The Lone Elm

This is Ugly...

Typepad (the service that this blog uses) was the victim yesterday of a cyber-attack. Michelle Malkin reports that other blog-servers were also attacked and shows a screen capture.  Freeman Hunt is trying to translate Michelle Malkin's screen captures.  See also Instapundit. Power Line says the attack comes from Saudi Arabian jihadists.

Light Blogging the next few days....

Heading out for a business trip this morning and won't be back until late Friday.  I hope to add a few entries, but there are no guarantees!

Militory Blogging

David Ignatius of the Washington Post writes today of his exploration of military bloggers, including those in Iraq.  He likes the insights and writing. He says:  "I don't know how many Rupert Brookes this war will produce, but the blogs carry some vivid imagery. An example is "365 and a Wakeup," written by a company commander in southern Baghdad. Walking the perimeter of his base, he sees an Iraqi moon that "glittered in the winter sky like a silver lantern." At dawn, sunrise breaks over the eastern sky "like dye spreading in a still water." He knows it's mealtime when he hears the rumble of tanks arriving with containers of hot food. "The troops held out their plates like Buddhist monks seeking alms, until the plastic dishes looked like the steep-sided slopes of a steaming volcano.""  Ignatius specifically refers to Milblogging.com, an aggregator of many military bloggers.  I would also like to put in a plug for Michael Yon's reports -- while he is not a military man, he has posted wonderful reports and photos from Iraq. 

Types of Blogging

Mister Snitch has a very interesting classification of blogging styles -- I would aspire to end up in the "long-tail blogger" category.  Although I am pretty new, so far that seems to be true! 

A Milestone -- 100 Posts!

I've made it to 100 posts after about a month and a half of existence.  I have improved my status in the TTLB Ecosystem from a Slimy Mollusc (ugh) to a Crawly Amphibian (better) with only a brief stay as a Flippery Fish. Sitemeter this morning reports 935 visits, which understates the total a bit as I didn't get that started immediately.

Thanks to all of my regular, and not so regular readers, for making this a fun experience!  (No, you don't need to comment for me to still feel appreciated!).  I started this out because I was essentially writing a current events mini-blog for The Sapling, who is away at school.  It has developed into something that I hope has a little more traction, although I think I have still not quite found my niche.  One thing I enjoy doing is taking an event and bringing together some new material that amplifies or adds to the discussion.

Wretchard of Belmont Club comments on his trip to the Open Source Media launch, meeting the faces behind the "famous" and not-so-famous blogs.  Travelling home, it occurred to him that perhaps he had attended the  bloggers "Woodstock."  There is no question that blogging is a huge movement allowing for conversation, and information to flow.  It is changing how mainstream media (MSM) operate - we now see the Washington Post including blog references to their articles.   There are compilations of news that mix together MSM articles with blog entries.  The dialogue, while at times messy, is open and has the potential for separating facts from opinion.   It is great to be part of this movement!