|
By: Paul S Cilwa |
Occurred: 5/8/2024 |
|
Page Views: 127 |
| Hashtags: #Autobiography |
| My 2000th page for this here website thingy. 17 years of history on one page! |
| Estimated reading time: 14 minute(s) (3199 words) |
I've already posted How
I started this website and the story of how it got its name is on
my Home page. But my intention today is to remark on
what each year brought, to me as well as to the world in general. You
know, for context.
1997
Me
In 1997 I was at the height of my career as a corporate instructor of
computer programming, traveling all over the country for business as well
as pleasure (because I have always found a way to combine the two).
After a trip to Arizona, my then-partner Michael and I moved there:
the small town of Snowflake,
to be precise. We bought the property, which had an old mobile home on
it we intended to live in for just a short time. That was, by the way, the
first time I had ever bought real estate.
The World
In other news, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash; the United Kingdon transferred
sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China;
NASA's Mars Pathfinder spacecraft landed on Mars;
IBM's Deep Blue computer defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov;
members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed mass suicide in California;
and the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty on climate change, was adopted in December.
1998
Me
1998 found Michael and me traveling all over Arizona, including a hike in, camping,
and helicopter out of Havasu Canyon, something only dreamed of by many.
The World
Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated Google, which quickly became the leading
search engine. So, yeah—my personal website is older than Google!
But, what happened to Yahoo, which did predate my site?
Google's rapid ascension over Yahoo was driven by its innovative PageRank algorithm,
delivering faster and more relevant search results. The simplicity of Google's user
interface, focusing on search rather than a portal filled with content, along with its
scalable infrastructure and user-centric business model, allowed it to quickly gain a
competitive edge. Continuous innovation across various services further cemented
Google's position as the leading search engine, despite Yahoo's initial first-to-market
advantage.
1999
Me
This was an amazing year for me, as it was the year I had my first trip to Europe!
But the biggest and most life-changing event was actually the birth of my first
grandson, Zach!
The World
As the new millennium approached, the computer world was growing increasingly frantic
over the feared Y2K bug.
Most people didn't understand it, but it was quite simple:
Back in the 1960s and 1970s when most business software was written (and still in use
30 years later), the storage of each individual character in data was expensive!
So, to save space and cost, the YEAR was always given just two characters for
storage. So, 1999
was stored as, simply, 99
. But all the math for
interest rates, due dates, annual pay increases, etc. all depended on doing
arithmetic with those numbers; and that was going to break when the
year turned to 2000
,
which would be stored as 00
. This was no conspiracy theory; this was simple
reality. And that's why I was so busy this year and the year before: It was, literally,
my job to train old COBOL programmers the new Windows programming techniques and
supported languages C, C++, and Visual Basic.
2000
Me
Now that Y2K had passed with only a few towns going black at midnight (the national power
grid also had only two digits for the year; but most actual people
at the local power companies solved the problem on their own, by simply disconnecting
their local power from the grid! But now, my job was the same as before though
less urgent, as I continued to instruct old-school programmers how to use the new
tools.
But my life, such as it was, was devoted to my baby grandson, Zach, who moved
in with Michael and me as his mom had some serious issues she had to deal with on her
own. It was awesome, because it was sort of my second chance to be a dad and I felt
like I had learned from the many mistakes I'd made with my own, now grown, children.
Oh, and…Michael and I got married! (Not legally, yet; but the ceremony was held
at our church and we took it seriously.
The World
The biggest world news for me, personally, was when Vermont legalized Civil Unions
.
When I first realized that I was not the only man in the world attracted to other men,
I also knew it had to be kept secret as we often heard about those kinds of people
being killed. Newspapers literally printed the names of gay guys caught looking for other
gay guys in parks! So this was a big thing, signalling a sea change.
2001
Me
2001 was a pivotal year, of course. But my personal big news was when my daughter, Jenny,
Zach's mom, returned. She stayed with us for several months, and then moved into
an apartment nearby with her mom and sister, Karen. So we still got to spend lots of
time with him.
Also important though more distant, was the birth of my first granddaughter, Cailey,
to my daughter Dorothy Elizabeth, in West Virginia. But they came to visit in February,
and again in October!
The World
I was between classes on September 11, 2001, and so was asleep in bed when my mom knocked
on our door. They hit New York!
she exclaimed.
Who hit New York?
Come look at the TV!
This affected me, personally; because my clients, unsure of whether the world was going
to end or not, cancelled all my future classes. And no new ones came up.
So the attacks not only took down the World Trade Center, but also my career.
Though on the plus side—Michael had worked in the World Trade Center! If
we had never gotten together, if he'd never quit his job and moved to Arizona with me,
he might very likely now be dead.
So, there was that.
2002
Me
And so, while I was writing The Sun City Cannabis Club, I also became
a truck driver, 'case a boy's gotta eat!
The World
In world news, President Bush gave his infamous Axis of Evil
speech;
the Euro became legal tender in twelve of the European Union's member states;
and Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize.
2003
Me
The year 2003 began with me still driving truck. But the biggest news for me,
was that I now had a new grandson! He was born in Iceland to my son's Icelandic then-wife,
so I was afraid I wouldn't be able to see much of him. But in August, they came back
to the States to visit!
And in September, I left the world of truck driving (frankly, I couldn't afford it),
having found a local job answering phones at a technical help desk, which
paid more!
The World
In February, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into the Earth's
atmosphere, tragically killing all seven astronauts aboard. And in March, Vice-President Cheney's
plan to make zillions from a middle-east war (Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton before
becoming Vice President. Halliburton is an American multinational corporation and one of
the world's largest oil field service companies. During the Iraq War, Halliburton was
contracted to provide a wide range of services to the U.S. military, which led to scrutiny
and controversy given Cheney's prior association, and presumably stock options, with the company.)
2004
Me
This wasn't a hugely significant year for me, personally. But I did take the whole
family (the Western-located part, anyway) to Disneyland!
The World
This was the year Zuckerberg launched Facebook (originally called TheFacebook
).
In a shake-up of a different kind, on December 26, a massive 9.1-9.3 magnitude earthquake
struck off the coast of Sumatra, triggering a devastating tsunami that affected multiple
countries and resulted in over 227,000 deaths. This was, at the time, the second strongest
earthquake to occur after we had the ability to measure them. (The worst was the Valdiva
earthquake in Chile, which had a magnitude of 9.5.) But in case that made you want to
escape, NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed on Mars to explore its surface.
2005
Me
This was the year we said goodbye to my mom. She celebrated her 93rd birthday with us
in June; in December we had a farewell party before sending her to spend the rest of the
winter with my sister, Louise, who is a nurse.
The World
YouTube launched in 2004, despite Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest hurricanes
in U.S. history. It struck the Gulf Coast, particularly affecting Louisiana, Mississippi,
and Alabama on August 29. The Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty aimed at reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, had gone into effect in February, not a moment too soon
but not in time to prevent increased storm activity for decades to come.
2006
Me
The biggest family news for this year was Michael, my then-husband, graduate from
Arizona State University!
The World
The world's biggest news of 2006 was probably the Yogyakarta Earthquake, which hit
Indonesia and was only
a 6.4 but managed to kill over 5700 people nonetheless.
However, what probably caused the most controversy was the demotion of Pluto from
planet
to dwarf planet
, proving once and for all that size does, indeed,
matter.
2007
Me
This was the year I went on my first cruise! With the whole family, of course.
It was a cruise to the Western Caribbean, with stops at Grand Cayman, Cozumel,
and others. It was also significant to this here website thingy, in that I had
intended to provide a running commentary on my site to the trip, but in 2007
satellite connections to my server were abysmally slow, and that's what motivated
me to come up with a different approach for publishing pages.
The World
Of more general interest, in January of 2007, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone.
Cellphones weren't new. Smartphones weren't new either; the honor of the first
smartphone goes to the IBM Simon Personal Communicator, which was released in 1994.
But Apple's great strength was in taking technology that had already been proven,
re-package it in a way that nothing, from cables to software, could be shared
with the tech of another company, then overcharge for it.
That's right, I've never owned an iPhone. Or an Apple or Mac anything.
In other 2007 news, this was the year Netflix began streaming content.
(Previously, kids, they mailed actual DVDs to your home; after you'd watched
the movie, you'd send it back.)
2008
Me
So, yes, we took another cruise that year (to Ensenada). But the main event
was when my daughter, Dorothy Elizabeth, married her husband Frank Kinder
at Sedona, with me officiating! (Yes, in other news, I am an ordained minister.
Please stop laughing.)
The World
Yes, the global financial crisis sparked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers
led to widespread economic turmoil. But the best news I'd heard in years came
in November, when Barack Obama was elected President.
And yes, I lost some friends over this, people I had never thought were racist,
simply because the topic had never come up. But you know what? I was well rid
of them.
2009
Me
2009 was a big travel year for me, partly because my daughter, Karen, had
gotten a job as an airline flight attendant and had made her mom and I the
recipients of her free flights! Of course, I still was working so I couldn't
be gone all the time. But looking at all the photos I took, it seems
like it was. I made my first trip to Hawaii (Maui, specifically), went whitewater
rafting in Alaska, visited Los Cabos, Mexico, rafted the Upper Salt River here in Arizona,
attended my 40th class reunion in Florida!
In addition, my daughter, Jenny, organized a camping trip to Catalina Island in
California.
In addition to all that, my high school class had its 40th-year reunion
in Florida, and I attended.
The World
Almost unnoticed in the noise of Bitcoin's creation (I almost spelled it 'bitcon',
which wouldn't have been wrong!), the continuing global economic crisis,
Michael Jackson's death, and bird flu, was the best news of all.
In a last-ditch effort to put America under martial law (thus retaining the Bush-Cheney
presidency despite the election of Barack Obama), a US Airways Flight 1549 was attacked
and would have crashed in the middle of New York City itself, but for the amazing and
heroic efforts of Captain Chesley Sully
Sullenberger , who managed to bring the
plane down in the Hudson River instead, with zero loss of life.
Yeah, I know the movie convinced you it was pigeons
. It wasn't.
Both engines taken out by pigeons when, in the entire history of jet
aviation, and in a year when there were about 26.4 million jet flights,
it has never ever happened that even one engine was taken out
by pigeons or any other bird, not before then and not since, although,
oddly, there was no demand that some kind of protective screen be required
over the jet intake afterwards? (What, did you think this
was pure coincidence that it happened just five days before the inauguration?
That's adorable.)
2010
Me
So 2010 was a busy year, but more of an emotional roller coaster, as, late in the
year, I swapped partners for someone I thought would pay more attention to me.
It was a mistake, but whatevs.
The World
2010-Volcano.avif
The world as a whole had a lot tougher time than I did, as an incredibly catastrophic
magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti in January, followed by an even worse
one in Chile, with a magnitude of 8.8. And then, in April, the Eyjafjallajȯkull
Volcano erupted, causing enormous disruption to air travel across Europe.
In addition, we had the worst marine oil spill in history; Kyrgyzstan had a revolution,
and the president of Poland was killed in a plane crash.
2011
Me
And this was the year I almost died of necrotizing fasciitis. I was in a coma for 2 days,
and in the hospital for three months (and then, three more months). And, regards
my website, I didn't (couldn't) post a thing for months. By that time, I had almost lost
the thing as I hadn't been making the hosting service payments.
But I did get out of the hospital, obviously; and this was also the year of my second
trip to Maui.
After months of dealing with Jason's groundless jealousy and near-violent confrontations,
by October, I'd had it and escaped. For a couple of months…
The World
The years' main events were the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster, and the death of Osama bin Laden,
plus the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.
2012
Me
In January, Jason begged and promised and pleaded he would be good and not be the
monster he'd become the year before. He used my illness the previous year as an explantion,
basically blaming me for his behavior. And this was 12 years ago, before
public awareness had arisen regarding toxic relationships and the red flags of an
abuser to watch for. So. I took him back.
But by August, after he'd chased me through a field with his car!, I had had it for
sure and ever. By this time my ex-wife, Mary, had been diagnosed with cancer. So I moved
(back) in with her to serve as her caregiver.
The World
Barack Obama was elected to a second term (yayyyy!), an Italian cruise ship sank, and
Hurricane Sandy slammed New York and New Jersey. Meanwhile,
scientists at CERN announced the discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson,
a fundamental particle in the Standard Model of particle physics they'd been
looking for for 20 years.
2013
Me
Mary and I moved into a larger apartment in Chandler. She didn't need constant care yet,
so I had opportunities to do overnight hikes with a camping buddy.
I even got to raft Grand Canyon one last time, with my son-in-law's family.
Plus, now that I was retired (Jason had harassed me at work to the point they fired me,
though to be honest my recovery made it very difficult to concentrate on my work anyway),
and Mary seemed to be responding well to her chemo treatments, I actually got in a lot
of hiking, which of course helped me recover faster, and even to get into better shape than
before!
The World
The same election that put President Obama in the White House for a second term, also
brought a slew of Republicans into the Senate, where they successfully kept pretty much
anything from being done, and earning themselves the moniker The Party of NO!
They kept meaningful gun control legislation from passing, and shut the government down
for 16 days because they couldn't bring themselves to actually, you know, govern.
This was also the year (white) George Zimmerman was acquited for murdering an unarmed (Black)
teenager.
2014
Me
I had two major trips this year: One, my third visit to Maui, was for the occasion
of my daughter, Jenny's, wedding. The second was a road trip, taken with my camping
buddy, through New Mexico.
I also was able to continue camping and hiking—a lot with the result that
I managed to stop looking excessively obese. (Not that there's anything wrong with
that!)
The World
The scariest thing in world news in 2014, to me, was the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Not because I was planning a trip to West Africa, but because it hit too close to
home, so soon after my own attack of necrotizing fasciitis, which is also known
colloquially as a flesh-eating disease
.
There was also the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370,
which disappeared and no part has ever been found, no oil slicks, no floating purses,
nothing. I'm guessing the 2050 remake of Close Encounters of the Third Kind
will show the Flight 370 passengers emerging from a UFO on Devil's Tower.
2015
Me
The World
2016
Me
The World
2017
Me
The World
2018
Me
The World
2019
Me
The World
2020
Me
The World
2021
Me
The World
2022
Me
The World
2023
Me
The World
2024
Me
The World