Four Hundred And Four

Incredibly, this is my four hundredth post on One Terrific Day! When I started all of this back in May of 2006, I never dreamed I'd still be using it this far along, over six years later, with 400 posts!

But while I might feel content with that anniversary, there's a far more important one that I celebrate on this same date.

Four years ago today I married my long time girlfriend, Claire, in an unforgettable ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada! I've described the day in a previous post, and still remember it today with perfect clarity. I remember how nervous I was at the time. I can still recall how amazed I was when the doors opened and I saw Claire standing there, even though I had been with her just moments before. And I'll never forget that first kiss as husband and wife.

To celebrate the day, Claire and I started out by heading into Downtown Vancouver to see the annual Gay Pride Parade. It was... colourful. In more ways than one! The costumes, floats and displays were fantastic. Everyone was having a great time and the sunshine was beating down as the temperatures reached 28 or 29 degrees! This allowed for some extreme costuming choices, such as the various girls that went topless, with just some bodypaint across their chests, or the one that we saw that could spin the tassels on her nipples by just moving her body in a particular way. Of course, the guys were just as free with their choices of clothing. There were unending displays of topless males, from chiseled chests to less than muscular bellies. There was even one guy who was just all out naked. Given his age and physical condition, it was an image I could have lived without seeing, but it did bolster my confidence in my own assets. Claire, thankfully, completely missed him.

After the parade we walked on to Stanley Park and found our way to the Stanley Park Bar & Grill for two of the most delicious burgers we've had in a long time. I got my usual, a bacon and cheese burger, and Claire got her own usual, grilled chicken. They were really yummy. Given that our wedding dinner was in Quarks Bar on DS9, which also consisted of burgers, I think we're building up a tradition. We cooled down a little after our time in the sun with homemade lemonade slushies at the restaurant too.

After feeding and watering ourselves we headed to the wonderful Vancouver Aquarium. Thanks to being friends with a staff member, we had two tickets waiting for us at the reception, picked them up, skipped the queue and headed in to the cool temperatures of the main building.

We got to see the belugas, the dolphins, the baby porpoise and the newest addition to the aquarium, the African penguins. The penguins were just as adorable as expected. The aquarium is also home to a cheeky otter who loved to show off and perform for the viewing public.

Apart form the aquatic animals, the aquarium plays home to several other animals, including snakes, bats, tropical butterflies, two large, beautiful blue parrots, several small monkeys and, according to staff, three sloths, though we only saw one while we were there.

Just before we left, I got to go into the wetlab and watch the dissection of a herring and a squid, two of the foods that almost all the animals in the aquarium eat. Claire opted out of that experience!

Then it was a short walk to the bus and we headed back home. We had a cool shower to wash away the sweat and heat of the day, before settling in to watch some YouTube over dinner before experiencing part of Earth history: The landing of the Mars Curiosity Rover.

It has been a good day.

Four hundred posts, and four years of love, respect and happiness.

One Decade

Ten years ago today, Claire made me the happiest person on the planet, and by some miracle I've managed to lie, cheat and steal my way past her better senses and keep her to myself all this time! I don't have access to any photos from back then (I don't think compact, portable photography devices existed back then. We were still battling dinosaurs and zeppelins!), but here's a select few from over the years. Special thanks to Jp's Flickr account for sharing the first one and Karens account for sharing the second. We'd been together a year already at the time the first one was taken. Goes to show how important having a camera is. So many incredible memories, lost forever. So many others captured in time.

Aw... Ain't she amazing?

Oh god! Oh god, my ears! Do they still look like that! Oh God! I'm never going out without a hat again. We look so young. Claire looks incredible! Whatever did she see in me?

She has always been there for me when I most needed a shoulder to lean on...

How we broke the news to Claire parents. Subtle like a brick. 

Our special day. We robbed our friends of so much partying by eloping, but we really had a wedding we'll never forget, even if no-one else got to share the memory.

I find it difficult to comprehend the fact that it's been ten years. I lived them, with Claire, and I still have difficulty thinking about how long that is. It doesn't feel like that. I doesn't feel like I've spent one third of my existence with her. It feels like things have only just begun. Every morning I wake up and thank God I have her. She's the only one that would put up with me.

I love you, Claire Ryan. Always.

Update: Read Claire's side of the story here!

Three Hundred And Thirty

Happy anniversary to me!! No. Not "Denis me"; "One Terrific Day me"! My blog turns 300 with this post.

Three hundred posts. Wow. I never thought I'd do it. And in a fraction over four years as well. Not bad. It's nice to think I stuck with this thing, and continue to do so.  I've had a good time, and had a lot of readers. My Google Analytics stats tell me that there are loads of people all over the world stumbling into my little piece of the world wide web. Here are some interesting facts from Google about my blog:

• I average around 20 page visits per day, peaking in the last 30 days with 31 views in a single day.
• As I write this, there have been 699 page views, which suggests that the first person to read this on the site could be the 700th viewer! Congratulations, whoever you may be.
• The vast majority of visitors are from the United States, at 180 visits. Ireland comes second, at 62, almost a third of the US! Inexplicably, India, Brazil and Germany are in my top ten! Hi there countries I've never been to or written about!
• For the longest time my post titled "I Miss World Of Warcraft" was at the top of the pageviews leader board, but my recent review of Splinter Cell: Convictions co-op story mode has blasted to the top and seems to be gaining speed. The single player review is also ahead of WoW already. I should do more game reviews. Apparently, they make good reading.
• Google sends me almost 50% of my total traffic. Thanks Google. Thoogle.

Interesting and true!

This all happens at an oddly appropriate time as well. Next Friday, just six days after One Terrific Day turned 300, its writer turns 30. I am living my last week in my 20's. Am I worried? No. I don't feel 30. I certainly don't act 30. The friends I have are the best I've ever had. I love my job. I am married to the most extraordinary person on the planet, and the only one that will have me. I am healthy, happy and hungry... oh. I should probably get some food.

Before I go, there will be fun and games at my place next Friday, the 28th. Of this I am aware. As the 28th is the actual date of my arrival to this pitiful planet, it will probably involve cake and lots of Rock Band. Everyone is invited. Everyone. Bring friends. I don't care if I don't know them. If they can 100% the guitar solo in The Final Countdown on Expert, then they're welcome. It should be a blast.

What I am not aware of is what will be happening on Saturday, the 29th. There will be something. Claire has been organizing it. You will have to contact her or any of the people she has informed for further details. Do not ask me. All I know is that a small amount of driving will be involved, though there should be lots of room for car-pooling.

See you all soon!

Mayday, Mayday

As I start this, it's 14:27 on May 1st, according to my PCs clock. I relaxing in our apartment, watching Mythbusters and enjoying tea. Adam and Jamie are testing pain tolerance in varying groups, including males versus females, and red heads versus, well, everyone else, while Kari, Grant and Tori are blowing propane tanks sky high.

And despite all this brain candy, I am finding myself reading over a few old posts here on the old blog. And while doing so, I suddenly realised that it was around this time of the year, way back in the halcyon days of 2006, that I started this endeavor.

Sure enough, on May 2nd, 2006, I posted my first blog, "What's in a name?" I never thought that I'd still be posting four years later! At the time, it was just something to do. Another hobby to add to my day. I always liked writing, and blogging allowed me to write anything I wanted to. I could jump from factual posts about my day, through movie and comic reviews, onto thoughts on world events, right through to fiction and short stories.

To commemorate four years of blogging, I'm going to try to blog as often as possible for the month of May. I'd love to commit to a post a day, but I'm not promising anything. I have a busy month ahead of me, as we get towards the last few weeks of school, but I'll do my best to inform and entertain. Besides, I have loads more to write about for Splinter Cell, as well as a Nutshell Review for Iron Man 2. That's... well... two more posts anyway.

August 5th, 2008

Claire and I were in Las Vegas this day last year. It was a Tuesday, and we were up early to make the most of a special day. Today, we were getting married.

We started by going to the State registrars office to register and get the official documents. There was a long line of happy couples ahead of us, and while we filled out the forms, we heard a multitude of languages and accents, including a few Irish voices here and there.

Arriving at the chapel early, we made sure everything was cool for the ceremony, confirmed our time and then, knowing we had a few hours to waste, headed across the street to Starbucks. Claire enjoyed a tea and muffin, while I was barely able to drink a juice and pick at a snack. The excitement was making me jumpy.

Ours was the first wedding of the afternoon. It lasted a blissful seven whole minutes, which we have on DVD, and ended with Claire jumping me, much to the amusement of the Reverend. We got a bunch of photos taken in and around the chapel and then took a drive around before heading back to our hotel, the Hilton.

We had our wedding day dinner aboard the Federation space station Deep Space Nine, in Quarks Bar. We enjoyed a wonderful, filling meal, with odd juice drinks and weird deserts. A quick dip in the outdoor pool located on the roof was the final touch to a perfect day.

The perfect start to a perfect year. And many, many more to come.

From The Earth To The Moon

July 20th is generally considered to be the anniversary of mans first steps onto the lunar soil. But much like the idea that the millennium began in the year 2000, it's a bit ambiguous. You see, in the US, it was indeed the 20th, but here in Ireland, and most importantly, in Greenwich in England, it was already into the early hours of Monday, the 21st of July, 1969. Regardless, we chose to celebrate the occasion with the US, and had a special movie night tonight to mark the historic event.

Opening the evening early at 7pm, we watched Mythbusters NASA Moon Landing Special, wherein they bust some of the bigger so-called "reasons" that conspiracy theorists give to "prove" that the moon landings were fake. By then, a few more people had shown up, and before we started into the trailers, we had a grand crowd of nine people in our living room, watching the big screen. The lights went down, and I started up the trailers.

It has become almost a tradition now that movie night at my place always opens with a number of new trailers for upcoming cinema releases. Tonight was no exception, and we watched trailers for Planet 51, Zombieland, The Last Airbender and District 9, among others. All in all, we got through nine trailers, ending with Moon, right before the feature presentation.

The room went silent as I placed the disk in the Xbox drive, waited for the menu to appear and pressed "Play". The music swelled, and The Dish began.

Claire and I went to see The Dish on release way back in 2000 in the cinema, and have loved it ever since. We bought the DVD as soon as it was released as well, and watching it tonight, I realised I haven't seen it enough. I remember the silence in the theater as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface and uttered his immortal line. The joy of watching a DVD with friends is that you can chat and joke about scenes, characters or events, and we did. But once those grainy images of a ladder and suited-up spaceman appeared on the big screen, everyone was silent. There was hardly the sound of breathing from all nine of us.

40 years on, mans first steps onto the dusty surface of another world still have the power to silence us, and inspire us to dream.

To everyone involved in the Apollo program, from the men who walked on the moon to the people who built the machines to do it, from those who programmed the computers to those who stitched the spacesuits, thank you all for making a wondrous dream a reality.

Terribly Terrific Twos

Today celebrates the second birthday of this humble web log. Not only that, but entirely coincidentally, this very post happens to be my 200th!!

Two hundred posts in two years! That's a lot of writing! Of course, 200 also means I slowed down significantly over the past twelve months. On my first birthday, I was at around 120 posts, adding only 80 more since then. But while quantity has dropped, I feel that quality has increased! I have a touch of continuity in my posts, with nutshell reviews, RPG run-downs and hilarious life stories! Hahah! Funny stuff... It's also my second anniversary on Flickr! Sweet!

One of the really nice things about having a blog for two years is looking back on older posts. I've forgotten so many good times that I've posted about here, but re-reading them reminds me of some special moments with friends. I was almost abducted by aliens (they took Bob instead. Blast), I confessed my love for murder mysteries, I complained about not having enough hours in the day (a lot!), I've gone on a rant or two, I've talked about being with friends, and missing them, I've made mistakes, I've broken promises, I've shared victories, and failures, but most of all, regardless of what it's about, I've just been writing. And I'm grateful now that I have. Through all of these, I have many fond memories to look back on.

Here's to another fine year of posting ahead, and many more besides!

Bouncing Blogger Baby

On this date one year ago I started "One Terrific Day". To be honest, I'm not the best at keeping things going, I tend to start a lot of things, and I'm lucky if I see two of them through to completion. I'm just happy that this time this was one of the two.

I've enjoyed the past year, and having this blog is a great way to look back at fond memories that are already starting to cloud in my mind. I'd have to say, out of over 120 posts at least 118 of them were upbeat and positive, something I had as a goal from the very start. Things like Bebo and MySpace are full of depressed posters complaining about sucky lives, blissfully ignorant to the fact that simply having enough money to afford access to the Internet as well as all that black clothes and make-up puts them above 80% of the people on the planet already! I wanted something different. Something people could come to and enjoy, either through reading my often crazy antics, random ramblings, or whatever I've chosen to review this time.

Mostly I admit the last year of blogging has been pretty meaningless to anyone apart from myself. Even more of them are uninteresting unless you're one of the people involved in the story. But I guess that's alright! I'm not trying to have a readership in the thousands. I started this thing as a place for me to put my own thoughts down. That said, I love the fact that there are a few people who read this that I've never met! It does feel kinda cool being able to reach anyone with similar interests!

So that's it. A year of blogging behind me, and 120 posts and counting. Here's to many more!

And to everyone that's been reading, I hope you've found something worth seeing every now and then. Thanks.