What did you do on June 22, 2006? Don’t remember, do you? I know what I did, I played World of Warcraft. I know this because on that day I made the very first entry on this blog. And that’s special because today is the day I make the 1000th entry 🙂
1000 entries in five and a half years! That’s almost exactly one every two days. It’s been going so long now that even I can’t remember most of what I have put on it. So I’m going to take today as a sort of ‘best of’ of my blog. After all, aren’t the nostalgic posts the best ones?
A few facts and figures first. There are 1000 posts in 14 categories that include a total of 3064 images. 705 comments have been made by a scant few 8 commentators. Since it has been impossible to create accounts for 5+ years this number is not likely to change soon. However there are three commentators out there that have never added a comment…
Here’s the timeline of significant blog events:
Sep 30, 2006: This nostalgic post about old homes, opened my eyes to using the blog as a sort of nostalgia tool and is what I consider to be a turning point. The post is worth clicking through today, not just for a re-read but also to see how much Google Earth imagery has improved in five years (compare to yesterday’s entry for instance).
Nov 18, 2006: It’s almost hard to believe now, but Yossi was once small.
Feb 14, 2007: An unspectacular post about a blizzard, and my pains (manually) clearing away the snow. Why do I cite this? It was clear by now the blog had become a part of my life: why else would I have taken such pains to document such a task, especially getting KLS to come outside as well just to take photos of me?!
May 12, 2007: First post dedicated to a movie review (Ultraman: The Next). Even today such dedicated posts are rare, but they’re usually good 🙂
May 21, 2007: First post from a phone. Ignore the title, I was testing the functionality so I could blog from Hawaii.
July 16, 2007: Still one of my all-time favourite posts about a specific game. This tale is 100% true. What a great day that was!
August 27, 2007: Great post about Dragon mag and an old RPG for two reasons. 1) My first ‘retro RPG post’, 2) AW’s comment 🙂
Pixels In My Eyes: This post, made in late August 2007, is, in my opinion, the best I’ve ever written for the blog. I don’t remember much about the creation of this post, but given that I very rarely plan any post beyond an idea, I expect I just wrote it all down as I thought of it with little revision. This is one of a very few incredibly personal posts about my thoughts that I’ve put out here for all to see, and even today when I read it it makes me powerfully nostalgic. This also happens to be the most-commented entry in the entire life of this blog.
Dec 31, 2007: First ever post from Australia. This was during the first of my (soon to be four) solo Australia vacations.
The Ten Worst Photos Of Me Ever Taken: What a post! This one will never go out of style. I love that I did this and it was well received. By the way, don’t I look a little like the Ancient Aliens guy in #8?
June 25, 2008: I wrote this post about cockfighting when I was in Puerto Rico, as a laugh. I later found out more than a few people actually believed it. I was surprised. I guess I can be convincing 🙂
Dec 12, 2008: Funny cellphone entry made during the ice storm that killed out power for a few days. I don’t think I was faking that facial expression…
Jan 10, 2009: There have been many World of Warcraft posts on the blog (including, as I said, the very first one) but this one, describing a 54 minute long fight between me and a single raid boss, is my favourite. I can’t wait to start playing WoW again in the new year!
Jan 31, 2009: Read the text, look at the picture, read the comments 🙂
Feb 8, 2009: I’m citing this because it is a very, very fond memory – the first time I got to meet a Doctor Who. He was a truly gracious person and I remember this fondly.
May 30, 2009: This is the most controversially titled blog post ever. Happily it is not without factual basis, and that’s not the only thing in this particular entry that demonstrates why we love Japan so much. We need to return…
June 6, 2009: This post can claim a lot. Not only is it full of Rilakkuma, but it also introduces my most-watched youtube video (over 45,000 views to date) and includes a now-legendary photo of me and Emi at the very end.
Doctor Who Video Games: Still my most-viewed post, and the number one source of redirects to this blog from Google. This was heavily researched when I wrote it, since I could find no such list online. Today this actual post is linked from a Wikipedia article 🙂
Dec 22, 2009: The infamous ‘trojan cake‘ event. Still a good and funny story 🙂
April 3, 2010: Hyperbolic post made from my cellphone when I was in line to buy an iPad on launch day.
June 22, 2010: This recipe post has my favourite opening line of any post I’ve ever made. I wonder if I should do more recipe entries?
July 28, 2010: My favourite post from England. Lovely Blackpool, in the rain. I’ll be back there one day.
October 21, 2010: A ghost story. Although my language may be flowery, you’d be surprised by how little I embellish the stories I post on this blog (and believe me, there are many others to come).
The Wish: A disturbing post, strangely real and incredibly melancholic. I was clearly in a funk that day, and this was the result. I’ll be honest and say I am proud of it, and I think it’s a powerful piece. But as with Pixels In My Eyes, these sorts of entries will probably come along only once ever 4 or 5 years.
April 25, 2011: For those that doubt my game-otaku-dom has reached the highest level! Going through the blog like I have, it’s remarkable how many game-related posts about truly arcane topics there are here. Even I’m impressed by my gaming knowledge and enthusiasm!
Tales From Green Hell (Part 1 & Part 2): I was so proud of these posts! To show off some spectacular photos supplied by my parents was a thrill. You can expect more like these in the future.
November 22, 2011: My other source of great pride this year.
Over five years is a long to time to keep this up, and 1000 posts is a lot of words. At times – including very recently – I have debated stopping and closing it once and for all, but it’s become a part of my life I feel I’d miss were it to end.
Given that I’m not close to running out of ideas, I don’t really see Robot Claw closing up shop any time soon 🙂
