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The thoughts, opinions, happenings, and just plain ramblings of a seemingly boring person.

10 Years of Blogging!

10 Years BloggingWow. Today marks 10 years since I started this blog. I must have missed the 10 year mark of the website itself (which was on 13 July 2013), but it was with the launch of this blog 10 years ago that thingsย really started to get interesting (at least for me ๐Ÿ˜› ).

If I was honest, 10 years ago I don't think I would have bet that this would still be going a decade later. At the five year mark I was seriously considering giving it up, but over the years I've come to the realisation that this blog is mainly for my own personal benefit, and even if it doesn't get much traffic or comments, it's a good outlet for my own pent-up writing needs.

Looking back, those early blog years are mostly cringe-worthy stuff, so I'm not going to link to many of those early blog posts (but here's the first ๐Ÿ˜‰ ). Long time readers will remember the site intro animations that I did at the time (I'm especially proud of this one, which totally dates the era).

This site and this blog has come a long way since it started 10 years ago. Facebook didn't exist back in January 2004, everyone was still slowly getting off LiveJournal, Blogger was only recently under Google's stewardship, and WordPress was barely six months old. This blog spent most of its life living on a very heavily customised version ofย  the 'Plugged-Out' blog script, before I finally migrated it to WordPress in 2012.

The life of this blog over the past 10 years has seen me go from a 20 year-old IT student at UQ, to a married 30 year-old graduate now working as a technical writer. It's seen a lot of big events in my life: a broken foot, my graduation, buying our first home, our wedding and honeymoon, the loss of my hair, the onset of chronic health issues, the 2011 floods, and building our house, just to mention a few.

Since the rise of social networks like Facebook, and especially since my illness, the blog posts that I have written have tended to be less about the intricate details of my life and it's happenings, and more a platform for various reviews and opinions. I guess that it is also a by-product of settling into working life (less noteworthy events as you get older).

The frequency of blogging has also declined over time, but I think that is also a result of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ providing an easy platform for short updates and easy sharing. Back in 2004 you needed a blog for that kind of thing, so after I got onto Facebook in 2007 (as well as Twitter in 2009, and Google+ in 2011), this blog stopped being the platform for that kind of stuff.

In 10 years this blog has documented: a few overseas holidays (1, 2), six different mobile phones (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), three computer builds (1, 2, 3), three Windows releases (4 if you count Windows XP SP2 ๐Ÿ˜‰ ) (0.5, 1, 2, 3), two games console purchases (1, 2), and many other milestones.

I started my 'Year in Review' posts from the beginning: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013.

In 2007, I started a 'Best and Worst' post, containing my opinion of the best and worst games and movies for each year: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013.

For the record, this post is also my 850th. Onto the next 10 years. ๐Ÿ™‚

9 thoughts on “10 Years of Blogging!”

  1. I have loved reading your early posts but as you went into the technical stuff you totally lost me. I'm sure your comments on all the new games and things were very informative and interesting
    Wow 10 years. I just want to say how wonderful it has been having you as our son!! being an IT specialist when we have needed help lol ๐Ÿ™‚
    Seriously blogging in another 10years???? I don't think so, you most likely be communicating in some other way
    I just want to say how proud we are of you on all of your achievements and the person you are. The loving caring calm patient human being you are. I am very proud to be your mum xxx

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  2. Proud of you mate! I may have read one or two maybe a few more over the years????
    You have been blessed with the gift of writing and I encourage you to explore it more from the heart.....perhaps write fiction , short stories, whatever excites you..... Well done!
    I wonder what spectacular changes are in the pipeline for IT for another decade?Keep it up!!!

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  3. The animations section. The one you are proud of that dates the era only comes up with a blue screen and your headings. Is there not supposed to have something else on there?

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  4. Yep, it's supposed to show an animation. You'll need to have Adobe Flash installed if you are using Firefox or Safari. In Chrome it should just work.

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  5. I cant believe its been 10 years since you started blogging. I remember when you started up the site and were making the intro animations, they're awesome.

    I am hoping in 10 years time we will have better internet, you never know maybe the NBN.... wishful thinking!

    Go Arsenal!

    Reply

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