Scripting News: Gulllp

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Gulllp

Five years ago today: "Lots of non-Internet stuff going on."

That was an understatement. ";->"

I choose to remember 6/14/02 as the day I had my last cigarette. On my way to the doctor's office I bought two packs of Marlboro Lights. I smoked one on the way to the appointment. That was the last cigarette.

It was a Friday. I would spend Saturday and Sunday in the hospital, and on Monday I had heart surgery. A life-changing event, for sure. A life-saving event too.

Over the years I've written lots about it. As my body recovered from the surgery little victories seemed pretty big. First, a walk down the driveway. Then a five minute walk down Manzanita Way. Then ten minutes, then twenty. My first trip to the city. Dancing with a 6-foot cigarette in my dreams. And on and on.

I think today is a big milestone in that I didn't remember to look at the calendar until 2PM, and I had to go back to the archive page to be sure I had the day right. I am so not a smoker that I didn't even remember to mark the day until well past lunch.

I owe a lot of gratitude to people who helped me get through the toughest part of the recovery.

And I thank Murphy for letting me live another five years. Whew. Think I'll go walk in the hills. ";->"

Today's song: Respect Yourself.

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:53 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

Mail: scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

May Jul