One Year of Potliquor

Quintessence...sounds like a first-class, grade-A, crash course in snobbish jargon 101, doesn't it? Well, it was showcased as today's Word of the Day on Wordia. More importantly, it embodies the theme of my first anniversary post.

Thanks to a nudge from my good friend Diane, I published Potliquor one year ago today. In an effort to capture the essence or substance of my blog, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my first year of internet journaling. In anticipation of this milestone, I looked to my blogger family for ideas.

I stumbled across a post by the Projectionist, which I stalk quite often. It's a tumblelog that draws me because I love being challenged by experiencing something new. I'm also a visual person, so I really like what he does with his "Four Years of Projectionist" post. I am sad that I can't build something like this on Blogger, but his post led me to try and illustrate my journey.

A few months back I was introduced to Wordle through a link on Jen's page. I get excited by all things creative, so I was immediately taken by the chaotic yet artistic possibilities provided on this site. Words seem to take on a meaning of their own in that space. I simply uploaded the text from my blog. The site then used word frequencies to generate a tag cloud that emphasizes the most popular words in the source text.

I wanted to visualize the topical content revealed by this objective art form. What common themes would emerge from my blogs? What insight about the substance of my writing would this rendering point to? Here's the result: The Quintessential One Year Potliquor Post:

(Click to enlarge.)

What stands out to you?

It has been a great journey. Thanks to my blog family and all of my readers for taking it with me!

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