Happy Blogniversary – 11 years of sixthseal.com!

11th Blog Anniversary

This is actually a very late post – 3 years late, to be exact. Haha! I haven’t done a proper blog anniversary post since April 19th 2012, the year sixthseal.com turned 10. Thus, I’m going catch up by doing *one blog anniversary post per day* until my actual 13th blog birthday on April 19th 2015! It’ll be the 11th anniversary post today and the 12th tomorrow, just in time for this year’s (lucky) 13th anniversary on Sunday!

I’ll do it in the classic sixthseal.com way – a roundup of interesting posts for the “previous” year. For this post, this will mean everything from 19th April 2012 to 19th April 2013 since my blog was created on 19th April 2002.

Also as a tribute to Sesame Street (and also coz I took out a photo in the My Birthday Conspiracy post) our letter today is K. smirk

Ketamine

(It’s the 11th letter of the alphabet, yo)

That photo was actually from this year (2012) and it’s real. This is also the year which I quit all opiates, read on to find out more. It’s actually a very instrumental year in my life.

Here’s my favorite posts of the previous (relative to this post) year in chronological order:

Steyr M9A1

Steyr M9 semi-auto 9mm handgun
6th May 2012
This is a semi-automatic firearm review. I actually have a Category H firearms licence in Melbourne when I was studying there. I wrote about one of my trips to the local shooting range in 2002. I realize it’s a bit dubious having a photo of a loaded handgun so close to the picture above, but oh well, I mean well. Haha.

White Water Rafting

White water rafting in Gopeng
6th June 2012
This is the best! I love outdoor activities like these – skydiving, white water rafting, all the adrenaline sports. I was travelling a lot at this particular period in time, it was a period of soul searching. I went to several countries within a span of a few months! Indonesia (twice – the other time was to Bali), Singapore, Germany, Thailand, Philippines, Australia and Cambodia.

Jakarta

Couchsurfing in Jakarta – don’t forget your towel
10 June 2012
This was an impromptu trip to Jakarta, which I still haven’t finished writing about. My resolution this year is to stop procrastinating so after my real blog anniversary on Sunday, you’ll see daily updates and more interaction as well as a facelift.

Mom

My mom’s battle with lung cancer
14 June 2012
My mom was still alive three years ago…I just came back from her first Ching Ming after she moved on last year. It’s a blessing that we’re with her during her final moments in Singapore, it was hard to see her suffer from end-stage lung cancer and the pain and immobility that came in the end was terrible. She’s in a much better place now.

Germany Beer McDonalds

Only in Germany – beer and bubble tea at McDonald’s!
26 June 2012
A quick post I wrote while I was travelling in Germany. I was in Dresden at the time and they really serve beer in McDonald’s in Germany! There’s no age checks either, but then again I’m no spring chicken. I know they serve beer in other McDonald’s too but Deutschland is the most famously quoted place. You can read the rest of my Germany travel posts but the most recent one is the trip I took with my better half last year, this trip was the trip before that. I’ve actually been to Europe five times within the past 8 years.

Seize the day!
22 July 2012
This was the day I quit OxyContin (oxycodone) which was what I meant by tattooing the date in the post. I went on the government Suboxone opiate maintenance program after that and eventually kicked that too. I had a really serious opiate habit but it turned out that Suboxone was worse in a lot of ways (and more expensive too).

Suit

Timothy and Audrey’s Up Themed Wedding in Penang
30 July 2012
This is one of the cutest weddings I’ve ever attended. I had that suit made in Phuket and lost it two years ago while buying chocolates for my dear. It’s a funny story, I was trying to surprise my better half by getting her Patchi chocolates and left my car at the mall’s underground car park, which had a car wash. I took my dry cleaned suit out to put in their lockers…and forgot all about it until several MONTHS later! -_-

A morning stroll at Kota Tua Jakarta
12 August 2012
Just chilling in Jakarta…

Balut

Eating balut in the Philippines
27th August 2012
…before heading to Manila to eat the famous balut (duck embryo) en route to the holiday island of Boracay.

11 photos from the Fraser’s Hill trip
19 September 2012
I told you I was travelling a lot during these few months. Hey, I had to do something to combat the withdrawals after quitting opiates, you have to go cold turkey before you can go on the government’s NDST (National Drug Substitution Therapy) program for Suboxone due to the way buprenorphine works.

Helmet diving in Boracay
26 September 2012
This is a fun way to experience the sea if you don’t have a SCUBA diving licence. I did but my travel partner didn’t so we went on this instead, which is my first time!

The Prodigal Son
17 November 2012
The About Me behind the About Me, the one you wouldn’t know unless you’ve been following the blog since it’s inception. I had lead quite a chaotic life. Interesting, yes; and the less travelled path, most definitely; but you pay for the life experiences you get. One way or another, you pay.

Yee Ling

Competitive ice cream eating and other stories
29 November 2012
How can I not include this post? This is the best (and most important) day of my life. <3

A wonderful array of Indian sweets
9 January 2013
My love affair with Indian sweets

Emophant

Deer Emophant – a trip to the National Elephant Conservation Centre and Deerland Park in Kuala Gandah, Pahang
29 January 2013
I meet an emophant on a road trip. 🙂

The firecracker and the cat
17th February 2013
A funny story about a firecracker and a feline. No, nothing that would cause PETA to come after me, this is actually a rather tame story. Pardon the pun.

Daytime fireworks colored smoke salute cakes!
21 February 2013
Amazing smoke bombettes that flies up and bursts in the air in the form of a fireworks cake. It was the first commercially available daytime fireworks and my only regret was not setting the exposure correctly in the video, coz lighting and seeing the smoke bursts in real life was amazing!

Daylight Fireworks

Penguin Parade @ Phillip Island
26 March 2013
My first trip with my better half! We went to Melbourne. This was my first post when we got there. The “How I Met Your Mother in Melbourne” post is also iconic. We spent a lot of fun times and collected a lot of good memories in Australia, particularly in Phillip Island where we saw the penguins and stayed at a wonderful B&B with a huge room with amazingly breathtaking views of the countryside at Odette & Siegfried’s Room @ Swan Lake Guest House, Phillip Island.

Phillip Island

My first day trip with the M&Ms
31 March 2013
The start of an awesome relationship with the kids.

Resort

My romantic birthday getaway @ Philea Resort in Melaka
10 April 2013
My dear surprised me with a birthday present – a trip to a resort!

Chaul Chnam Thmey from Siem Reap, Cambodia!
15 April 2013
My better half and I head to Cambodia for our second overseas vacation of the year.

Cambodia

Like I said, this was the best year of my life. I met my soul mate, who kept me on the straight and narrow and I’ve been very lucky to have her in my life. I love the kids and I love my dear and everything I do from this year onwards is reflective of that so that’s the end of shenanigans like ketamine…and the start of being a better person.

My other social media sites:
Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/sixthseal
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/sixthsealdotcom
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/sixthseal
http://www.facebook.com/SixthSealcom

Here’s the list of my previous of blog anniversary posts:
2003: sixthseal.com 1st Birthday
2004: sixthseal.com 2nd Birthday!
2005: sixthseal.com 3rd Birthday!
2006: sixthseal.com 4th Birthday!
2007: I was in rehab. There are (officially) no posts in 2007.
2008: I just got out of rehab. There is no 2007 recap to be done coz there are no posts in that year.
2009: Seven years of sixthseal.com
2010: I was in New Zealand at the time while my mom underwent an operation for lung cancer. I’m not sure what happened to the blog anniversary post, most likely I didn’t do one coz I was too caught up with stuff, if that’s the case, I’ll do a retrograde one like this post.
2011: Happy 9th bloganivarsary sixthseal.com!
2012: Happy Blogday – 10 years of sixthseal.com!

I’ll update again tomorrow with the next year’s blog anniversary post!

Thanks for reading everyone! It’s been a real pleasure having all of you on board, whether dropping by for the first time or a long time friend. Cheers! 🙂

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

25 thoughts on “Happy Blogniversary – 11 years of sixthseal.com!”

    • Thanks for the kind comments! 🙂

      It’s actually my 13th anniversary this year. I didn’t do my anniversary posts 3 years running so I’m catching up! Haha.

      The balut is very nice, but the Khmer version is better!

      Reply
  1. Great! though we oni met once (when I pass you some tissues at Chonglin Park), had alwiz been an avid reader of your posts (and occasionally can see my Brother Eddy Puah botak head). Keep up the excellent pieces and look forward to read your 88th anniversary.

    Reply
    • Thanks bro! 🙂

      Hey, we were just thinking about you the other day. I was in Sibu and hanging out at Eddy’s house most of the time (and eating his wife’s wonderful food). I remember that incident very well – that was a good (and bad) time in my life, my time in Chong Lin Park.

      BTW, my block got raided twice and my neighboring block got raided once (got on TV3 Edisi Siasat – I was crashing from a methamphetamine run so I slept through it) and the police who arrested me told me one of the raids was meant to look for me, but they got the floor BELOW me due to wrong info from an informant. Haha.

      Reply
  2. 3 anniversary posts all at once…yeah, why not! Let me congratulate you first on your 11 years of blogging then. I’m new to your blog, so it was great catching up with some of things in your life. Looks like 2012 was a great year for you!

    Reply
    • Thanks for the kind comments! 🙂

      Yeah, it was a good year indeed! Haha! I’m finding it to be a bit of a chore to do one anniversary post per day in order to catch up to the 13th anniversary but that’s the price of my tardiness in the previous 3 years.

      Cheers for reading!

      Reply
  3. Happy 11th anniversary in blogosphere Huaibin! You live an interesting and the coolest thing is you jot it all down with beautiful words. But, I got surprised to read about the OxyContin cos it looks dangerous. Anyway, I will congratulate you again tomorrow for another year of achievement done! 😀

    Reply
    • Thanks Gideon! 🙂

      Yeah, OxyContin and other strong opiates like fentanyl is a little more intense than methamphetamine (which I was addicted to and kicked in 2007 or somewhere around that time) since it’s also physically addictive (both the newer opiates are as good, if not better and more addictive than heroin).

      I’m not sure going on to the government Suboxone program was any better (it was certainly more expensive) but at least it was legal and I finally kicked it as well. My blog was known as a drug blog back in the days, I was the first person to write non-anonymously and many wondered how I could do it at all. It was a strange time indeed.

      Thanks mate.

      Reply
  4. Happy 11th Blog-anniversary! Yes, you were at it long before I started but even then, I was a regular around here, always commenting on your posts. You did not know it was I then (many thought I was female and were wondering who this was, commenting everywhere but no own blog)…but your parents did. Keep blogging – here’s to many many more years to come. Cheers!!!

    Reply
    • Thanks buddy! 🙂

      It’s actually my 13th blog anniversary! I didn’t write my blog anniversary posts for the past 3 years so I’m catching up before my real 13th anniversary on Sunday 19th April 2015.

      I started at a time where there was no WordPress, no broadband (in Malaysia, I had an OC-12 in uni) and I’m pretty sure I’m the oldest running personal blog in Malaysia.

      Haha! Yeah, it was my mom who finally told me who you were and I remember we went out for a Sibu bloggers meet when I came back to Sibu to work. Cheers for the kind wishes mate!

      Reply
  5. Happy Blogniversary! I have been following you since forever I think, I just changed my links a few times 🙂 . And sorry to hear about your mom, and you being so strong about it. So keep writing, enjoy your newfound happiness and never let her go. 🙂

    Reply
    • Thanks! 🙂

      Yeah, I know and I remember! You changed your links plenty of times.

      Actually, I nearly didn’t have my archives if not for David from Australia who backed it all up. I owe him everything, or else this blog would have started from when I got out of rebah (2008) coz I lost everything when I went to rehab (can’t renew hosting, didn’t back up etc).

      Reply
    • Thanks Hayley! 🙂

      It’s actually 13 years of blogging! I haven’t done my past 3 years blog anniversary posts e.g. the 11th anniversary and the 12th anniversary so I’m doing it now before my proper 13th anniversary on 19th April 2015!

      Reply
    • Thanks Mun! 🙂

      I’ve still been going on at this medium, prefer to write and in a lot of ways, doing this retrograde catch up has been good for me – getting the discipline to churn out one post per day just like in the old days.

      Reply
    • Thanks mate! 🙂

      Yup, balut is awesome but the Khmer style balut we had in Cambodia was even better! They keep the chicks for longer so it’s actually a tiny bird when you crack it out.

      Reply

Leave a Comment