So I forgot to mention that about five or six postings ago, I broke the 500 mark! That's right. For one reason or another, I've sat down 500 times to write something on here. Childsplay. We'll hit 1000 in no time.

Usually when TV shows hit the century mark, they have a big fancy recap show. I feel as though I should do something similar. So I thought I'd answer some questions that I just know have been at the forefront of everyone's mind.

I hope in the very least that this is interesting to someone other than me.

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1. What got you started blogging?

Actually, it was Dunndee. I can't remember how I found out he was blogging, but I did. I had always shied away from blogging because I saw no point in an open internet journal. I am pretty secretive and didn't understand what you would be able to write about that you would want the world to see. I wrote a lot but blogging was definitely a new format. And I think to a certain extent it forced me to learn how to write more openly and for a wider audience. I also learned how to censor myself and was forced to pay attention to how deep into the inner mind of Mean Rachel I wanted my audience to go.

2. Mean Rachel? Where did that come from?

Honestly I cannot remember. Again I think it was a combination of Dunndee and IS2 giving me hell. I can't remember what exactly it stemmed from. Hurricane Katrina, maybe, and my outrage at the time. I called the Army Inspector General and complained. Maybe this was seen by some as mean/crazy? I really don't know. I do know that while it's more fitting, Mean/Crazy Rachel was too long of a user name.

3. What is your favorite post?

While it's depressing, I think my favorite is Slaughter Rule. I wrote it at a very difficult time in my life (while hopped up on hydrocodene, as the entry explains) but it says a lot about what I was feeling but doesn't really drone on and on. There is something to be said for its conciseness. I also love the one I wrote on election night 2006, Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. I stayed up late writing that after I got home from the results party. I wanted to remember how energized I felt -- I felt like things were going to get better, or if nothing else -- different. I wanted to remember that feeling. When I read it now, I can. I'm glad I stayed up late to write -- even if nothing really changed that night.

4. What was the hardest post to write?

I know the answer to this, without question. "Let them go shopping." I had just seen Marie Antoinette, so the title came easily. Sadaam had just been hanged a couple days before. Everything seemed so archaic and apocalyptic to me at the time. I had a horribly painful inner ear infection and felt terrible and lonely. I wrote that and worked myself into a rage unlike any other rage before. It really affected me, even as I wrote it, which was definitely unsettling. To read it now, it doesn't have the same sadness I felt when I wrote it, but I was incredibly sad.

5. What is your funniest post?

Hm...I actually really like the one about the first day of boot camp, because I can still remember how awful and hilarious it was all at once. Some of my rants have been amusing to me but I can't remember any right now.

6. Name one thing you've learned from blogging.

The posts you don't expect to generate a lot of talk sometimes do. Usually they are the shortest ones or the seemingly trivial ones. The longer more in-depth posts usually don't get a lot of commentary. I think it's because either no one reads them or because they don't always know what to say. Either way, it's a loveless life being a famous blogger, but someone's got to do it.