10 years
etoiline.com is officially ten years old today. Around midnight, April 24, 2002, I finally completed the transaction for the domain and started working on the website. I was so into it that I forgot the fact that it would renew each year on my parents' anniversary.
Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! I love you so much and I'm so glad you're still together.
Back then, I'd had my last final (probably math or something else engineering related) and most likely track practice (we were trying to qualify for Nationals, which didn't end up working out, alas) and then I got back to the dorm. I realized that I didn't have much to do for the next week or so (I got to stay in the dorm a little longer than most since I was a senior and still participating in sports) and I'd wanted to buy a domain for a while, so lo, I did.
The word 'etoiline' comes from a story I wrote while I was in high school. Yes, it's a derivative of the French word for star. The story is probably a trunk novel by now, but it's still got a lot of good stuff in it, and I'm sure I'll be mining it for years to come. One of these days I'll get around to purchasing a domain with my name in it. But I'm not a famous author yet. I doubt anyone is really looking for me that hard.
I don't have the first entries from that blog easily available. I was using a different blogging platform at the time, and though the entries are saved, I have no idea where they are. I think they were little things like "Hello, world" and "I read this book today." The blog hasn't evolved much
I wanted to a) have a new layout for the site and b) write you a short story, but I'm not the speediest web designer and whenever I try to write short stories they end up being pretty long. So you'll just have to wait for the new layout and pester me for the next story. Any blog topic ideas are welcome.
Odd to think that it's been ten years. Ten years since I finished my last college course, as well. How time flies.
Happy birthday to Kate and Gordon, too.
See you at the St. Charles Artwalk this weekend? I hope so. Come keep me company and see great art.