/blog

Today marks 19 years since I officially started blogging.

19 years! It almost doesn't seem possible.

I had been reading a number of the early blogs and decided I wanted to give it a try. I was already mucking about with SharePoint on the server I had at home and decided this was the platform I was going to use. Unconventional I know but it was a start. So, on 12th June 2003 I registered a domain and started posting.

It's certainly not been plain sailing. I've taken numerous breaks, some of them incredibly long, and almost quit completely but, somehow, have always come back to it.

Things have certainly changed over the years both in looks and technology but I feel that I am now in the best place I have ever been with regards to blogging. I have no agenda and full control, just a place I can choose to post my thoughts and ideas.

It may seem a bit arrogant to say but, over the past 5 years – even before creating (b)log-In, there has been a certain synthesis between the blog itself and the posts. The theme design and ethos, creating WordPress plugins, and then building my own system, have been part of the whole process – it's almost like a work of performance art where the platform is as much a part as the content.

It feels a bit strange writing that when I primarily post for myself and don't strive to cultivate an audience. A blog is like a personal therapy session where other people can nip in and out to see where you're at. It's a space to think out loud, to share your thoughts with anyone who might want to listen – some of which might just resonate and grow beyond the confines of the receptacle (or, maybe, the exhibition case) into which you place them.

Above all, the blog is mine and is not beholden to any algorithms – the rules are my own and that of common decency. The site may go through many more iterations and look or operate completely different in future (who knows how blogging may evolve) but it is there to do with as I wish and I hope to continue for many years to come.