Happy blog-birthday to me!

This blog is now 14 years old. FOURTEEN! (I’m sure some of you don’t even realise we had the Internet in 2001, but we did.) Things were a little different back when it launched:

• different domain name – web-goddess.co.uk (since I was living in London)
• different layout – which you can actually still see!
• different backend system – Blogger until I got sick of its outages and wrote my own replacement three months later
• no social network integration – because they didn’t exist

For many years, I marked this day with an epic post where I listed a bunch of interesting stats like how many posts there were, who the most prominent commenters were, etc. Two years ago I stopped, mostly because the dwindling numbers were getting depressing. Yeah, the personal blog is pretty much dead. I think Kevin and John are the only friends from my original blogroll still going. Comments are few and far between. Still, I like the continuity of having this archive of my life for the past fourteen years. It’s the longest I’ve ever done anything, and the longer it goes, the harder it gets to stop. (Hence all the social media stuff I added this year in an effort to keep the narrative of online-me intact.)

I still feel the need for some sort of summation for 2014 though, more as a prompt for reflection rather than anything else:

• Job stuff: massive promotion in February; won Commercial Viability award at Hackathon 6 in March with Sam; nominated for Outstanding New Talent in July; won Design Award at Hackathon 7 in September with Kunaal; celebrated 9Jumpin’s first birthday in November; donned a Rudolph nose for Mi9 Tech’s Christmas video
• Health: lost 10.9kg (24lbs), mostly through not eating (so yeah, not particularly healthy); knees are still buggered though so I haven’t been running or cycling 🙁
• Sewing projects: Hawaiian shirt for the Snook; Laurel dress; Moneta Dress; another Moneta Dress; rescued a blouse
• Knitting projects: strip for Lyn’s birthday blanket; Tsumugi Who scarf for me; AND THAT’S IT. (Knitting mojo = depleted.)
• Travel: trip to Brisbane in January; trip to USA including the Grand Canyon in April/May; trip to USA for my granddad’s funeral in June; knitting weekend in Abernethy in June; weekend in Mudgee in October; trip to Tasmania in November; trip to Eungai for Christmas
• Speaking engagements and professional stuff: “Presenting Your Hack” at February Girl Geek Dinner; assisted at SheHacks Sydney in March; “Granny Was a Hacker” at April Web Directions “What Do You Know” event; video demo for Brightcove PLAY conference in June; organised Mi9 GGD event in July; “M-Dot Sites: Not as Sucky as You Think” at September Web Directions “What Do You Know Smackdown” event; attended Toastmasters in November (and won a ribbon!); assisted with WebBlast organisation in December (including Mi9 sponsorship)
• Charitable stuff: helped raise $515 for Red Cross in Big Cake Bake in September; personally raised $925 for ovarian cancer research through Frocktober
• Dressing up: Boba Frock; Tina Belcher; Melbourne Cup (Josh and I won Best Couple!); Ledgerman from Cones of Dunshire for Google’s “Game” themed Christmas party; Princess Leia for Mi9’s “When I Grow Up” themed Christmas party