Celebrating More than 100 Posts, 2 and a Half Years Hosted
Happy belated birthday, The Seven Dales of Vale.
Below you will find two posts dated from the genesis of the Dales and stand as a remarkable comparison between the changing of times and the shifting quality of writing and subject matter. In honesty and compassion, I hope this blog of collected ruminations, poems and the lot of that creative jazz has been as entertaining and interesting for your reading now as it was when it started.
Some trivia:
- Can you believe the forums have been up for over two years and we still don’t have any members?
- The Seven Dales of Vale had its original inspiration as listed in the About section, but was also an inspiration from the Den of Seven Vales in the computer game, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn.
- Each post is written while under the influence of some beautiful classical jazz musicians, including Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins and others.
- Inspiration comes from the strangest of places: for me, the everyday life experience.
- All poems and poetry on the Dales has not been published and was written before the age of 21 as a classification of juvenile writing (juvenilia). It is only slowly being edited and presented for public viewing.
- Website statistics are collected and read daily to help me gear my content to the reading audience at the best possible frequency.
- Coding and site design has been designed and maintained by Jasmin since the beginning.
- I read all e-mails send to me and reply as honestly and kindly as possible.
A blast from the past
‘From the ashes, the truth shall rise…’ 23 September, 2006
Free-to-air television has such silly quotes sometimes, wouldn’t you agree?And here it is, my very first personal blog. I do like it for the most part, though I have struggled an incredible amount to integrate a photo gallery! My conclusion is that I will keep the photo gallery in a seperately run profile, Pixelpost, and keep this for my blogging, personal page and poetry. Oh dear, I can already see myself posting to this thing late into the night. Creature comforts, they say.
Where am I?
I’m spending the weekend at mum’s place; it’s been about three weeks since I saw her last. I have a bittersweet way about being here, really. It makes me feel a bit confined and without the comforts of home, while at the same time it feels like a restful time away from everything. So much new technology and so much white paint and closed space here feels sad. There’s a lot of plant life here and there, but without a lovely backyard of lush green grass and a bit of soil to dig my hands into, it’s not the same.
Above all, I wish I was not perpetually worried about uni work…
Daily ruminations:
- It’s not really today’s rumination but still worth a mention. I have a secret desire to be a pastrychef. I would revel in the sweet scent of vanilla and egg and flour, where chocolate chips would stick to my fingers and colours of all sorts would fill my window. I would love to come home smelling to high heaven everyday.
- I want my bare feet to walk along warm concrete, callouses and all, with the cuffs of my jeans scraping against the ground and a cool breeze could pass through my hair. Casual dress code is never a faux pas.
- MSN has such a horrible way of distorting sentences and their inherent meanings. That’s why the mobile phone is the expensive but efficient way of intimate conversation.
- My lady significant (girlfriend and partner are so timeworn, cliche, delivered to death) makes me feel as through my eccentricity and passions in the world are not askew. Revelling in her absolute beauty in flaw, in talent, in emotion and intellectual discussion are what make me cherish her so.
- Men in Black II is such a terrible movie. It is much like a piecemeal of Hollywood’s pitfalls and CGI highlights, lacklustre acting with thin plot.
24h September, 2006.
“I just wanted to say… you’re an insane emperor!”
Vale!
It’s been only a couple of days since the Dales was actually initiated, and now I can’t get my eyes and typing fingers away from it for another second! I am very excited to be uploading all this content and be opening the doors of my forum to encourage visitors to do the same. A quick confession: I do feel slightly pretentious, as though I am the ringleader of something potentially larger than myself. But at the end of it, this is all just for fun and a new hobby to embark upon. My many thanks go to Jasmin, who is lending me her webspace and kindly set the PHP files in place for my enjoyment! Love.
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