Down the blogging road

Tomorrow is a landmark day for a few reasons.

My favorite Beatle, Ringo Starr, is turning 72 years of age. So far, I'm the only person I know who likes Ringo the best out of the "Fab Four". All four of them are amongst my favorite musicians ever, but I've always particularly liked Ringo's happy-go-lucky personality for some reason.

My grandma is celebrating another birthday tomorrow as well, which means I'll be spending the day with family. Any day with the family is a great day for me, to say the least.

Lastly, tomorrow will mean another month has passed in my blogging life. My blog debuted eight months ago, although it hasn't seemed anywhere near that long.

At the time, I thought I'd try it for a day or two just to see what it was like.

Well, those couple days have turned into eight months. I've really taken to this whole blogging thing, more so than I ever could've imagined. I'm even closing in on the 100 followers mark, which is about a hundred times more than I thought I'd have. (And yes, I will be holding a customary "100 Followers!" contest, whenever that time comes.)

But something great happened the other day. Something that made me take a step back and really analyze how far I've come in the blogosphere.

As I've mentioned before, I was introduced to the blogosphere as a result of Night Owl's blog. For a long time, his was the only blog I'd read. While I had begun branching out and reading other blogs by the time I started writing, I'd say his was the one that inspired me the most.

I'm sure my blog isn't the only case of that, though.

Never in a million years did I think my writing would have that same effect on anyone else.

I am truly appreciative of all the great feedback I've received on my card show posts over the past few days. Those are my favorites to write, without a doubt.

One comment really took me aback, left by one Mike Chase:

"Wow, after reading all 4 parts I am truly awe-inspired. So inspired that I decided to start a blog myself. Check it out if you want, there's only one post so far but I gotta start somewhere. Keep up the awesome work. This stuff is truly priceless."

He'd already left some gracious comments on a couple of my other posts over the last couple months, but this one really hit home.

I started this blog for a couple simple reasons. I love this hobby and thought it might be fun to write about it. Plus, it gave me something to do during my winter break from school at the time.

My time on trading forums was fun (and still is), but it was mostly about just that. Trading. I don't recall ever professing my love for dime boxes or anything along those lines.

Such a great card of Doug Mientkiewicz looking quizzically at the opposing catcher is generally ignored by many collectors. (It took about three years to learn how to spell his last name by heart.)

Not here, though. Much of the blogosphere can appreciate the sheer uniqueness of a card of a guy sitting on a baseball field, as I've found.

How often do you see something like that on cardboard?

It's the only example I know of. All I really ever wanted was to share something like that with other collectors who I thought might enjoy it.

In that regard, I think I've definitely succeeded. But actually inspiring others to start writing on their own?

That never came into my mind.

So go and check out his blog, "The Card Raven".  Maybe his blog will inspire some others down the road. Like mine did with his. Like Night Owl's did with mine. Like whoever's blog did with Night Owl. And so on, and so on.

It's what keeps the blogosphere going.