This entry was inspired by this weeks topic Past, Present & Future over at Topical Tuesday. Now you have all week to take part! Do it, now!

Where were you ten years ago?
Ten years ago I had just graduated from university (give or take a few months) with a pointless qualification in equestrian science. Everything I earned was being spent on a horse who, since purchase, had proved absolutely unfit for purpose. At this stage in my life I was still clinging to the childhood dream of becoming an event rider. But I was blinded by adoration for the horse and so persisted, and it was to prove my undoing.

I was spending far too much time on a certain student site, which is where I spent Sarah, a short while before. This year, I am reminded, was the year we also met in the person!

Ten years ago I was not especially geeky. I loved computers, but had yet to become totally hooked on them – this was to come a little later.

Where are you now?
Having discovered my inner geek I now spend my days creating websites for other people. Its a living, but at the moment, not a very good one. I am in my early stages of re-starting my business after a period of sickness.

It´s not easy when you are struggling with bouts of chronic depression. A few days ago I came to the decision to delete all my old files, a symbolic move to represent a fresh start – both on my blog and in my life. Not off to a great start, but I´m sure I can have a point or two for good intentions.

Where would you like to be in ten years?
When I was 16 years old I had my life mapped out. Needless to say things didn´t exactly run according to plan. I never became an event rider, and never attended Guildhall School of Music & Drama (hell, I never even applied). Needless to say I no try and map out a life plan, on account of being much older and wiser cynical.

Ten years from now

1. I will be coping with bouts of depression and will have, finally, put the past behind me.
2. I will have continued to improve my skills in website design, but it will no longer be my main occupation because…
3. I will have graduated my degree in Geo & Environmental Sciences and maybe even continued on to complete my masters.
4. Better still I may even have written the book I have been planning for the last sixteen years.
5. Microsoft will have created an operating system which actually works and Internet Explorer will have been phased out entirely.
6. Bill Gates will have had an unfortunate accident when his Microsoft powered automobile crashes,  and he is presented with the ultimate blue haze of eternal damnation.

Think you can do better? Let us know where you were, are and intend to be by partaking in this weeks Topical Tuesday

Topic: #26 Is it Christmas already?!

Before I begin I would like to post a quick note about recent developments over at Topical Tuesday.  In the early days when Topical Tuesday was born, it was decided that every Monday evening a new topic would be posted for participants to ramble about the following day via their blogs. No consideration was given to those poor unfortunates who hold down steady jobs and actually manage to factor a life in there as well. Now we have realised this we have decided to make Topical Tuesday last all week! That is to say a new topic will be posted every Tuesday, for you to contemplate and ponder on all week. Hopefully, at some point, you will manage to set aside five minutes to join us by writing a post.

On I go.

I am atheist. I don´t believe in God.  For that reason Christmas is not a period for celebrating Christ´s birth because, rather ironically, I don´t believe in him either.

The reason I celebrate Christmas is quite simple. Not only am I fond of a jolly old shindig, enjoy a present or two and a nice tot of alcohol with my pudding, but I also love my family. I celebrate Christmas essentially because they do. Christmas, for me, is all about family and friends. It’s about celebrating the continuance of life, and the feelings we share.

When I was a child Christmas was about getting together and sharing a good meal. After which we´d be subjected to the Queen´s speech and endless movie / TV re-runs.  With the turn of the century Christmas has become a massive marketing event, with tailored goods hitting the shelves as early as October. The simpler Christmas is lost amidst a mad rampage of Christmas shoppers and spoilt children demanding their XBox360. The sparkle of the traditional Christmas still exists, the merry dance of Christmas lights, the smell of mulled wine and spiced orange, and the turkey sizzling away in the oven – it’s just a lot more difficult to find underneath all the marketing camouflage.

Meme: Topical Tuesday
Topic : Time Capsules

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Trivial to some maybe, the time capsule has infinitely more meaning to others. As a past student of History I would find it infinitely fascinating to discover what people had put in time capsules. These can be invaluable historical sources, primary evidence as we call it. What would you put in yours?

A Rock
That´s right. Your eyes do not deceive you, I would put a rock in there. In my view, a very special rock. I bought this rock when I was about ten years old from Brimham in Summeridge, Nidderdale, UK. It was the beginning of a fascination with Geology and my love for wild and unruly landscapes. Brimham Rocks is 50 acres of wild and wacky shaped rocks formed naturally over thousands of years. It is, in my view, one of the most stunning places in the whole of Yorkshire – closely followed by Malham. Both places I visited a lot as child, when I would go hiking.

USB Drive
Full of all the things I believe are representative of me – the designs I have created, the words I have written, and the photographs of the most important things in my life (past and present). See below for further information on the photographs.

Photographs
A fairly obvious but no less effective way of demonstrating those things in life which are most important to you, or in this case have been. My mother and my best friend would feature first, especially since they are one and the same person. It seems rather cliche to say ones mother is your best friend, but in this case it is true. My mother is, and always has been, untraditional. The mother role, she claims, never came naturally to her, and so we moved on from the standard mother/daughter relationship when I was in my early teens. She has always been there for me, through the bad times especially (of which there were many). We have an unsual relationship which, like all relationships, has its up and downs. I love her more than anything.

Other photographs would be::

• My JRT Joe, my little dog.
• The four horses I have owned during the course of my lifetime. Although horses no longer feature largely in my life now there was a time when I lived and breathed them. In with these would be the numerous trophies and rosettes I won competing horses when I was younger, in addition to a lock of the hair from Tom´s mane which I have kept for 19 years.
• Places I have lived. Travel has always been an important feature in my life, which has lead me to live in two countries. I dreamt of moving abroad for years, truth is it was only when I did that I realised the place I was happiest was Scotland. I love Scotland, with passion. It has a mystique of its own, and is a truly magical place.
• Me & my friends. Images from an insane weekend in Blackpool

The notes from my novel
The novel. The one I have been trying to write not for over ten years, and have still not succeeded (and for some reason I doubt I ever will). The main character, a rather obnoxious teenager, is so vivid to me.  I find her story will play out in my mind even when I am not subconciously trying to work on the book. On a morning, when I wake, I find myself jotting notes that I intend to put in the book. Confidence is my weakness. I do not feel I have the strength of words to do her story (note not my story) justice.

Music
A sample of music I have loved. Coldplay, Travis, The Verve, Stereophonics, Snow Patrol, Manic Street Preachers would feature largely. Also a lot of music from the 60s and 70s. Early Beatles, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones…

What would you put in your Time Capsule?. If you want to take part please visit Topical Tuesday – subscribe to the feed, follow us on twitter or via the website.