I guess it was a week ago or so. I was sorting my files when I noticed all those caps I saved (shame some were lost). It’s kind of nostalgic to see my designs. I spent hours on those; they were created out of pure passion for making sites and the subject they were about. I believe I’ve been doing sites for more than a decade already (and it doesn’t show, right? HAHA). I loved creating fan sites and fanlistings. I love web design! One of my biggest passions in life is coding (which is good and all, but I continuously have a love-hate relationship with it). And then I learned that my former sites were indexed (archived) on the internet (like, why?). I’m actually quite embarrassed to know that they are there and probably will be there forever.

My very first site was a Geocities site (veterans know this ancient free server), and it was a fan site for Fruits Basket (I love Fruits Basket so much that I needed to create one). It had a WYSIWYG editor, so it was easy to learn. But it felt restricting, so I decided to learn more about HTML/CSS. I knew the basics already because of this social media site for otaku that required basic HTML knowledge to personalize your profile. Little by little, I learn to code, then design. It might be simple, but for me, it was really satisfying.

When Goecities closed, I hopped around free servers (Bravenet, FreeWebs, etc.). Then one time a person approached me and told me she (I think we were from the same community, and she said she liked my sites) would host me for free—like a private server and the whole shebang. Of course I said yes, and this is where my knowledge expanded because I have free rein on my sites. I decided to buy a domain (Skycircus is my third domain, btw), create more sites, and build friendships. I’m still acquainted with these people.

I think web design is something that will be with me for many years to come. I’ve witnessed a few evolutions of the internet over the years so far. The trends were really different from before, but it had such charm that sometimes I even missed it (active internet user for a loooooong time). But it’s nice to see how much it changed; things became slicker, friendlier, and overall amazing.