"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
― Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings
― Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings
On a whim, I decided to use the Internet's Way Back Machine archive to dig up some old versions of my website and blog. I almost forgot that the earliest versions didn't even have my blog ― it was just an archaic .html gallery of .jpg images from my first foray into digiscoping. Also, the original website was hosted at birddigiscoping.com, but I lost that URL during a ISP crash back in 2009. I couldn't get that domain back, so I went with a new provider and moved everything to birddigiscoper.com.
Eventually, I put up a blog. The first version wasn't on blogger ― it was just some text-based page I put together and added entries to. But here's the first version of the blogger blog I created around 2005 to 2006:
Once I got the hang of editing the blogger template, I made aesthetic customizations:
Occasionally changing the banner image:
I'm not sure what happened here:
Once I changed the background to black, I stuck with it:
It went through various designs of banner images:
That's the Hunger Games font, and then variations on the graphic:
Nifty ― and how Pagan of me:
This minimalist version went up in 2014, and it's only changed subtly since:
Just a font change:
After my 550-day blogging hiatus, when I started up again I changed its name to Máistir Nádúraí, though the URL is still birddigiscoper [.com and blogspot.com] ― there's no simple way to change that. The name is Irish for Master Naturalist, which is sort of a jab and inside joke about pay-as-you-go master naturalist programs around the country. No ― they don't make you a master naturalist, whatever that even means. It takes a lifelong commitment of study, tutoring, mentorship, exploration, research, education, and more ... not just $275.00 and a few hours. Am I one? Shit, I don't know.
All images © 2021 Mike McDowell