WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE: Ten Years of Blogging

TEN YEARS AGO, I was exposed to an unlimited access of the Internet. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that I could manipulate with the click of a mouse. I navigated where my curiosity took me. There were that many. Too much data at the tip of my fingers but there were no information overloads even though I made up a lot of catching up. Where was I when this technology exploded in 2002?

Then I became interested in what people posted in their personal online journals. Everybody in the ‘Net called it a blog. I read a lot of blogs, most of them nonsense and many were really very good. In 2007, blogging was very popular. Facebook and Twitter were still strange creatures. I tried my hand in blogging just to exercise my mind and see where will it lead me. At first, I did not know where to start? I did not even know what would I write?

There were many free blog platforms at that time. The popular ones were LiveJournal, Wordpress, Multiply and Blogger. If I have to blog for a longer time, it had to be a stable platform that could last forever. I choose the last because it is owned by Google Inc. and promises me 40 gigabytes of data space at that time. I could also take advantage of their Google AdSense which could give me financial rewards.

I ran out of imagination of what to name this blog and settled instead with RiversideCROSSings, borrowed temporarily from the same name of my faith-based blog in MyOpera. That was on August 23, 2007 and I posted the first of my many articles, a poorly-written poem, Save Mount Manunggal. It was just a space filler but it kick-started my experiment with blogging. I had no niche but it steered to interests closest to my heart: mountains and the environment.

On October 8, 2007, I renamed this blog as Merely My Opinion. It became a rant station for some time with some very controversial articles that have generated me most visits and stirred up the most comments. By the end of 2007, I had published 10 articles – all originals, a modest achievement for someone who unknowingly was late in the game but, nevertheless, it inspired me to perpetuate this blog for eternity.

The end of 2008 saw me publish another original 40 articles, to include the first entry of the Napo to Babag Tales, that first appeared on September 6, 2008, but have fathered a total of 119 sequels through the years. In 2009, I dished out 50 more original articles and this number was the same and constant for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, which came to a total of 450 posts. Mind blowing!

It was on August 1, 2011 that it became known as Warrior Pilgrimage. That year, the blog added another niche, bushcraft and survival, and simply grew out from being just a blog. It became a name that is associated with what I do as an outdoors educator, wilderness guide, explorer, writer, event organizer and in speaking engagements. The blog functions as a media outlet for the Philippine Independence Bushcraft Camp and the Cebu Highlands Trail.

This blog with an audacious name went to many virtual places and caught the fancy of the reader’s consciousness. It had crossed boundaries and got its rare brush with the bright lights as finalist and as people’s choice during the Bloggys 2015 Philippine Blogging Awards held in SMX, Taguig City. It never was meant for glamour and glitter but it had its chance and was bestowed badges of honor.

Despite this blog churning new article after new article, I refused to convert it into one with a domain name which would have ensured more subscribers and more clicks from Google AdSense. This is a vagabond blog living an existence on the morsels of knowledge from its unconventional owner. Earning is just an incentive but it shall never be its main reason of existence. It exists because it has stories to tell.

This current post is numbered at 33 for 2017 or a total of 483 articles for the ten years of this blog’s existence. I am in celebration and this celebration would run to the end of this year when it will soon hit 500 original posts. God willing. Ten years is a lot. I have seen many blogs in 2007 and, sad to say, they disappeared or locked in time when you click a link. My side bar has some of it. Most of them had domain names.

Why did this blog survived? Common sense says it is cheap to maintain as it is in free platform. Yes, it has a life and a mind of its own. It is original despite its very ordinary template. Its value is better appreciated by its concept of creating opinion which guide people of their actions. It inspired people from its tales of adventure. The writer is still healthy and intrepid. It shows the soul of its owner. It has no peer and will still be here as long as I do not use up that 40 gigs of disk space.

Document done in LibreOffice 5.2 Writer