I began this blog one year ago today. Actually, I did it by accident. I meant to log into a team blog (23rd Mandalation) started by my friend Suki Hoshi, and accidentally created a new blog by mistake. I didn’t post much early on because I figured that no one would read it. I was wrong.

The year has had some big ups and some tremendous downs. The best thing, however, is that I met all of you—online, at least. I had the sublime pleasure of meeting Cora (Mayden’s Voyage) and Enemy of the Republic (Cruel Virgin) in the flesh.

Several times, the X-Spot enjoyed a bit of notoriety, with a hundred or more hits coming in per day. The first time occurred last spring, when reading Libby’s page I stumbled across HNT. I met a lot of friends after posting on the phenomenon, some of whom (Bellarosa, Felicity, Spencer, Sunny Delight, Jeanniegrrl—I can’t remember if I met Kate through HNT or through Lux--and especially Boo) you can see in the sidebar. The other three times occurred late in the summer when other websites and blogs linked to the series on alien abduction, the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Marilyn Monroe, and a single post on (ahem!) penis size.

Other posts seem to have gotten me into a little intrigue, most notably the series on the Symbionese Liberation Army. I won’t blog about that now, but it looked like, for a while, my life would get weird again.

Reflextion advised me to string articles together. But until the tagging feature in Beta Blogger, I didn’t know how to do that. Since I plan, in year two, to continue some of the same subject areas (although in a bit more depth) as last year, perhaps these tags will prove useful.

On a sad note, the year also brought with it some tragedy as the deaths of Castor—an early commenter on the X-Spot—and Betcha Can’t Guess Who really brought home the realization that the cybercommunity is a very real community, with very real emotions attached to it.

We will start our second season by continuing a series I interrupted last fall in order to do more research on the topic. This one is kinda special to me personally, for I have been assisted in it by a number of people whom I had only known through their work. For me, it has been a real kick to connect with others doing conspiracy research, especially those whom (unbeknownst to them) I’ve held in high regard for years.

It’s a story about a guy named Howard, a guy named Bruce, another guy named Ari, with other guys named Jack Ted, Ralph and Robert. It’s also a story about Jack's wife, a woman named Mae, a woman named Stephanie, and another woman named Mary Jo.

I hope you stay tuned.