When & Where Did You Lose Your Blogging Virginity?

I was on a site I've been a member of since 2001 tonight. I'm not on there a whole lot these days because I get lost whenever I log in and GIANT blocks of time will pass without me noticing that day has turned to night. I was reading some of my old tips/posts, correcting a few things that have changed over the years, answering some travel questions, and generally taking a trip down memory lane. It all got me to wondering:

What was your first blogging type experience? How long ago was it? What type of site was it on? Why did you do it?


For me:
I was cooped up at home after a car accident with nothing to do, an inability to sleep due to pain, and an internet connection. Yup, recipe for disaster. ;) Anyhow, I have always loved the discovery of new places either in person or just by reading about them and looking at pictures. I was browsing various travel sites and dreaming of escape to far away places when I came across a FREE tourist site that came complete with a chat room, pages to write about your travels & read of others, forums for asking questions & getting answers from people halfway across the world, and... did I say live chat? I was immediately hooked. I couldn't NOT sign up. There were people there 24/7. Live people from all over the world for me to talk to. The temptation was way too much to resist. Soon I was chatting away and reading all about the adventures my new friends were having around the world while dinner burned forgotten on the stove until the smoke alarms went off (really). My eyes were opened to new places to see right in my own town and I was soon taking pictures and writing tips and travelogues about my own boring neck of the woods for the world to read. Amazingly, my little piece of the planet became a very interesting place to explore. When looking at places from the perspective of telling someone who's never been there about it, you learn so much more. Because of that site, some of my travel tips have actually been published in a real live complete with paper pages book. I was stunned and silly with giddiness when I got the e-mail asking if it was ok to include my writings in the book. Me??? The stuff I wrote??? Really?????????? Of Course!!!!!!!!!! "Hey Mom, GUESS WHAT..." 

And THAT is how I began sending my experiences and opinions out to the web for the whole world to read.