A bit of a departure for Throwback Thursday this week, when I reveal something almost as embarrassing as some of my fashion choices over the years.

My very first "homepage" on the internet, circa 1998.

Behold:

The horror

Just to give you some more context into this masterpiece; the beaded bar at the top is animated and spins around while the "Welcome To My World!" text in classic magenta floats across the screen. Cover your eyes, Bridie, it used to be in Comic Sans before the whole page reverted to Times New Roman.

The nifty spacey backdrop chills as you take in the vibrant 3D buttons in a quirky assortment of fonts and colours, leading to all manner of rando links and difficult to read sub pages including what are now essentially blog posts. Unfortunately, the obnoxious monophonic .wav file of Regurgitator's "Polyester Girl" no longer plays when you open the site. Tragedy.

Remind you of anything?




It might be a good time to mention now that I went by "Polyester Girl" in the early days of the internet and I still have the associated email address. 

The site is still live but there is too much in the way of next level cringe factor lurking behind those buttons to share the address; including, but not limited to, an obsession with former Carlton player Glenn Manton and the various socially awkward and passive-aggressive musings of a late teen/early 20-something. As I can't log in to change it anymore, there it sits as a constant reminder of my late 90s internet presence.

As someone who was always into the internet from an early stage, learning things like HTML and playing around with web building has eventually led to an understanding of CSS, Sharepoint and other skills that I still use on the daily. So it can't be all bad. 

(It's still pretty bad though)

I moved on to a Livejournal which is locked down and chilling for when I need reminders of how life was between 2002 - 2010 and the various fads, phases, ups and downs I went through.

Check out The World's Worst Website for pretty much every bad website component ever although it is definitely missing a nauseating .wav file playing on loop in the background.

Did you ever have a homepage in those dark days? Does it still exist? Is it as bad as this??