My first blog – before they called it “blogging”

November 18, 2009 – I was “blogging” in October 1998, before there was such a word. My very first Web site at Angelfire included a daily journal I posted when Dad was in the hospital, with prayer requests for him and our family.

Sadly, John passed away on October 18, 1998. Coincidentally, the next day, OpenDiary.com was founded; it is the first blog community where users could comment on each other’s entries. (The word “weblog” was coined in 1997; it was first shortened to “blog” in 1999.)

I have been unable to log into that old Angelfire account for years, so it hasn’t been edited since my last post. I sure hope it’s never deleted:
You will notice an announcement on my old site that I was moving it to paulklenk.com. Well, I never quite accomplished that. I did own that domain name for a time, but when I let it lapse, it was snatched up by an evil realtor in the state of Washington. I’m sure I’ll never see it again.

In hindsight, I really do like the .us domain, and own several names there. Obviously, this blog is not a “commercial” site, so the .com TLD is probably not appropriate anyway.

Other Domains I Own

I’ve always loved discovering unique and snappy-sounding domain names. Often when a phrase comes to mind, I do a search at GoDaddy.com to see if it’s available to buy. Some sites I currently own (but seldom update) are plasticpie.com (humor), loudcitizen.org (politics), pkea.us (“Paul Klenk, Executive Assistant”), oriboxi.com (origami boxes), and zombiesforobama.com (for the viral video I co-produced).

I think the second domain I ever owned was www.WebSiteonaStick.com, which I used to market ready-made Web sites of my own design. I advertised my services in The New Yorker during the ’98 Christmas season; the ad can be seen on page 98 of the December 21 issue.

Recently I identified a veritably wicked domain to use for Tea Party politics; if I am successful in obtaining it, I’ll announce it on this post with an update.

But I think the jewel in my crown is a domain I purchased at 101domain.com, the registrar for Pakistan. That country’s TLD is .pk, and since my initials are PK, I searched their registry one day and found that www.paul.pk was available. Wow!  It’s so pithy, clever, and unusual – I just love it! At present, I only use it to point to my Google Profile page, but one day I may find another use for it.

– p.k.











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