Painstaking (oh the pain)

I've been working on fixing my archives for what seems like forever now, but I feel like I'm making some progress -- I'm nearly at the end of 2003 (I'm working backwards). It's EXCRUCIATING. I've tried to compile a list of what I've been doing:

- re-uploading old photos to Hello, copying the code and pasting it into archived posts (then I have to delete the code from the current page afterwards -- ugh)
- creating keyboard shortcuts for formatting tags in w.bloggar so I don't have to manually code
- fixing bad code (I've been teaching myself HTML/css/etc. as I go along, so I've left a trail of bad code)
- making changes to the template -- updating, modifying, deleting
- formatting and reformatting as I go along...

I've been messing around with this blog since July 2002, and learning new things over time. Every time I learn something new, I try and go back into archives and implement what I've learned to maintain consistency, but it's more often the case that I've had other priorities screaming for attention... consequently, there were oodles of bad code in there that I can only check if I edit within Blogger, which I find clunky so generally avoid. Some of it was because I started out with bad code that I'd created a keyboard shortcut for, eg. [target=_blank"] instead of [target="_blank"], so the site was littered with it. Or, I hadn't learned text formatting yet, and I was using variations of something I'd seen once, and it wasn't what I wanted, but close enough at the time. In short, I created a hell of a lot of work for myself!!

Early on, I hadn't figured out how to use titles in Blogger, so I was just making headers formatted to look like titles. Then once I'd figured out how to make archive indexes for the current page, of course the index of titles was blank... *sigh* I had to create titles for a year's worth or more of posts.

From working on all the archives, a few things struck me:

1) I've taken the kids out A LOT... I haven't counted how many times we've been to Science World, or the Aquarium, Maplewood Farm, False Creek, Laity Farm, the beach, and various playgrounds all over the Lower Mainland, but we've hit the road more times than I've obviously remembered!

2) Working full-time and being a full-time student when you're single is hard. I don't recommend it to anyone. It's rewarding, but nobody sees how hard you work, you tough it out alone when you're sick, you can't stop working because there's no one else to pay the bills, and sometimes you're too tired to give a sh*t... so many of my entries are about being tired,

3) I've travelled more since I've moved to this apartment than ever before. When I was working overseas, except for working as an assistant manager at one youth hostel, the money was nothing to write home about. Living in the U.K. is expensive, so I didn't travel as often, or as far, as I do now. In Australia I worked small jobs, so I seldom splurged, in order to save for the next destination. I did a lot of outdoorsy stuff when I first moved here to Beach Avenue -- camping, hiking, mountain biking, and road trips all-year round, then more long-haul touring. Travel is my big-ticket item, definitely -- I only bought my first computer in 2000. Now I'm a geek! But I'll still travel!