Phew. It’s official. Malcolm & Jillian’s Dropped In celebrates its one year blogiversary today. A lot of blogs don’t last this long, after the authors realize that no one is reading about their 13 year old lives. But not us. We push on with our imaginary audience, and it looks like it’s been working…we now have about 600 unique readers per day, from all over the world. Proof positive that if you fake it long enough, the audience appears. So much has changed in the last year. When we started, I had just come off a five year stint in NYC, and was reuniting with Jillian in our apartment in New Haven after a year spent commuting to each other’s houses on weekends. Jillian was teaching as a substitute in the Hamden public school system, and I was working by myself from our apartment. Okay, so maybe not EVERYTHING has changed. But oh, the things that have!

As we spent this afternoon reading back through the archives, the changes we noticed were numerous. We started this blog to document the first year of our engagement, not to mention a collection of oddities from around the web, and the occasional political rant. It reflected our lives…somewhat aimless, with occasional bites of attempted humor. Now, it has turned into a full-fledged travel journal as we find our way in the day-to-day of living in Mexico, a change we are happy with. And while I know this is a little self indulgent, I wanted to give you a few fast facts about the blog as it turns one year old.

Jillian’s Best Entries from Year One (As Chosen by Malcolm):

• Attention Mr. and Mrs. America and All The Ships at Sea May 14, 2006
  Where Jillian tries her hand at writing blind items for an imaginary newspaper of her own creation.
• Cover Letter May 16, 2005
  Jillian makes a plea for a job. A job for which she is qualified.
• Jammin on the One December 19, 2005
  Jillian recaps one night in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
• Retractions & Amendments December 29, 2005
  Early thoughts on blowin’ town for browner pastures.
• The Rib House: Let Them Eat Steak February 9, 2006
  Jillian reviews what is inarguably New Haven’s finest restaurant. I said it was inarguable, dammit.

Malcolm’s Best Entries from Year One (As Chosen by Jillian):

• Dad’s Visit October 31, 2005
  The old salt visits the young salt during a rare visit to New Haven, CT.
• Update! Bono Still a Total Asshole. June 9, 2006
  Malcolm flies off the handle in a rant about U2’s frontman that nobody asked for.
• Malcolm: Friend to Kittens Everywhere June 27, 2006
  Day one of a saga that would consume this blog for several weeks.
• London Day 2: DaytimeFebruary 20, 2006
  Malcolm’s impressions from a weekend across the pond.
• Entrada August 18, 2006
  First impressions of our new home.

And now for some fast facts about the blog and the new design:

• Number of unique readers per day: 550-650
• Unique readers per month: About 14,000
• Top search terms last month:
  1. Eazy E
  2. Whitney Houston
  3. Sexy Pirate
  4. Cocaine
  5. VH1
  6. Crackhead
  7. 3D Sidewalk Art
  8. Bill Cosby
  9. Jagermeister
  10. Happy Halloween
• Google Pagerank: 4
• Alexa Rank (Measure of overall most visited sites online): 700,709
• Sister blogs launched over the last year: Geek it Yourself, BurnToday
• Total incoming unique links: 2,177
• Global reach: Unknown, because our stats program kinda sucks. If you are reading this blog outside of the USA, please drop a note in the comments box so we can see how far out this thing reaches.
• Number of entries written: 339
• Number of comments received: 791
• Time spent on redesign: About 11 hours, including lots of false starts
• Number of browsers that receive their own unique version of site: 2 (It looks best in FireFox, natch.)
• New Official Name: DroppedIn.com (The difference between the old logo and domain name never made sense.)
• Number of 80 cent cappuccinos consumed during redesign: 3
• Number of beers consumed writing this entry: 2

We want to thank everyone who has been following along with our wanderings. Be sure to keep checking back every day…this year is bound to get even more interesting. See y’all real soon.