Doing it like it's 1999.
After years of BBSes and Prodigy Online, I started my first website in 1998. I was sixteen. There was some vague personal information and poetry, as well as some fervent worshipping of the Disney movie Lady & The Tramp. In 1999 I bought a domain name and called it boingyboingy . com because of a jubilant and bizarre 'dance' that my friend Cory and I used to engage in at Not Back To School Camp. I also started a 'journal' on my site around that time, chronicling my adventures as a rollerskating hormonal seventeen year old homeschooler. The earlier example of this awesome 'blogging' that I can find on the Web Archive is from June of 2000 and I had just returned home from visiting my aformentioned friend Cory. Be forewarned, I also talk a lot about the Austin Poetry Slam. Later that year, I started to slack on updating my website and I started a Livejournal. The older entries are short and serve mostly just to remind me how not-funny I was six years ago...
Here is an excellent example of what we're talking about here.
Even my close friends actively made fun of my journal.
But some things never change.
My livejournal lasted for many, many years as boingyboingy fell by the wayside. And then Myspace happened. And happened and happened. And I know -- I know we don't heart myspace. Mypace is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Myspace is hard to navigate, full of incredibly annoying ads, and populated by scores of sexually frustrated teenagers and shirtless Confederates. I know. But, despite all of these problems, myspace gives me something I missed from the BBSes and the Prodigy Online and even the very early days of that livejournal -- a cohesive sense of community. And plus I like telling my friends I love them in new and creative ways. And by creative I mean a little comment box. But as myspace fades from the collective hearts of everyone else I know and wonderful sites like flickr and youtube take it's place, I feel that it is once again time for a change.
I am prepare to launch a new site with comics and crafts and art projects, and I feel that it is time to join the smart people and start a 'real' blog. Eight years of 'blogging' that has borne no relation to the adult world of Andrew Sullivan and the Fugly girls is coming to a close. Here I am, atom feeds and all.
Hallelujah?
Meanwhile, bat bombs?!
Here is an excellent example of what we're talking about here.
Even my close friends actively made fun of my journal.
But some things never change.
My livejournal lasted for many, many years as boingyboingy fell by the wayside. And then Myspace happened. And happened and happened. And I know -- I know we don't heart myspace. Mypace is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Myspace is hard to navigate, full of incredibly annoying ads, and populated by scores of sexually frustrated teenagers and shirtless Confederates. I know. But, despite all of these problems, myspace gives me something I missed from the BBSes and the Prodigy Online and even the very early days of that livejournal -- a cohesive sense of community. And plus I like telling my friends I love them in new and creative ways. And by creative I mean a little comment box. But as myspace fades from the collective hearts of everyone else I know and wonderful sites like flickr and youtube take it's place, I feel that it is once again time for a change.
I am prepare to launch a new site with comics and crafts and art projects, and I feel that it is time to join the smart people and start a 'real' blog. Eight years of 'blogging' that has borne no relation to the adult world of Andrew Sullivan and the Fugly girls is coming to a close. Here I am, atom feeds and all.
Hallelujah?
Meanwhile, bat bombs?!
posted by summer anne burton at
5:23 AM
2 Comments:
Ohgoodness. I remember your early site--Ophelia'n'80s cartoons'n'Lady and the Tramp'n'summer camp quotes.
I can't remember how I stumbled upon the early boingyboingy, but it inspired me to make graphics of my own, and especially, to start writing.
I think I was thirteen or fourteen in 1999. Thanks for providing a catalyst for creativity when I was also in the thick of my teen angst. It was honestly transformative to me then, even if it seems like a trivial project to you in retrospect.
Pretty freaking great.
"too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." leo buscaglia
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home