Bloggingversary & Life Update

March 21st 2023 / 5 minutes to read

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As of today, I’ve been officially blogging, with a CMS, for 22 years!

I used to keep an “online diary” manually, so I would download the HTML page, edit the HTML code, and upload it back up to the web server at the time. I did this every time when I wanted to do an update. I then decided to try this incredible new CGI script called GreyMatter, and wow… I was obsessed!

I went from GreyMatter in 03/2001 to MovableType in 03/2002 to ExpressionEngine in 05/2004 before finally landing on WordPress in 07/2009.

My first domain was a joint site with my twin sister. I alternated between coding manually and using FrontPage. I redesigned monthly… more like weekly… ok… it was daily, let’s be real! And I always had a project going (or ten). I used to go by Sprite, Princess Sprite, and PerkySprite.

Here’s one of my spring 2001 designs. I mean… talk about skills, am I right?!

I know personal blogging has fallen off for quite some time now, but I’m still here and I truly thank the few readers I still have left, for hanging around. It means the world to me. I hope that people get back into blogging, specifically personal blogging, not to be confused with lifestyle blogging.

How many times can I use the word “blogging” in this post?

OSN Updates

I created a new snippets section. Completely redid the resources and link pages, and the homepage. I also started over with a new newsletter, instead of the typical auto-RSS emails, I am going to do it manually, sure I’ll add current posts and snippets, but I am also including cool links I’ve come across and my favorite jam (song) of the week.

I decided to switch from WordFence to SiteGround Security to test it out. Noticeably, SiteGround Security has far fewer options. I can’t tell yet if that’s a good thing or a bad thing! I like that it’s far less bloat in the database and the options it does have, are easy to understand and implement. Far less chance of breaking your site.

Grief

As of today, it’s been a full month since my mother passed away. I truly have not comprehended or processed any of it. Not in the slightest.

Spring, which just began yesterday, is the season I associate the most with my mother, and at any given moment, I forget… and then am cruelly reminded of reality. Like my spring flower patch, where over 40+ spring bulbs are currently coming up. Every single bulb in that patch was a gift from my mother.

spring flower bulbs starting to emerge from the ground

I can barely type any of that out. I’ve lived through many traumas in my life, but this? I don’t know how to recover from it.

And I get that it’s a universal experience, however, so much happened surrounding this, additional trauma due to responses (or lack of) and behaviors from family and friends, things my spouse has done, things her husband has done, and then tossing in the isolation I am experiencing has compounded the pain greatly.

I don’t think I would have survived the last month without my best friend, her husband, and my twin sister.

Life Updates

I deeply struggle with what to share about my life, because overall, my life is pretty negative and has been for quite some time. It’s very hard for people who haven’t experienced a similar situation, health problems, and a toxic spouse, to understand. And I never want to be a burden on others, or be known for just complaining. No matter how valid it is.

Anyway, I need to start my spring garden ASAP and get potatoes, onions, radishes, and greens all planted. I got two GreenStalk planters last fall, and I am super excited to use them this year. One will be a strawberry tower and the other, an herb tower. Normally I grow my herbs in grow bags, so moving to the tower, will free up the bags for even more vegetables! I still need more soil, weed fabric, and large pavers. I don’t know how to afford it yet, as my “household allowance” barely covers the basics for the home/kids/cats/my prescriptions. Still, gardening is one of the few things both my sons and I really enjoy.

I decided to join WW (Weight Watchers), I signed up with a great deal, the first month free and the next five months at 50% off. Can’t beat that! I’ve calorie counted (very strictly) for years but after everything that’s happened over the last month, I needed something a bit easier to manage. Not having to weigh and measure every single vegetable makes it easier to stay on track. They’ve come a very long way over the last decade.

I think that’s about it for me right now.

So, tell me, how are you doing? Is anything new going on?

This post is over a year old which means the content may be outdated or no longer accurate.

Notes

Likes I doubled-down on RSS by Eric Bailey.

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Reading

Jams

Album Art for Shiver

Shawn Desman

Shiver

Album Art for Lay Your Hands

Simon Webbe

Lay Your Hands

I can’t tell you how much I loved MovableType, and how I wish it was still that easy! Happy birthday, OSN!

For me, it was ExpressionEngine. I LOVED EE! Where both failed was that they turned their fanbase into a cash grab, and here was WP, free and open source, just waiting for all of us to convert, LOL

Your mother is still with you. Trite, I know, but a fact. She will be there when you need her. You will remember something just when you need it the most.

Thank you, I do appreciate that

I’m sorry for your loss friend. I wish personal blogging would make a comeback too not just the stuff for SEO 😩. Loved reading this!!

Thank you! Social media isn’t even social anymore. I hope a year from now more people “find blogging” again. Plus, at its core, you don’t “own” your content once it’s posted on any social media site, it’s safer to post it all on your own site.

I’m pretty sure that we have been blogging for around the same time. I know that I started my blog on Geocities by logging in and manually updating a .html file (that loaded in an iframe).

Greymatter was definitely one of my favorites. There were a bunch of security flaws with it, but it sure beat updating the file each time and reuploading it. I actually ended up modifying one of the files in Greymatter so I could completely change the color of my admin screen. It took entirely too much time, but once an update came out, you would just end up overwriting the file. I remember going from Greymatter and trying B2 for a bit, got overwhelmed with all of the coding and ended up going back to Greymatter until WordPress came out.

Not sure if you’ve heard, but did you hear that someone apparently recreated MySpace and renamed it SpaceHey? Launched in 2020 apparently, but I just now found it thanks to TikTok. I created an account and did some coding last night (before switching back over to working on my site), but I don’t think it’s going to blow up as much as it used to be. Would be cool though, because it has all of those nostalgic feels.

Death is always a hard pill to swallow. I’ve lost some very important people in my life as well. I wasn’t sure how I would recover after losing all 4 of my grandparents, my aunt, and most recently my best friend (in July 2021). As time goes by, the grief gets a bit easier and you finally learn to breathe again, but there will always be a time when it hits you out of nowhere. It’s okay to feel sad, it’s okay to mourn them. The thing that gives me peace is, they’re no longer suffering, they’re in a better place, but they’ll always be watching over us.

GM could take down a server so quickly, yet we all loved it so much!

I think MySpace it was one of those lightning-in-a-bottle situations, people want to recapture it but it’ll never be the same.

I can’t think of a social media situation that could be created that would genuinely be “unique”. Everything is going to be a riff off of MySpace/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/YouTube/Tiktok.

I’ve lost people in my life, but this… it’s different. The pain is different. It’s always worse when it’s a sudden event (like in this situation).

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