The Birth of a Blog

                                                           
           If anyone has looked at my profile page they might think, "Why is Arlee saying that this is his first year anniversary when it clearly shows that he's been on blogger since May 2008?"  True, I opened the blogger account then and thought about starting to write something, but I guess I didn't think of anything to write at the time and forgot that the blog was there.  After all I was busy with a full time job and honestly, I didn't want to think about writing then.

           Prior to May 2008 I had begun to become involved in some music discussion boards on Amazon.com.  On April 1, 2008 I jumped into a discussion that had already been ongoing for about a month. This discussion was The One Song That Every American Likes started by one Stephen T. McCarthy.  I liked Stephen's writing style and the way he responded to participants in the discussion thread.  Soon I was one of several who had an ongoing dialogue with Stephen.  Eventually I became his Amazon "friend"  and we were able to communicate directly.

            At some point Stephen got kicked off of Amazon.com.  All of his discussion thread entries and entries in an Amazon blog that he wrote were deleted by Amazon.  You can read Stephen's story on his blog.   Some of us in the discussion thread tried to convince Amazon to reinstate our friend Stephen, but to no avail.  He had been permanently exiled from Amazon.
  
              Shortly after this Stephen let me know that he had started a new blog on Blogger and invited me to come read it.   I was only remotely familiar with blogging and did not totally understand the concept.  I checked out Stephen's blog and decided to start my own.  It seemed like kind of a cool thing to do.

              As I pondered a blog name, I thought about what might define me or something about who I was.   I immediately decided that my background as a juggler would be an interesting place to start, but I also wanted to convey my interest in writing.  I knew I wanted to have an eclectic blog.  I thought of the titles that might include variations of the word "juggle" and began making a list.  Then I thought of words that described the act of juggling.  Eventually I hit upon the phrase "tossing it out".

             As soon as "tossing it out" came into my mind I realized that this should be the title of my blog.  This phrase conveyed the image of juggling--tossing objects into the air.  However it also suggested participation with others.  Whatever I tossed out the reader would have to catch and they could toss it back to me.  It seemed to create an ideal picture of verbal juggling so to speak.  I would toss out my words to be read and then the reader could toss back their comments to me.  I now had a blog and it was called Tossing It Out.

             After choosing a template and getting the blog on site, I went to bed and forgot about it for over a year.  I figured I would start writing on it eventually but I didn't and because I didn't it just slipped my mind that I had started a blog late one night.

            Near the end of 2008, I received word that my job would be ending at the beginning of the following year.  I had been managing a branch of a costume company in Los Angeles for nearly twenty years and now they were going to close my office and move all operations to North Carolina.  In March of 2009 I became unemployed at the worst time to be looking for work.  Previously I had been working ten to twelve hours five or more days per week.  Now I had a lot more time on my hands.

Tomorrow the story continues as I rediscover my lost blog.....