Musings on the old internet

30/03/2023

So, my first blog post. How exciting! I haven’t written anything substantial in quite a while, except my personal statement for uni (but that was pretty rad so I guess I mustn’t be terrible at this). I started making my website on the 26th March after getting tired of crocheting a blanket, which is now sitting unfinished in the middle of my bedroom floor. That’s one of my worst habits, I struggle to keep my attention on something long enough to finish. However, I’m determined to keep this site a priority; it’s already almost fully usable, give or take a few dodgy broken links and none existant pages here and there, and from here on out it’s just the occasional blog post or troubleshooting. There are a few things I’d like to add still; a guestbook, as well as a hit counter. But they’ll happen eventually, and I’m in no rush. I’m happy to enjoy the process.

Life’s been strange lately. So many changes have happened in a relatively short period of time that I’m not quite sure where I stand anymore. I’m learning to drive, and it’s exactly as fun as I’d hoped it would be. I’m about to get my first tattoo, and see my first concert. My childhood friends haven’t texted me back in months. I spend my days in the bedroom I’ve had since I was six months old and in six months I’ll be at university in another country. I’m only 19 but I contain eons.

But I digress. Most of my time over the last few days has been dedicated to making this site. Trawling through pages and pages of code tutorials, tumblrs and carrds filled with flashing gifs, and going way back on the wayback machine to sites not updated since before I was born. I’ve collected blinking images lovingly made by a teenage girl in 2002, pixellated horse gifs that once advertised a small town riding school, snippets of text and lines of code, to curate an experience that is entirely my own. The headache from the flashing colours will recede eventually.

The web of the early 2000s is fascinating, especially when looking back on it with modern eyes. It’s easy to feel nostalgic, even when it was something I was never a part of. Born too early to be an iPad kid, born too late to experience the joys of geocities I suppose. I first got a taste of the web outside of the major sites fairly early; hours looking for fanfiction on old livejournal blogs, or fan sites that died with their fandoms. It makes me feel so disconnected from people my age, even those who were also in fandom as a young teen, because their experiences were so different from mine. They liked Marvel or perhaps Undertale if they were a little more Out There, and in the mid-2010s, AO3 and tumblr were the place to be for those still-thriving fandoms. But 12 year old me with the dodgy Noel Fielding inspired haircut, trying to find fan communities for The Mighty Boosh? Long dead forums and Livejournals hosting fics were my best friends. Maybe I should stop exposing my fandom past. I feel so old. Anyway watch The Mighty Boosh :3