Ace of Spades HQ

December 30, 2004

Happy Blogoversary to Me!
— Ace

Okay, I jumped the gun yesterday -- forgot which day I started this blog on -- but I can now say that this blog has officially turned one year old.

As I've said, I started this blog because I'd been reading blogs for a while -- especially Instapundit, for links, and Steven den Beste, for the most amazing essays on the Internet -- and because I got annoyed that Oliver Willis, who is not-funny and not-insightful, was getting attention and I wasn't. And of course because I happened to read an article on Dec 29th or Dec 30th about how easy it was to start a blog now because of Blogger's software.

And because I'd actually met a real live blogger. She said, off-handedly, "Oh, you can read about that on my blog," and I determined at that moment that I, too, needed to be able to say, off-handedly, "I'm sorry, but I've already completely discarded that spurious claim on my blog."

Son of Nixon, it turns out, had read the same article, and he called me up to tell me he wanted to start a blog a mere two hours after I'd started my own. And boy, did we have some chuckles for a full month, as we'd just slip into conversation "Yeah, you can find that information on my blog" and then giggle like schoolgirls about it.

At any rate, Ace of Spades started out with this amazing blast in the etherspace -- a missive I like to call "First Post" -- and then the quality just got even better with this potty-mouthed reworking of Poe's The Raven.

I originally had a different schtick for the blog. I never said "I think" in the beginning; it was "We think." Because I was claiming that this wasn't a one-man operation, but rather a lavishly funded 644-man operation consisting chiefly of Gulf War special forces veterans and ex-CIA operatives, being run out of the luxurious Ace of Spades HQ corporate offices on the secret 103rd floor of the Empire State Building, all under the control of a secretive and mysterious rightwing benefactor we only knew as "Mr. Tranh."

I dropped that sometime after I moved to Mu.Nu. Trouble is, I only occasionally did anything with the schtick, and it turns out that 80% of readers didn't even know it was the schtick. They just hadn't heard of it, and they just thought I was being a pompous dick for always saying "We."

Anyway, if you read early posts and find me saying "we," that's why. I wasn't crazy and I wasn't using the royal we. I was just doing a comic riff that apparently only I and six other people even knew about.

I guess today I'll be doing a Best of Ace through the day, in between blogging about other crap. It'll be both my actual best stuff, and the most important moments in the blog-- important in terms of getting Big Links.

I won't be doing that Hey, Remember The Last Year of Blogging? thing I'd teased, because I really can't think of a lot of funny things for the Lisa Loeb Chick from Blender and Sebastian Bach to say about my site. If they never say anything funny, how can I be expected to make up funny things for them to say?

At any rate, thanks again for reading this site. It's really very satisfying to put up some nonsense and have other people read it, and occasionally even enjoy it.

Thanks to Carnivorous Conservative! ... for providing me with a new banner, which I think I'll use at least for the Blogoversary.

I don't know if I like the font he's chosen for the title, and I really liked the Garamond font for the Mencken quote, but baby, you cannot find fault with that kick-ass death card!

Posted by: Ace at 06:27 AM | Comments (15)
Post contains 649 words, total size 4 kb.

1 Congratulations, Ace. Not even Vinny Falcone could have done a better job.

Posted by: Christopher at December 30, 2004 06:52 AM (SjUPQ)

2 Congrats. Now that the Commissar has joined me in limbo and Goldstein is making noises about playing video games, it's pretty much all on you, Ace. Don't let us down, bro.

Posted by: Allah at December 30, 2004 06:57 AM (Lr/Az)

3 Allah,

Thanks. As far as one of the big moments of the site, you're one of them, of course. Mind if I mention that? You know what I mean, I think-- you originally didn't want me to say what you were doing for me.

Posted by: ace at December 30, 2004 07:07 AM (5qmzg)

4 Now, uh, about those flaming skulls you promised us...

Posted by: someone at December 30, 2004 07:14 AM (TMTbk)

5 Is it just me, or does that new cigarette-smoking skull look a hell of a lot like Hunter S. Thompson?

Posted by: senator philabuster at December 30, 2004 07:20 AM (yucew)

6 Happy Blogiversary, Ace!

I agree about the Garamond, and the quote is kinda lost in the background a bit, but the header typestyle definitely got my attention and reminds me of the scythe in the AoS card. It works.

Posted by: Joan of Argghh! at December 30, 2004 07:23 AM (v5daR)

7 Happy Blogiversary, Ace. Believe me, the InnerwebnetAOL is better for your writing.

Posted by: Margi at December 30, 2004 07:28 AM (rKX9f)

8 That new banner is BAD ASS

Posted by: TallDave at December 30, 2004 07:51 AM (M0J/c)

9 Senator Philabuster is right on the money. Its like HST was looking into a mirror, if in fact I was a mirror and not someone wasting time at work.

Happy B-Day, Ace.

Posted by: Jersey Matt at December 30, 2004 07:55 AM (Z/rsA)

10 Happy blogoversary Ace! And, thanks for the linky love yesterday

Posted by: Carin at December 30, 2004 08:00 AM (Y2ZuE)

11 Congrats Ace. Thanks for making my internet year!

Best wishes for a healthy, safe, and fun 2005.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge at December 30, 2004 09:01 AM (mrpxK)

12 Congratulations. I think a table dance from Kim Richards is in order.

I'll thow in ten bucks, if Allah and Goldstein agree to cover the rest.

Posted by: iowahawk at December 30, 2004 09:17 AM (xKAPd)

13 Congrats, Ace. And the new banner is pretty cool, but my first thought was that the new font for the blog title is very D&D-esque. I swear I have a "Fighter's handbook" or something around here with that exact same font on the cover.

Posted by: francisthegreat at December 30, 2004 10:34 AM (LZ2fB)

14 Let's be honest, you just wanted me -- and the rest of the blogosphere -- to link to you two days with congratulatory posts so you could steal all our traffic.

Posted by: Digger at December 30, 2004 01:57 PM (FYEx6)

15 Great Blog.

Posted by: BULLSEYE at January 01, 2005 01:25 PM (wKMEO)

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