Manifesto

My actual manifesto is under construction. For now, here are some rambling thoughts that might resemble a manifesto if you squint:

I remember my early days on the internet. Windows 2000 and XP and dial-up. Our house was one of the first on the island where I grew up to get "highspeed internet." I wish I could figure out how high-speed that internet actually was compared to what I'm used to now. I had a friend in the island's other town (that didn't get highspeed internet) who would get me to download music for him on Limewire. Do you remember Limewire? I wonder how many viruses I unknowingly put on that computer. Nothing ever gave us grief, whatever I did.

My first personal website was on a now-defunct site builder called Piczo. I learned about it from a schoolmate, and I used to work on it every time we were in the computer lab. I had no idea what to even put on it, but somehow I found my way to a group of fansites for Guardians of Ga'Hoole. So I made a Guardians of Ga'Hoole-themed site, too. We used to hang out in each other's cboxes, chatting for ages and ages. I went by Gylfie. Whenever I think about those days, I wonder how my old friends are doing.

I never really got the hang of css when I was younger. My biggest accomplishment was coding an Iron Man journal theme on deviantART, and even that was done by editing a CSS base someone made available. I've definitely gotten a better handle on it now that my brain has finished cooking.

It's interesting, looking back and tracking where I spent most of my time on the internet. Before deviantART, which was the first site I "legally" had an account on (at age 13), I was on various Warrior Cats RP forums, pet sim sites (like Pure Felinity), and who knows what else, honestly. I was on deviantART pretty much all the time until I was 17, when my friend introduced me to Tumblr, where I remain to this day. As of this writing, I'll have been there for 12 years next month. That is wild to think about.

I've never been full-on into any sort of counter-culture, but as a weirdo loner child with undiagnosed ADHD and probably autism, I naturally gravitated toward the internet in general, and the self-expression I was afforded as a result. It's really sad to me, as I know it is to a lot of other neocities-site-havers, that the internet of today is so corporate. That's nothing new. I hope more kids like me rediscover the wonder that is building your own little corner of the web.

If you've read this far, thanks for hanging out while I ramble. I really appreciate that and I appreciate you.