In an inadvertently ominous fashion, the day before Steve Jobs died, I stumbled on Todd Sampson’s Twitter feed, which had a link to Jobs’ unveiling his iconic “1984″ advertisement for the Macintosh computer. In it he was eloquent and passionate about his work. The pride written on his face during the applause was stunning. I thought, now here is a guy who probably deserves to look so smug. But that was me thinking in retrospect. This wasn’t even Jobs at his peak of success, but rather at a prelude of even greater things to come. If he only knew just decades later that his face would be synonymous with the world’s leading innovators in design and technology, indeed all facets of everyday living and popular culture.

So today is the day my blog in all its varied forms turns TEN!

I’ve witnessed first hand the massive impact the simple art of publishing one’s thoughts online has had on the world over the last decade, and it’s been amazing – no one could have foreseen how far it would take off. Hell, when I first signed up for Twitter four years ago I thought it would be another web 2.0 flop. Blogging encompasses so much now. It’s endless entertainment, it’s unpredictable, it’s dangerous, it’s an agent for revolution and reform, it’s a thriving hive of rapid information exchange, it’s eclectic and colourful in all its interests.

I don’t often gloat (correction, I don’t like to gloat – my pompous ten year old know-it-all self is testament to that), but I think on this occasion some self-congratulation is deserved. About a couple of times a month (or whenever I remember to) I check the SEO status of my other portfolio domain. On Monday night, while searching my name on Google, I discovered something…

So it occurred to me while cleaning the house today—and quite opportunely—that today marks the nine year anniversary of the first day I began blogging. Yes, I started young in 2001 at the dawn of the now enormous, endless sea of mundane and meaningful blogs. I called my first blog Life of a Mangaka, even though I sure as hell wasn’t one, though I did draw a lot of anime characters, as you do when you’re a kid and of the Asian persuasion—to perpetuate the stereotype a little. Still, what on earth was I thinking! Wishful thinking, obviously. Later I would call my blog, Semi-Charmed Life. Incidentally I named my longest running blog Ninth Angel; I can’t remember my rationale for its meaning, but I suppose I thought it was cool. I think I was influenced by Neon Genesis Evangelion at the time…

I’d already begun “designing” websites for a couple years by then, so blogging seemed to be the next step to take. I used Blogger as my platform until later I ventured into WordPress. I was hosted periodically by generous friends without whom I wouldn’t have been able to use nifty things like SHTML or PHP. I …

I am currently working on my PC at the moment-I haven’t been on this thing properly for what must be months! I work constantly on the Macbook since I have all the latest programs on that thing, the most recent program added being Adobe AfterEffects (I am finally learning how to use it in my digital imaging class!). Right now I’m listening to The Dark Knight score (I “serious”ly can’t get enough of it) on the desktop and it sounds like a sound system in comparison to the Macbook’s inferior speakers. (So imagine what a true sound system must sound like to my ears) There is an advantage to working on a 19″ screen than a 13″ one when it comes to print design… I hate how the PC doesn’t have a keyboard short-cut for em-dashes and en-dashes… it’s become second nature to me to reach for the Cmd+Shift+Hyphen keys. =/

I’ve been doing a bit of eBaying lately! I bought two items last week: an embossing tool (which should have got here by now, hrrmmm) and more excitingly last night I got this poster:

I aim to get all the Dark Knight posters eventually. They’re so gorgeous, especially the one with …