Saturday, August 25, 2007

And another year rolls by.

Meaning, of course, that the first year has rolled by. The first year since the inaugural post. The first year since the Glorious Launch Of The Ricardiblog™.

Gosh, where does the time go? And, come to think of it, where is it now? I’m only finding time to write this by typing like a madman on the 360 Express Bus which, as I’m sure I’ve complained about before, is hardly an environment conducive to the authoring of witty and erudite commentary. It’s even worse than the coach trip from London Heathrow Airport to Cambridge via Luton and various even less memorable places.

So, choose, if you will:

a) credit where credit is due, or
b) the following characters are to blame.

Zoe, whose blog is the first I ever started reading, after typing the word “Twat” into Google in a fit of frustration. She got me hooked, then badgered me mercilessly until I started one of my own. And she’s always been very graceful about my usually unhelpful remarks over at her place. She's got a book, you know.

Speaking of badgers, Dawn, who appeared one day in Zoe’s comments box, or maybe Scaryduck's, or maybe both, and rapidly turned out to be a chainsaw-wielding Canuck, just like me except a bit shorter and with funkier glasses. She did her share of encouraging, and even made some comment somewhere about how “there should be a Ricardiblog”, which is why this thing gets the title it does. She also hosted my first guest blog post ever, after I completely chickened out of guesting over at Zoe’s place. I think they’ve both forgiven me by now. Dawn is still also the only blogger I’ve ever knowingly met in person, along with an attractive and talented group of balancing fish.

Rik, who didn’t badger me but has always been rather encouraging, and I think may be the first person to link my blog from his. He hosts my music files too, which is rather nice of him, and has on several occasions offered to spruce the place up a bit. I may still take him up on that, although it’s fun messing with the template on my own, in a perverse, html-misery kind of way.

Scaryduck, who fuelled my blog addiction with his highly entertaining daily reads, even if the quotient of vomit and adolescent pain and anguish causes me to cringe every now and then. He’s got a book too.

Misty, who probably single-handedly convinced me (without trying) that Flickr is a great way to show off and waste time all at once. Not that I’m accusing her of showing off, mind. Her blog is a hoot, as they say.

And various others, for encouragement: Anna, Debi, Guyana-Gyal, TRT, Black Knight, Alethea, Wyldwoods, Kaptain Kobold, Bob, John.G, Auntymarianne and the rest of you lot whose blogs I visit from time to time. You'll find yourselves over in the sidebar, and yes, I'm too lazy to put in links to each of you here in this post. I may not always comment when I visit, but I always enjoy, so keep doing it all of you. Please. Oh, and a special shout out to the blogless Wonderferret for his kind words and nice photos, and to various other readers who drop by from time to time (Alicat and Heather, I'm looking at you).

Finally, some credits to the webby types who keep this silly thing running so elegantly:

Blogger, even though I like to complain about it.
Flickr, where I keep all the photos and hide various bits of the blog as well.
Statcounter. It counts the stats (surprise, surprise) and occasionally provides a humourous look into the ways people find their way here.
Clustrmaps. They make the map over there in the sidebar. The one with the clusters on it.
Rikaitch. As I said above, he hosts the music files that nobody ever listens to.
Javascriptkit.com, whose Google search widget I stole from Zoe.
Feedblitz. Email feedy goodness for all of you. Well, the two of you who signed up, anyway.
Creative Commons. "Some rights reserved" is a most excellent idea.
The Weather Network. For the weather widget, in case you were wondering.
AltaVista Babelfish. In case you want this translated into Canada’s Other Official Language, or something.
Brilliant Button Maker. Ok, I only made one button, but it's brilliant isn't it?

Plus all kinds of websites I used to learn bits of html... notably, this chart of colour codes, this indispensible list of Windows ALT-key codes, and this rather handy HTML / XHTML reference site.

Well, that's about it. Multiple apologies to anyone I've forgotten. If I'm still around next year, I'll try to post something a bit more meaningful. In the meantime, I leave you with this, in typical Ricardipus style: a picture of a flower.

Morning Glory against sky

11 comments:

Rik said...

Happy blogday... Now, either my eyesight's got very very poor, or (more likely) you've changed the font size in the right hand column to "very very small"

Richard Wintle said...

Ta, Rik.

I've done nowt with the font size over there... it's still [small] [/small] as far as I know... looks the same to me as before. But I'd be happy to hear from others on this point (Debi mentioned the quotes are unreadable to her, so maybe I need to do something about it).

Unknown said...

Happy blogday too. I have just hit 200 posts, so a double celebration. Keep it up!

zoe said...

happy blogday - a year already ?? are you sure ? and you admitted it! you found my blog via typing the word 'twat' into google - bwahahaha. and i'm glad i badgered you into blogging - but i'm also glad that i'm far enough away to be safe from that chainsaw-wielding canuck, dawn. even though she is a bit of a midget.

enjoy your day :)

Richard Wintle said...

John - well done!

Zoe - yes, it's true. I doubt "Ricardipus" is such a commonly used Google search word.

And I only knew it was today by looking back through my archives...

#Debi said...

And I'm ever a day late and a dollar short...

Happy blogiversary! Lovely flower--looks like it's floating in air...

ydoiksy: Polish for happy blogday.

WrathofDawn said...

Happy blogiversary, happy blogiversary, happy blogiversary, HAPpy blogiversary!!!!

One year. Wow. I said there should be a Ricardiblog and for the first time in my life I was right. Who'da thunk?

Nice new cartoonie with my favourite avatar, BTW. It was the avatar, which I first saw in Zoe's comments, that drew my attention and then when he revealed himself as a mad-as-a-hatter fellow Canuck I knew I'd best stay as far away as possible, which meant I had to meet him. And even though he was jetlagged out of his mind, he still spoke in full sentences! So yay! and congrats, buddy. Keep up the good work.

The sidebar font looks teeny to me as well but I have glasses just for computer use and they allow me to read everything. Even your thoughts, people, so beware...


xtfxp - a derisive explosive noise, aka a strawberry, which I send in Zoe's general direction. Midget! Indeed! I'll punch yer kneecaps, lady! *hops up and down*

Richard Wintle said...

Awright everyone, no violence in my comments box please.

Stay tuned for a short quiz on the font size...

R.

Anna said...

One year, holy cow! Happy Blogiversary, R'pus : ) You rock!

Richard Wintle said...

Anna - thank you. And yes, yes I do.

*rocks

Anonymous said...

A whole year! Strewth! It only seems like yesterday.

(Raises a glass and hip-hip-hoorays)