Yep, We’re Celebrating Here!

[twocol_one]Ten years ago, in April, 2004, my blog, timtyson.us, was born.

At the time I really didn’t much know what a blog actually was. I was curious about it, though, thinking that it might be a great resource for educators. So, I started my own, to see if this tool is something a teacher might find helpful.

I quickly found that I loved it. As I reflect back on my blog over the past 10 years, it has offered me a chance to think things through “out loud,” a place to vent, a place to store things I might otherwise forget but need, a place to journal, celebrate, reflect, a place to get feedback. It has taught me about myself as well: what I’m willing to share and what I’m not. Why. All in all, it has just been a good place to collect, connect and share.

If you look back in the archives, the date of my first post is actually March, 2004, but that’s not exactly accurate. My blog was created for me (thank you Evans, alias @coffeemug), in MovableType at the time, during Spring Break in April of 2004. I discovered early on that I could schedule posts for the future and backdate posts to the past. The March, 2004, post was my first experiment at backdating a post. Much to my excitement at the time, it worked! I wrote it in April but posted it the month before I wrote it![/twocol_one] [twocol_one_last]Evans set up my blog on his server. Early on I had to know more, had to understand what hosting meant, buying a domain name, creating a database, installing and configuring the software, learning about MT’s template tags, and on and on. He was astoundingly patient with me and taught me a massive amount! Finally, in less than a year, I was hosting two blogs. One was for the school.

When WordPress developed version 3, I was very impressed with what it could do. It became much more powerful than MT and is open source. So, back around 2010, I migrated (more or less successfully—I didn’t much know what I was doing, and WP was completely unfamiliar to me at the time: a very different way of thinking under the hood of the platform) from MoveableType to WordPress. I also switched hosting companies. In the process, unfortunately, several things “broke.” (For example: I lost my stats for the first 6 years of my blog and now have no idea how many visitors I had before I switched. Other little pesky issues cropped up too. But, slowly, I’ve been cleaning up the mess from the transitions.)

I’ve enjoyed my blog. I’ve enjoyed learning how to use it conceptually as well as technically, learning some of the technologies that make it work and look the way it does. I hope others, you, have found it (and continue to find it) of some interest as well.[/twocol_one_last][divider]

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Some Changes

And this week I’ve added a few celebratory details throughout: changes to the basic look and feel of my blog as well as a significant change to the tagline of my blog. Formerly, my tagline read, “Have deep, authentic and meaningful responses to your life experiences…”. I still very much embrace that way of being as we journey through life.

But, for this second decade of blogging, my new tagline is “Connecting the dots in the scavenger hunt for life’s patterns…”. Connecting the dots, seeing the patterns, is not always that easy to do, but I think the more we understand the patterns in our lives and in the world around us, the richer our lives can become.[/twocol_one] [twocol_one_last]The picture of one of my favorite pair of shoes, my ecco sandals, represents the journey. And what a journey it has been! I am amazed at how much my life has changed in the past 10 years. I would have never imagined such things… ever! Time now to wear out another pair of eccos!

New formatting options are now in play as you can see with these 2 columns. (easier to read?) My blog apparently has had this capability for several years. I just didn’t know it until this week! Hah!

And finally, if you have a big monitor for your browser, you will see one of the favorite pictures I’ve ever taken used as a background to my blog: the 75th birthday celebration of the Golden Gate Bridge.[/twocol_one_last][divider]

 

Happy 10th birthday to yoooooooou!