Baltimore Snacker is One Year Old!!!

It was one year ago today, September 12, 2006 at 11:03 PM, that I sat down in front of my computer to start my first blog, the Charm City Snacker, later changed to the Baltimore Snacker (it does roll off the tongue more easily, and it's easier to type, too). And the blog has come quite a long way from this wee introduction:

Welcome to the Charm City Snacker. This is just an informal, casual journal about some places I have eaten and whether or not I'd recommend them. Hopefully you'll be encouraged to try some new stuff, or be happy to see ones you have tried.

Hmmm, what next? Well, I'm fairly new to this blogging thing - I haven't even paid much attentino [sic] to them, except that there seem to be very many on the web! So the next question to ask, therefore, is WHY throw my hat into the ring? Well, I thoguht [sic] about it for a while, and really didn't think there was a reason to start one. I finally decided one day, trying to decide on a place to eat for dinner, that I would write a food blog - hmmm, would this be a flog? No, that sounds stupid.

So that's what I'll be writing about. My name is John, and welcome to my culinary adventures in Charm City!

Since then, I've made 450 posts (including this one), containing 227 restaurant / take-out stand and festival reviews, 42 videos, 17 recipes and one "blog event." It's interesting that I've been able to keep it going so long, considering so many blogs die out over a few months (so notes Nate Whitehall). I even had one die out, a photo blog rendered totally obsolete by Flickr and a lack of interest.

I have to say that I put down some pretty teacherly "classroom rules" (so to speak) at the beginning. Thankfully, I've thrown some of them out the window - No "non-foodie" comments? Oy! I'm glad I got rid of that one. I won't meet anyone? Same (what a strange thing to say), though to be fair, I had no idea if there were any weirdos out in the blogosphere. I was trying to avoid that. And no, while I haven't met any of you guys yet, I am sure I will at some point.

I get sentimental easily, which is when I need some sense smacked back into me. But just to warn y'all: I will be posting some special "birthday posts" over the next few days - some favorite posts, visits to early places I visited, things like that.

Until that comes, I want to thank everybody who has stopped by, and especially everybody who has commented all over the country and back. I hope you're enjoying things. There's more to come!