anniversary

11th wedding anniversary

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An AI-generated image of a four tier wedding cake made out of steel.

Today marks 11 years since Christine and I got married, on the 4th May 2013 in York. This apparently makes it our ‘steel’ wedding anniversary, hence the AI-generated image of a steel wedding cake that accompanies this blog post.

We don’t have any major plans to celebrate this year; for our tenth anniversary last year, we had a nice lunchtime meal at Engine Social Dining. Also, I turn 40 this month and so we’ll be celebrating that instead.

We are aware that May 4th is Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you…) and whilst our wedding wasn’t specifically Star Wars themed, Christine did come down the aisle to a string arrangement of the Imperial March.

Looking back at my blog archives, I posted the day before and day after the wedding in 2013. I wrote a mere two sentences in 2014, and then didn’t really write anything more until our fourth anniversary in 2017. I may or may not have written anything in 2018 for our fifth anniversary, but if I did, it’s not in the Web Archive. And whilst I had resumed blogging again by the time of our tenth anniversary last year, I didn’t write about it at the time.

Christine and I are still happily married, and we try to take the time to keep making our relationship work. Here’s to at least another eleven happy years.

14 years of blogging

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Today marks 14 years since my first blog post. No, I can’t quite believe it either.

Considering all of the things that have happened in my life over the past 14 years, I’m pleased with myself for finding the time to keep the blog going, even if I do go through periods of not writing anything for a while. I’m hoping to be able to continue for some years to come.

I’ll save the big retrospective for next year, when hopefully I’ll be celebrating 15 years.

50 years of Doctor Who

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Someone's parked a TARDIS in Bradford City Centre...

Tomorrow, the 23rd November, is the 50th anniversary of the first episode of Doctor Who. A special extended episode, called The Day of the Doctor, will be broadcast simultaneously across the world, and in 3D at selected cinemas.

Sadly I will be out at a friend’s birthday tomorrow and so will have to avoid any spoilers until I get to watch it on BBC iPlayer on Sunday.

The build-up to the 50th anniversary has been huge – doctorwhosavetheday.com has been unlocking short clips once a certain number of tweets and status updates with the hashtag have been posted. There have been a number of specially-commissioned TV shows, such as last week’s The Science of Doctor Who with Professor Brian Cox, and a documentary drama called An Adventure in Space and Time (iPlayer link). And miniature TARDISes have been popping up in other BBC programmes such as Eastenders and Holby City.

The biggest surprise of all was the release of the prequel to The Day of the Doctor, conveniently called The Night of the Doctor:

Without wanting to reveal too many spoilers, the mini-episode fills in some gaps in the Doctor’s timeline.

It’s a very different situation to ten years ago, at the fortieth anniversary in 2003. Back then, Doctor Who had been off our screens for several years, and had a reputation of being a low budget show with wobbly sets and cheesy special effects. Nowadays, the announcement of the new Doctor warrants a half hour special TV show, as happened earlier this year when Peter Capaldi was confirmed as the twelfth Doctor.

I was a bit too young to watch Doctor Who the first time around, so I picked it up with the revived series in 2005, and the ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston. And since then I’ve been hooked – never missing an episode and owning many of them on DVD and Blu-Ray. I even read up on some of the background information on the characters, on sites such as the TARDIS Data Core. And I’m not the only one, as many of my friends are fans of the show.

I’m really pleased that such a classic British show is still popular, and, if you excuse the pun, constantly ‘regenerating’ for new generations to enjoy. Let’s hope it’s still going in another fifty years. You never know, time travel may even be science fact in 2063, and not just science fiction… 🙂

11 years

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Birthday Slice

Today is this blog’s 11th blogiversary – or, 11 years since I first started writing this blog. Obviously it’s not quite as a big a milestone as 10 years was last year, but every year counts. Arguably, of all the things I do or have done, this is the thing that I have done for the longest time without giving it up. I’ve been close to giving up a few times, but, 11 years on, it’s still here.

There have, of course, been changes over the years. In January 2002, I was 17, single, living with my parents in York, at college, a few months away from my A-level exams. Now, in January 2013, I’m 28, engaged, living with my fiancée in Sowerby Bridge, working and a few months away from my wedding. But, some things have stayed the same, and wanting to write a blog is one of those things that hasn’t changed.

10 years

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Balloons and Drinks

If I could go back in time and tell 17 year old me that in 10 years time I’d still be blogging, 17 year old me would probably be rather surprised. But here I am – 27 year old me is celebrating this blog’s 10th blogiversary. A whole decade of blogging. Wow.

When I did my ‘hello world’ post back on the 14th January 2002 I would never have imagined that I’d still be going now. Despite all the changes in my life over the past 10 years – moving to new places, going to university, getting jobs, finding the love of my life – this blog remained here. Sure, it’s changed a lot, but pretty much every blog entry I’ve made is still intact here.

So, happy birthday blog. Maybe you’ll even be here in 20 years time.

9th blogiversary

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Birthday Cake

Way, way back in January 2002, when I was merely 17 years old, I started writing a blog. The same blog that you are reading, 9 years later.

While I’m not posting nearly as much as I used to – this is my first post of 2011, and we’re two weeks into the new year – the fact that it’s still going at all is a bit of a miracle, considering how long I persist with things. About the only other thing that I’ve stuck with for a long time is Flickr, which I’ve been using regularly for over 6 years.

9 years ago, this blog was hosted on a bit of free web space hosted by a company which now no longer exists, and I managed it using Blogger (back before the Google buyout). I was living at home with my parents, studying towards my A-levels, and using their computer, which ran the then newfangled Windows XP. Albeit, not very well – the computer was already three years old.

Nowadays, I live with my partner Christine, and work full-time, at the university that I ended up being a student at later that year. I use my own computer (one of three that I own), which runs Mac OS X – something that would have irked my 17-year-old self who was more interested in Windows and Linux and who thought Mac users were deluded zealots who paid over the odds for overpriced, incompatible computers just because they looked nice.

It’s been an interesting journey, and one that I hope will not end any time soon. Looking forward to this year, I’m planning to change to Melody once version 1.0 is out (it’s approaching release candidate stage) – this would only be the second time I’ve completely changed blogging package and would end an 8 1/2 year run with Movable Type. I’m also looking at a new template and better integration of my photos from Flickr and my tweets from Twitter, seeing as I’m more active on those sites than I am here.

So, happy 9th birthday blog. Many happy returns.