1st Anniversary Message

Happy Birthday to Me.

Well, Its been one whole year on this site. And I thought I might summarize my thoughts and feelings on the past year. A sort of a State of the Baboon address:

I’m happy to report to you that the State of Baboon is strong. Not strong like the President talks about, but strong in the true sense of the word.

Over the past 12 Months, We have visited some 60 different locales in and around the Atlanta Area. From the top of the State at Brasstown Bald to the majestic vistas Providence Canyon creates. We’ve chased waterfalls in the North and visited quaint little hamlets in the South. We’ve scaled tall mountains, visited sites of Native American Heritage, and spent some time with our varied Civil War History. The primary purpose of the site is to get me out and about, which it has accomplished, and to, hopefully, inspire you to do the same. We have completed this task with flying colors. And some 5200 of you have come along for the ride.

We’ve had visitors from as far away as Thailand, Singapore and the Ukraine. We’ve had visitors from Washington state to Washington DC, as twenty something states inbetween. We’ve had visitors from nearly 100 different cities in Georgia. Along the way, we have been linked to Outside In and the Georgia Carnival of Blogs. We have made good friends with significant local bloggers like Decatur-DeKalb blog and I Saw It On Ponce. We’ve made friends with new bloggers like meghanyea at Used Hardcovers. All in all, the Urban Baboon is becoming a significant source of information for folks who want more information on points of interest in and around Greater Atlanta

Our most significant failing is that we have not lived up to our original commitment of six posts a month. Going forward we are going to revise this number to three posts a month and hope that I can get more motivated than that and do more. Another setback is we have spent more time outside the city than within. The reasons for that are primarily economic, the city stuff is more expensive and, another reason is my personal penchant for a lovely walk in the woods. Going forward, we will attempt to do one perimeter minded post per month, but I know that will be difficult. A third is that we have had less strange and quirky facts about the area as originally intended. We would like some lesser known focus points, please suggest some if you know any. We are committed to correct this one also. Finally, we have yet to nail down a proper logo for this website. Any help in this endeavor will be greatly appreciated.

I will also attempt to have a little more commentary on life. Nothing dominating the site, but more information about what I experience throughout my adventures.

The future though is one filled with hope. We will see many new changes throughout the year. We will get a comprehensive index up. We will see a more streamlined front page. We are working a way into bringing food and other leisure activities into the fold, but the format has yet to be determined. We do not want to simply show you where a decent restaurant is. In Atlanta, that is too simple and been done to death. All in all, we reaffirm our commitment to being a significant resource for folks in the area or outside who want the question answered, “What sort of things are there to do in or around Atlanta?"

Most of all, I want to take a moment to thank all visitors to this site. It really gives me great satisfaction to know that my little hobby may serve some good in the world. I thank each and every one of you. On a special note, I want to thank all those who have emailed me with suggestions or encouragement, or who have commented on by blog. I have answered each email personally and taken all suggestions seriously. Remember the comments field on the site is yours to add and correct as you see fit. All comments will be publish unless there is a pressing reason not to (i.e. spamming or vulgarity)

Thank you all again for one great year.

The Urban Baboon

P.S. here is a bar graph of visits over the past year. You can see how far we've come.