Sablay.org

Sablay’s Sixth

Today commemorates this blog’s sixth birthday. Six years of blogging which is also equivalent to the number of years I have been online (give or take a few months).

This of course warrants something new or special for my dear blog which equates to an upgrade to the latest Wordpress 2.5. And with that, also fresh new layout.

I’m hoping this lasts longer than the previous one. I wasn’t entirely happy with it, as it looked a bit too tight for me. Sure it works with no hitches on the WP upgrade, but it still looked a bit dated.

Hence the new layout: Letterhead.

Early Beginnings

The earliest layout I have on file, back in November 2002.

It all started with the Geology class in college. Our teacher didn’t give us hand-outs to read. She insted pointed us to go online and go to her website to read the materials we’re supposed to study. It gets updated once every week.¹

That is how I got introduced to the internet. I was of course a noob back then but this sudden influx of info made me want to learn more about about this technology. I got introduced to Yahoo! Clubs (now integrated with Yahoo! Groups). Browsed around, discovered sites I like, then saw blogs and were inspired by them.

I don’t know what got into me though, to consider an online journal. I have kept a private, hardbound journal for years. Why would I want to have one online with the possibility of so many viewers? It was still enticing though, regardless of any reasons, I found Blogger then, and the rest was history.

All these years

One of my highs.

This blog has seen so much of me during the past six years.

The good

Learning HTML, learning good layouts, finding about layouting without tables (CSS!), and meeting friends, old and new.

The bad

Bad layout decisions (I was an amateur!), MS Frontpage (but hey, it helped me learn!), crappy writing, one-liners and angst-ridden posts;

And the CMSs

I believe I tried most of them: Blogger, Pitas, Greymatter, B2, Movable Type, pMachine, then finally settling with, and loving, Wordpress. (Due to lack of migrating plugins between CMSs then many posts are long gone.

I’ve shared so much through this blog alone, and it it’s scary when I look back at it now.

I have shared my singing disgrace, matters of the heart, and decisions.

I have shared my joys, my pains, my triumphs, my failures.

I have shared a part of me, yet completely.

What was I thinking sharing these to strangers? But then I felt more freedom in sharing these as no one was there to judge me because of initial impressions. Sure, there are the archives, but they’re not the whole me.

This is a way of reaching out to people with the same interests (or not), and I felt good doing it. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve learned a lot during the whole process.

Beyond the present

I have stopped writing in my private journal, and kept this and my Livejournal account instead. Aside from the fact that I have been so busy lately and I’m in front of the computer more than I am at my bed, my penmanship has worsened due to lack of practice. I’m afraid maintaining a handwritten journal will not be ‘legible’ any more.

I currently maintain 4 other blogs. Three are personal, the other is a group blog.

But this will still be my favourite, not because it was first, but because I grew up with it. Mentally and emotionally.

Happy Birthday, old friend.

1. In hindsight, I think she simply updates the links to web pages already there. It is much easier that way than uploading, deleting and re-uploading for every class. ↩