2 Years Of The DP? Already?

Happy new year! As usual, irresponsible me has forgotten to do either a Happy 2014 post or any more Christmas posts as promised, but I happen to have other things on my mind. It's been two whole years since 11-year-old me wrote about some footprints in the snow, i.e. The Dramatis Persona began! In contrast to last year's lengthy blogaversary post, I don't really have too much time today, because I have to put up some awesome new shelves in my bedroom (and they are way more exciting than they sound, and I will post them soon :D) so I just want to take this short paragraph's chance to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who has ever read, followed or complimented this blog. To all of you who've still commented despite my long breaks from posting, to all of my real-life friends for always bugging me about when I'm going to post, and basically everyone who's ever said anything nice about my little corner of cyberspace. You all make my day and my entire two years, and while recently I have been thinking of giving up this blog, due to busyness and other interests creeping in, but I intend to post more often than I have been doing, and I hope you all support me in that. Once again, thank you.
-DP :)

40: A Very Important Number

Guys, I have a very very VERY special announcement for all of you!!!! This is the fortieth ever DP post! Five times my favourite number, 8 (random)! And for a long while I've wanted to do a post that says some cool facts about a specific number, so a few weeks ago I realised that the upcoming post number 40 would be a perfect opportunity!

It's a wonderful word, forty. And it's unique, because of all the numbers in the world it's the only one to have its letters arranged in alphabetical order. So wonderfully unique is 40 that Christianity chose it to be the number of days Jesus fasted for AND the length of the Biblical floods. Tennis has decided to make 40 significant in its scoring (the reason for this isn't known), and whoever invented temperature scale decided to make 40 Celsius and 40 Fahrenheit uniquely equal. The stuff that makes up our bones (calcium) is mass number 40,  and the stuff in zirconium (fake diamond) is atomic number 40. And the UK Top 40 is 40 rather than 100 like in other countries because of the 40-record storage limit on early jukeboxes!

Some pretty notable stuff happened 40 years ago in 1973 as well, hard though it is to believe for an impressionable 12-year-old like me. We (by that I mean UK for those of you who don't what country I live in), along with Denmark, joined the EEC, and the iconic Sydney Opera House was opened. The Bahamas gained independence, and the Vietnam War ended, to name but a few important 40-year-old events. Also in 1973 people like Heidi Klum, Gwyneth Paltrow and Eminem came into the world (all 40 this year, unbelievably).

On a sadder note, some other famous people have died seriously young. Glenn Miller, John Lennon, Edgar Allan Poe and Jack London all died aged 40. However, XL, 40 in Roman numerals, is either extra-large, or more cheerfully, excellent!

Still not yet convinced by all of this that forty is an awesome number? Well, take a look at these beautiful fireworks!

-DP :)

PS BLOG MAINTENANCE POINT! I have added a new animated pageview record, that moves one higher every time someone looks at my blog! Oh, and the firework image isn't mine.

The Dramatis Persona Has A Birthday!!!

WOW. WOW WOW WOW. This is incredible. This is a relatively strange feeling. My blog is a year old! I have been recording my everyday thoughts, wonderings, pictures, imaginings and facts for 365 amazing, enlightening days (well, actually 366 because 2012 was a leap year, but do we honestly care about precise numbers of days? No.) It's been an entire twelvemonth since I wrote down my strange fantasies on 11th Feb. 2012 in the wintery post Whose Tracks?, unsure about the aims of my blog, never ever imagining I'd still be writing away a year on. And no, I never thought I'd ever write about panda-shaped burn marks on chopping boards or large-sized plums, or even blue olive-like fruit.

And the funny thing is, I never actually intended to blog. My mum was the one who first became enthusiastic about the blogging revolution. She wanted to start her own, and I decided to help (Why? I thought it would be cool to say at school "My mum has a blog about the tat she picks up at charity shops, what about yours?"). I watched a video tutorial and did some research, but she still couldn't bring herself to start her online diary. So naturally my family suggested I start one instead, as I was probably more enthusiastic than her. And the rest, as they say, was history.

Thank you to everyone in my family and circle of friends who supported me sometime in this fantastic year, and everyone I don't know who has subscribed, commented, voted on the poll or simply briefly viewed the blog. Without you I wouldn't have (at the time of writing)...

36 posts

2020 pageviews (not including my own)

11 devoted public followers

4 devoted email subscribers

16 published comments

and 4 popular polls!!!

So that's The Dramatis Persona in numbers. But what you're probably more interested in is this delicious-looking birthday cake my mum made today to celebrate my blog-aversary (fantastic word!)

I think it's a great reminder of my lil' ol' webpage, and it was pretty tasty too! Sorry to make you envious. The picture should be tasty-looking enough.

Once again, thank you everyone who's had a look around my site, be it my best friend or someone who randomly found it while browsing Bloggers who love Rihanna and Taylor Swift. Myself, among many others. I hope I can keep The DP  (and you as readers) around for another year, or maybe many more!

-DP :)