Happy Blogoversary! 19 Years of Out of My Hat!

On this date in 2006 I published my first post here at Out of My Hat.
I no longer do magic as a profession, hobby, nor ministry, so the name doesn't make as much sense as it did back in the day. And most of the post seem to come from out of my --, well, from somewhere else.

I am a much different person today than I was 19 years ago. Not only am I no longer a magician, I am no longer working as an air traffic controller, I am no longer in ministry as an evangelist or kids' camp pastor, and am happily retired and pursuing new hobbies like gardening, smoking cigars, sipping bourbon and tequila, and staying the hell away from people.

I do still enjoy writing and using Out of My Hat to share my thoughts, but no longer care as much as I once did that other people actually read them. I should probably challenge myself to write more often and to take on a greater variety of topics from time to time -- perhaps I will in year #20. I suppose I could find a random topic generator or accept suggestions from the few readers that I still have. Or I can (and likely will) just keep doing what I have been doing for the past 19 years.

It has been an interesting evolution.
I wonder what the John of 19 years ago would say about the person that he would become. He would probably look at what has been posted recently and wonder -- Who writes this crap?
From the other perspective -- I am glad that I have grown and am no longer the person that I was. I truly wish more people would constantly question what they believe and who they are and challenge themselves to grow rather than to just blindly follow the same well worn pathways.

I do hope that you will stick around for another year, and I hope that you might occasionally benefit from some of my posts and rantings. 
Maybe I'll celebrate the milestone later today with a cigar and a tequila cherry limeade. 
It will be -- Just another day in the life of John
But each day is a day worth celebrating.

John