I'm stunned but pleased to report that today is the exact 10th anniversary of Dispatch from the Razor's Edge. In these lovely and strange ten years I have published:
- 517 dispatches almost exactly one per week;
- 10,955 images most of them photos of things I have seen; and
- 372 movies mostly of multifarious foolishness; not to mention
- 699 comments brilliant insights and key corrections from you.
It was in this space ten years ago today that I inaugurated the end of my old life and the beginning of… well, at the time, I could hardly know. I only knew that I was reasonably happy there in the San Francisco Bay Area, the most beautiful urban area in the world, and nestled right up in Silicon Valley, the most dynamic and exciting place in the technology world. And I also knew that I did not want to just sit there being reasonably happy and waiting out the clock. So I got rid of half my stuff, put almost all the rest in storage, and took off on an open-ended odyssey of wandering and discovery.
I'm slightly tempted to try and catalogue all the blessings and adventures I've been gifted with in these ten years as a direct result of this decision. But better probably to just bottom-line it. Was this decision, so disruptive and terrifying at the time, the right one?
Yes.
And I just want thank all of you very, very, very much for coming along for the ride.
(Not to mention for reading along, and very often chiming in, while I weighed in on and in some cases reported live from 7/7, the Egyptian Revolution, the London sky, the Iraq War, Iran & Israel (and the Iranian people), Brideshead Revisited, the loss of David Foster Wallace, Scarlett Johansson kicking ass, female Apache pilots kicking ass, marriage equality, the loss of Hitchens, movie trailers, video game trailers, the London riots, not getting cancer, not dying in a car crash, walks across England, and up into the Scottish Highlands, and around Cornwall, and the zombie apocalypse, and techno-existentialism, just to grab a few at random…)
This is a slightly odd time to celebrate DftRE, as it's gone so quiet lately. (While I try to get real books written, which might just conceivably possibly maybe earn me enough of a living to get me out of that dynamic and thrilling technology business that makes me want to jump off Tower Bridge.) But in the time-honoured tradition of "reruns," you can now get served a totally random dispatch by clicking on the "Random Dispatch" button up above by the search bar or by clicking here after which, the button will reappear, allowing you to surf random dispatches through, let's face it, what will probably be your first day back at work after July 4th.
Because of course today is also the 236th birthday of the Great Republic, the United States of America. Happy birthday, America. And thank you wise, far-seeing, Enlightenment-steeped founders.
Oh and the God Particle was discovered today. Coincidence?