We live in an era where technology is now crazily advanced and the Internet never forgets. Sometimes, that’s a good thing. I realised after writing my previous post that, actually, there must have been archives of my lost entries somewhere. Lo and behold, 5 short minutes of Googling later, I found it. The WaybackMachine with all my previous posts. Not all the photos are still in tact, but I still have them saved on my computer-machine, so it’s all good :)
I’ve already gone back and added a couple of posts from just before I left London for LA. I thought they would be the only ones I’d miss, but looking back, I miss a lot more. So, eventually, I hope to restore more of this site back to its original state. It’s going to take a long time. I wonder if I’ll be able to do it?
With the loss of this site, I also lost another, for which I didn’t have a back up of the MySQL database (basically means: I was stupid, it’s gone.) Haha, it’s crazy how many blogs I’ve kept over the years, how many little corners of the Internet I’ve commanded since I first started blogging with a secondary school friend back in 2002. I’m actually really thankful for that web archive, because I would have been really sad to have lost it forever.
With my other site, the domain still exists, but all the content is gone. I had 4 years worth of content on it, I don’t think I have the energy to recreate a dead site from scratch. All this time, I only wanted to keep it as a memory and now with the web archive, I no longer need to resurrect it. Some things are better left in the past, after all. Onwards and upwards!
I think I might just keep the domain for the sake of it though.
This mishap with my hosting server did, however, lead me on a walk down memory lane. I found posts from 2006, doodles from 2008 (I was once quite the artist you know. No I wasn’t. I am genuinely embarrassed by some of the stuff of which I was once proud to put on the web; here’s hoping you aren’t stalker enough to dig it up) among other… darker material.
Ah, youth. But seriously, the oldest post I found (thus far) was from early June 2006. 2006, are you kidding me? That is literally almost a decade ago. My sister is now the age I was back then. Wow. One day I’d like to go back and read all of it, I don’t think I’ll like what I read though. Or maybe I will. I’ll probably laugh, cry, facepalm and all of the in-betweens. Then, if I actually accomplish my goal of reading everything, I’ll come back and write my reflections; a letter to my younger self, if you will.
Then all of the above again when I read all this stuff ten years later.
One thing is for sure: I’m sure I’ve changed since then. For those of you who knew me back then and know me now, I hope you’ll think it was for the better. At least, in my walk with God, I know I have grown and I suppose that’s what matters most.
Well, this post was a bit heavy. Reminiscent of some of my archive writings from back in the day, but it’s me. It’s open. It’s raw. Sorry if it scares you. Next post should hopefully be more light-hearted, though I’ve been very bad with taking photos lately so I may not have much to show. Been too busy living, which isn’t always a bad thing either :)
I’ll leave you with this. It’s a memory verse from a Lent reading series in which I’ve recently been partaking with sisters from my first church in LA.
Oh, and today is my childhood best friend’s birthday. Happy birthday, Pannie! We’re married on Facebook. Actually, we ‘married’ on Facebook ten years ago. How time flies!
Love x