I remember when I first found Blogger, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. This was before blogspot, and even before Blogger had been bought out by Google. No lie, I loved it so much that I printed out the logo and taped it to a sheet of paper that I slid into the see-through cover of my high school binder. Right next to a promo for Daria that I had tore out of a teen magazine (today… on Sick Sad World!).
Sitting at home with a sandwich while I coded websites with html that I learned by picking apart other people’s source codes was my idea of a fun time. So I would code and code and come up with pretty rudimentary designs, but was pretty proud of myself. Then, when Blogger came along, you were suddenly able to embed a journal into your site and write about anything and everything. It was amazing.
What’s crazy is that there’s this site now (well, for some time now) called The Wayback Machine that basically lets you go back in time and revisit your (and my) very awkward posts on your very awkward website(s). It’s like looking into your 16-year old self’s diary entries in digital form. You know it’ll make you cringe, but you just can’t get yourself to look away.
So, this was really a site that I actually coded when I was a teenager:
Do yourself a favor and don’t read any of the posts. I thought about blurring it all out, but then it’d look like I really have something to hide. It’s mostly just awkward teenage ramblings, and the word conspiracy is thrown in there for good measure. And guys, it’s called “I heart Enrique” for no real reason at all (it wasn’t a fan page), with a photo of Enrique Iglesias playing guitar. What was I thinking? I don’t know.
I think what’s actually more amazing is how minimal it is, considering that the walls of my bedroom were plastered from top to bottom with photos and posters of things that I liked back then (Leonardo Dicaprio, Milk mustache ads, and Nysnc to name a few). It’s also a few steps above old angelfire, geocities, and who knows what other sites I used to have (now those are sites are ones that I am glad are forever gone and burned into the ether), and interestingly kind of a fun memento.
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Have you ever tried using the Wayback Machine? What did your blogs/sites look like back in the day?
