It was one year ago today that I started blogging. And what a year it has been! It started out with the outstanding experience of being selected as Hugh Hewitt's blog of the month and all of the traffic that honor brings. And I still get traffic from Hugh's site. I'm sitting here thinking about the last year and listening to Metallica's "The Ecstasy of Gold" from their live "S&M" album (S&M stands for Symphony & Metallica, not sadism and masochism, ya pre-verts) and it's like having my theme music. And "The Ecstasy of Gold" kinda describes the past year -- the thrill of discovery followed by the expanded realm of opportunities provided by such a discovery. It's been a good year.

As I've mentioned previously, I have today rolled out my final major site redesign. Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think. I will also take recommendations for my next color theme (whenever that will be). From here on out, I will use the same template and just drop in new graphics and change colors in the template. If there is anyone out there who would like to help out with some expertise in Macromedia Flash/Shockwave, drop me a line. I'd like to be able to add a little more spark to the site through some SWF files.

Lastly and -- by no means -- least, I want to thank all of my readers for riding this Magic Bus with me. It is comforting that some people think my opinions are worth reading and have some degree of merit. So, to all my regulars and to my occasional visitors -- Thank you very much!