Escaping Flatland had 7000 subscribers on January 1 — today we crossed 18.000. It is funny how the first year now looks like a flat line . . . but that year was the most important one: it was when I made my first internet friends, when I had my life changed, when I dealt with the joy that anyone cared about what I wrote for the first time in ages. As much as I love the later growth, it was those early steps that mattered most to me.