Habemus Arpex - Dates and numbers, and other personal stuff

I've never been very good with dates. Birthdays, anniversaries even holidays are not something my brain keeps track of very well. Somehow my brain holds them for not being too important. Despite evidencing an open contradiction between my brain and myself, I actually think dates are allways an appropriate opportunity to look back, forward and around, to see where we stand, and where we are going.

The post number 1000 has come and gone unnoticed. But today I did notice, that the 3rd. anniversary of this blog is approaching. This blog was born on the 31rd. October 2007, when I did the first post . At that time, I didn't suspect that the activity of documenting my boat construction would come to be such a satisfying endevour in itself. Blogging in fact is a time consuming and laborious pastime. However, I admit, that I thoroughly enjoy the documentation in pictures, the editing of the images, and the wrighting of posts.

The first post brought some sort of mission statement. To today, throughout these 3 years, this blog has kept true to its fist intentions, of publishing information about my boatbuilding project, my boat building interests, besides offering me a platform for showing my art production , in form of drawings and mobiles, and also my other passions.

The only major change has been the language of the posts. The first posts were still written in Portuguese. That changed as soon as I realised, that english would be a much more suitable choice, if I considered that the documentation of the boat-construction should also help other amateurs to motivate themselves. And that was a good choice, which is confirmed by the 68.116 visitors from all over the world, who drop in regularly. And I could only imagine that the odd 50 daily hits, are clicked up by people who come to check what progress I had on my boat over the last weekend. Very few of those anonymous visitors are actually known to me. And I often sit looking at the map, wondering who y'all are!?!

The documentation of the boat-construction has been the main focus. And that priority is confirmed by the number of posts, 325, which have been published under the "Arpex" marker. The whole process, from the very beginning, which was marked by a blazing party, has been documented in pictures and text. What started with a loud celebration, still required a while until something actually evidenced that a boat would be built. Since then this blog has documented the ups and downs of such a project. I've tried to be true, honest and franc in regards to the personal and technical challenges involved. And I've allways tried to actually describe the personal side involved; My decisions, my fears, disapointments, conquests, triumphs and all the wealth of sentiments attached to it. I believe this approach will make this blog a rich place for me to visit in future.

After 2 and a half years of building, we have reached a point, where I can be confident that I will actually be able to put my contraption into the water. How it will perform, is something we all will have to wait to see. The proof of the pudding is in the eating...? Not in this case. I'm eating my pudding already, while I prepare it. And to me it tastes good.

I hope you're still enjoying the ride - because I am. The blogs anniversary is still 5 weeks distant. But I decided to make my little retrospective already, just in case the actual date, the 31 October 2010, slips.

PS: By the way; these days the sun is rising right above the location where the boat-construction has started, in Itaipu, Niteroi.