anniversaries – Page 2 – if all else fails…use a hammer

A little orange trophy just informed me that I’ve been a WordPress user for one year now, and I just thought I’d quickly share that before turning in.

If you go back through my archives (which I wouldn’t advise) you’ll notice the first post is dated somewhere in March last year, but those first few posts were merely imported from Blogger where I had my first attempt at blogging. My first post on WordPress was actually only on 13 November last year, and not on this blog (though I reposted it here later). The first actual post on if all else fails…use a hammer was only on 16 November (though I wouldn’t advise reading it either).

Still, it has now been a whole year that I’ve been on WordPress. In that year I’ve brought you about hundred-and-seventy posts, including twenty-two Song Title Challenges, eleven reviews (seven books; four movies), vacation photos, puppets, silliness and seriousness. I’ve passed both the hundred-followers and hundred-posts milestones and made quite a few new friends from all across the world. I’ve watched the world map on my stats-page fill up with colour as more and more flags were added to my collection (including the only non-rectangular national flag in the world) and I can only hope that by this time next year I’ll have them all.

I must confess, at first I didn’t expect to enjoy blogging this much, but in this year it has become such a part of me that I don’t know if I’d be able to give it up if necessary.

To my regular followers, thanks for sticking with me so far. I hope to keep giving you reasons to do so.

You may now congratulate me 😉

P.S. If you haven’t yet, go download Issue 4 of The Paperbook Collective right now where you’ll find an original piece of never-seen-before flash fiction by yours truly (that’s me) on page 5. Then come on back here and tell me what you think, okay? (P.P.S. It’s my first ever piece of published fiction outside of blogging.)

Have a great week.

Hands with wedding rings They say there are three rings in marriage: the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering. Four years ago today the wife and I exchanged the second of these rings. The third started much, much earlier, but that’s a post for another day.

I consider this an accomplishment for which we’ll welcome congratulations, as many people don’t even make it this far. In most of the Western world it is known that between forty and sixty percent of marriages end in divorce. I once read that a very high percentage (I cannot remember the exact figure) of these marriages that fail, fail within the first two years. That tells me the wife and I have already beaten some considerable odds to get where we are today.

And it hasn’t been easy. There have been days where neither of us have spoken a word to each other. There have been days when I stood at our fourth-storey window, not admiring the view, but measuring the distance to the ground and calculating whether it is high enough for a lethal fall or whether I should try and lure her onto the roof. I’m sure there have been days where both of us simply wanted to walk out. But we didn’t, and for that I am extremely grateful. Continue reading “On Marriage” →