Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

Apparently Papeete is below us. Not that we can see anything in the dark. Ground speed is 981 miles an hour, we are 10 km high and its minus 39 degrees outside. I'm only 9 hours away from Dallas; it will be my first time on US soil.
This amazing adventure started back in early 2003 when i discovered blogs. I started my first blog and called it spyjournal. It was just going to be an online diary giving others a peek into my life. It grew and so did I. Discovering Darren Rowse (before he was famous) was my turning point. I realised he had figured this out. No quick shortcuts to internet riches. Seeing a space and then hard work writing quality content. Spyjournal has gained me prizes, software, early invites to new technology, an all expenses paid trip to France and now USA. Those are nice things. But not the best. The people I have met over the last few years online all around the world are ordinary people, hard working, faithful, reliable, with integrity, and my friends. I go to USA now not for a gravy train tour, but to meet my friends. Some i have known for a long time like Gordon – now at Tertium Squid. Others more recent like Marcus and Deidra. I think the thing I am going to enjoy most is laughing and crying, hugging and praying with my friends.
Blogging is hard work. It takes guts to bare your soul. It requires expertise to write with authority. It requires research and writing craft and years of wondering why it is that the only comments you get are from spammers. But you stick to your guns. You go through the hard patches and you learn the new technologies to improve and grow as they come. And eventually you get invited and asked to do stuff. Breakfast radio shows. Trips to France. Photography editor paid position thank you very much.
I am excited to see my love of writing being developed in my wife and daughters. Miranda is working on novels and fiction is her thing right now. I am excited to see that happen. Judith has long shared her craft ideas, recipes and more recently running for mums. The younger girls are into art. Jadeen is producing art commissions on Deviant Art.
My advice an encouragement does not come from a super blogger. Nor does it come from someone who knows it all. Rather it comes from someone who was taught from  an early age the value of hard work, the ethos of doing something well if it is worth doing and never quitting. I hope I am passing on the same values to my kids. To you my readers, do not discount this. Work is a God given instruction to mankind and there is joy and beauty in creating through work. Whether it is  physical craft or artistic expression, something can be created from nothing.