Yesterday the 15th of February 2009, marked the fifth year of me being a blogger. Technically I’ve had an Internet presence since 1999, but it’s the moment when I started using the service “blogger”, I count as the beginning of my “career” as a blogger.
My first real blogpost was a short “review” of the KRAFTWERK! concert in K.B. Hallen in 2004, which was fantastic:
Mass for the deities of techno
KRAFTWERK! – much better than expected – revelation that they’re such a live act – the bass made the doors flap. Bow to the funky devils aus Deutschland. Seems that I miss my techno
I think I was quite uncertain as to what to write in that entry, I knew I had no readers, and it is documented in the later entries that I had some doubts as to how wise it was to engage in publishing to the Internet.
Even though I started blogging in 2004, it wasn’t until autumn 2005 I really started blogging under the https://www.kimbach.org handle. With real blogging, I’m referring to fact that I transcended the diary format.
Looking back I’m pretty satisfied with my blog, and it’s great to have this assisted memory, it’s like a locker of fragments.
One sobering fact is that the biggest drivers of traffic to my blog remains the article about the 5002 error in iTunes and the article that contains a photo of chalk art by Julian Beever, which is heavily copied and hotlinked.
I’m most proud of some of my articles about technology where I’m blasting the monopolies, especially this one:
I’m also very satisfied with the concert reviews I’ve published, especially these:
Review: Woman power – Beyoncé gave the “Green Light†and other “coincidencesâ€
Review: Natacha Atlas Acoustic Ensemle – The “real†Madonna was in Copenhagen
My blogpost about the Ungdomshus summed up my feelings about it:
911 is another important topic, and I feel like that event really has been the inspiration behind much of the activities I’m engaged in today. My favourite article concerning 911 is this one:
Originally the topic of my blog was technology, but I can see from the tag-cloud, that the technology tag is shrinking, and the “kim bach” tag is growing, kimbach.org is increasingly about me, which is the way I want it to be.
In the colophon I’ve also summarised my personal goals:
Become:
Better at writing – so I can write a novel or maybe become a journalist
Better at reading – so I can have the patience to read Kierkegaard
Better at photography – so I dare to publish a photography book
Better at teaching – so I can help the kids in Mjølnerparken and elsewhere even more
To sum up: I work towards being able to make a living doing some, or all, of these things.
Since 2004 I’ve actually worked professionally as a teacher, and the only field I haven’t made progress in, is reading, so that will be a focus point in the future. I think some of my articles shows some journalistic merit, but I doubt that I’ll ever be able to make a living from it. I think I’ve become a better photographer, again I’m probably not going to be able to make a living from photography.
Stop googling yourself…
If you googled “kim bach” in june 2005, you had to browse to page 25, now I’m a bit easier to locate due to all the noise I’ve been making over the past five years. The result is that I’ve made lots of new friends in real life, had tremendous fun, organised events, been an activist. All in all: being active in the blog-community has changed my life, and helped me reach my personal goals so:
Thank you all, and sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not done making noise!
The image that accompanies this article is from the wonderful comic Joy of Tech, it’s copyright Nitrozac & Snaggy, I’m hoping that the use here falls under “fair use”. Please support Joy of Tech by buying merchandise from their website.