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Good morning, folks.





Such is the passage of time, that the day comes when you look over your shoulder and realize you've turned 100 years old without realizing it...and for us, today is that day.





Today, my friends, is the 10th anniversary of This is NOT Greatest Site ! We launched on January 27th, 2006. Which means we've turned 100 in internet years, so happy birthday to us!





Conceived in 2005 as a refreshingly ridiculous antidote to all the self-serious and shiny yet content-free j-rock websites that dominated the non-Japanese internet at the time, we also made it our mission to provide an archive of English translations of Buck-Tick lyrics, because at the time, there were approximately none available outside of closed communities on LiveJournal - over at Centigrade-J they had a translation of "Sasayaki" (and "Speed," too, we think...but we can't remember because I'm getting old and our memory's going to hell! But holy shit guys remember Centigrade-J?) and at Hyluko's Buck-Tick gallery (which contained approximately five pictures, one of each band member), there was also a translation of...guess which song...yes you guessed it, "Sasayaki." But if the lyrics to "Sasayaki" read like an intro to Japanese grammar, that's not the fault of Mr. Sakurai. We happen to know that he intended those lyrics to function as an intro to dancing the Masochism Tango





Anyhow, thus did we begin our work, in the same year that YouTube launched. Over the course of the past decade, we've gone through three different iterations and added numerous features along the way, not least of which is this blog, The Blog-Tick Phenomenon, which launched in 2009 (Blog-Tick is still a seven-year-old baby.) And just between you and us, we'll say that it's a bit of a small miracle that we're still in operation now. Though our love for Buck-Tick has never faltered, there were a few moments in there when we sincerely worried whether it would be possible to continue with this project, especially after the departure of Kame in 2010 and our subsequent complete overhaul. But this project would never have existed without Kame, so if you're going to have a not greatest drink with us, make sure you toast Kame as well.





Anyhow, thank you for all your support, even though none of you emailed to wish us a happy birthday. We're aware that in today's age of social media, it's too much work to remember people's birthdays unless FaceSpace tells you about them, and it's not like we're exactly a person anyway. Plus, your complete and utter silence really is not greatest birthday tribute.





And if you're curious, this is what we looked like, back in the day.





Version 1.0









Version 2.0









Version 2.0 banners





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Now excuse us while we go have some cake.





(mmmm....CAKE!)









...and beer...





( mmmm....BEER!)









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...and if you'd like to join us at the party pictured below, you're welcome.





This is NOT Greatest Site

~~~ C e l e b r a t i n g 1 0 0 I n t e r n e t Y e a r s ~~~













Happy birthday to us!





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