And So It Begins...

A lifetime ago, I had a blog. I wrote (almost) daily. I had commenters, discussions, even subscribers. And then Facebook happened ... and then Twitter, Pinterest, G+, etc etc etc... Also life got in the way of my best intentions to write and foster discourse in the weird and wacky way that Life is wont to do. Social media was the popcorn method of online interactions - bite-size, immediate, but not all that satisfying. I've tried a couple of times over the last few year to reboot my writing habit but they've all fallen flat.

So here I go again... The inspiration for this blog was pretty random. My dear and insightful friend, Molly, commented years ago how t-shirts nowadays were perfectly marvelous in that anyone could find something in t-shirt form to reflect or convey their own personality and interests. This summer, I realized again how true this is when I emptied out my dresser in a fit of organization and saw my entire t-shirt wardrobe spread out across my bed at once. And the idea for this blog was born.

The parameters are as follows:

1) I will wear a different t-shirt each school day this year.

2) I will post a picture of said t-shirt

3) I will write the t-shirt's story. I reserve the right to determine at my discretion whether the story is short, long, serious, funny, stupid, or even on topic.

Today's shirt seemed apropos for the launch of this blog. It's from the fine folks at www.thinkgeek.com at the behest of oreilly.com, who ran a contest years ago at the arguable height of blogging popularity (http://oreilly.com/news/0603_tshirtcontest.html) Sadly, this exact shirt seems to no longer be available through ThinkGeek but it's a pretty simple design that appears to have been picked up or appropriated by various other sites.

Obviously, I was writing regularly on my own blog then. It was called "Den of Divinity" because (1) one of the meanings of my first name, Diana, is Divine and (2) I'm a sucker for alliteration. According to the stats saved in Blogger, I posted 557 times from May of 2004 to April of 2008. In that time, I completed a Bachelor's degree in Education; taught for two years in England; travelled to Spain, Italy, Ireland, Tunisia, and France; discovered Firefly and became a disciple of MOST things Joss Whedon creates (I still haven't cracked Angel); and knitted a lot of stuff.

In the latter half of 2008, my life had a long-overdue upheaval and partly due to the rebuilding process, the Den of Divinity was un-published. I've saved the posts as drafts but they aren't accessible online to the public anymore. Onwards and upwards, I guess.

To sign off today, I'll mention a few much more committed, focussed and meaningful blogs which I am happy to direct you to for your perusal. Some post pretty much daily, some had project blogs (like mine, I suppose, since I'll run out of t-shirts eventually), some I have been honoured to have met and some I only know from their online expertise, but all of them have great things to share.

http://ayearfromscratch.wordpress.com/  is my friend Elizabeth's blog about her week-by-week, year-long DIY endeavor

http://begonias.typepad.com/srubio/ I came to read Steven's blog through my brother's influence. Arthur had been in a class that Steven taught at UC Berkeley and mentioned to me that I would probably enjoy the blog. He was right.

http://www.shoppingdetox.com/ Again, another blog I started reading thanks to a great referral. In this case, my good friend, Joe, happens to be dating this lovely lady who lives in a similar financial landscape to mine.

http://the-kats-tale.blogspot.ca/ Although she hasn't updated lately, Katrina travels the way I wish I could. We met when we both taught in England. She has continued to teach internationally (currently in New Zealand) and fill her life with amazing travel experiences.