Second Blogiversary

Two years ago, on the 25th of January 2008, I launched this blog. Today is my second blogiversary.

In retrospect, it feels as if the second year passed even quicker than the first one did. It's hard to believe that Rohrstock-Palast, this oddly named creation of mine, has been around that long. But it has - the dates don't lie. So first off, a thank you to all of you who left comments over the past year or corresponded with me by email. You are the ones who made this ride as inspiring and entertaining as it was, and I hope that you will continue to do so.

On my first blogiversary, I noted how intriguing it is to see a vision take shape - to compare my original plans for the blog with how it turned out. This is even more true after the second year. Two things happened in 2009 that really stand out, both featuring prominently in my writing here. One, I did my first professional spanking videos, "Inmates" with Mood Pictures and "Garden Party" with Lupus Pictures. I'm proud of both of them and of how they differ - a gritty, claustrophobic "women in prison" pseudo-documentary versus a light-hearted, visually sumptuous comedy. Topping in a professional, full-length spanking film was a lifelong dream of mine and the experiences are now immortalised in the Mood behind-the-scenes report (four parts) and the Lupus BTS report (three parts), which in my opinion contain some of the best writing I've ever done.

The other, and even more significant event of last year was that I found my mate Kaelah (actually, it is more accurate to say that she found me). That one came totally out of the blue - having someone to share my life with was another lifelong dream, but one I had kind of given up on already. Which, one could argue, was a prerequisite for its fulfilment. That as it may be, meeting Kaelah was as beautiful and fortunate as it was unforseen, and it had a profound impact not just on my life in general, but on the blog as well. I can't say enough good things about her. The story of how we met is recorded in Where No Man Has Spanked Before, which also ranks among my best pieces of writing. Kaelah has her own monthly column on the blog now, called Kaelah's Corner and received very favourably by the readers. Currently, we are working on the story about our first spanking play - two parts published here and here, the third one to follow shortly.

So here I am, suddenly writing one of those "kinky couples" blogs. Quite a change. I can only wonder what is in store for me in my third year of blogging. You'll notice that none of my predictions from one year ago came true - on the first blogiversary, I mentioned that I wanted to do more interviews, more book reviews and more philosophical ramblings. Well, I conducted Niki Flynn's last interview in September, which turned out great. But apart from that, no additions to any of these three categories. All of them take vastly more time than the average post, time that I usually didn't have during the rollercoaster ride that was 2009. When I did, I was busy catching up with more immediate topics.

So, I'm reluctant to speculate too much about the blog's future. I have all sorts of plans, but they will undoubtedly materialise in somewhat different forms and in a somewhat different order than what I envision today. First off, Kaelah and I will post the final part of our "first spanking play" trilogy - it should have been out weeks ago, but 2010 didn't start smoothly for me, hence the delay. Then, in February and March, I'm going to overhaul some of the blog's features, as I announced it here. Beyond that, we will see! You will hear more about Kaelah and me, that is for sure. You will read the usual movie reviews and website reviews. There might be more movie shoots, and who knows, there might even be a long-overdue return to my philosophical ramblings!

In rock music, they say that it is a band's third album that "makes it or breaks it" .The first album is your debut, usually well-received. The second one is a sophomore effort that builds on the first. But it's the third album that really, really counts. Does the same apply to spanking blogs? I'll approach my third year as if it did.