Another week, another selection of posts from my old Bolt journal. Being at home on my summer holiday from university, there wasn’t very much to write about, so I’ve combined 2 months in one post here as they were relatively short. There are still a few points of interest though, including a house invader, a fun charity event, a surprise from my university, my birthday, a bit more sport that caught my attention, and some more music and DVDs that I bought. So I hope you enjoy!
Here we go again, with another month’s worth of entries from my journal on the old social media site Bolt. People seem to be enjoying these, and you’ll notice that my entries have got much longer here. so I hope they continue to interest you. It’s fun for me looking back at them.
I’m not a football fan in general, but I do like to support our country in the World Cup, so it does get mentioned a lot this month. But there’s also the special Golden Jubilee concert for the Queen, socialising with friends, my final exams from my first year at university, and more purchases of music, videos and DVDs. So there’s quite a bit to get through here.
On the university front, it’s worth clarifying that I didn’t stay in student accommodation on site. I lived close enough to commute by train. So if you’re wondering why I didn’t just wander across campus to get some results immediately, that was why – I wasn’t there. So I wasn’t going to catch a train just to look at one result. It was more worthwhile to wait until all of my results were ready, or if I was meeting a friend in the vicinity.
It’s also interesting to see that I’m still buying a mixture of VHS videos and DVD discs at this point, as not everything I wanted was available on DVD back then. So this was a bit of a transition period, gradually moving from one format to the other where possible.
Anyway, with apologies for all the football mentions – or soccer for those of you across the pond – here’s how things went for me in June 2002. I hope you enjoy!
Queen are my favourite band of all time. Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon produced such incredible songs, albums, videos and live performances throughout their reign, with their own exceptional and wonderful sound, gifting us a magical legacy that will live on forever. Their music always makes me feel good, or in tougher times it makes me feel supported, and I never tire of listening to them.
Freddie’s premature passing will forever remain a heartbreaking loss, as nobody else has (or ever will) be able to match him. Yes, of course there are many other fabulously talented singers and musicians whom I also love, but Freddie was very much a one-off, in the best possible way. There was even a scientific study analysing his amazing voice a few years ago.
It’s also important to acknowledge the contributions of Brian, Roger and John too, of course, all of whom are awesome musicians in their own right. And as well as being great performers, Queen are the only band where every member has composed more than one chart-topping single, and all 4 members were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. And there are many other impressive sales figures and single statistics out there, including 50 incredible facts from the Official Charts, if further proof were needed,
I first discovered Queen back in the 1990s when I went to see a tribute act in concert with some school friends. I already knew a few of their biggest hits, naturally, but the show opened my ears to so much more. I immediately got Queen’s Greatest Hits compilations, then in later years dug deeper to explore their albums and videos, and have continued to be in love with them ever since.
And we’re now approaching a highly significant milestone, as it will soon be Queen’s 50th anniversary – although exactly when you celebrate it depends on which date you use. They first performed under that name on 18 July 1970, hence I’m posting this exactly 50 years on from that date, as it’s as good a reason as any. However, the lineup was only finalised when John Deacon joined the band on 1 March 1971. So the latter is really more appropriate, and for that reason Queen are going to be officially celebrating their 50th in 2021. But hey, as our actual Queen has 2 birthdays every year, I think her majestic musical namesake can have 2 as well, right?
With that in mind, therefore, and because I have plenty of time to kill given the current worldwide situation, it’s the perfect opportunity for me to do a deep dive into all of their albums, DVDs and other bits and pieces, and write some reviews in the process. After all, there’s so much to explore, with such a wonderful variety to their music, and they weren’t afraid to be ambitious and experimental. Even now I sometimes discover new things that I hadn’t noticed before. It’ll take me a while to do all of this, of course – I’ll try and do a post every 2 or 3 weeks, but we’ll see how it goes. In any case, it’ll be fun to go through their output in detail, and I hope you enjoy coming on the journey with me!
Welcome to another Throwback Thursday post, with another set of entries from my old journal on the former social media site Bolt. This month I went to see an ABBA tribute show and attended a wedding reception, as well as having to do revision for university, so I was quite busy.
The posts are starting to get a bit longer now, as there’s more to mention and I was getting more comfortable writing online at the time. And I’ve anonymised my friend’s names, using initials only to respect their privacy.
Hello again, I hope you’re all keeping well. Or if you’re not doing great at the moment, as is the case for a couple of my friends (who by strange coincidence have the same name), then I hope things improve very soon. And if you’re enjoying the greater freedoms that have been granted to us recently, then please continue to be careful and safe. As proven by Leicester here in the UK, which has had to revert to a strict lockdown again, we can’t afford to be complacent.
It’s also strange to think that we passed 100 days of lockdown in week 15. That seems to have gone by quicker than I’d expected – although I know for many that time will have dragged terribly, and certainly early on I found it difficult like everyone else. But I’m glad I’ve been able to settle into a new routine and adapt during that time. I did look into things like gaming, quizzing and exercising but, as I’d rather expected, they soon fell by the wayside! Connecting with friends, homeworking, blogging, music, TV and film have all got me through it, and are continuing to do so. And now it’s reasonably safe to go out and about again to some extent, which is good as well.
So here’s my latest post and video update for the past couple of weeks, with news on disability events and my first outings in months, along with films, comedy and music that I’ve been enjoying. None of it is sponsored to appear here, but I was paid to attend one event as you’ll see. I hope you enjoy looking through it all!
Here’s the next instalment of edited entries from my journal on the old social media site Bolt, for my new Throwback Thursday series. I wrote these posts while I was at university, and as it was my first time posting about myself online I was keeping personal details to a minimum. And I’m just covering a single month in each post from this point, as my journal entries were starting to get a bit longer as I settled into it, though not by much.
After my previous post, I did get a question asking if I used any assistive technology at university, and the answer is yes. I had magnification and speech software, a CCTV video magnifier, and a scanner with OCR software so I could scan in typed notes and pages from books. I don’t often use speech generally, but when I was at university and had a ton of stuff of read, it was essential. I had funding help from the Disabled Students Allowance as well.
So questions are always welcome as usual. But now let’s get on with my latest set of archived posts. I hope you enjoy!
Technically, this isn’t the first online blog I’ve ever written. Many years ago, not long after I’d started university, having set myself up with a study room and internet connection at home, I ended up joining a social media site called Bolt. I’d received an advert for it after signing up to Hotmail and decided to check it out.
Bolt no longer exists today, and Hotmail has long since been replaced by Outlook, but many features on sites like Facebook are similar to those that Bolt had. It introduced many teenagers and young adults to social media for the very first time, and I did make a few friends there, though we’ve long since lost touch.
Not only was it the first time I’d written anything about my life online, it was also the first time I’d started keeping any sort of diary at all. I started in January 2002 and continued until August 2004, at which point my life was changing again, as I had left university and was looking for a career. So the time was right to move on from the site, as I felt I’d grown out of it, and focus on other more important things.
But before I left I archived all of my Bolt posts for posterity, and then kept a much more detailed personal diary on my own PC from that point onwards, which I’ve continued to do ever since. I write entries that cover a single day, or a weekend, or an entire week, or whatever, depending on my free time and how much there is to write about. Looking back at my old entries has sometimes proven to be useful to remind me of things, and has given me many pleasant memories.
So while I have the time during lockdown, I thought I’d dig out my old journal entries and share them here, as a Throwback Thursday series. The posts have been edited where necessary to add relevant links, include photos and videos for illustration, remove references that make no sense out of context, and to protect the privacy of myself and my friends where appropriate.
My early Bolt posts you’re about to see here are also extremely brief and nothing like the rambling blogs I do now! But it’ll give you an insight into my university results and the entertainment I was enjoying at the time, including my growing love for Queen. So I hope you find them of some curious interest and a bit of fun.
