A few months ago, I wrote a diary called Stick to the weather, Weatherdude. The title was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the people who derisively tell me to "stick to the weather" when they don't like something I say. It was also sort of a "how I came to love the weather" post along with some ideas for what I'll post going forward. Meta, in other words.
A lot's happened since then. I am sticking to the weather, just not here on DailyKos.
I am now a contributor to the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang.
I read the blog in high school and loved it, and I never thought that I'd actually write for them some day. It's an honor and I'm deeply thankful for this opportunity, and so on and so forth with the gratefulness. This opportunity is a direct result of my blogging here at DailyKos. That you guys have indulged my weather rants for the last couple of years has helped me immeasurably, so I have the community here to thank, as well.
The summer leading up to this was pretty eventful. In addition to dealing with a bunch of ridiculously immature family drama, the weather and political world exploded simultaneously, which made for some interesting times around here. Hot tempers created more rifts between members of the site (unheard of!), and people who disagreed with me stumbled upon the totally clever, unique shrug-off of "stick to the weather." So I wrote the aforementioned diary, wrote a few weather pieces, and by a stroke of luck, wound up writing a few guest pieces for the Capital Weather Gang. Two months later, here we are.
Now, I'm not leaving DailyKos. I stuck this paragraph at the very bottom to see who reads the whole thing first. You're never going to get rid of me unless Markos (or Kosbot) drops the banhammer. This community has helped me in so many ways over the last few years. I've made some of my best friends thanks to this site. I've gotten back to school twice thanks in large part to the help of this community. You guys seem to like the weather diaries, so I keep writing them, and I wrote even more when people who don't like me tell me to go away. Without DailyKos, none of this would have happened.
I will still write shorter weather diaries here and, of course, severe weather liveblogs, but I'll reserve the longer posts (like this one, for example) for the Capital Weather Gang. Every once and a while, when I post something that I really want you guys to see, I'll go into self-pimping mode and post the link as a diary. That'll be exceedingly rare, though, so don't worry.
Here are the posts I've written for the Capital Weather Gang so far, to give you an idea of what I'll be writing.
I'll still be here, lurking in your threads and irritating you with my general existence. When severe weather hits, you'll still see radar images and titles written in ALL CAPS to convey the imminent doom.
I can't totally abandon you guys. Yet. :)
As always, in addition to the Capital Weather Gang, you can get weather updates from me on Facebook, and random ramblings on Twitter.
I never quite know how to end diaries like this, so here's a relevant .gif.
6:59 PM PT: Thank you for all the kind words, everyone. I appreciate it! :D