Goodbye 2008
It’s been a rough year in our house. Literally the entire year. There were moments of awesomeness, but for the most part 2008 will go down in the books as one of our least favorite. It’s not a bad thing, just a growing time of sorts… I think.
We started off 2008 not knowing which direction I wanted to go as far as work was concerned. I didn’t know if I was going to continue road managing, find some other ‘industry’ job or get a job at Wal-Mart and start over. Then this whole blogging thing showed up and really started to take off. Now, here’s the thing. When I say ‘take off’, please understand that it doesn’t mean financially ‘take off’. We’ve struggled. The first part of the year Kristin even got a job at Target to supplement while I was making a go at a job that previously didn’t exist in any industry. Now looking back there are several artists that are blogging and it looks as though something amazing has started, even if they aren’t blogging with SkörInc (yet).
And don’t get me wrong. We have been unbelievably blessed, and I know there are plenty of people far more less fortunate than us in the world. All I am saying is this was easily the hardest year emotionally, financially, and mentally we have ever had as a married couple. And we have three young kids that have been on this journey with us. Just a few weeks ago Kristin and I were talking about how we won’t be sad to say goodbye to 2008 and are excited to see what 2009 has in store.
Tonight we plan on keeping things mellow. The boys have some games they want to play, we’ll have some dinner, then watch the ball drop. Not massive plans but mostly staying up for the tradition of it. I’m trying to look at tomorrow as the start of a year that will change our lives. 2008 kicked our butts and I’m excited to see the result of that in 2009. Work is starting out slammed and we have some really cool things coming up in the next few months.
Thanks so much for all the support you have all dumped on me and this community. It wouldn’t be what it is without you all, and SkörInc wouldn’t have done what it did without you either. Here’s to a great 2009. Glad you are all along for the ride.
Top Commenters Of 2008
Alright. continuing with our lists here on the last day of the year I wanted to give some love to those that, through comments, participated the most in this little community. How’s that sound? I admit, I’m not the most ‘commenting’ person out there. I like to read stuff and then I end up leaving before I can come up with something clever enough to comment. But here’s the thing. We all love comments. We all love when people engage in what we are talking about, and I’ll admit I’m not the best at that.
So for these top five commenters of 2008, I appreciate your continued involvement in the conversation. Without you I would simply be talking to myself and I do that plenty as it is. Your involvement creates an environment that encourages dialogue and I think that’s awesome. So, here they are, ‘…in case you were wondering’s’ top five commenters of the year.
5. Cool Dad – Are We Still Cool? – 113
4. Portorikan – Samuel Febres - 124
3. Auburn Annie – Red Cedar - 130
2. My Mom – Just My Opinion - 132
1. Kelly – Life’s Painting -173
So there it is. The top five commenters on this here blog for 2008. Over 100 comments from all of them. That’s pretty impressive.
Link Loved
So, in the spirit of lists, today’s list is officially titled 2008′s Link Loved List. Several months ago I started something called “Link Loved” with the intention of sending out some great big internet ‘thank you’s’. It worked for a while and then lost it’s steam, but it’s still something that I think is totally important.
The idea behind ‘Link Loved’ was pretty simple. At the end of the month we would find the top five sites that sent your blog the most traffic, offer your thanks, and write a little something about their blog encouraging your readers to check them out. Simple enough right? Well, for the end of the year I’d like to mention the top ten sites of the year sending the most folks to this here blog in the first official 2008 Link Loved List. Now, these are real people, not Google, Twitter or anything like that. Here goes.
10. The Bloggess – 556 – Okay, this lady is a freak. But a fun freak. And I secretly love that it probably drives her nuts that she has a handful of Christian readers that appreciate her humor. If you haven’t check out The Bloggess, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
9. RedCedar (Auburn Annie) - 563 – I grew up with Annie. I was best friends with her brother and she was the older sister that we probably drove nuts. Now we are blog friends and probably know more about each other than we ever did growing up. It’s been great to see her blog take shape and connect with her and her family, even from across the country. Check out Annie’s blog.
8. World Wide Refugee – 580 – This is another friend of mine that I knew growing up but it’s been awesome to get to know better through his blog. Jeff and his wife are now in Colorado and we talk occasionally about marketing, life and the approach of his first baby. His blog is a little different style, but it’s really entertaining. Check it out.
7. Jeff Culmer – 914 – I first met Jeff on tour and we’ve hung out ever since. Although we have really only hung out in the same town that we live in once in our lives, but we always seem to run into each other everywhere else. Jeff has been a solid supporter of my blog and SkörInc and continues to encourage others to blog, and he’s a pretty big fellah so I think people listen.
6. Andira - 935 – I have been amazed by the support of Andira on my blog. To my knowledge, we have never met, and I am continually blown away by her involvement in Positive Post Tuesday as well as the Music You’ve Never Heard posts. Check out Andira’s Blog when you get a chance and check out her music too.
5. My Mom - 1,021 – This is my mom. She better be on this list. Kidding. But seriously, aside from my wife, I don’t know if I have a bigger cheerleader in my life than my mom. She is willing to give anything that I am involved in a shot, including Twitter and Blogging. I’m sure most of you have already, but if you haven’t, check out my mom’s blog and tell her hi.
4. Brian Seay – 1,109 – Brian lives next door to me, but I think we see each other more online than anywhere else, except for maybe the bus stop in the mornings. It’s been crazy to watch the journey that his family has taken through the adoption process, and to keep up with where he’s at in the world.
3. Visual Coma – 1,285 – Yep, this makes sense. Randy has been more of a help to me and SkörInc than he could ever know. In fact, without Randy, the company would consist of me saying ‘yes’ to people and then freaking out at how I would accomplish anything. Randy’s blog, however, cracks me up. He’s the only person I know that can code for hours and hours but still has a hard time spelling prity pretty. I’m sure most of you have already, but make sure to stop in on Randy and tell him hello.
2. Ragamuffin Soul - 2,113 – Again, not a huge surprise here. Carlos has a massive blog and has created a freak-like following. I don’t know how he did it, but it’s fascinating to watch. I’ve met up with Carlos a few times here in Nashville, and in Atlanta, and one time he let me sleep on his couch when I was stranded at the airport. Someone that I met through blogging and now can call a friend. That’s a pretty cool thing.
1. This Is Kristin – 3,101 – It’s only appropriate that my biggest support would be my biggest support online as well. What can I say? Kristin has been an amazing support to me and everything that I am doing with this whole weird blog thing. She’s one of the three people that truly understand the idea and passion behind what I am doing and supports me more than I can understand. Most of you already know Kristin, but if you haven’t been to her blog, check it out.
So that’s it folks. My top-ten link loved sites. I appreciate all of these people and all they have done to create this fun community here. I’d encourage you to take some time and check out all the sites above and give them a nice ‘hello’. And if you find time check out your ‘Link Loved’ list and let them know.
2008′s Top Five
Alright peeps. You know what time of year it is? It’s the time of year where we all start talking about our blogs and all the accomplishments we have had this year as far as stats go. Not really, I’m just saying it that way because it makes it sound funny. I have, however, decided to do a couple different ‘TOP’ lists this week as the year closes out and I’d love to know what you think. First up, the top posts of the year right here on this blog.
Now, one thing I did realize was that the top posts of the year aren’t really ones that I spent a lot of time on, but are more ones that I think were found through searches. Sort of a let down if you ask me, but then again that’s what makes blogging exciting, right? So here goes. The ‘…in case you were wondering.’ 2008 top five posts.
5. Music You’ve Never Heard (Again) – May 4th – This one I thought was pretty cool. We’ve got a cool little thing brewing and I hope to one day really watch it grow. I’d like to start a website called ‘Music You’ve Never Heard’ and allow folks to submit their favorite music you think people have never heard. Now, I don’t want anyone stealing this idea because I’m getting pretty tired of that. Seriously, don’t steal ideas please.
4. Citizens Of Virtue - October 6th – See this one is a little funny because I knew from the beginning it was fake. I knew from the beginning it was a deal birthed in the mind of Rob Bell. I knew it would cause some interesting conversation and that’s why the tag “I know something you don’t” was used for the first and only time.
3. Christians Voting For Obama – October 29th – This one doesn’t really surprise me. With 109 comments, it was obviously a ‘hot topic’ and I was fascinated by the different opinions and insights expressed. As this year comes to a close and the new year starts with a new president, I’m still as fascinated by what is going to happen. Looks like I was right when it came to this post.
2. Favorite Childhood Cartoon – February 27th – See, this is one that is mostly based on searches. One of my most searched keywords is ‘Duck Tales’. From what I can tell, if you search the words ‘Duck Tales’ the image that I used shows up near the top. Pretty cool, but really un-inspiring as a post.
1. Voting Tip – January 28th – Yawn. Seriously? This is the top post of the year? Posted in the first month of the year?! Lame. I didn’t even take the dumb picture. Oh well, if you showed up because of this post and decided to stick around for more than the eight seconds it took to look at that picture, thanks for sticking around.
So that’s it folks. The top five traffic attracting posts of the year. Not overwhelming, but cool to see. What about you guys? What’s a post that sticks out to you from this here blog from the year? Is there one? Ready? Go.
The Role Of You Played By…
Okay, are you ready for the random question of the day? Well, even if you’re not here it comes.
The other day for some reason we were talking about actors and actresses and what roles they choose to play and all that. Then we started talking about how weird it would be to have an actor portray yourself in a movie. Like, how weird it would be to be Andy Kaufman and watch Jim Carrey pretend to be him in Man On The Moon. Or to be Muhammad Ali and watch Will Smith quote things you have said in your lifetime in Ali. You know weird stuff like that.
So the question today is, if you could have one actor or actress play the role of you in a movie, who would it be? I’ve been going back and forth with this one and I can’t really come up with an answer, so if there’s someone out there that knows me feel free to throw out options for my actor too.
Ready? Go.
A Taylor?
I’m not normally one to ‘show off’ what is given to me. In fact, I try not to really ‘show off’ anything at all if I can. But here’s the thing. My parents gave me a freaking Taylor guitar for Christmas and I’d like to talk about it a little.
Most people don’t know that I sold my two guitars at the beginning of this year. I sold them for two reasons. One justified reason and one real reason. The justified reason was that I told myself the two guitars I had weren’t the style that I wanted. They didn’t create the sound I wanted and I could get rid of those and then get one that I really liked the sound of. I could use the money to put toward something like a full-sounding Taylor. That was the plan. The real reason was something far more simple. We needed the money.
You see, starting a company doing something that doesn’t exist in an industry that doesn’t know it needs you is tough. And as it turns out, money doesn’t just show up when you need it to. Well, my guitars helped take care of that for a while and the money that was to ‘go toward the new full-sounding Taylor guitar’ was spent on, you know, food and electricity and stuff that kids need to survive.
Now, I say that most people didn’t know about that, and really, that means that only Kristin and my parents knew about it. Well, apparently me not having a guitar wasn’t okay with my parents and they decided to give me a Taylor. I’m still a little taken back by the whole thing to be honest. I wouldn’t have dreamed of ever asking or expecting something like this and I’m completely humbled that my parents would think of something like this for me.
Has anyone else experienced a gift that completely took you back? Something you never could have expected?
The Day After
I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Our day was pretty full but totally relaxed. Today we are going to brave going out and stopping in on some places my parents have been wanting to go, and trying to avoid all the ‘Christmas Money spenders’.
I promise to have a more substantial post later today, but wanted to drop in and see what your plans were for the day after Christmas. So let’s hear it. How does your family spend the day after? Recovering? Playing? Shopping? Traveling? Exchanging?
Ready? Go.
SkörInc Christmas Tree Party
Alright peeps, here’s the deal. Since I know a lot of us won’t be checking in on many blogs for the next two days, but I wanted to keep the Christmas spirit alive on this here blog and I’d love for you to be a part of it. Here’s how.
(1) Take a picture of your Christmas Tree
(2) Email that picture to tree@skorinc.com
(3) Check out other folks trees at SkörInc’s Flickr Page
(4) Spread the word and let’s get as many people’s trees as we can.
(5) Do something other than be on the computer for Christmas.
Sounds easy enough right? Who’s with me?
This Is Luther
I don’t know if I’ve ever taken the time to introduce our dog Luther. This is him. I got Luther before Kristin and I were married and he’s been with us the whole time. He remembers pre-kids when he got a ton more attention, and got Christmas presents of his own. Now he lays in the corner and waits for the kids to drop food. Somedays I feel bad for him, until I catch him on the couch or tracking mud through the house.
He’s a good dog though, and if he could talk most likely would wish you a Merry Christmas Eve.
What’s your animal’s names? Go.
Positive Post Tuesday – Christmas
So as most of you know, my parents are out here for Christmas and it’s the first time since we have lived out here that they have been able to do so. I think this is the third or forth time that they have visited but this is the first year to celebrate any holiday with them out here. Kristin’s dad is also out here and it’s been amazing to have them all here.
Now, I couldn’t attempt to do this week’s Positive Post Tuesday without mentioning my gratitude for all that my parents and Kristin’s dad have done for us this year. As far as I can tell they came out here with one mission… to spoil the heck out of my kids and wife. And somehow I was even lumped into that. And here’s the thing, we try not to really put a whole lot of stock in material stuff and all that, but with the year that we have had, there comes a point where I am completely okay with sitting back and letting them do whatever they want to do.
Since my mom and dad have gotten here, our shower leak has been fixed, we have had satellite TV installed (for free), our cupboards have been stocked beyond what they have been ever, and we have done more fun stuff than we have done all year. Christmas shopping has been a fun process, and the kids have really connected with them. Kristin’s dad was kind enough to gravel the ‘dog area’ which has been a huge help in our quest to keep our carpets from getting ruined and arranged the whole going out in a limo awesome night. Again, I don’t really like the feeling of being ‘spoiled’ so much, and I really feel weird them doing all these things that in all reality I should be doing, but truth is, I’ve been unbelievably busy and this has really enabled Kristin and I to ‘catch up’ a little.
So anyway, I think all this is to say that I am appreciating my parents making the trip out here this year and also Kristin’s dad being here too. I should say something cheesy here like this is what Christmas is all about or something like that, but I’ve never been really keen on saying cheesy things. So I guess I will just leave it at that. I like that my parents were able to come out this year and I’m totally appreciative for all they have done… and it’s not even Christmas yet.
Welcome to Tuesday. What’cha got? It’s Christmas, everyone has to have something nice to say. Ready? Go.
