JOracle

I registered this account on the MyOpera community nearly exactly 2 years ago on the 13th of September 2003. I haven't done anything on it since then. The reason I'm suddenly creating this blog is because I've just found out that I was one of the 100 winners of the Opera 10-year anniversary creative competition. In the e-mail I received informing me of this, they asked me for a MyOpera username if I had one, which led me to look here.

I wanted to use this blog to explain my inspiration for this competition entry. Firstly I have to say that Opera is by far the best web browser in my opinion. Its simple yet attractive user interface, plethora of features and standards compliance are just some of the things have characterised Opera versions over the years.

When I first read about the competition I knew that it was something I wanted to take part in. I definitely wanted to write a poem of some sort. I am very interested in etymology (the study of the origins of words) and so my first thought was to look up 'opera' in my etymological dictionary. I already knew that it was the plural of opus so I already had in my head "a plural noun". So the first line I made was the second line of the poem: "Plural noun of Latin root, 'a creative work', its meaning doth suit". It was after this that I thought of making the first letter of each line correspond with each letter of 'opera'.

The first line, "One nine nine five in the modern era, a browser was borne with name of Opera.", was the next line I thought of. I tried desperately hard to find something sensible that would be a better rhyme than 'era' and 'opera', but the line works well I think, even with the bad rhyme. It was during thinking of this line that I decided to try and make it sound 'ye olde worlde'.

The next two lines, "Even then one could see, its splendid speede and subtletie.", and "Regarded first-rate by all who use, prime over others, only there to amuse.", came quite quickly afterwards. The second of the two could be a little confusing. The "only there to amuse" line is refering to the "others", meaning other browsers are only there to amuse. Notice the use of older looking forms of 'speed' and 'subtlety' to reinforce the old style. Inbetween these two I started to make the image, using the Monotype Corsiva font because it is the most like old script.

The final line, "Ask me not how this is true, simply try and become an Operian too.", is that line that has amused and niggled me the most. It amuses me because every time I read it I like the term 'Operian' which I invented more and more. It niggles me because I submitted it to the competition before I realised that I had left out a word. The last part should read, "simply try *it* and become and Operian too."

Any way - I must get back to doing some work. I hope you enjoy reading my entry as much as I enjoyed making it.