Well, not exactly to the day, the actual day was February 28th (according to WHOIS, that is when the domain name was registered, I do not recall if my first blog post happened on the same day, chances are not). To be fair, I was blogging on blogger a few months before moving over to my own domain and my own server, but I was just testing the waters, seeing if blogging was really for me. Once I moved over to my own domain, I knew what I wanted to blog about and the rest, as they say, was history.

I went back and reviewed the posts over the last year, and have pulled out my 3 favorite posts and my three favorite comments. Below is a list of both and and quick explanation as to why each is a favorite of mine (now that I think about it, this sounds a bit on the narcissistic side, but please do not take it that way, it is not at all).

Without further ado, here are my top 3 blog posts:

1. The look of complete trust - Quite simply, this post discusses a very important time in my life, and a moving life experience I had. Not to mention that it also happened to be a favorite of the week of a friend of mine, Micah, who does a weekly recap of his favorite blog posts of that week. One of my top 3 favorite comments also came from this post, thanks Bill.
2. Creating passionate employees - This post was inspired by Cathy Sierra’s post on creating passionate users, but came at a time when I was still with AOL and they had just announced layoffs and I felt that the company was heading in a direction that I did not agree with totally and they needed to get back to some basics. I had a lot of good times at AOL and still have a lot of close colleagues there and I hope the best for them and the company, but at the time, I felt this post was necessary.
3. A diamond in the rough - I think the title speaks for itself, but this was one of the first times that I really opened up and discussed my personal life in details and how fortunate I was for what I have been given. Also, another one of my favorite comments came from this post.

Now, for my favorite comments:

1. Bill Kocik Says: “I’m not at all surprised that you get this, but I’m glad that you do. Thoughts like this are what make leaders.” This comes from the blog post “The look of complete trust”, the comment made me realize that I can in fact be a leader and will be a good one some day.
2. This one is a long one, I apologize in advance. kadyR Says: “You have no idea what a gift you have given your wife in the simple acknowledgment of her contribution to your life and development as a person. You should also give yourself credit for allowing her to guide you in the first place, and being willing to listen to her wisdom. I think I can safely speak for my gender when I say that this is one of the gifts we have to offer our men, but many men have a hard time receiving it, or misunderstand the intention behind it. [It’s all part of the nurturing thing.] You did not. Bravo!…..So thanks for the honesty and lack of ego. You, too, have proven what is possible. [And a big hug to your wife!”
3. From “Eating your own dog food”, hollyster Says: “hee hee speaking of drinking the kookaid, how come this blog isn’t hosted on AOL Journals =P. j/k I know many reasons why you don’t host it there! It’s hard to eat your own dog food when you find products irrelevant to your life.” Holly called me out for not eating my own dog food, so I learned a valuable lesson, practice what I preach.

Thanks to all of you for taking and interest in what I have and keep coming back. Thanks also for all the wonderful comments too, especially those that challenge my stance. It is always good to get different perspectives.