Rubenerd

Time flies when mosquitos sting Herb Alpert. You have no idea how tempted I was to leave it at that. Well, if you've been a reader here for a long time, you'd probably have an inkling. I always picture an adorable octopus when I read that word, birds notwithstanding.

Some nerdy history for those who care

This time nine years ago, I was in high school in Singapore and eager to start blogging. Armed with a simple shared hosting account and XHTML 1.0 Strict, I inaugurated (gesundheit) my weblog here. A few posts later, I decided it should be a podcast. Then it became a podcast and a weblog concurrently (and at the same time). Then back to a weblog.

It's been powered by plain HTML, a Perl CGI script I wrote, WordPress, brief stints with MovableType, Ruby on Rails, MediaWiki and Squarespace, back to the bovine-sounding WordPress μ and now finally its Jekyll form. I wanted to try Radio but couldn't justify the extra cost; a smart decision in hindsight.

For each transition I had a different theme, each as ugly as the last. But they were all mine, damn it!

MySQL4 and Suzumiya Haruhi

All these transitions were fun experiments. Unbeknownst to me at the time however, I silently lost posts during one of the moves, an error I only discovered years later. I also wanted to re-import my spun-off anime blog, but it was wiped during a university family leave of absence. Heartbreak!

With the big 10 now less than a year away, I'm determined to recover as much of this old material as I can. There are archives strewn across the net. I have some broken SQL backups. Ironically, the post series that went entirely was my introduction to learning MySQL4 from back in the day. My anime site had my first reviews of Haruhi, Clannad, Code Geass and a few other random series. Buried somewhere in my mass of high school and early uni backups, I must have this stuff. We'll see what I can find.

But back to the future

What a surprise, we reach a milestone here together, and I take the opportunity to get technical and nostalgic. I call it technostalgia. Or nostechnical. That one sounds like something you'd use to relieve nasal congestion.

I just want to wish my weblog a happy birthday, and thank all of you for taking time out of your busy day to read and listen to my ramblings over these nine years. You've been a bigger source of strength than you all could ever realise. As I've been signing here since (nearly) the beginning:

Peace, health, love and happiness,
~ Ruben