i'm famous!

That is, I'm famous among Lorain County residents who read page C3 of The Chronicle-Telegram today. Reporter Chris Powell wrote an article about Elyria bloggers, including me. Unfortunately, the Chronicle only puts the first page of each section on their website, so I can't link you to it, and in the interest of copyright non-infringement, I won't post it here. But since Chris pretty much quoted me verbatim from my e-mail, I'll just copy that here:

I first blogged in March of 2003 but found that I didn't have much to say and only one person was reading it. I started it up again in May of 2004, basically just to post links to interesting articles and offer my random thoughts.

In November, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, so the blog was a great way to keep everyone informed on my cancer treatments and progress. It has also served as a journal for me to go back and remember what I went through, what my doctors told me, what my side effects were, etc. I also hope it can be of use to other newly-diagnosed Hodgkin's patients, because it always helps to hear these things in a first-person account without all the medical jargon. For example, today I just posted about a new cancer treatment that will hopefully render chemotherapy unnecessary.

The only edit I would make is that the article listed my address as http://home.alltel.net/bbird65/blog/ when it really should be http://blog2.bryanbird.com (which just forwards to Alltel's server). No big deal; the latter one is just easier to remember.

The article was also accompanied by one of the better photos that's ever been taken of me -- my hair may be receeding, but I'll be danged if the chemo didn't wipe out that acne!

Anyway, since the article isn't on the Chronicle's website, I thought it would be nice to link to the other blogs mentioned in the story:

I got a new dance it's called The Side to Side
Hard Times
The Pardoner's Tale
The Red Brick Times
Thoughts of a crazed mind

Incidentally, I originally started blogging just to keep my friends informed on what I was doing, especially my college friends who live out of Ohio. When it came to cancer time, I got a lot more visitors because I was telling everyone to read the blog -- I didn't really want to repeat myself a hundred times, but more importantly, in written form, I can revise and proofread and make sure I get every point across, whereas in speaking I'm likely to forget something. Now that the cancer is (almost assuredly) done with, the blog will return to its regularly scheduled randomness, already in progress.

So anyway, hello to all you Chronicle readers out there, even though you probably already visited earlier today before I had a chance to post this. Please feel free to check out my main site, bryanbird.com, which includes my digital art and graphic design portfolios, as well as my design and music résumés.