Why I Oughta...

Today marks two decades of blogging on JakeParrillo.com.  Twenty years.   Plenty has changed since I fell in love with the Web via political blogging.  I've met some good friends, have earned jobs, *almost* compelled Da Coach Mike Ditka to run for US Senate and was allowed to flex my writing muscles via my own online diary.  My goals have changed over the years, too.  From being a member of the "Blogosphere" and linking to other bloggers/getting links from other writers to distributing the content via both feed and email newsletter to attempting to monetize things via AdSense and FeedBurner (hey!!!) ads to what I've shifted to over the past 10-or-so-years: writing mostly for an audience of one:  myself.   Somewhere over the years, I dropped having ads and when FeedBurner email newsletters were sunset, I, too, sunset having my daily blog posts distributed beyond this little place on the Web.  My very first post - basically my own "Hello, World" was posted on

Today marks 19 years of blogging.  My very first blog post - basically a 'testing, testing' post was published on February 16, 2004 .  Nineteen years feels like a really long time.  Actually...it IS a really long time.  Doing anything for nineteen years is a huge swath of time and covers close to half of my entire life.  Next year - the 20th year - feels more significant because of the 20-year-number, but nineteen gives me a chance to really reflect on the length of time I've been at it. This past year, I continued my trend of writing one-post-per day (365 posts) and crossed my 4,000th published post back in April .   Although the idea of publishing something online in your own venue has fallen out of favor since I fell in love with blogging back in the aughts, there has been a tiny little bump in interest recently as more people have thought about/taken the plunge to get back into blogging.  Why?  Seems a lot of the interest (or re-interest) is tied to the changes that are

I was digging around in some of the old landscape design files and I found this sketch of an expanded patio that adds a secondary square onto one of the corners that expands the whole patio, includes a firepit and a seating wall.  It appears that we discussed going this route out of the gate, but opted for a smaller, starter patio.  That doesn't mean this doesn't have merit - aside from the firepit - and a good reminder of what we *could* do back there with a slightly larger patio.  Filing this drawing below for future reference. But, the other reason for this post is to mark an occassion. This is my 4,000th post on the blog.  Across 18 years of blogging - since February 2004.  More than half of those 4K posts have come in past seven years, so the once-a-day-everyday momentum has pushed the volume up in a big way.  

I suppose it is more like seventeen years and seven weeks.  I seem to have missed chronicling the 17 year mark of publishing the Web here on the blog back in February.  February 16, 2004 was my very first post on my Weblog that traveled from JoinTomCross to RhodesSchool to JakeParrillo.  But, thankfully (lol), I've brought over all of those posts to this one place online.  Seventeen years is a long time for anything. For me, it is 40% of my life.  I fell in love with the Web back in 2004 and haven't looked back.  But, plenty of you others have moved on - to other platforms and other tools.  But for me, there's a lot of joy to be putting my fingers to the keyboard and everyday: " Show up, sit down and type. " That exercise - writing something, every day, is because I fear atrophy.  As I've reached my 40's, I realize (painfully so) that my body is atrophy'ing.  But, my mind?  And the idea of creating?  I can fight that off by pushing "publish"

Today, February 16, 2020 marks my 16th year of blogging.  I started in 2004 with this post on February 16, 2004 that originally lived at JoinTomCross.com and then moved to RhodesSchool.com and finally moved over her to my name url.   Last year, I marked the occasion in similar fashion  but because it was 15 years, it felt important.  I haven't marked this anniversary every year on the blog, but have done it a few times. 2020 - 16 year Blogging Anniversary 2019 - 15 year Blogging Anniversary 2016 - 12 year Blogging Anniversary 2014 - 10 year Blogging Anniversary 2013 - 9 year Blogging Anniversary 2011 - 7 year Blogging Anniversary This post marks the 3319th post on the blog.  That's 3319 days or more than 9 full years of posts.  16 years means my blog is old enough to get it's license.  It means that I've been doing this for 39% of my life.  I've been a blogger longer than I've been a husband and father.  It is the same amount of time in my life th

15 years ago, I took a shot. And it *was* this/close to Valentine's Day.  Ballsy move - as they say. We were just puppies then.  It worked out beyond my wildest dreams.  To mark the time that has gone by, here's a flashback to a less partisan time when (then) Republicans and Democrats could get along. That Maisy was soommmme dog.  She endorsed us in the mailer above - which was kind of her.  Everybody liked her.  Not like Lizzie .

Today is February 16, 2019.  And today marks my 15th year of blogging.  15 years of doing anything is a lot, but 15 years of writing on the web feels like a good milestone and worthy of noting (at least here, on said blog.) The first post in the archives here on JakeParrillo.com comes from February 16th 2004 .  Back then, it was either at JoinCrossBlog.com or Rhodesschool.com.  But today, those are ported here.  And I've been writing here every.single.day for a number of years. I've failed to note this anniversary since 2016 when I hit 12 years .  Today....I'm at 15.  That's more than 1/3rd of my entire life.  In that time, I've had a few jobs that involved media, digital and communications. But, never strayed too far away from the Web.  I fell in love with the ability to publish online and never looked back.  I was lucky that I wasn't lured in by the siren call of The Facebook or anywhere else that publishing happens these days.  I've stayed here

Last year, Nat's Mom gifted us a Disneyland Rose for our anniversary and this year she did the same thing, but gave us two of them.  They arrived recently in a box from Jackson & Perkins that you see above.  Here's the post showing the rose plant from 2017 and includes the description of the variety.  I revisited our Disneyland Rose in June when it came back for the year and produced some small, but spectacular blooms.  I ended up planting the first one underneath the kitchen windows amongst some hostas and grasses.  I think that ultimately, I'm going to have to transplant it next year to a different spot, but for this season, it did well. Below you can see the two new Rose plants that were shipped in the container. I ended up planting them on the south side of our house - on either side of the window well that is out there.  Again, I'm not certain that this is where they're destined to go, but it is pretty much a blank canvas out there and these t

While I've been posting here on my blog "Why I Oughta..." (nee JoinCross.com/blog, joincrossblog.com, rhodesschool.com) since 2004, but I also have been (apparently) posting over on my link blog for five years.  I was just reminded by Tumblr (which is where my linkblog is run currently) that I crossed the five year mark over by dere .   And, yes, I wrote the phrase "Over by dere" - which happens to the name of my link blog.  Think of this as my 'favorites' feed from the old Google Reader days.  You can keep up with my posting over there at:  http://www.parrillo.info/ . I shared the details of Over by Dere here on my main blog a few years back where I mentioned the name . The name is straight-up Chicagoese , but for those of you who aren't aware, it roughly translates to : Over by dere. i.e. "over by there," a prolix way of emphasizing a site presumed familiar to the listener. As in, "I got the sassage at da Jewels down o

Earlier this month, the Chicago Transit Authority had a neat display of both modern and vintage buses set up at Daley Plaza right next to the Picasso for people to check out.   The buses ranged from one built in 1960 (that you see above) to a brand new one out on the street today.  I didn't go on the buses, but you can see people boarding them, which is kinda nice.  The oldest one is the coolest looking of the bunch that you can see below, isn't it?  Also, the green and cream are lovely to look at, aren't they?  The blue ones could be buses from Champaign or Chicago.  There's nothing making them unique. The display was part of the CTA's 70th anniversary celebration.   From WGN : The CTA will display three of its vintage buses on the Daley Plaza Monday and Tuesday as part of its 70th anniversary celebration.  The buses were gradually retired between the 1970's and 1990's -- but you'll get a chance to check them out.  Many of them still have

All the way back on February 16, 2004, I posted the very first blog post here on the blog .  Well...it wasn't *here* then, but it was on what would become this blog. 12 years is a long time.  A lot of writing.  A lot of nonsense.  When I started, I was working for the House Republicans and living in Frankfort with my parents.  Today?  I'm living in my sister's house with my wife and three kids and a dog and working at Edelman.  Still writing nonsense, though. Over the past 12 years, I've now written  published 1932 posts.  Including this one.  Hundreds more on other blogs like the political satire one or our family blog.  But 1932 here.  Some started as "Chris Rhodes", but most as just me.  (Those of you who were around in 2004 will get that "Chris Rhodes" reference!) Here's a look at a screenshot of the archives totaling up the blog posts across time. I didn't mark the anniversary every year, but in looking back at the archives,

When packing up last month, I found a few of these 'campaign buttons' from our rehearsal dinner today - September 5th - back in 2008.  Still kinda love these and the spirit in which they were made. Here's a post about the invites and other wedding stuff from back in 2008 . A simple blog post can't express my feelings on this 7th anniversary about my wife.  The tradition of anniversary gifts calls for a blog post for #7, right? Nat continues to wow me every day as she demonstrates her smarts, kindness and ability to roll with the punches.  She's the strongest, most caring person I know.  But...importantly, she is an incredible mom to our three kids, a really great sister and daughter, and the best damn partner a guy could ask for in life.  Thanks for putting up with me. Here's to many more years, Pud!    Love you more.

Last week I received this notification on my phone from the fine folks over at Twitter.  They were wishing me a happy "Twitterversary".  Turns out, I joined Twitter on May 29th 2007.  Looking back at the blog from then, I didn't post on the 29th, so I must have been looking for something to do? May of 2007, I was back at FeedBurner - about to join Google on June 1, 2007 - so perhaps I was bored looking for something to do?  Seem like a logical story, doesn't it? Looking at my Twitter profile , I'm now over 3,400 tweets, I follow just under 1,000 people/places/things, and have close to 700 followers.  Back in 2010, I covered when I crossed the 1,000 tweet milestone here on the blog .  Meaning...it took me 3 years to get to 1K tweets, or about 333/year.  2.4K tweets in five years since March of 2010.

Today marks ten years since I put up my first 'blog' post.  At the time, it was on a different domain, for a different purpose, but you can see the archives from February of 2004 here on JakeParrillo.com as I pulled them here .

It seems that the 9th anniversary of this here blog came and went in mid-February without me giving it much thought.  In fact, it seems that I mostly forgot about the 8th anniversary, too.  I posted in 2011 to celebrate the 7th anniversary here , but have skipped the past two years. Well...because we're (now) closing in on ten years of *stuff* on the web, I thought it would be meaningful to at least take a pause and reflect on 9 years - even if it is three months late. As of this post, there are 1387 posts in the archives of JakeParrillo.com.  Across 111 months, that leaves an average of 13ish posts per month.  With the past few years providing almost a post a month, that tells me that there were some lean years (months) in there.  I'm looking at you 2008. My life has come a long way.  From a political hack to a daddyblogger (and political hack), my interests have clearly morphed to focus on gardening, pizza, family, and my community. For posterity sake, here's what