Back in 2004, my friend and co-worker Jon installed some blogging software on his site and asked me if I’d be interested in setting up my own blog there. (Hard though it may be to believe, blogs weren’t free to operate back in the dark ages of 21 years ago … free blogging sites started to pop up, but didn’t really take off for several years.) I named my new blog in a backhand kind of tribute to Jon’s brief blog which he named Blogulatiousness. If I had any inkling I’d still be blogging in 2025, I assure you I’d have put a bit more thought into names. But I didn’t, and I am, so we’re both stuck with my silly choice of name.
I’d been collecting online and offline quotations for many years, so I naturally thought it would make sense to focus my blogging efforts on sharing at least a few of those quotes. Some bloggers just naturally churn out brilliant and incisive essays on the issues of the day. Others post quick-hitting news or funny comments with links to other resources. I’m neither witty nor incisive, so I settled on the laziest way to fill the page: linking to a lot of those other sites run by far better writers, but including at least a few paragraphs from the linked article to entice my reader (or readers, on a good day) to click on the link and go read the whole thing.
Initially, the blog was kind of an adjunct to my quotation collection, but the blog soon ate the original quotes site … I’m ashamed to admit just how rarely I edit anything there these days.
Typical blog content is really a modern incarnation of what used to be called “commonplace books” where a writer would collect information of interest that didn’t necessarily relate to the writer’s main interests or to anything else added to the book, as this summary explains:
Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas. Commonplaces are used by readers, writers, students, and scholars as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts. Each one is unique to its creator’s particular interests but they almost always include passages found in other texts, sometimes accompanied by the compiler’s responses. They became significant in Early Modern Europe.
“Commonplace” is a translation of the Latin term locus communis (from Greek tópos koinós) which means “a general or common topic”, such as a statement of proverbial wisdom. In this original sense, commonplace books were collections of such sayings, such as John Milton’s example. Scholars now understand them to include manuscripts in which an individual collects material which have a common theme, such as ethics, or exploring several themes in one volume. Commonplace books are private collections of information, but they are not diaries or travelogues.
I think that’s a pretty good description of most blogs, and certainly is true of Quotulatiousness.
Earlier anniversary postings:
- Twentieth anniversary
- Nineteenth anniversary
- Eighteenth anniversary
- Seventeenth anniversary
- Sixteenth anniversary
- Fifteenth anniversary
- Fourteenth anniversary
- Thirteenth anniversary
- Twelfth anniversary
- Eleventh anniversary
- Tenth anniversary
- Ninth anniversary
- Eighth anniversary
- Seventh anniversary
- Sixth anniversary
Unfortunately, the first five years of postings — when I was merely a freeloading tenant on Jon’s site — aren’t accessible any more. With the move to my own site, I switched from MovableType to self-hosted WordPress (currently running version 6.8.1).
Thanks for starting it and sticking with it.
Comment by MBlanc46 — May 10, 2025 @ 10:01
Thank you, and thanks for being a regular visitor and commenter!
Comment by Nicholas — May 10, 2025 @ 11:36
Congrats at 21 years. A CD would be more appropriate though, yes? Almost to your first clasp! Funny how Canadian decorations work though. I did 9 years West coast navy and 24 years Air Force and while i d8d sail and deploy it was never in support of an UN thing so the only gong I earned was a CD, with 2 clasps. Not embarrassed by my lack of silverware, I know what I did.
Comment by Dwayne — May 10, 2025 @ 12:07
My reserve service was short enough that I never got within sniffing distance of a CD, but I note that there’s a clasp awarded at 22 years, so (on the off-chance that I remember in 364 days’ time) I should change the displayed medal to a CD and 1 bar.
Comment by Nicholas — May 10, 2025 @ 13:41
Though the commenting is sparse, this site is a daily “must visit” for me. I have bookmarked quite a few postings from here, for future reference. Thank you for putting in the constant and no doubt tiring effort to make multiple daily postings. I don’t know how you do it, given that there is little recognition and obviously little or no compensation for your work. This site is one of the gems of the Internet, IMHO.
Comment by Dutch — May 10, 2025 @ 12:38
Thank you, Dutch. That’s exactly what I love to hear … that the site is useful and interesting to people.
Comment by Nicholas — May 10, 2025 @ 13:42
Congratulations! Well done! And thanks for putting up Severian’s old stuff.
Comment by Disappointed in Humanity — May 10, 2025 @ 22:05
Thank you! I just wish I’d been able to save more of the old RC content, but it’s nice to have at least some portions still available.
Comment by Nicholas — May 10, 2025 @ 22:14