Suntana's Blog Trek

Four score and seven years ago … plus four score and seven years, would bring us to, well … TODAY! Friday July 31, 2009 is a day for me to celebrate. It was 1 year ago on July 31, 2008, according to my Blog's Archive, a Thursday on which my Blog Debuted.

Y'all can click on the link below to get a glimpse at how it all started:

http://my.opera.com/Suntana/blog/this

As y'all can see by my 1st Blog Post, I didn't even have any intentions of having a Blog. It was supposed to be just a Test to find a Blog Service for my oldest niece. Upon informing her of my Opera Community fact-finding mission's results, she basically told me, "Thanks, but no thanks" as she was already set elsewhere. Why that ingrate! Kick sand in my face, will she? Just Kidding! IMO, it would sooo turn out to be her loss as I would later find out how great the Opera Community is.

I then pondered, "What AM I gonna do with this thing now?" Could I perhaps take it over? But, what did I know about Blogging? Just a couple weeks before that, a friend had informed me that to be able to comment on her MySpace Blog, I'd have to sign up. I distinctly remember going, "WHAT? You mean like … have a Blog? Me? And what pray tell would I put on a Blog? I don't even take pictures or have a camera for that matter. Ehhh, if one day I ever suddenly think that I have something worthy of putting on a Blog on a normal basis, I'll sign up with MySpace and start me a Blog, Okay?"

So, a couple of weeks after that exchange with my friend, I found myself with a Blog on my hands. I drifted into deep thought … for a couple of seconds and concluded that, "Well, I CAN write. And I do have some incidents, adventures and such about which I could write." I guess at that time, on some level it was just sorta gonna be a way to chronicle my hilarious adventures from my past. I figured my youngest sister and my oldest niece, yes the ingrate that didn't want the Blog … would get a kick out of my adventures. It would be just like old times, similar to when some years earlier, they enjoyed this News Letter that I'd E-mail them --- Toto & the City. Yeah, I had gotten that title as a take on Sex In the City.

After I came out of those couple of seconds of deep thought, I made the decision, "What the heck; I'll do it! Game On! It's time the Blogging World and this Opera Community meet Suntana!" Okay, so at that point, I guess that cocky thought was secondary cuz like I said, really, my sister and niece were supposed to get a kick out of my writings. Sure, I hoped that other people would find and enjoy my Blog, but there was no guarantee that that secondary goal would be successful. I figured that if my Blog was successful outside of my sister & niece's reading, it'd be a welcome bonus.

By the way, my Blog wasn't always called - Suntana's Blog Trek. Nope, it started out as – Suntana's Musings. Here is the image of my Blog's 1st custom Header:

http://files.myopera.com/Suntana/blog/Suntana's%20Musings%20Header%20OP.png

Since that's my 1st custom Header, I'll have to point out that it's NOT like I arrived on the Opera Community knowing how to customize my Blog. Nah! I knew absolute SQUAT in that area. But, I was intrigued and fascinated by custom Blog Designs that I saw on the Opera Community. That was one of the things that helped make my decision to stick with the Blog. I envisioned myself being able to customize my Blog. I had no clue as to how I'd eventually customize my Blog, but the plan was to do so.

My Blog's very 1st Visitor was Dennis (H82typ). I'll never forget that. Thanks, Dennis! I knew I had arrived. SOMEONE knew I existed! My next 2 Visitors would be Tamil and Andrew (SouthernCross). Very quickly, Andrew agreed to help me with the CSS Code to install that Suntana's Musings Header, which I had already created, but didn't know how to install. With more CSS Code help from Andrew back then and to this day, along with CSS Code help from Mik Furie, Lorenzo Celsi and DrLaunch, I little by little learned how to customize my own Blog.

As I learned more and more, I became confident enough so as to give back to the Opera Community by helping others by customizing their Blogs … without fear that I'd destroy their Blogs. Hmmm? Funny I should mention that. Some of y'all might remember that on my very 1st foray into customizing someone else's Blog, I … I … I sorta did temporarily Semi-Destroy her Blog. Imagine my SHOCK when I went to check out her newly-installed Pride & Joy Blog Design, courtesy of me and instead all that was displaying was an unreadable MESS! Then the Comments started coming in, wondering what happened to her Blog. I had to virtually hold a Press Conference and do some damage control, divulging that it was MY doing, but that it'd be fixed as soon as she got my PM. The bad thing was she had already gone to sleep, not knowing her Blog was a MESS. I was surprised that I was able to sleep, knowing that my friend's Blog was in that Semi-annihilated state. I wondered if all her friends would get together and conceivably vote me off the Opera Community a la being voted off the island on the TV Show Survivor ... for basically Tornado-afying her Blog. She did fix it the next morning once she read my PM. Whew!

At some point, several Posts into my Blog's existence, I decided that Nnnnggg, my Posts weren't really "Musings" per se. Therefore, I came to the realization that I needed to change my Blog's title. I did some brainstorming and tossed around several possibilities. After all was said and done and the dust had settled, the current Suntana's Blog Trek won out as my Blog's new title.

In the past year, I have made many great friends here on the Opera Community. Some have come and gone, but that's the nature of Online communities. Others are still around since I met them in the early days of my Blog. I have had a lot of fun during this 1st year of my Blog and there is more fun to be had.

The ultimate highlight and pinnacle achievement of my Blog in its 1st year would have to easily be when I got the News that I had been selected MOTW (Member of the Week) on June 12, 2009. It is such a surreal feeling when one considers that the honor of the selection is out of the entire 2 Million PLUS Opera Community Members from all over the world. When have I ever achieved a Global honor like that before? Never.

With this Post, it'll be 52 Posts. Woo Hoo! 52 Posts right on the money for my 1st year. From the get go, I had decided that my Blog's format was going to be to shoot for 1 SOLID Post per Week. And that's what it turned out to be despite the extremely rare missed week. And there y'all have it … a little bit of history lowdown and assorted Kibbles & Bits of things that went on with my Blog in its 1st year.

Thanks Everyone for Visiting and Supporting Suntana's Blog Trek!