twenty years of this journal
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
I just noticed that today is the twentieth anniversary of my web journal as a daily events record, not just movie reviews and the odd news. This year, I made my 4,000th post. When I started the first web boom was still going, 9/11 was two+ years off, and things seemed generally hopeful and stable.
During that time, I've done many things. I've lived in five cities in the intervening years and learned a second language. I then studied work stuff for years, doing two certifications and a masters degree. I wrote a novel and learned something about photography. I've participated in several start-ups. I was at an investment bank when the financial crisis hit. I was doing information risk work when cybercrime became a big thing. I've become involved in activism in the city I now call home, which I certainly never saw coming. I've gotten married and had a couple of kids. I've learned to fish. I've spoken at conferences in two countries.
Also, I've lost family members and friends and have spoken at funerals. I had an engagement to marry dissolve. I've been hit by cars and bikes and pedestrians. I got into a bar-fight. I've been laid off. I've flubbed a business launch. I dragged my family across the world in order to find work. I've been ejected from the country where I was living. I've made every kind of parenting mistake. I've watched employers fail - and one was an immense bank. I've lost most of my savings twice (both times during global calamities). I've put endless hours into things that never paid off. I've broken bones and watched my eyesight start to fail. I've been in a fender-bender. I've nearly lost an arm to an infection. I've nursed a child through H1N1 during a flu outbreak.
I've swam with wild dolphins and with sharks. I've trekked in amazing places and stood atop the world's tallest building. I've eaten camel, turtle, crocodile, bee larvae, shark, and whale. I've drank liquor with a variety of dead things in it (I can recommend anyone try the type with Japanese hornets, and strongly advise the opposite when there's a dead snake involved). I've kayaked opposite ends of the Pacific. I've swam in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Indian Oceans as well as the Philippine and Andaman and Tasman and Caribbean Seas. I've surfed and piloted a sail boat. I've held a koala and seen wild boars and porcupines and dolphins and flying fish. I've run toward a brown bear to get to my son. I climbed a hill-top in Fiji and I've been to the Blue Lagoon. I've ridden in dangerously unsafe vehicles in Asia.
I've encountered a ghost. I've gutted a residence and scrapped metal. I've shredded all the documents in an office. I've repaired kids' bikes for free. I've handed out fliers and gathered petition signatures, and knocked on doors. I've gotten tattoos. I've re-surfaced floors and made furniture. I've been published in a journal.
It's been busy. Here's to the next twenty years of journaling!