Thirty - Becoming The Pop Culture Addict

Well...here we are.  The milestone birthday to end all milestone birthdays - well, at least for now anyway.

This is the story that I plan to tell about the year I turned twenty-nine plus one.

But you know what?  Turning thirty years old was hardly anything to be frightened of.  After nearly dying at twenty-nine, thirty was definitely a welcome sight to see!

And of all the wonderful things that happened when I turned thirty, I can only think of one thing that I want to talk about in this piece.

And, we'll get to that in a minute.  But first, let's take a look at what was happening in the world of pop culture around the time I turned thirty.

Starting with a snapshot from my thirtieth year.

Such a cheeky shot.  This was back in the days in which the term "selfie" was still a novelty and not a necessity.  Sure wish we could go back to those days.  Oh well. 

#1 SONG THE WEEK OF 5/18/2011

"E.T." - KATY PERRY f. KANYE WEST

It's no argument that Katy Perry had a fantastic 2011.  She had quite a few chart-toppers that year, and many of them I loved.  This song though?  Not quite one of them.

#1 AT THE BOX OFFICE THE WEEK OF 5/18/2011
"Thor"

This is a movie that I am sure did phenomenally well at the box office, and I know that a lot of people who saw this movie loved it.  But I can't comment on it because I haven't seen it.  I wonder if it's available on Netflix?

#1 TELEVISION SHOW OF THE 2011/2012 SEASON
"NBC Sunday Night Football"

Really?  Well, on the plus side...it's not American Idol!  I was getting sick of that show!

But one thing that I haven't gotten sick of is writing in this blog.  Would you believe that I've written at least one entry in this blog for the last 1,472 days?  That's 1,472 different entries on different pop culture topics, as well as some personal tales that I feel comfortable enough to share with all of you out there!

And if you count back 1,472 days ago to the time that I began this blog, you'll see that the date will be May 24, 2011.

Yes, it was six days after I turned thirty that I started up A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE.  And, looking back on it, I can't believe that I am still writing this blog four years later.

How time flies.

You know, I still remember the time that I decided I would try blogging.  It wasn't one of those spur of the moment decisions either.  I thought a lot about it and a lot of things while I was recovering from my mega surgery.  I was hospitalized for two weeks and spent another six weeks recovering at home.  What else was there to do but think about things?

I mean, it was quite an interesting time.  I had gone through an event that had almost killed me, but I survived.  And yet, here I was - almost thirty years old, and I had absolutely nothing to show for it.  I didn't really leave my mark on the world at all, and I really felt bad about it.

Oh, sure, I had been on social media for at least three years, but let's face it.  Anybody can post a meme on their wall, or play Candy Crush until they make it to level 400 or whatever stage they're up to now.  But I wanted to do something more than that.

Interestingly enough, I turned to my Facebook page for inspiration, and looking at my Notes section, it dawned on me what I should do. 

You see, I used my Notes section as a bit of a mini-blog.  I didn't write in it every day.  Just whenever I had something on my mind.  Sometimes it was something funny.  Sometimes it was serious.  Sometimes, it was controversial.  But whatever the topic, it certainly made people take notice.  Quite a few of my friends read the notes and commented on them, and it gave me the courage to put myself out there.  At least when it came to writing anyway.

I also wanted to challenge myself a little more.  Before, I was lucky if I did one or two written pieces a month.  I wanted to see if I could do a blog entry every day for a whole year. 

(As you can clearly tell, I overachieved on that goal!)

But seriously, it was challenging to come up with a new topic of discussion every day!  I had decided that if I was going to do this, I would have to make the theme of the blog something that I felt comfortable talking about.

And I chose to make it pop culture themed.  After all, I am a trivia buff, watched television constantly as a child, and could probably sing the theme song to every sitcom released between 1975 and 1999!  And initially my plan was to use pop culture references to discuss life lessons learned from them.  Of course the more I wrote in this blog, the more I strayed from that concept.

(Maybe after this retrospective ends, I'll go back to doing exactly that.)

Now, initially I wanted to begin this blogging venture on my 30th birthday - May 18, 2011.  But I had so much planned that day that I completely forgot about it. 

Besides, with the supposed rapture coming on May 21, 2011, I wanted to see if we would live through it before I started anything.  After all, when some 90-year-old crackpot claims doomsday is coming, you best listen.  Wonder whatever happened to him?

Oh, right.  He died.  Never mind.

Eventually, I settled on May 24, 2011 for the launch of the blog.  No particular reason why I chose that date.  I just wanted to launch it sometime after my 30th birthday.  Consider this blog to be my thirties accomplishment.

This way, I have a digital footprint on the world, and my own personal space to feel like I can totally be myself in.  Believe me, it's a great feeling.

And I hope that those of you who have kept up with this blog for the last four years have enjoyed the ride.  Believe me, your input is just as important in keeping this project up and running.  After all, your votes last month helped decide the anniversary project that I would work on.  So, thank you.

You know, this was the very first logo that I used for this blog.  It was nothing more than a hand-drawn logo using pink and blue gel pens (to match the original pink and blue colour scheme).  Seems so long ago.

The following year, I changed to yellow and purple, and upgraded the logo significantly.  I still have a soft spot for this one.  It's the logo I used the longest so far.

Then I used this dark purple and blue one very briefly.

A friend of mine made this one for 2014.

And finally, we have variations of this logo.  It's wonderful to see how this has evolved over time.  Who knows what the future will hold?

All I know is that this blog - however long it lasts - will forever take me back to thirty.

And for my story about thirty-one?  I haven't quite decided what I'm going to talk about yet.  But I think that it'll be an interesting tale no matter what.