Retrospective
November 08, 2003A year already? A year. Already.
I keep stopping myself from writing over-detailed summaries about how I created other similar sites before this one going back to 1997, and how this one has really been around since 2001, but the weblog and the ‘official’ birth of mezzoblue happened a year ago. Too tedious for anyone but me though.
So to try (and fail) to avoid a self-indulgent narcissism-fest, here’s a simple month-by-month summary of the year you’ve been with me, and we’ll leave it at that.
November — The revised mezzoblue.com launched after some downtime. No one noticed. For the record, you might have visited a month prior.
December — Not much happened.
January — Not much happened.
February — I re-designed to a code-heavy version of the design you’re currently viewing. More or less.
March — The Hack Hotbot saga began. I managed to get approval to enter as a Canadian citizen, win, but get shot down despite it all. Still bitter. I like iPods.
April — Frustrated by the difficulties of Hacking Hotbot, I brushed off an idea I started building in 2002, and spent most of the month putting it together.
May — And then it launched.
June — And then I got married.
July — And honeymooned. Then got back and proceeded to document a few ideas that seemed important.
August — Kicked off a new idea which never defined a schedule other than “infrequent”. It ain’t dead yet.
September — Garden rip-offs escalate. Didn’t know what to do. Eventually figured it out.
October — Mozilla. WaSP. Sexy menus.
November — And here we are. It has been a good year, to say the least.
I wasn’t going to bother enabling comments for this entry, but let’s try something different. I’d rather not see a big page of “congratulations on a year” and nothing more. Feel free to discuss; but say something interesting. Much obliged.
Okay, if this isn’t interesting enough, feel free to delete it. I first came across your site after reading your interview at DMXZone. I fell in love with it instantly. It’s visually stunning and an inspiration as to what can be achieved (as is CSS Zen Garden of course). I think Second Voice is an excellent innovation, the articles have been good and I’d love to see more. And this is one of a handful of sites that put forward original ideas that both teach and provoke thought. I think Mezzoblue has made a significant contribution CSS advocacy and web design in general. You should be proud.
Congratulations on a great year, Dave! I just started reading your site sometime between the garden launch and your wedding, and I’ve loved it ever since. Keep up the great work!
Ok, I’ll steer clear of the congratulations and simply ask a question…
What plans ( if any ) do you have for Mezzoblue in the “New Year”?
It is a fine destination that continues to offer a real point of difference.
Well, I still remember clicking your name in the beginning of March and being amazed – http://web-graphics.com/mtarchive/000802.php#chatty001318 Coming back ever since. Congrats.
although you didn’t start it, dave, i’d add to this list of events the whole debacle around the JAWS petition http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2003/08/21/jaws_petitio/ and how vicious it got at certain points…
Dave, do you have an iPod?
It’s been a great year, as I go back through the posts. I’m a Canadian citizen as well, and once was on a trip in the states, and won a ‘certain’ contest. But they removed my prize, saying I was not entitled to it. Jeez.
But the site looks great, and I look forward to what comes.
I’d love to see your favicon.ico re-instated.
LintHuman: It’s there now…I’d never noticed it before!
I haven’t been coming here all that long, but long enough to know what a valuable member of the community you are, Dave. Here’s to another year, eh?
I think I came across your site sometime in June. Looking at the timeline I am shocked to see that this seems to be when you really started to hit it big. Hell when I started reading it I thought you had been established in this game for years. Especially the way people were talking about you. I can only hope that my first year proves as half as successful as your’s. Congratulations and may you have many more years ahead of you.
Dave, I have to say it’s been refreshing to read about real designers’ (you and some of your regular posters), experiences with CSS and other things. There are lots of people out there talking CSS, but most are designers complaining it doesn’t fit their exact style or page developers talking purely technically, or people in the middle not saying much useful. I like the fact that you maintain your position as an artist and deal with the underlying technologies in a realistic fashion.
Oh, and congratulations :)
I remember visiting your site before you were a star. (wink) But I thought you were a woman based solely on your design and some color choices. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Haha. (winks again)
I remember thinking that this place was non-threatening, and offered friendly advice and I liked how you were learning, too. Some pages, I’m too scared to even comment ‘cause I look like I have no idea what I’m doing. But I always considered your website an inspiration. I visit it every day! :-D
Er, um. That’s what you get for skipping the first comment, I suppose. Well, I think a lot of your articles are very interesting and thought-provoking. The CSS Zen Garden is pure genius. And you have a very nice site. I just can’t seem to design this kind of beautiful things.
It was a very good year.