You say it's your birthday

One year ago today, a bit of frivolous spending in City Hall surged a foul ripple of vitriol across the oceans of cyberspace, its tsunami-like power sweeping every reader within its path into filing through hours of captivating commentary; hanging on each letter of the Times-Roman font. The awesome, deity-like power of this new voice shined a searing hot light of truth on the sordid politicians and mealy-mouthed media moguls for miles around, exposing their misgivings to the now-conscious masses.

Okay, perhaps this is a bit on the melodramatic side for recounting the one-year anniversary of i-Saratoga. Let’s try this story again.

Just one year ago to this date, a really pissed off-but-very professional hack sucked down a bit too much bourbon for a Monday evening’s worth of post-work libation and awoke by a filthy computer terminal with an unabashed urge to micturate on the door handle of city hall. Casting these primal urges aside, our fearless hero decided instead to take the proverbial Yugo of Internet democracy for a spin on the information super highway.

Barrowing a format pioneered by another rogue blogger, the sobering hack saw through what many would consider a blinding hangover to pen an anti-government diatribe that was then cast into the flotsam and jetsam of cyberspace. Thanks to a few spiffy pictures and droves of bored Internet lurkers killing time at work, i-Saratoga continues to proliferate today.

Yes, there have been good times and bad, here at the daily diatribe. From the summer collapse of i-Saratoga’s mainframe –the aforementioned crusty computer terminal –to blogging from beneath a highway overpass, there have been some times had here. Somewhere in all this process, more than 132 single-spaced type-written pages have made it onto the Web, accounting for more than 64,000 words. And that’s just since the microchip meltdown of August 2006.

But whose reading all this crap anyway you ask? Well, that’s tough to nail down. Since the most recent software failure in January, this site has logged a total of 8,959 unique visitors, with about 200 readers a day.

To be honest, not much has changed since the early days. Still, there are dedicated readers who need to point out some of the more glaring errors of spelling that trickle into the posts. Likewise, the author continues to awake on occasion wondering why there’s an empty bottle of Wild Turkey on the floor with a few sentences of gibberish flashing on the no-longer soiled computer terminal.

There has been a greater degree of comments posted here, which is an encouraging development. Comments, regardless of their position, will be posted here provided they’re intelligently crafted and make a point that isn’t advertising Cialas or some similar product. At risk of sounding hackneyed, keep reading, keep commenting. Intelligent dialogue is the voice of a vibrant democracy. Those not willing to post anonymously or wishing to comment out of the public view can also drop a line at i-Saratoga’s bustling mail server: to date, seven messages received; spam count, 100 percent.

Ironically, the postings here have come full circle. City Hall is again poised to dump even more taxpayer dollars into fixing the Spa City’s remarkably bland Web site. This time, city officials anticipate dumping an additional $6,000 to $9,000 in redesigning the re-designed portal, which cost more than $79,000 one year ago today. Happy birthday, i-Saratoga; here’s a quick hit for your readers.

City officials are also looking to Web cast council meetings live and online, something that would undoubtedly be good for democracy in Saratoga, but will also cost much more than the aforementioned allocation. Ah yes, watch those taxpayer dollars get flushed down the toilet bowl. But don’t worry, there’s a hung-over hack skulking somewhere in the bowels of Saratoga waiting to write about it.