There was a season, long ago, when I started multiple blogs at MovableType, Typescript, Serendipity, Drupal, Blogger, Bloxsom, and some very very early versions of WordPress! Some of these still function, others can be read (only in part) via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. But most are dead and inaccessible, as are most of your 15+year-old blogs…unless you still own the database and are willing and able to painstakingly reconstruct your old site.

WordPress is the winner and perennial champeen in the blogware/CMS stakes, no doubt about it. However, 15-16-17 years ago it was about as secure as a papier-mâché bank vault. That’s one of the reasons why there are so many security plugins for it today.

Updates to PHP versions constitute the main reason old WP sites no longer work. For a few years you might have been able to view your old 2005 site, but with a lot of database and program errors logged at the top of the screen. Now you probably can’t see it at all. Your URL simply gives you a blank.

Coming across old blog posts might therefore be a rare treat. From a version 1.2 WordPress site set up in early 2005:

From a simple Blogspot site a few years later, 2010. Being from Blogger, and therefore not self-hosted, this site is still functional:

That’s Ella King Torrey in the photo. I think she’d recently died.

Moving on, these old MovableType blogs (early 2005) still work for some reason:

Serendipity, or Sy9, was one of the many also-rans in the blogware survey of 2005. It was just prominent enough for me to read about and install. Down near the beginning there, I x’ed out somebody’s surname because the late, lamented Sharlene Spingler did a Google search and found him there. Doubly embarrassing for me, because in addition to discussing his mutilated foot and life, I included a photo of him with his demipod. Ouch.

It appears I followed up that Serendipity blog with a new one in 2014, at almost the same address: http://nbnm.net/drood/s9y/ :

These old versions of Sy9, both v1.7.8, still work although Serendipity’s PHP versions are now 7 and 8. I suppose this is due to the simplicity of the platform, and the lack of plugins, which are what makes WordPress fall down, usually.

An ongoing scratchpad about my awful life. Which years were worst? Which best?

2020 *** Looking up. A little work with Census. A little stim. City closed down. Bizarre circumstance. Financial anxiety eases.

2019 **  Empty year. Two pieces in SD Reader, one big long reject. ‘Translation’ job turns out to be a scam. Job from TempAlt @ $17 in November falls to pieces. I bottom out on credit-card debt, nearly default on WF Visa.

2018 **  Try and fail to get temp work. Walk off a bad temp job downtown in January. My funds run out but Brian takes up the rent. The HP PC just fails. One trip: to DC in Jan for Paul Nehlen fundraiser. Pointless fiasco. Adam Parfrey dies, I do Zoo piece for SD Reader. A few pieces for ST.

2017 **     Some economic comfort; pension payout & SS. Little work. Think I’ll be a translator like Cushing. Mainly drinking, FB, and travel. To Seattle in May and August for NW Forum. To Matt & Anna’s for Inauguration & party in January, to Richard Spencer’s in Alexandria in December. Johnny wake, Moki tiff in March, NYAC set-to at Christmas. My last NY Forum.

2016 ***     RHT fiasco, brief AA, some unemployment, apply for SS, the high of Taylor Swift and Trump. NY Forums, end of Double R Ranch.

2015 ****   Writing, conferences, real work at PRH briefly, then short bad jobs. Jan.
2014 ***     Same as ’13 till July. Collier Island. Then writing for AmRen and CC.
2013 *       Listless, unmotivated, shitty job interviews, living on unemployment.
2012 *       Tina through the year. Drop out of half-maras. DDP giving me hard time. 1st in Corp Challenge. Blow up and get fired, I’m too stupid to go away to rehab. Go to running camp instead. Anxiety through the year.
2011 ***      Full-time hire but failing athletically. Penn Relays. 1st in Corp Challenge. Bad tri training. First and only sprint triathlon. Beginning of tina period.
2010 **      Schewe, DraftFCB, Gary Lucas, AmexPub.
2009 *        Elisa Perks fiasco, GreenGap fiasco, terrible CDM job. Drop out of NYCM.
2008 ***    Layoff and Millrose Games in Jan. Clermont-Ferrand, Paris, London, Boston, Spokane, Portland. Flash classes.Terrible McAllister job. Drop out of NYCM.
2007 ****    Boston Mara, Riccione, Corp Challenge, CPTC benefit at The Space, Frank Shorter. Bye to Sonnekson.
2006 ****    Lots of road and track and xc. Work with Chris Yerkes. Portland ME.
2005 *****  Paris, first mara; also, 2nd, 3rd, 4th. CPTC. Work promotion.
2004 ****    Down to my thinnest, late ’03 to ’06
2003 ***      Don’t really recall much specifically. Teen Time. Seriously diet. Drawing cartoons for Colin.
2002 **       Lots of travel to London and Paris but I realize I am fat. Uncomfortable meetup with Boylan in April.
2001 **       9/11 brings some excitement but I am not succeeding at writing.
2000 **       England and then Paris for the first time. Sonnekson.
1999 *         Australia, Falmouth, Nantucket but the difficulties with Moki. My share in Hoboken. That trip with Dee and Jimmy to NE Penn. Work is enjoyable.
1998 ****     Move to Moki’s in January, difficulties with Laura, trip to California, later trip to Mississippi. SSB/Citi job for the next ten years.
1997 **        Seattle temp jobs: Midcom, C+B, the Blue Cross disaster. Graham piece in Punch. Nice visits to Vancouver and New Westminster. Nice trip to SD for storage, Laura panicking with truck. Public Storage in Burien. I go back to LA/SD, see Colin and Hulsys. Some Qualcomm work for Colin.
1996 **        Very difficult. London and Laura. R Fiore, R Mussolini in March. Murray Hancock. To Seattle. A few published pieces.
1995 ***      Job security for a while at CTS. Twist my ankle wear a boot. That Jay guy.
1994 *          Life pretty much craters because of GN, IHR, Laura, money runs out. Then we work hard at shitty jobs atthe end and I get sick.
1993 **        London. Simon Hoggart. Brighton, Tony Hancock. Persecution at the Reader. Holman gives me the boot. I start GN. Laura thinks it is a substitute for real work. Bluehnbach, Fred Koch.
1992 *          Reader relaunch party in January. Roger Hedgecock. Briefly give up drinking. Aftermath of Mary disaster, rebound to Laura and move to OB. I fuck up on City Lights stories, fall out with Matt. Depressing Donner Party clock. Cover story on McKinnon. Visit to Seattle in November? Bad year, all in all.
1991 ***      Bipolar year par excellence. Begin with move to SD and drop out of law school. Sickness unto death. The Flame. Decide to move back to NYC while you can. Start Prozac. Visit Glenn and Tani in March. Back in SD, all is well. Nice lez girls in Carlsbad. My confession. Abe Opincar. Jim Holman. Mary Lang. Matt Potter. I am suddenly a star, high on SSRIs. Crash end of summer, check myself into Mesa Vista Nov 2 (?). No trip to Paris.

1990 ****   Pleasant till the last few months, when the jimjams kick in. Nantucket. Finish up with S/E Marketing. Temp work at NY Fed and RJR, later MSG. See Tony Randall whistling merrily in the RJR doorway during a sudden rain squall. To Fire Island (Robt Moses State Beach) with Dr John. Videocam. Mark Ludington. Move to 226 E 26. I find new owners for my ferrets. Trip to Santa Fe and SD, Santa Barbara, San Fran, drive back to SF via Flagstaff, Arizona. Rent First Ave apt in SD.Terrible falling out with Mars girl, after I meet up with her in Old Town. That terrible Cynthia MacAdams (is she dead yet?). Sad packing up from 226 at end of Dec.

Tuna, Pea, and Brown Rice Casserole Recipe – Food.com 1125 Easy-Fold Bike Stand