No Stone Left Unturned

Okay – I have no valid reason to quibble. This website is a ‘blog’ – given the etymological history of that four-letter word. And as I watch two families of geese paddling by I realize it doesn’t matter in the grander scheme of life – but sitting at this keyboard, it does to me.

In the mid ’90s I created the usual ‘homepage’ – a small picture of me plus a bunch of material I thought might seem interesting to the random visitor from Alta Vista. It didn’t change much or often – somewhat because I wrote every bit of the html in a text editor – a decent learning exercise, though hardly convenient. Later I maintained a bunch of web forums using a freeware message board – only one of which ever had much activity.

One of these forums listed jobs I’d been hearing about for PCB (printed circuit board) designers call Pads Word of Mouth. I also wrote a design journal – hoping for feedback on the topic. There was only one forum that ever had much of an audience, though – the one most resembling a blog with its central writer and cadre of responders – A Miracle we Called Jenny.

In 1999, this was such an oddity that Channel Five in Boston sent a reporter to interview me about it (Jack Harper). Our daughter had been killed, and I’d been writing daily posts about this. My goal had been to get the word out, yet it quickly spread beyond friends and family.

It was not a phenomenon for long. But it was one of the first times a website had been used that way, and we still receive email about it from time to time.

None of this answers the question of why I won’t call No Stone Left Unturned a blog. The real answer is how everyone has a blog. They’re a dime a dozen, and with so many out there, who has time to read them all? — even the really good ones.

If I consider this a blog — I immediately see millions of other bloggers camped on the vast plane called the blogosphere (with is own torturous etymology) all pitching taller and steeper step ladders trying to gain visibility above those doing the same thing — all trying to be noticed.

It’s not a pretty site — and is very quickly the end of any interest on my part.

So if I avoid that four-letter word and convince myself that I’m doing something reasonably unique — or at least well-disguised — then I’ll feel better about this web site.

In the end, I know this is a blog, but I’d rather not admit that to myself.

Ken Ramsley