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It’s been a year since I made my first post here. Blogging is a bit harder than I expected it to be, mostly in the sense of time commitment. If I could change one thing it would be that I would post more often, but given my life I’m not sure when that will be happening. So, I will continue to post my thoughts when I can.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everyone out there reading and commenting. While my main goal has been to teach from my own experiences, I had also hoped to continue to learn. And thanks to so many of you, that goal has been reached (and will certainly continue). Thank you all, for sharing your insights and knowledge with me. I look forward to learning more.
The following are my top five viewed posts over the past year:
1. A Guide to Entering the Manosphere (For Women) – overwhelmingly my most popular post to date.
2. Being a Wife
3. Spotting the Alpha and Beta Men – I’m quite surprised by how often this post is viewed. I wrote this in response to a simple inquiry to show how quickly and easily most women can read men. It is most often found through search terms, not links.
4 Ask Your Questions – This went better than I expected it too and I hope it continues to be used. It’s linked at the top of the homepage for that purpose.
5. This is technically my About page, but as that doesn’t really count it’s The Male Imperative vs. The Female Imperative.
My favorites posts over the past year (in no particular order):
I’d be curious to know which posts you all enjoyed.
Thank you all, again, Dear Readers for a wonderful year.
On the Rock 
Happy bloggiversary! It’s good to have you on my reading list. Aside from your own writing, I’ve come across several other great blogs by way of your blogroll and readership. Thanks!
Thank you Peregrine John. I’m glad that you were able to find some other good blogs as well. I need to add more to the list, I am just really bad at maintenance. Keep your eyes on the blogroll as it will be getting more additions.
Congrats, Stingy!
On one hand, I’d like to complain because you don’t post as much as I want. On the other hand, I’m well-aware of the commitment required, and I know you’re spending your time in other important ways. Breeding and caring for your current offspring is very important because we need more of you.
I look forward to using your insights to explore the unique breed of Alpha you picked up on when I have more time. You ability to notice what you did speaks well of you, so you’ll be the perfect person to bounce off theories I have on a new variation of Game before I go public with it.
In the meantime, know you’re making an invaluable contribution around these parts. You’ve got great insights and a great heart, but the fish stingray is cooler than the car.
Congrats on a banner first year. Found you via Danny – so it’s his fault I’m here.
The Guide post serves a valuable function as it gives me something to link women to. Thank you for writing it.
Martel,
Thank you, Martel. That means a lot. I look forward to see more about this new variation of Game.
the fish stingray is cooler than the car.
Blasphemy!!! (though, they are very cool.)
tj,
I’m glad you found your way here. I’ll thank Danny!!
seriouslypleasedropit,
You’re welcome and I hope it serves it’s purpose well.
Check your inbox for a quick sample. After writing it, I seem to remember my follow-up compliment as being more sincere, specific to her (something like how her face somehow combined gilr-next-dooe prettiness with a more exotic sexiness, I think, but it’s the contrast I want your take on).
Congrats, Stingray! Your blog definitely strikes a unique chord and I’m always excited to see a new post up.
P.S. I had always assumed Stingray referred to the fish 😛
@ Phedre: You should continue to assume that about the fish because it makes her seems cooler.
Check out the photo at the link, and then tell me how anyone in their right mind would CORRECT in the comments the person who associates them with it.
http://apocalypsecometh.com/stingray/
You know, Martel, you kid, but I went back and forth and back and forth about correcting him in that post. I really did. Some men would rather know and some couldn’t care less. I didn’t know what the right thing was to do in that situation.
Phedre,
Thank you very much. Most people always did think it was the fish. I would too. I never said anything until someone asked shortly after I started the blog. This is my moniker. And this.
.
First (and preferred) option would have been to recognize that the picture of the stingray he picked was a strikingly beautiful portrayal of nature’s most awestriking and fearsome creatures. I would have left it at that.
I’ve told you what my name alludes to before (which was all I was thinking when I picked it), but it can also just be the French word for hammer, a tool with connotations both sexual and powerful. Charles saved Western Civilization, but hammers can be a weapon or something that builds, and French is known for being a sexy (if effeminate) language, a cool contrast with the masculine earthiness of a simple tool. Getting “hammered” has an altogether different meaning, but “to hammer” a person can also mean…
So however folks want to fill in the blanks, I’m cool with it. The vagueness is fun for me.
But if you HAD to correct him, doing it in an email or with a twitter direct message or something would have been better.
Nevertheless, us here in the Androsphere aren’t particularly sensitive, so I’d be amazed if he took any sort of offense or viewed it as an expression of ingratitude. It’s ultimately no big deal. Really.
Thank you, Martel. I will absolutely remember that for the future. That is just one thing I am not good at. I went back and read that comment a couple of times and cringed as I knew it was way off, but couldn’t figure out how to do it better. Poise, it is an ongoing battle for me.
If you still have lingering doubts or something (and you shouldn’t), either link to him sometime if he has something to say that’s relevant to what you’re saying, drop him a comment on a post sometime, or wahtever else just to assure yourself that you’ve assured him that you’re grateful
aaaaaaw. look at my other blog sis making a big milestone. they grow up so fast. lol. one year blogging goes by VERY quickly. looking forward to your 2 year anniversary. kisses snuggle-lump.
Congratulations, Stingray! I remember meeting you at Chateau Heartiste and you were trying to decide whether to do this or not. And then one day there was a sandwich gravatar with a link that whisked us here! I can’t believe its already been a year. I hope you continue to write when you can; there’s a good saying about “slow and steady.” 🙂
From what few hints I get of the real Stingray, you are an awe inspiring example of a woman, modest and humble in an era which demands the opposite; yet a woman who — like a saint — will have influences on future generations in ways that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard.”
Give this country just a thousand more of you and a billion would be saved. You do the quiet work of the Lord. May God continue to bless you and Mary keep you in her unique graces, of which you are an exemplar.
Matt
I have immensely enjoyed your blog and will always keep reading it.
Something the femmis will never understand is the extent of admiration healthy men feel for women like Stingy. Matt, me, and God only knows how many other men view her, and women like her, with the utmost respect. Women like her bring out the best in us.
Some shrieking harpy insisting we respect her is merely tolerated. If we’re weak, we might cave in to her demands, if given the option, we’ll avoid her altogether.
But I doubt that even the most blue-pilled White Knight actually respects them at all. They might trick themselves into thinking they do, but it can’t be real.
But Stingray and some of her sisters, despite (or because of) their meekness, exemplify a strength more based in truth than any of the “women” over on Jezebel who think they’re so much stronger.
You’re the best, Stingray. Thanks for what you do.
Kate,
Ahhh, the sandwich. While I got tired of the avatar, I will never tire of the “Woman! Make me a sammich!”
Matt,
I fear you give me too much credit. All I can say is, thank you. Thank you very much. I question my influence, but as long as there is even a bit for the good, I will try to keep on.
And Mary, I have no words other than to say, no. I am not an exemplar. Her Grace is . . . . I simply don’t have the words.
Sherlock,
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Martel. The fact that I have earned yours and others’ respect is no small thing to me.
I celebrated by ordering three dresses from modcloth 🙂 Looking forward to them coming in. I can’t wait for your next anniversary!!!
Kate,
Oooooooh, I found a new site. http://www.eshakti.com
Oooooooh is right! Am I correct in believing the dress has made a comeback in the last couple of years? It could have been just me, but I simply do not remember seeing them around so much. Also pretty much unrelated, I can tackling the delts this summer as it seems to be an aging woman’s Achilles’ heal 🙂
Stingray wrote: “I fear you give me too much credit. All I can say is, thank you. Thank you very much. I question my influence …. And Mary, I have no words other than to say, no. I am not an exemplar. …”
Let me allay your “fear” of immodesty some, then. I don’t say any of this to butter you up. Your role is a great and terrible one, and it will come at great cost.
What I mean to do is encourage you (and of course, your husband) as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Jn 1:23) for the trials to come. The difference between you and the matriarchs to whom I owe my life and my character is that my mother and grandmothers and aunts could rely upon sturdy support from the culture. You will not have this advantage; indeed you will have to become that support for other, weaker women.
It sounds like a tall order, and it is. Maybe even overwhelming. But it is precisely your modesty that will allow you to persevere through all the sacrificing that must be done, day by day, one moment at a time. I don’t flatter you! I only mean to encourage you to stand firm when the world is against you, as is promised. I want you to remember your righteousness when you experience, like Mary, the Via Dolorosa, as you must.
“Your childhood is idyllic. You are a lucky man to be raised as you were and to have the education you did.”
Not luck, young matriarch. Grace. You have consciously united yourself to the generations, and your sons and daughters will do you proud, as must be your most fervent prayer. If I was lucky, then your children are luckier.
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14).
Love,
Matt
Congratulations, Stingray! It took me a while upon meeting you at Dalrock to figure out that you weren’t a man! Keep up the good work, and may the Lord bless you and your family.
I fully endorse modcloth (providing you don’t ever want to sit down or bend over while wearing their shorter dresses) 🙂 Nice quality, fits well in the waist, which can be hard to find, very airy, light, and fun 🙂