Three years ago today I made the first post to Miscellaneous Heathen. I’d been distributing amusing bits via a private mail list, and decided it was time to move the operation to a Blog.

Late 2000 was towards the end of a period of time I refer to as my “near wealth experience;” I was still working for a vaguely profitable Internet software consultancy, and still had a big pile of founder’s stock, and it was still worth a lot of money on paper. So, I guess, was I.

Of course, all that stock was illiquid, and the value vanished entirely in the next year as the economy slowed to a crawl. We took a big deal with a major Texas-based, star-themed oil company, which then decided not to live up to its contractual obligations, thereby putting us in a bit of a bind. Add to this an unfortunate acquisition, and that was all she wrote.

As the firm circled the drain, though, I had a consulting job and little to do, which was a great environment for encouraging thoughts like “hey, how about a Blog?” The rest, they say, is history.