (eek!)

      Eek, indeed!

      I guess none of us are truly anonymous.

      And thanks again for the congrats.

      Delete
    6. Yeah... Then I quit it last year during the mask mandate nonsense. Got tired of getting harassed every time I dropped my mask a few seconds to sip a coffee. Fuggem lol.

      Delete
    7. I've been lucky in that the mask mandate never applied to my workplace, which became Zoom on Friday, March 13, when the place my homeschoolers met closed their doors for many months. My homeschool group is resourceful. We had already made plans to use a platform like Zoom when class met in person for the last time on March 10. I've learned to make Zoom work well for all of us. I now teach some students whom I never met in person.

      I refused to use Zoom to teach piano, though, so I haven't taught piano since the mask mandate and first closures.

      I couldn't take the chance on bringing COVID to Mr. AOW, who had a compromised immune system (kidney failure). I, too, have chronic kidney disease, so I have to be very careful in my own regard.

      I hope to be fully retired by the end of this July. We shall see. I've retired twice before: in June 2019 and in June 2021. Two nice retirement parties, each one with nice cash gifts and the last one with a lovely portrait of my home since 1972; in June 2021, my property was for sale as I couldn't hold the home without Mr. AOW's income. The damn real estate taxes in Fairfax County, Virginia! Virginia doesn't have the homestead provision, Indiana does.

      Delete
    8. The mask mandates brought out some people's inner Kommissar. Even though the relative size of the pores in a mask compared to the virus were roughly eight-lane highway to bowling ball in comparison... Getting harassed at work for drinking a sip a coffee was my final straw in a world gone stupid. I've been able to live comfortably off of savings and inheritance from my parents, but will have to return to the workforce eventually. I'm dreading that only Kommissar remain ...

      Delete
  5. AOW... we seldom agree, at least publicly, but anyone who has been a faithful blogger for that long deserves recognition.

    Congrats... and thanks for the history.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dave,
      Thank you.

      I've had many requests for the history of this blog. I'm doing this once and only once. I'll post a link to this blog post in the sidebar.

      Delete
  6. Congratulations, friend! I must be 15 years...not sure when I started but I remember being after you, that's for sure. WE have met great people through the blogosphere, haven't we, AWO!! I remember being on your radio show a couple of times and enjoying it! Lots has changed.......Here's to happy new changes! Again, congrats.. xxx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congratulations on your 17th Blogoversary! It's been a trip, no doubt about it. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. -FJ, above. My computer no longer likes Google sign-in. :(

      Delete
    2. FJ,
      It certainly has been a trip.

      "What a long strange trip it's been!" :^)

      My computer no longer likes Google sign-in. :(

      And no preview button!

      Delete
    3. I'm having the same issues. I have to choose the Name /.URL option to post. For some reason I don't have that option at FJ's blog

      Delete
    4. Every time Blogger makes an improvement, it's often no improvement at all!

      Delete
  8. Congratulations my friend. What a wonderful accomplishment. Back then I lasted all of 5 years with a few attempts in between but I was so sick after Obama won the election when I was blogging literally 3-6 posts a day on how awful he was I burned out. It has taken me a long time to get my mojo back. You have done an awesome job and are better than everyone else. I know. I was there when you began and I am glad to be here now. I am so proud of you and to be able to call you friend. Hugs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Layla,
      Why, thank you, my friend, for the lavish praise!

      I've had to pace myself. I used to post every day. No more! I'd burn out!

      I think that blogging helped me keep my sanity after the car accident that launched my foray into the blogosphere (I was confined to home for three months) and certainly after Mr. AOW's stroke. I had to sit bedside so much of the time as he slept for hours on end.

      Don't burn out, Layla. It's easy to do.

      Delete
    2. lol... The Obama election. Probably my favorite Photoshop. I turned his "Office of the President-elect" podium sign into a "Office of the HNIC" sign.

      I know, I'm horrible ;)

      Delete
  9. Congratulations.. the time sure does run along. Now that I am retired and enjoy research I do my best to keep with it but it is a challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  10. @TC "The mask mandates brought out some people's inner Kommissar." Yes. It's been enlightening.
    BAYSIDER

    ReplyDelete
  11. And congratulations, AOW. It takes so much energy and focus. You and your co-bloggers have added much to our lives. I'm glad Silverfiddle is there to keep dialogue going, too. One gets burned out on garbage and has to STOP sometimes.
    BAYSIDER

    ReplyDelete

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