enerally the Blogatorium and its various threads are a sort of super-diary, a place where I can comment on media, write about books and recount train stories. Also, it gives me a great place to record my travels. And that’s fine – it’s one of its uses. However, it really is nice to pick up recognition for my efforts from time to time. In this, I’m speaking of the friends, the family, the various members of various clubs, even random people who will mention something I’ve posted that had an impact.

Model train guys are always mentioning that they enjoyed my session write-ups (and not a few of my postings have been reposted on the various superintendent sites). It reminds me of a kid we had, a former young club member, who came down from college and tried to dispatch a session after a year away. Talk about a crater – trains were overly delayed, even annulled. He came out of the office at the end of the session, sweating, white as a sheet, run through the wringer. Then he saw me and moaned, “I’m in the blog, aren’t I?”

But it goes deeper than that. Occasionally people are moved by my reviews to actually go out and pick up the books I’ve read. It’s always nice when some passing acquaintance tells me they really did like the book I reviewed, and offer thanks for the recommendation. Of course, I can’t move my own books on the site but I can move others, it seems. Still, it’s great that people find themselves enjoying something I enjoyed.

I even appreciated my sister telling me I’d “phoned in” a DOG EAR a while back. Not complaining – I had. It was Thursday, I was rushed, and I didn’t have a lot to say (i.e. my brain was in the basement). Even that sort of feedback was nice to have. It made me start trying to step my development cycle back and begin thinking about things a little earlier so that my quality is better.

I even had a couple of people get pissed about some things I wrote, really pissed so that it went through an organization I’m involved in. The pissed part was one reinforcement, but greater was the support I got for saying what I said (which was needed to be said). It’s just interesting to touch off a controversy and watch it spread. The power of words.

But really, it comes down to me offering thanks to all those who have supported me over these last ten years of site management and content generation. I really appreciate when you like me on Facebook or when you bump into me someplace and say, “I really enjoyed that bit…”. Means the world. Since no money changes hands over this (well, GoDaddy cleans up, damn them), it is how the site pays for itself – in the pride and gratitude it creates.

So thanks for the support. More content to come!

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