10 years of blogging

Today is a kind of special day- it marks 10 years of blogging on the Blazing Sun. It was not my first blog- before this there was Xanga, and even before Xanga, I was running my own website and writing my first blog posts in HTML.

Since middle school, I wrote a monthly newsletter during the boring summer months, and Taylor was my contributor. We ran off one or two copies since the circulation was my household and maybe we sent one off to a few family friends. Taylor, who was about eight, kept a column titled "Ask Dr. Taylor" in which he answered pointed parenting questions posed by Sally and mom. When asked, for example, how to get children to clean their rooms, Dr. Taylor advised bribery. I stole the title, The Blazing Sun, for my own blog after messing around with a few different names. Originally, this was going to be The Postmodern Simulacrum, since I was full of buzzwords in early architecture school.

I started the blog a few months into my first semester at ASU, as a means of keeping parents and relatives appraised of my situation. It was, of course, heavily sanitized (no mention of my early forays into drinking and dating) and I attempted to put a happy face on the unhappiness and alienation I, like many others, felt in my first semester of school.

My blog is also about as old as my involvement with architecture as a full time avocation, and its interesting to chart my interests and views on architecture over the course of the blog.

The writing and purpose of the blog also evolved over time. What began as a censored logbook evolved into a reflective journal and finally into what it is today: incoherent, poorly edited, narcissistic ranting and sympathy trolling. Mostly. Doing interesting things is key to good blogs. The six months I was in Mexico, I wrote more than the prior two years combined. And those two years were in grad school.

While working at DWL where my life revolved around projects I couldn't really discuss, I wrote practically nothing. In the entire year of 2009, I wrote a total of 14 posts, and basically thought I was done blogging. I wasn't particularly challenged or stimulated by much.

The blog covers a lot of ground in my life. There's a lot of travel (highlighted in green), and also some notable omissions- my parent's separation, which was a bit too personal to write about publicly, especially since the principals in that story probably make up a quarter of this blog's readership, and also 2009, when not much really happened besides Saori taking me to California. This timeline covers a decade of my life. It is, in fact, so expansive, that it has now become a reference document for me so I can look up restaurants, cities, experiences, things I did in the past to give recommendations to friends.

2004, Nov 7 - I begin posting to this blog
2004, Nov 17 - First mention of Jen. We are already in a relationship at this point.
2004 Holidays - Moscow and Salt Lake City, Utah
2005 Summer- Backpacking Europe
2005, Dec 21- Going to my grandpa Perkins funeral in Oklahoma
2006, Jan 4 - Breakup with Jen
2006, May 17 - First professional experience as an intern at DWL
2006, Aug 4 - I mention Saori for the first time in a list of people I know going to Buenos Aires
2006, Oct 21- Saori and I go on a movie date. At this point, I'm still kind of hiding it on the blog.
2006 Holidays - UAE and Egypt
2007, May 10 - I graduate from ASU
2007, May 25 - I get my first car, a Prius
2007, Oct 30 - Saori and I move in together in a 1 bedroom apartment in Phoenix
2007 Holidays - Dubai and Japan, although I don't write about Japan. I think I was too busy.
2008 Jul - Traveling around Peru with Saori, mom, and Tay. I write a "highlights" entry
2010 Feb - Switzerland and Paris
2010, Apr 10 - First trip to St. Louis for the Wash U open house.
2010, Jun - Carnival cruise to Mexico with Saori and the entire Case clan for her 80th birthday
2010, July - The agony of packing and loading and moving all of our stuff to St. Louis
2010, Aug 16 - First day of orientation at Wash U graduate architecture
2010, Dec 18 - Last date with Saori to see Tron: Legacy before our first long distance separation
2010 Holidays - Oklahoma and the UK
2011, Jun 24 - Reunited with Saori in Helsinki.
2011, July - Slow summer with Saori and I living in mom's place in Ahwatukee.
2011, Aug 12 - We help mom finish packing and leaving her apartment and drive Tay to Indiana
2011, Aug 24 - Saori leaves for Buenos Aires and I get a new roommate.
2011, Oct - 10 days in Shanghai for studio
2011 Holidays - Florida and the UK
2012, Mar - A week or two between Florence, Rome, Milan
2012, May - Road trip with Tay and Saori to Bloomington, Chicago, St. Louis, and Oklahoma  
2012, Jun 10- I get a phone call with a job offer in Boston. My first day in Boston.
2012, Jun 20 - Saori joins me in Boston and we move into a college dorm apartment.
2012, July - Easy summer in Boston of making models, softball, beaches, lobster, and brownstones
2012, Aug 20- Thoughts on leaving Boston, returning to St. Louis
2012, Aug-Dec- Working on my final architecture thesis. High stress.
2012, Dec 17 - I deliver my architecture thesis presentation. The crowd goes wild.
2012 Holidays - Skiing and family in Salt Lake City
2013, Feb 13 - Tay joins Saori and I in St. Louis for a wild marti gras parade
2013, Feb 25 - Saori leaves for Germany, I dismantle our bed and move out of the old apartment
2013, Feb-Mar - Road trip across the US with stops in Indiana, Oklahoma, Arizona.
2013, Mar 10 - I sell the Prius in Phoenix
2013, Mar 28 - My first day in Mexico City
2013, May - Graduation ceremony in St. Louis
2013 Summer- Living, working, and exploring Mexico City and the surrounding area
2013, Oct 8 - Leaving Mexico City to return to the US
2013, Oct - Visiting dad and Tay in Houston, New Orleans; mom in Phoenix
2013, Nov - Unemployed, living in my mom's house in Phoenix, trying to find work

Just reading the chronology makes me tired, and these are about as broad strokes as you can get.
Anyway, to the three or four constant readers out there, I salute you, and I hope you have enjoyed enduring my overly prolix and verbose blog.