Four Years

The actual day isn’t until tomorrow, but as I’m not planning on doing much in the way of weblogging on Thanksgiving day, I figured I’d go ahead and toss this up ahead of time. While I’d been keeping hand-updated websites since ‘95 or so, November 25th, 2000 marked my first foray into using a software engine to keep track of the random rambling I occasional put up on my website, starting me stumbling into the world of weblogging.

Four years it’s been since then.

Semi-randomly chosen highlights follow…

• 2000/2001:
  • 11/25/2000: Frist p0st!
  • 12/22/2000: My brother gets engaged, and I joke about becoming an uncle in about three years. Little did I know…
  • 1/17/2001: Things to remember while e-mailing, one of the few e-mail forwards to get posted. Should be required reading for ‘net newbies (and some not-so-newbies) everywhere.
  • 2/8/2001: I discover that I’m a ‘blogger.’ Until this point, I’d never heard the word.
  • 4/20/2001: I explain my tattoo and the symbolism (real and assumed) after being asked about it.
  • 5/24/2001: I go all conspiracy-theory wacko (temporarily) and have some fun with the “face” on Mars.
  • 5/29/2001: I buy my ticket to Seattle, and my friends recommend plastic surgery. Or something like that.
  • 6/22/2001: I arrive in Seattle.
  • 7/10/2001: My first apartment, and a random encounter with a street ruffian. He didn’t stand a chance.
  • 8/31/2001 - 9/3/2001: Bumbershoot 2001 day one, day two (my first encounter with Jason Webley), day three, and day four.
  • 9/11/2001: America gets attacked.
  • 10/16/2001: Looking at similarities between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the post-9/11 days.
  • 11/19/2001: In which I find out just how small the world can be sometimes.
• 2001/2002:
  • 12/12/2001: I dig up usenet postings that I wrote as far back as 1994.
  • 12/21/2001: I switch to MovableType.
  • 12/22/2001: While heading up to Anchorage for Christmas vacation, I discover that I’m suddenly afraid of flying.
  • 2/24/2002: My friend Casey turns 30 and gets the Best. Birthday. Cake. Evar.
  • 2/26/2002: My weblog renames from ‘Wudiblog’ to ‘The Long Letter’.
  • 2/28/2002: A list of where I was on important dates in history, and what I remember about them. Where were you?
  • 3/2/2002: A false-color image of Mars triggers a bout of silliness as Deadheads invade Mars.
  • 3/13/2002: An incredulous comment on some idiot’s recommendation that we nuke Mecca has, rather disturbingly, kept getting insane comments.
  • 3/29/2002: Picking up Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD prompts me to give up watching Enterprise.
  • 4/1/2002 and 4/4/2002: I’m let go from my job at Arthur Andersen, and Xerox sends me out to the Microsoft campus. Foreshadowing?
  • 5/21/2002: Why I don’t give my phone number to people who fry anymore.
  • 6/4/2002: Back in the day: a short history of being a geek.
  • 7/15/2002: I hit my one year anniversary of life outside of Alaska.
  • 7/20/2002: I look back on some good and bad times in an old apartment during my DJing days.
  • 9/3/2002: Bumbershoot 2002, when I only got one day in.
  • 10/28/2002: All about my brother’s cat, George. One of my favorite pieces of writing, actually.
  • 11/8/2002: I go to my first Jason Webley Deathday show.
• 2002/2003:
  • 12/5/2002: An iSfP result on the Myers-Briggs scale triggers some rumination on introversion.
  • 12/19/2002: Anil Dash convinces me to blog under my real name.
  • 1/14/2003: Happy Places — where we go in our head when things just aren’t right.
  • 1/31/2003: The Hanscom Family Weblog launches. One of these days I’ll get more than just my dad posting there (maybe).
  • 3/2/2003: Sleep — a short piece I wrote in 11th grade inspired by a Salvadore Dali painting.
  • 3/19/2003: Reflections on my growing interest in politics and the world around me.
  • 4/3/2003: I compare the members of the “Coalition of the Willing” with their records regarding human rights, and it’s not a pretty picture.
  • 4/4/2003: Making a plea for everyone to start paying attention.
  • 4/12/2003: A brief look at some of my interest in the occult and related weirdnesses.
  • 5/3/2003: I turn 30.
  • 5/6/2003 and 5/8/2003: A conversation on intelligence, breeding, and society’s decline in two parts — Cynicism reigns supreme and Darwin has left the building.
  • 5/11/2003: Mayday, one day in photos.
  • 5/29/2003: Glitch, a short-story/fanfic inspired roughly equally by The Matrix and a dream.
  • 6/9/2003: The Purity Test — resurrecting one of the ‘net’s earliest memes.
  • 7/7/2003: I’m invited into TypePad’s beta program, and ‘Eclecticism’ becomes the name of the weblog.
  • 7/11/2003: Outlining the heirarchy of how I interact online and off.
  • 7/30/2003: I rant about people who force links to open in new windows. Quit it.
  • 8/16/2003: Deep Space Nine becomes my favorite Star Trek series.
  • 8/20/2003: A question about good things Bush has done turns into another thread that won’t die (140 comments and counting!).
  • 8/26/2003: And here’s what’s become the ultimate thread that won’t die (230 comments and counting): Why I hate George W. Bush.
  • 8/30/2003 - 9/2/2003: Bumbershoot 2003 day one, day two, day three, and day four.
  • 9/21/2003: Kayaking on Lake Union.
  • 9/27/2003: I get my Dual 2.0 Ghz PowerMac G5.
  • 10/5/2003: I create my “I’m just here to get laid.” t-shirt (which has sold all of…five, I think, including the one I got for myself). Well, I think it’s funny!
  • 10/16/2003: Public, private, and secret conversations.
  • 10/23/2003: I post a picture of Microsoft getting PowerMac G5s to my weblog.
  • 10/27/2003: I’m ushered off the Microsoft campus, and my fifteen minutes of fame begin.
  • 11/2/2003: Another year, another Jason Webley Deathday show.
  • 11/6/2003: Reminiscing about fun things to do with tongue piercings.
  • 11/9/2003: I land another job, and this time, decide not to leave it mostly unmentioned on my site.
  • 11/25/2003: I mark my three year anniversary of weblogging with a post very much like this one. Funny, that.
• 2003/2004:
  • 12/8/2003: Prairie and I get to see the Extended version of the first Lord of the Rings movie at the Cinerama.
  • 12/15/2003: I look at an album I find to be criminally underrated — Billy Idol’s ‘Cyberpunk’.
  • 1/6/2004: Resurrecting the old Gig’s Music Theatre website.
  • 1/10/2004: I update the tagline for my blog, and introduce another couple silly t-shirts.
  • 1/13/2004: Kevin and Emily announce their wedding.
  • 1/29/2004: The apartment building next door catches on fire.
  • 1/31/2004: Howard Dean comes to Seattle.
  • 2/2/2004: The infamous Janet Jackson nipple incident.
  • 2/3/2004: Wondering about possible future goals, including possibly teaching or technical writing.
  • 2/8/2004: My computer doesn’t like my Prick.
  • 2/16/2004: My little brother gets married.
  • 2/22/2004: Examining the difference between safety and comfort.
  • 2/25/2004: I get my very own on-line stalker!
  • 3/3/2004: Playing with Garageband, I remix Coolio’s ‘Smokin’ Stix’.
  • 3/8/2004: A little bit of local Washington history: the Pig War of San Juan Island.
  • 3/10/2004: The building next door catches fire…again.
  • 3/11/2004: I’m an idiot, and leave my camera at the bus stop.
  • 3/26/2004: The need for speed — fun with automobiles.
  • 3/29/2004: Temporal issues and weblogs, inspired by Eric Meyer.
  • 4/4/2004: Reminiscing about the “good old days” in Anchorage.
  • 4/21/2004: I join the Utiliclan and get my first Utilikilt.
  • 5/4/2004: Late-night adventures on the Seattle Metro.
  • 5/13/2004: A dead printer prompts the question, why bother buying ink?
  • 5/15/2004: Fulfilling my promise, I voluntarily allow myself to be photographed wearing pink.
  • 5/26/2004: A portrait of the artist as a young man — a series of old high school ID photos.
  • 6/19/2004: Of course it’s creepy — on the importance of the dark and disturbing in children’s literature.
  • 7/6/2004: I take some time before work and wander around the Georgetown area of Seattle.
  • 7/16/2004: I become an uncle when Noah Avery Hanscom is born.
  • 7/19/2004: Statistical numbers about my music collection.
  • 7/28/2004: I decide what my second tattoo is going to be (when I finally get around to getting it done, at least).
  • 8/2/2004: The Ballard Locks Photo Workshop.
  • 8/5/2004: What a relief — Tigger’s innocent!
  • 8/10/2004: I rant a bit about people who don’t identify themselves on the phone.
  • 9/5/2004 - 9/7/2004: Bumbershoot 2004: day one, day two, and day three.
  • 9/7/2004: Looking at my personality: a socially acceptable geek.
  • 9/19/2004: My 11-year old self plans his future.
  • 9/21/2004: I get new glasses.
  • 9/30/2004: I confess to being a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan.
  • 10/11/2004: Sexuality isn’t always perfectly defined, but I occasionally attempt to narrow it down a bit.
  • 10/25/2004: I just don’t get it — on why people might not bother voting.
  • 11/3/2004: Dealing with the aftermath of Bush’s presidential win.
  • 11/10/2004: I resurrect some old websites I coded dating back to 1995.

And, unfortunately, I’ve just run out of time before I head out of here for the weekend. I’ll see if I can grab a few minutes to finish off later on. Until then…well, this is what you get.

Update: And that’s it. Some interesting, some only interesting to me, but all worth calling a little attention to for one reason or another.

Well, I think so, at least.