And Schumin Web is officially fifteen years old…
March 23, 2011, 10:44 PM
Fifteen years old, today. Really. If you want to put things into perspective, I have had this site for more than half my life. I started the site at age 14, and I am now 29. Wow.
And so this evening, we celebrated! After a remarkably stressful day at work (at least for me), a number of us from work went out to El Tamarindo in Adams Morgan to celebrate, where they have some really great margaritas. My coworkers certainly managed to surprise me, having secretly signed a birthday card for the site, with some very sweet comments in it. Take a look:
(By the way, in case you find these images hard to read, here’s a PDF of it)
Even funnier was that this particular card was one of the cards in the most recent birthday card purchase that a few people had called into question regarding why I bought it for office greetings. Obviously, I wasn’t paying attention when I grabbed that one, because the other ones weren’t so mushy. I’m glad that everyone found a good use for it, though, and I was laughing so hard when I saw that it was that card.
A lot of people also had a whole lot of nice things to say about the Web site at dinner, and it always amazes me what kind of things stick with people when they read the site. I know that I have my certain favorite areas on the site, but, for instance, for this quote from 2001 to come up in conversation today surprised me. That is some old material!
One thing that’s kind of funny in looking back at the last fifteen years, though, is to see how my opinions have changed over the years. Like that quote that I mentioned. Back then I had a first-generation digital cell phone that couldn’t even do text messages, and I didn’t keep it turned on regularly. I only turned it on when I needed to talk on it. That thing was really big compared to modern cell phones, but it was some high-tech stuff for the time. Now, my cell phone is my only phone, I keep it powered on and with me all the time, and I feel strange without it. And my current cell phone is an Android phone, which does more things than a cell phone ought to be allowed to do.
And now, of course, with fifteen years of history behind us, it’s time to look ahead to the future. Schumin Web looks a lot different today than it did on its launch date fifteen years ago, looking very early-internet. Even ten years ago, in 2001, the site looked very different, with the site’s wearing a yellow color scheme at that time, and circles. I wonder what Schumin Web will look like in another ten or fifteen years. What sections will the site have? Will it even have sections? What kinds of stuff will I be talking about? What other sites will be talking about me? It will all certainly make for an interesting ride, that’s for sure.
Song: Complete History Of The Soviet Union, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris, and discussion of the "Soviet Safeway" in Dupont Circle, which we walked past on the way to El Tamarindo.
Quote: It's funny... I'm not that big into celebrating my own birthday on May 30, but I'm certainly into celebrating the Web site's anniversary on March 23. Go figure, I suppose. Still, this was a lot of fun with some absolutely wonderful people.
Categories: Schumin Web meta