Memorable e-moments
Today I noticed in my Wordpress stats that there are 100 posts (101 with this one) in this blog. People tend to celebrate the 100th something; the 100th episode of a TV show, the 100th year of an institution, the 100th time you that you wish someone was never born (I’m sure I reached that last mark before I was 5). Taking advantage of the occasion I’ll recount some of my memorable e-moments (because everything online has an “e” before its name)
- The internet doesn’t break! - It doesn’t?
When my dad first introduced me to the internet, I was 10 or maybe 11 years old. I was scared of it, so most of the time I just stared at the screen without doing anything. That was of course, until my dad told me “The internet doesn’t break - do anything you want”. That was followed by an inevitable “but remember the computer records everything you do, so if you do anything bad I’ll know about it!” I had no idea what could I possibly do online that was “bad”. - First e-mail
Being the huge Sailor Moon fan that I was back then (and still am) the only website I frequented was Sailormoon.com. There I created my first e-mail account ever, and I still have it! - LOL - the universal symbol for laughter
I used to chat at Sailormoon.com, and they talked about everything but the anime. Shortly after stepping into the chatroom for the first time I had to ask “what does LOL mean?”. Well, my world changed after I got the answer. - The internet company doesn’t care about AIM conversations!
One day my father told me that the internet company had called saying that someone was having inappropriate AIM conversations. I never opened AIM again. I’ll never forget when months later he told me that he never got a call from the Internet company regarding an AIM conversation. He read in my diary that I had a conversation (nothing dirty!) on AIM with a guy 8 years older than me. I destroyed all my diaries that day too. - HTML is not short for Hotmail
Shortly after I got the hang of the l33t world of e-mail, I created my first Hotmail account. “Hotmail”… who wouldn’t love the sound of that? I felt like I had everything if I had a Hotmail email address. I mean, if everyone had one, it must have been good (oh lord…). Well, it took me months to figure out that the frequently mentioned HTML was not an abbreviation of “Hotmail”. Not everything is like “lol”. - The glory of copy + paste
When I first tried making a website, I had a horrible time because unlike many others, I had no WYSIWYG editor. There I was, a 12-year-old struggling with HTML. Later I found some HTML help sites (read, funky-chickens and Lissa explains) and since I had no idea of the existence of copy and paste, I wrote the codes on paper and then typed them in the website source. It was “ok” at first, but then, writing down long bravenet codes turned into an impossible mission. One day, my dad said that he’d show me this awesome trick called copying and pasting, because “I was always inventing things”. Yeah right, he probably found the papers where I wrote down all those long codes and felt sorry for me. - Photoshop is GOD
The websites I frequented all mentioned an ever so wonderful miracle called Adobe Photoshop. Apparently, the most amazing web graphics, fan art and photo retouching was done there. What Photoshop couldn’t do was probably not doable anyway. My dad (if you read this blog often you know that I mention him a lot) one day gave me a couple of CD’s with graphic editing software. Because “I was always inventing things” - seriously, he likes to say that. Among those programs, there it was: Adobe Photoshop 5.5 in all its glory (and that was the latest version back then, in case you’re wondering). Many years later (aka Today), it’s still my god. - Uh, blogging!
I can’t possibly count how many blogs I’ve had. My first blog was called Endless. Actually, it was “E N D L E S S” - and I insisted on it being spelled that way. My first blogging days didn’t seem particularly exciting back then, but now I remember it with a warm feeling because that’s where it all really started. Thinking about it, everything that I do started at some moment anyway… but blogging is special. It keeps my mind from imploding these days.
There are eight of my most memorable moments online. What are yours?
Congrats on your 100th post!
A few years ago, I went through a lazy phase of typing HTML instead of Hotmail. And then I realised why I never received emails from people. It’s a pity everything isn’t like *lol*, the world would be such a wonderful place.
LMAO! That’s so mean about your dad reading stuff about AIM in your journal. I’d have destroyed all mine too, if I found out my father had done that!
Wow. You can remember all that? And lol your dad was pro. :P
Well I’ve had lots of blogs too. I don’t think I have any particularly amazing Internet memories. Maybe when I used to get over 1000 daily unique visits to my site in 2004 and it filled up my ego back then.
I used to have an e-mail account at sailormoon.com too!!! *cries out of nostalgia*
Then again, I was pretty much obsessed with creating e-mail accounts ANYWHERE.
I remember when I first got internet — I think I was around 12 or 13 — there were so many things to do and see and I had no idea where to start. All I knew was, that I wanted a website — and my first ever attempt at a website — I mean, “homepage” (hee) was hosted on comicity.com. It was a Dragon Ball Z website, and I remember the amazing sense of accomplishment I felt upon finishing my first page. Of course, they didn’t have HTML builders so it was just a blank page (which left me with a serious case of WTF), until I discovered Angelfire, Lissa Explains, and Dragon Ball Z image galleries. Then my page was hawt.
The thrill of editing images on MS Paint and chatting on Comicity.com. All I did was surf DBZ websites… *sigh* Good times.
I wish I could be as enthusiastic about building websites *now* as I was back then. I miss the simplicity and the joy of it.
One of my earliest memories was discovering Expage layouts and layout websites and figuring out so many things that I could do by just using codes and changing colors. Sigh, good times.
Yay congratulations on making it to 100 posts! *hugs*
And, oh how I miss photoshop 5.5. It’s the only version I’ve ever used and I really miss it. I’m being good now and only using open source / paid for software. I do love the GIMP, but… oh photoshop! *strokes*
I was probably 14 before I learned how to copy-paste. Not my proudest random fact, believe me. I had already made a Homestead site before I knew how to copy-paste. At least that way you know I wasn’t stealing others’ e-mail forwards and calling them content!
Speaking of Homestead sites, mine was a mess. I had a different design for every page, and as I was in 8th grade and really into rainbow at the time, I insisted that EVERY page use EVERY color, even if that meant using yellow text on a green background.
Aww, how cute. Especially the “HTML/Hotmail thing” haha! I got computer/internet when I was 13. I seemed to get the hang of it really quickly, for never having used a computer before besides a little bit at school.
I was reading your post, and I was thinking about how all these things were just like me. My first email account was at lissaexplains.com. When I was on Neopets, my cousins introduced me to the power of the right click (copy + paste). I too found blogging to be the most bizarre, and awesome thing in the world. I originally started off with PSP, and when I finally gave into Photoshop, it was just a world of a difference, and I absolutely loved it!
Wow, congrats on your 100th posts!
You prompt me to my first days on the computer. Thinking that if I make a too hard click on the mouth, the computer screen will break in to pieces. So I clicked very soft. But hey, I was naive. I didn’t know anything. :D
*lol* Those are hilarious. Sadly enough I don’t have such fun memories as yours. I remember my dad told me about “e-mail” and I thought you needed to pay for it just like you would if you send a real letter through the mail. I was also surprised to hear getting an e-mail address was free (yes, Hotmail). I remember thinking HTML meant Hotmail as well. Oops.
Congrats on 100 posts!
I started my first site in 2005: my sister was obsessed with neopets and wanted me to be too. This also included giving me a hotmail and msn. Haha. I also remember when my host crashed and I lost my first site. And all sorts of random stuff… I also find it immense fun to read old updates from like 2006 or look at reaally old layouts.
Like most I started with lissaexplains : ) I did eventually get paint shop pro (photoshop too expensive) and I’ve used that since forever now :P
LOL was/IS awesome.
Neopets, Lissa Explains, and threatening parents. Oh my @ my internet history.
Hey, congratulations on your 100th post!
Hahahaha great post. I’m feeling involved in some of these stories.
I should do the same on my blog :)
PS : damn, writing html on paper, es una tortura XD
I so might do something like this, if you don’t mind of course. Anywhos, with the hotmail thing… I saw that a lot of my friends had hotmail accounts (I was like 12 or something) and I was scared to visit it ’cause it sounded like a dirty site. For Pete’s sake it had HOT in it, so I was like I am NOT going there lmao. Awww, I remember the days of not knowing what LOL, BRB, BBL means. Ah, so long ago haha. I think I heard about Lissaexplainsitall on TV or I read about it in some magazine and then my mom was looking at the site or told me to look at it? I forget. But I didn’t really use it much ’cause I couldn’t be bothered reading all of the content.
Congrats on getting to post #100. :D I don’t have any interesting stories, but when I was younger my nickname was “MaryKate” (who knows why?) and so I registered the name mary_kate@hotmail.com. I got fan mail all of the time. I never understood why people assumed that an Olsen twin had that email address. :(
LMAO @ your dad saying that the internet company called about your AIM messages! That’s hilarious! Shame on him going through your diaries tho! LOL
What a fun list! I can remember very little of my e-history. I think one phrase I went through, on my first site ever was to have a non-stoppable background midi. Of the Buffy theme.
Darn. I forgot to celebrate my 100th post… which was 75 posts ago. Remind me to celebrate my 200th post! :) I remember discovering copy and paste as well! I used to copy and paste peoples’ CSS into my own to see how everything seemed to fit in with each other. Hey, that’s how all learn. ;] I have pretty much the same e-moments as you, excluding the Sailor Moon email address. I did, however, have an email address at some Pokemon website though! That pretty much atones for me never have watched an episode of Sailor Moon.
I have to admit, looking through your list, mine are very similar! I never had my mother say anything about AIM though, which I’m very glad about. When I was going through my bitchy teen years, I would bitch about her for hours on there to my friends. *shame*
I would add one thing to the list. For me, working out how to http://FTP. I was SO pleased with myself, after downloading the trial of CuteFTP (this would have been… 1999 or so, by the way), managing to actually install it, an trying for the life of me to work out how to log on to Geocities and upload my horrible frames-based web site (were each page had a different colour illuminous background). *shame*
Those were the days!
Ahhh, Sailor Moon! I remember watching an anime cartoon when I was younger about a girl with two blonde bun piggy tails and for the past six years I have not been able to remember the name of that cartoon. Thank you! Haha!
Most of my major online memories probably happened on Neopets actually. You used to be able to make web pages for your pets, which is what first got me into HTML. Then my first ever website was on Freeserve (which used to be my internet service provider), Golly oh molly, how times have changed… I stayed on Freeserve for god knows how long and then I discovered Piczo and I only stayed on there for about five months before I got hosted.
This is almost the web designer’s version of that chain letter “the nineties kid”. Haha.
Yay for your 100th! Here’s to 100 more?
I guess one of my most memorable moments was finally learning what “pwned” mean. That opened up a serious can of worms, haha.
And course, when I created my first blog on xanga. I still keep it around just so I can laugh at how lame I was.
I still use Paint Shop Pro after 9-ish years of goofing around on the internet - still haven’t graduated to PS sadly :/ But I relate on the graphics program front. I remember when how eye-opening it was to use something other than MS Paint!
I STILL can’t name my blogs and projects and whatnot… I always look back a few months later and go “Oh gracious that sounds so stupid.” Ha!
Thanks for sharing these - it brings back a lot of memories of those strange internet firsts.
My friend Neha thought ‘HTML’ stood for Hotmail, too, haha. I also thought that Hotmail was so cool because everyone had one.
I love Paint Shop Pro! I have Photoshop Elements 3.0 and Photoshop 4.0 (can you say ANCIENT?). I’ve also tried CS3 for 30 days. I still prefer PSP =]