Category: Internet/Blogging

I just want to recognize that that last one came off as a little more of a rant than originally intended. And everyone at First Methodist that called me Dan and everyone at First Baptist that called me Daniel… you’re not funny.

What was funny was the text message I got from a friend in Greensboro who called me “Dan” last week. It said something to the effect of “Sorry! Won’t happen again!” I laughed and told him he wasn’t who I was flipping out on and apologized as profusely as possible in under 300 characters and lots of smileys.

At least someone’s still reading my blog.

I marvel every day at the fact that somebody is still reading this stuff.

When I first started even having a blog, it was a chore to post something even monthly, mostly becuase I knew no one was reading it. If you go through the oldest posts on this site, they are actually imported from before dannypeck.net existed and they were hidden away on a wordpress account that no one knew of.

This was set up initially with a dual purpose; firstly, keeping everyone at home updated on my Ecuador excursion in both the laziest and least obtrusive way possible (I didn’t have to send it out to various people, and they didn’t have to read it unless they were intentional enough to come here). Secondly, that it could just be a part of my journal when it came down to events.

I had a vague sense that Billy was reading it and sharing the funny bits with the choir at First Baptist. I knew my parents would read it. What I was not expecting was to come home and people I hadn’t even thought to give my URL to would be telling me how phenomenal a writer I was (they must not read much else). Even weirder was about three quarters of the way through the summer when Cameron asked me a question, and then- both of us too pressed for time for her to hear the long version of my answer- said “Oh, I’ll just read about it on your blog,” which was when I realized that people around me were reading it (and actually knew what I wrote about them).

Getting comments, sometimes here and sometimes on facebook when the entries are automatically imported over there, has been really good though. Just knowing someone read an entry (despite being something hard to get used to after seven years of nobody EVER visiting my websites) makes writing it seem useful. It also is nice to know both that my thoughts can help other people out, and that somebody else might be going through the same thing.

I don’t think I’m a great writer. Especially here. This is some of the least-planned writing I have ever done and continue to do in my life. I use the word “I” too much. If I wasn’t totally lazy, I’d count how many paragraphs start with that letter. But despite that, I know and appreciate that someone will eventually read each of these posts, even if it’s Jerry just checking my spelling.

So, like the post below, this is just a thank you.

Yes. I know. It’s lactic acid. 40 BILLION people have told me in the last two days that the chemical that builds up in your muscles that makes them hurt is lactic acid. I said I’d edit the last entry to change it, but I’m just writing this new one instead so that people will see it when it’s imported to facebook and stop telling me. Lactic acid. I got it.

And I mean that in the most appreciative way possible. I love you guys, and thank you.

Well, even though I think the word “Blog” is a silly word, I finally have one. I decided that my thoughts are so important that it would be a tragedy to let them slip away into the void of my forgetfulness should I not type them out. And although I think that blogs contribute towards the idiocy that permeates the internet these day (indeed if I mentioned that this post was part of my new weblog, many would have no idea that removing two letters for the sake of sheer laziness has given the morons of the world the precious online journals that amount to nothing more than an audience for their senseless ravings) I believe that it’s a better way to store, catalog, and share my brilliance than that haven for 12-year-old girls and 45-year-old creepers everywhere: myspace.

The lesser of two evils it is, and to the great benefit of you: the lucky soul who has discovered Dan’s blog, which hopefully by the time you are reading this has evolved into my own website again, in the event that I stop being cheap (and find some time outside of work, church¹, church², and school).

And no, there aren’t really footnotes. Just condescending to prove my deliberate repetition to those of you that still haven’t figured out my previous parenthetical paradox. Why I have such an alliterative, occasionally assonant inclination, I have no idea.