It was on this date last year that I joined the sotd forum. It seems like a really long time ago sometimes, and such a lot has happened since then.

It was the 3rd message board that I joined and the first 'private' board. Although I work in electronic publishing and have been around computers for ages, I remember still being a bit confused when it came to message boards. Only because it was unfamiliar to me and because I usually just used computers for work, and not for anything interesting. I also had dial-up and had a limit per month of 150 hours of online time. March 2005 was the first month that I exceeded my 150 hour allowance lol. Then I had to pay by the minute until the next renewal date. Then followed a few more months of that - and some fairly hefty phone bills - until I was finally able to get broadband installed. Due to where I live it had not been available previously. In July I got unlimited broadband, unlimited downloads and a 2mb connection speed (previously I had a 28.8kb connection speed)

It was interesting but I wasnt really interested in 'downloading' anything. Haha how things have changed. Now I download EVERYTHING.

Anyway, I guess that shows how much time I was spending on message boards. I met some really nice people and some not so nice people. I still 'see' a lot of these same people as they come to my board, but some of them I dont see so much anymore or at all, since they dont come to my board and I dont have any time just now to go anywhere else. I miss those people. Some of my closest friends are now people I met on the internet and I love them dearly.

I also discovered banners and wanted to know how to make them. I started off in Windows paint program but quickly moved on to PSP and now photoshop! I have developed a font fetish and I love PS brushes. Last year I couldn't have told you what a PS Brush was and fonts, well they were just the standard ones you found in word (like I said, computers were for work only and a bit of email)

Anyway, I had my first message board by the end of May. Just a little free one which operated as a banner shop! But I'd got the bug and was interested in doing more. I did a lot of research on message boards and what was on offer, and I ended up with the current one and a hosting company! ...some months later, I now have a new host, a small portal and soon to be totally new site. I have just installed a CMS and am currently tweaking it. I planned to do this last year but I just didnt know how to do it.

I find it interesting to see how much I've learned in the last year and it has opened up a whole new world of things that take up all my free time haha. But I do find it interesting and it is fun - when it works. This time last year, I couldnt do any of the things I can do now. I had the ideas but didn't have the know-how.

So there you are, never too late or too old to try something new. I just need to step away from the computer sometimes and go do something else in the real world. Real art instead of digital, go to the movies, read a book, visit my RL friends... but somehow I don't seem to have much free time... I have no idea why lol