10 thoughts on two years

Photo Attribution: US Presswire

I realized yesterday that Monday was our two year blogaversery.

730+ straight days of blog-running.

I don’t do anything for two years. Crap, I’d be surprised if I brushed my teeth every day during those two years.

And yet here we are. Really, it’s because of two things:

1. I wanted to become a full-time sportswriter/blogger and figured starting my own was the best way to accomplish that (check).

2. You guys actually read what I write (!)

It seems normal now because a lot of people read a lot of things on the Internet, but if you would have told December 2010 me that this blog would have the following it has I would have ripped off my Cheyne Gadsen throwback jersey and started running laps around my apartment building.

Here are 10 things I’ve learned in running this blog for two years (all of them free!):

1. There is nothing y’all won’t do to look at a uniform post. You guys would slay small mammals to see our new equestrian threads, drink lighter fluid to get a peek at new baseball hats, and oh the things you will do to see football uniforms. Truly barbaric stuff.

2. Twitter…it’s awesome. It gets misused, and I’m on there too much, but Monday alone brought 1,500 people came to the site simply because of a few links I tweeted. You guys are sharing content on there like crazy and I couldn’t be more appreciative. It makes me want to continue to write good things for you.

3. Some quick hits…

Toughest person for me to write about: Ford
Easiest person for me to write about: Weeden
Most fun person for me to write about: Markel
Favorite interview: Zac
Favorite sport to write about: conference basketball (and that’s saying something)

4. OKC Dave is invaluable as a writer, sounding board, and statistician extraordinaire. Amilian as well, but substitute “idea-generator” for “statistician extraordinaire.” This place wouldn’t be what it is without those guys. You should follow both of them on Twitter.

Follow @mattamilian

Follow @okc_dave

5. A list of OSU personalities I wish I could have blogged about: Richard Dumas, Tony Allen, Pat Jones, Doug Gottlieb, Hart Lee Dykes, Joe Adkins, and R.W. McQuarters.

6. Doing the Bullets is really fun. A grind sometimes, but fun. It keeps me up on things, and there’s this weird art to putting them together. I don’t think I’ve totally got it down, but we’re getting there.

7. I wish I could do more baseball. It’s tough when I live in Dallas and pretty much nothing is on TV, but I grew up on OSU baseball — every regional, every big game, all of it, I was there. I loved it, then I lived it. Wish I could portray more of that on here.

8. It’s good (but also bad) to have haters. If literally nobody hates at least some of the stuff you do then you’re probably not doing anything that anybody cares about either. I’ve over-toed that line at times, but I’m learning…maybe I just need 20 years instead of two.

9. Most sportswriting is so boring it’s almost unreadable. It’s 2013, we all watched the game (and if we didn’t, that’s what the AP is for). Entertain me, find me something I can’t find anywhere else, do something other than regurgitating what just happened. I’ve tried (and sometimes failed) to do that here. Come on writers (and bloggers), we can do better.

10. I love this. All of it. It’s a rush for me and I love you being here. So thank you. For sharing, for the notes, the emails, all of it. Thank you for telling your friends and for not always taking everything too seriously. It’s a game after all, a wonderful game, but a game at that. That’s all.

See you tomorrow.