May 24, 2011

Welcome to a very special edition of the Tuesday Timeline.  It's a date that is quite personal to me, and one that I really want to discuss.  I'm sure that if you have been following along with this blog, you may know why that is.  But before we get to that, let's see what took place on this date in history.

1607 - One hundred English settlers disembark in Jamestown - the first English colony to appear in America

1819 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1901) is born

1830 - Sarah Joshepa Hale's poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb" is first published

1844 - The first telegraph line is inaugurated by Samuel Morse who successfully sends the message "What hath God wrought?"

1883 - After fourteen years of construction, the Brooklyn Bridge opens to traffic

1895 - Henry Irving becomes the first person from the world of theatre to be knighted

1915 - Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary during World War I

1930 - Pilot Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Australia - the first female pilot to fly solo from England to Australia

1935 - The first night baseball game is played Cincinnati, Ohio between the Reds and the Philadelphia Phillies

1945 - Jazz/soul singer Terry Callier (d. 2012) is born in Chicago, Illinois

1956 - The Eurovision Song Contest is held for the first time in Lugano, Switzerland

1958 - United Press International is formed via the merger of United Press and the International News Service

1961 - Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi on charges of disturbing the peace after leaving their bus

1962 - Actor/choreographer Gene Anthony Ray (d. 2003) is born in New York City

1967 - Rap artist Dwight "Heavy D" Myers (d. 2011) is born in Jamaica

1968 - FLQ separatists bomb the American consulate in Quebec City, Quebec

1976 - The Concorde jet service begins with flights between London and Washington D.C.

1981 - The president of Ecuador - Jaime Roldos Aguilera - is killed in a plane crash along with his wife and presidential committee

1984 - Vince McMahon Sr. - the founder of the WWE - dies at the age of 69

1994 - Four men linked to the 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade Center are sentenced to 240 years in prison

2001 - At age sixteen, Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest

2014 - An earthquake measuring 6.4 strikes near Greece and Turkey injuring 324 people

There's quite a lot of celebrity birthdays as well to list today.  Happy birthday to Michael Lonsdale, Joan Micklin Silver, Tommy Chong, Bob Dylan, Gary Burghoff, Patti LaBelle, Priscilla Presley, Albert Bouchard, Jim Broadbent, Nell Campbell, Alfred Molina, Rosanne Cash, Chip Ganassi, Doug Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas, John C. Reilly, Ricky Craven, Eric Close, Tommy Page, Greg Berlanti, Dermot O'Leary, Will Sasso, Marc Gagnon, Kym Valentine, Jo Joyner, Owen Benjamin, Andy Lee, Mark Ballas, Kimberley Crossman, and Billy Gilman.

So, I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise that the date that I've chosen for this particular entry is this one.

May 24, 2011.

That date, of course, is the day that this crazy blogging project began!  I can't believe that I've kept this thing going for five whole years now!  I may have slowed it down a bit, but I still write in this space whenever I feel the need to.  This space is really one of the few spots where I can be free to be myself and not worry about what I say or how I say it.  Some of you may love what I write about.  Others might not.  But what I can tell you is that as far as the personality and heart goes in preparing this blog for the last five years...that is 100% truth.

That's why I've decided to make this whole month a celebration of what life was like five years ago.  It's because we've all changed so much over the last half-decade.  I know I certainly have.  And I know this blog certainly has!

Case in point.  This was my very first logo for this blog.  It's so cornball and cheesy, isn't it?  I drew this one myself using a couple of gel pens and I believe a leftover envelope from a birthday card I had received the week before.  Yep, my blog was low budget back then!

Oh, who am I kidding.  My blog is STILL low-budget.  But dammit, it had a lot of heart.  And that first logo inspired the current look you see today.  When I first began this blog five years ago, the colour scheme was blue and pink - much like it is now.  But it wasn't always the case.

Such as the purple and yellow phase I went through between 2012 and 2014.  I may go back to that when this blog turns six...I haven't decided yet.

Or, the time when I decided to completely change everything around including the logo itself.  This was certainly one of the brightest looks I've ever seen this blog go.  I can see why I ditched it after a few months.

Sometimes I would decorate the blog for the Christmas holidays.  This one turned out quite beautifully.

And until recently, I went with a gold theme - partly in celebration of my parents' Golden Jubilee anniversary last August.

The logos changed a lot over the last few years as well.  Most of them I was very happy with - at least until I got sick of them!  I'm really liking the one I have now.  I'll probably keep it for a while.

Even the content of this blog has changed quite a bit.  Before it was all about pop culture, but over the years, I've opened up myself more and more, and now it's almost second nature to bring pop culture and life together.

But it's really cool to see how much I've grown as a writer since May 2011 when I first started this blog off.  I go back to some of my entries that I wrote back when I first started and I cringe because my opinions have changed so much.  In 2011, I loved "The Biggest Loser", and now I can't even stand to watch the show any longer.  In 2011, I used to really be into video games, and now I've shifted my focus to music and arts.  And most importantly, this blog has sort of been a venting point for some of the demons that continued to haunt me, and I feel that this space has given me the courage to battle those demons and defeat them.  I'm not quite finished the battle yet, but I'm well on my way.  That's all anybody can ask for, right?

But one thing I don't think I've ever talked about - at least not in this blog anyway - is why I started this blog in the first place.

Well, I suppose part of the reason could be for me to actually have something to show people...at least digitally anyway.  It's hard for someone to make their mark on this planet when there are so many people on it, and I guess I'm at the age where I feel as though I want to be remembered for something that I did - not for what other people did for me or to me.  This blog is really the only place where I can be free to be me without judgment.

(Well, okay...some of the comments in my comment box have been not so nice, but I can just delete those.)

The point is - this blog is my own personal growth project, and a permanent - or at least until the servers stay up and running - reminder of who I am and how far I've grown.  And even though I've had a couple of things published over the years, nothing will take away from the fact that this is five years of dedication and joy.  And, I'm hoping to keep this going for another five - even if it means shifting the focus of this blog.

This blog has also helped me realize that I'm not as strange as I thought.  So often, I'd come up with topics that I would think nobody would ever relate to, and to my surprise they garnered huge responses.  Who would have thought that a blog on a soap opera called "Loving" would be within my Top 10 read posts?  Who would have thought that so many people would be fascinated by my personal story on paper cranes?  Who would have thought that so many people were trying to figure out the mystery behind Richard Marx's "Hazard"?  I mean, it's awesome to have opened up these dialogues and interact with other people on these subjects. 

But it also makes me feel good when I write about something deeply personal and share some stories from my childhood - which as you all know wasn't sunshine and daisies every day.  And to know that people not only responded, but also gained the courage to share their stories as well.  It's a good feeling!

I honestly don't know what the future of this blog will hold within the next five years.  But all I know is that A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE has been a big part of my life since 2011...and I think I'm a better person because of it.

Thanks for supporting me all of these years.  I love each and every one of you.