On Feb. 26, 2013, I posted my first piece on markbialczak.com.
It was titled “Yeah, I’ve got a blog.”
I was one month out from losing my job with the big daily here in Syracuse.
The post was full of emotions, lots of them. It didn’t have a photo with it, though. I was very much feeling my way around in the your-own-blog dark.
Fast forward to today, my one-year anniversary on WordPress.
The WP content-counters tell me that this will be my 346th post. I started slowly and picked up a lot of momentum. I know that I’ve posted every day since Oct. 27 of last year. That was my fifth anniversary to my dear wife Karen, and I woke up as the sun was ready to peak over the horizon. I snapped a shot from our room overlooking Niagara Falls. I vowed looking over that wonder of the world that I was going to share breathtaking sights and cascading ideas daily.
I hope you like what I’m doing. And by you, I mean the 296 followers who’ve thought enough of one post or another to click a button and allow me into their WordPress Reader.
One of those followers, Irene A. Waters of Australia, thinks enough of my work to nominate me for the Shauny Award. I received that news from her last night, on the eve of this one-year WordPress anniversary. Please click the link above to check our her memoirs and striking photographs.
Serendipity.
Thank you so much Irene.
Here’s the scoop on The Shauny Award. It was started by Dr. Rex, in tribute for Shauny Gibson, a lad who contributed much with his efforts on WordPress.
You can find more about the story here.
The rules of acceptance are:
Show love. Show humanity. Be yourself. Don’t be others. Don’t gossip. Share your award by nominating 10 other bloggers.
Here are a baker’s dozen bloggers that I think fit these exacting standards. Please click their links to discover good work. A diverse group it is, yet they all write about life as they see it, with the ability to make me relate and want to know more. Some are edgy. Some are down-home. Some are funny. Some are dead serious. All have become regular stops on my Reader.
http://ididnthavemyglasseson.com
http://irishinvestigations.wordpress.com
http://coulddoworse.wordpress.com
http://notapunkrocker.wordpress.com
http://bikecolleenbrown.wordpress.com
http://samaraspeaks.wordpress.com
http://knockedoverbyafeather.wordpress.com
http://cowboysandcrossbones.wordpress.com
http://witlessdatingafterfifty.wordpress.com
What a year it’s been, of give and take, of writing and reading comments, of reading posts and writing comments.
May year two be so rewarding.
Mark Bialczak 
Congrats on this very special award!!! Created for Shaun Gibson … a very special lad from Scotland!!! 🙂
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Thank you, Dr. Rex. I indeed follow and read Shaun Gibson’s work.
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😄
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Congratulations and thank you (once again!), Mark. Yeah, I’m glad you’ve got a blog.
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Thank you, JIm. I’m glad you’ve got a blog, too, although I have yet to work that into a headline. (Not a title, a headline, I say, and somebody get me a pica pole.)
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Thank you for accepting the “ME” Award 😀
Shauny
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I accept it, humbly, Shaun. Thank you for your interesting WP work.
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Congratulations on your anniversary and the well deserved award. I, for one, am sure glad our paths have crossed!
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Thank you, Leah, and I so appreciate your work on LMW.
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Congratulations! Maybe I can learn some writing tips from you. Love your New York posts.
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Thank you, California. I enjoy work posts from the left coast, too.
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Well-deserved accolades. I’m amazed at how you can pull these posts together.
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Thank you, Kerbey. And, thank you a lot for your I Don’t Get It photos and observations, which provide me oodles of entertainment and urge me to think hard in an attempt to match your wit!
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Congratulations Mark. And ditto Anne’s remark. I wouldn’t be back if it hadn’t been for you, and can’t wait for my new chair to arrive so I can get out of the apartment and start destroying the local stores again. I’m sure they all miss me.
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You need to start bumping into merchandise and people all over town, Angie. Kentucky, hide! Thank you.
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I tried to get away with a chair from my surgeon’s office curing my last visit Mark, but he moved faster than I did. Follow up on Monday I’ll hook it up again after he leaves the room. Perfect match for my living room, and I’m needing a smaller chair in there.
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Mark you are the best. Congratulations! And thank YOU for the nomination. Now if you will pardon me, I must post this to you then hop over to the link that explains the award. 🙂
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Do the link hop, certainly.
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It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Congratulations, Mark.
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Thank you, Judy.
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congrats and keep it up!
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Thank you, my Tampa/St. Pete friend.
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I always look forward to your thoughtful posts Mark! Do keep at it please. Thanks for the nod as well!
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I will keep writing, Sandra. After all these decades with words and sentences and paragraphs forming from my ideas, I proudly say that I am a writer. Thank you, and you are welcome for the nomination for your California joy with the little one.
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congratulations, mark. i’m sure you in were flux and a bit of emotional turmoil when you wrote that first post, and wondering how you would rebuild what you did in your life everyday. you most likely had no idea that what you posted on your blog would be so well received and enjoyed by everyone who’s had the opportunity to read it. i love your writing style, probably why you were employed by a paper all those years, and look forward to your posts. as another blogger who writes for a paper said, ‘the difference in blogging is you can connect with your readers.’ there is interaction, a 2-way street. when at a paper you publish and it is pretty much gone. in blog world it is just the beginning of many connections and friendships and learning experiences. thank you so much for the nomination, as always, you are very kind with your words. here’s to many more years, mark and it is our good fortune that you landed here in blogworld. the newspaper’s loss is clearly our gain. ) b
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You are so correct, Beth, about blogworld being a connecting experience. It has been a great wonder to me how I could find, through words and pictures alone, people I consider real, true, genuine, positive forces in my life. That’s what friends are for. I appreciate your praise and support on this, my one-year mark. You are a fantastic blogger, Beth, a vibrant voice out of Ann Arbor. Here’s to many more.
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Mark,
Happy Anniversary away from the evil evil daily….and you certainly deserve that nomination. Now if you can just fix coach rants at the end of games……
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That will be the subject of my post tomorrow morning, DJ. And, preview spoiler alert: I like the way he stood up for his team. Thank you, sir!
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Thank you Mark! I will accept it, if I can go back to my back emails for the others I was awarded but did nothing about because I wasn’t accepting awards. So… if I can find those, and accept those, I will also accept this one. Thank you!!
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I just wanted you to know what I think, PJ. The rest is up to you.
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Thank you for nominating me for this very interesting Shauny Award!
This process of writing my blog was like yours, started more as a catharsis. I was in the pain of bad dating and a little heartache or two. You had lost your job. I felt like it would be sustainable with just the dating online scene. Then, I came up with the byline: “Relationships reveal our hearts.” I started writing love stories from my family and friends. I have written 461 posts, I think it said today! I am approaching the end of a second year! Take care and enjoy the second year! Smiles, Robin
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I am glad we’ve met here on WordPress, Robin. It has been fun and interesting to note how my writing has evolved, like you say yours has, too. Here’s to more good posts for both of us!
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Mark, congratulations on another award. I think I first found your blog by searching for any posts about Anne Tyler and I discovered a world of great writing. Thanks to you I’ve learnt about American football and life in Syracuse and snow. Congratulations on your anniversary!
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Thank you so much for being my friend, Rachel. It’s a relationship I truly cherish.
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likewise Mark.
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Congratulations on your one year blogoversary! It’s so nice to call you a friend and thank you for sharing the Shauny Award. I shall toast a Skinny Pirate to you and not lose a contact lens tonight. 🙂
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Keep one glass to your lips and one glass in your eye, CBXB. Thank you, and, well, congratulations your ownself.
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Congrats, Mark!
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Thanks, Mer!
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Congratulations Mark!!!
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Happy anniversary Mark! I am glad to have found you in this WP world 🙂
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Happy anniversary, Mark, and congratulations on the Shauny Award. I’m so glad you’re here.
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Thank you so much, Ann. I am so glad you and I are both here.
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Congratulations, Mark. What I love about you and your blog that you are all about sports but have a kind and gentle heart to help when a person needs an atta- girl hand-up!
Atta-boy to you , friend!
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Thank you, Anne! And I try to make this blog all about life, no matter the topic.
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And a fine job you do!
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Time you met Shauny . . .
http://prayingforoneday.wordpress.com/ He was a football manager and coach in Edinburgh until horrible fibermyalgia took over and ravaged his body…but he is an inspiration. You might want to join his Share Your Blogs on FB…look on the right side. There is his growing up story I want you to read but can’t find it! Will send when he sends it to me. I think you guys would be great friends. He is kind, gentle and terribly funny in sprite of his constant pain , and being housebound and unable to sleep at night. It is a great honor to get his award! Smiles. . . .
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