Ah, 2007, what a memorable year it’s been. In the past 12 months, I started rambling away on this site, had my eyes opened by the many thoughtful members of the journalism blogosphere, and set my career on an entirely new course as a result. (More on that last bit soon. Or soon-ish. Maybe. We’ll see.)

Personally, I married the best reporter in my household at the year’s start, bought my first home at the year’s midpoint, and took a picture of myself wearing a giant foam corn thing on my head as the old year wore on. I’ll miss you, 2007, I really will. Here’s a quick review of the year in Hartnett.

MAY 1978 TO FEBRUARY 2007
No blog. How did I bother people with my uninformed opinions? Phone calls? Telegrams? Certified letters? Cat fanciers who wanted to view Pokeweed had to actually come to my house. I spent a lot more time playing NCAA Football 2006 on PS2.

FEBRUARY
I started blogging. Appallingly. How the heck did I manage 45 posts between February 13 and 28? What on earth was I writing about? I’m too embarrassed to even check now. I started out publishing with Blogger on a free host and a paltry bandwidth limit, which wouldn’t have been a problem except that Howard Owens kindly linked to me when I was just three blog-days old. That one link cost me something like $100 a year for marginally better hosting, not to mention countless hours of my time, as the resulting traffic laid on the pressure to treat blogging more seriously. Thanks, Howard, thanks a lot. The site generated 1,411 page views in its first month.

MARCH
Eighty-two posts in 31 days? How could I possibly have said so much of so little consequence so often? Top post: Young journalists in a print world. Personal favorite: Pet food and out-of-touch newspapers. Again, a shocking amount of traffic given the drivel I was posting: 2,275 page views.

APRIL
Florida beat Ohio State for its second consecutive basketball national championship early in the month, which was gratifying because I hate Ohio. Top post: Playing with code-free Google Maps. Personal favorite: Three words that must die. Page views: 2,331.

MAY
I turned 29 this month, and did not like the glimpse of 30 I caught in the distance. My wife and I launched her portfolio site at mid-month, and Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 highlighted it as an example of what every journalist should be doing. I also made the switch to WordPress. Top post: Links you probably won’t find on Romenesko. Personal favorite: The kids are psyched; Let’s not let them down. Page views: 4,034.

JUNE
We moved into our new house on the day the iPhone was released. Despite being my 12th move in 10 years, all but a handful of media outlets ran with the iPhone story. Top post: Journalists DO need to know computer programming. Personal favorite: Phrase rendered meaningless by chronic overuse in newspaper stories, Vol. 463. Page views: 3,049.

JULY
Posting was light as we waited more than a week for our phone company and ISP to sort through some typical nonsense at the new house. Then, awed by the Flight of the Conchords song Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros, I posted the lyrics. That post remains, by far, the biggest traffic draw on the site. From here on I’ll just call each month’s second most-viewed post the top draw and forget the lyrics post ever happened. Top post: Don’t let it go without saying: Reporting skill still matters, always will. Personal favorite: Aerial imagery in Google Maps: Third best in Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast. Page views: 2,981.

AUGUST
My obsession with aerial images of newspaper buildings started when Google expanded Street View coverage to four news cities. That produced the month’s top post: Newspaper offices in Google Maps Street View. Joint personal favorite: How I coaxed 35.4 miles per gallon out of my stupid Volkswagen and What’s ESRI trying to say about your booty? Page views: 3,676.

SEPTEMBER
My current stretch of lighter-than-normal posting started, as the day job selfishly started taking up more of my time. Top post: Google host wire stories: Meh. Personal favorite: Call it the case of the annoyingly overused newspaper lede. Page views: 3,609.

OCTOBER
I’m already tired of writing this, so I’ll just phone it in the rest of the way. I went to Nebraska, was annoyed by the poor color reproduction of my Sunday New York Times and finally settled on an actor to play me in the long-rumored Hartnett biopic. Top post: Call it the case of the annoyingly overused newspaper lede. Personal favorite: I am concerned about Gary Danielson’s brain. Page views: 3,228.

NOVEMBER
Will this stupid post ever end? I seriously doubt anyone will even read this far. In fact, I bet I could say something stupidly outrageous and no one will even notice. Star Wars was my idea. I shaved a tiger once. Top post: Heavy pressure; NFL players struggle with weight game. Personal favorite: Does calling newspapers ‘newspapers’ make me sound like a stupid old fool? Page views: 2,534.

DECEMBER
And here we are, at last. The month is not over yet, obviously, but here’s the story through yesterday, the 21st. Top post: Deciding our own fate: Newspapers must approach outsourcing intelligently to innovate and survive. Personal favorite: Dig up that poor old nut graf and get to the point! Page views: 2,333.

Will 2008 live up to the awesome that was 2007? Not likely, no. But you can expect a few cool things from me in the new year, sooner rather than later. Maybe. Hopefully. We’ll see.