David Emery OnlineFifth Birthday
2 May 2010
On the 18th of April, 2005 I posted this inauspicious post and brought this blog blinking into the world. Everything has to start somewhere.
It’s quite a strange thought to me that this blog is 5 years old.
5 years is a strange in-between length of time that somehow simultaneously a long time and not that long at all. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been doing this blog for a huge amount of time, but yet I’ve somehow amassed 1376 posts – not including this one – totalling 200,000+ words (it’s very difficult to get an accurate figure) which seems like a hell of a lot.
Not that quantity is any indication of quality, of course.
Looking back at the first few posts indicates that at the very least my writing has got a little better (although I could really do with a proof reader), but also that my focus has got a bit broader (and maybe deeper?) – certainly less of ‘woo Apple have a new thing out’ posts hopefully. I think I’ve hit a much more sustainable rhythm that’s been mirrored by much of the rest of the blogosphere (hey, we don’t use that word really anymore, do we? Not a big loss): lots of links, semi-daily, interspersed with longer articles every week or two.
For quite a while I stuck with a dogged ‘one post every week day’ regime which I’m glad I did; I think it made me think more critically about things; if you know you’ve got to write about something in the evening, you spend all day looking for interesting things to spark something. You can’t do that forever though…
There’s a few posts I’d like to highlight:
Choas – 07/07/05
Live updates of the 7th July bombings, going from irritation that the tube wasn’t working to shock as the reality becomes clear. The day after I went for a job interview which turned out to be the job I’m still doing now…
More Width – 27/11/06
The most popular article on the site so far, due to it being linked to by an A List Apart article, concerning flexible website design (and how fixed width sites are just born from laziness).
How To Be A Gig Photographer – 04/12/08
Some simple tips on how to take photos at gigs.
There is a fold – 13/06/09
More musings on web design, this time on the often ignored fluid page fold.
Collections of Tracks – 16/09/08
On the inevitable rise of shuffle as being a dominant way of listening to music (furthered more so these days by the popularity of shared Spotify playlists).
News Feed – 26/06/07
On the rise of news feeds – as popularised by Facebook, and now even more prevalent thanks to Tumblr.
Rainbow Day – 10/10/07
How Radiohead made recorded music interesting again (little did I know when I wrote this that I would end up working with them).
Dynamic Design – 10/11/09
Following on from the thoughts started in the ‘There Is A Fold’ post.
That’s a few choice highlights, or at least the least embarrassing ones anyway. Here’s to the next 5 years…