blog anniversary | Lucky Otters Haven

4yrswp

WordPress reminded me of something today.

Four years ago today, I started this blog! Wow! It certainly doesn’t seem that long.

While originally a place where I could document my recovery journey after going No Contact with my malignant narcissist ex-husband (and coming to terms with the upsetting realization of having come from a family of narcissists), over time it has evolved.

I’ve always included many posts covering other topics that pique my interest, intrigue me, make me think, make me feel, or make me laugh. I like to post photographs (both ones I take and ones I don’t), memes, and cartoons. Sometimes I just like to share random “shower thoughts.”

Over the past two years (it’s hard to believe it’s been that long), this blog has become more political. Since Trump seems to fit the criteria for NPD or Malignant Narcissism, it wasn’t too much of a leap from writing about narcissism in general (or as it pertained to my family and other people in my life) to writing about the narcissism of a man who is abusing all of us from afar (whether we want to admit it or agree with that or not).

I feel like the first two years of immersing myself in the subject of narcissism and narcissistic abuse, and setting about my own recovery, prepared me to better understand the much more existential and serious problem of Trumpism.

As far as this blog, I never stopped including posts about nonpolitical subjects, personal posts, photographs, and even occasionally a new article about narcissism or narcissistic abuse that has nothing to do with politics. I cast the net wide for my own sanity, and I think doing that makes this a better blog. It’s also more fun that way.

Here’s to the next four years!

(Continued from Part One)

Screenshots are all courtesy of The Wayback Machine (which you can spend hours browsing — it’s fascinating in its own right).

*****

June 27, 2015

Several changes now. I finally grew a brain and got rid of the appalling “Museum of Narcissism” and from here on out, the title would not change again (except for the removal of the apostrophe).

I also shifted the focus (seen in the subtitle) from “narcissistic abuse” to NPD and BPD in general, as I was beginning to grow tired of just being angry and was starting to want to learn more about these disorders (of course, narcissistic abuse has always been a staple of this blog and still is). “Aspie” still remained for the time being. I also had expanded the number of menu items in the subheader. By now, my follower count was 1,041.

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*****

August 11, 2015

LOH was now nearly a year old. Some important new changes are evident. I think it’s beginning to resemble the current look more–I’d finally removed “Aspie” from the subheader, as I now had more clarity on what my real problems were (and it wasn’t Aspergers). Visually too, the look is an improvement, with a darker gray menu bar which made the menu items easier to read. I probably had a few too many menu items though. Later I had to consolidate them so some appear now as little dropdowns. 1,115 followers.

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*****

October 11, 2015

Font changes in both the headings, title and text. The font I chose for the title and headings would not change again until last week. Still too many menu items so it looks a bit cluttered. 1,221 followers at this point.

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*****

November 12, 2015

The second major facelift. This new look would stay (with only minor changes) until just one week ago. The wallpaper and header were both in a green “beehive” pattern, with the header photo-manipulated to be somewhat lighter in the middle so the simplified subhead “walking on the borderline” would stand out. Menu items now white on black. I think overall it’s a nice look, very professional, but I finally tired of it a week ago and LOH got its third major facelift.

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*****

March 27, 2016

Not too many changes, other than FINALLY consolidating the menu items so it looks a lot less cluttered and easier to read. 1,591 followers.

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June 29, 2016

This is the way this blog looked just prior to the facelift I did last week. The only real change here is the subheader changed from “walking on the borderline” to “Confessions of a recovering borderline.” (this change was inspired by my therapist telling me he thought I no longer had BPD). There were two more screenshots taken in August, but nothing else had changed.

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Finally…

The new look is somewhat of a throwback to its original look. I think it looks friendlier and more welcoming than the “beehive” look.

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I love Ferdinand Ladera’s moody painting, and wanted to use that again, but I wanted a simple black header this time, so this time I used the painting as the wallpaper instead. I wasn’t sure how that would turn out, but I love the look, and I like the way the dark trees appear on the right hand side. I also changed the header fonts and think they’re easier to read, and removed the apostrophe from “Otters”, mainly to simplify the look of the title. It’s not really ungrammatical, because I’m not the only otter swimming up from the murky waters of an abusive past.