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10 Weblogs, Then And Now
Friday, September 4, 2009 In blog time, I sometimes feel like a dinosaur, and since I passed my six year mark at Schmutzie.com, I've been thinking more about where I started, where I am, and where I am going than I normally do. Normally, I just fart around and hope someone out there doesn't hate it.
While I was ruminating on all things blogular, I was suddenly gripped with the want to take a step backward and see what I and some of my fellow dinosaurs looked like years ago. It occurred to me that we actually have gathered somewhat of a history on this young internet. For this, I used the Wayback Machine, which is a really excellent way to kill an afternoon, if you have an afternoon to kill.
So, I picked nine of the following ten weblogs, excluding mine, for their longevity and ability to keep me interested for years on end. Here's to us dinosaurs, in chronological order of the earliest full screenshots that the Wayback Machine could give me. (Click on the images to see their old looks at full size.)
Avocado8 in December 1998:
Dooce in November 2001:
Fluid Pudding in June 2002:
Mighty Girl in July 2002:
Sweetney in July 2004:
Fussy in August 2004:
Me in September 2004:
And, well, this is me now.
The Palinode in February 2005:
The Palinode now.
Finslippy in March 2005:
Leahpeah in February 2006:
Go on. Find out what you looked like when you were still wet behind the ears.
Reader Comments (14)
I AM still wet behind the ears. All ya gotta do is take a look at my blog and you'll see what I look like "then" right now! Ha!
I'm in awe of all you dinosaurs! You always have the greatest headers.
I'm inspired. Hopefully in a few years I'll be able to look back at my blog (which is not much to look at right now)and see how far I've come.
Great post.
Dang, it's weird to think I've been blogging since 2001!!! GEEZ. In my case, I have little to show for it. But dang. That's a lot of words piled up in spite of my slacker ways.
We are very similar ages in blog years - I started in May of 2003. So I had to give the Wayback Machine a gander. Fun times! We used to have multiple blogs linking off of a landing page. Because when my husband created the site I didn't really understand blogging, and I thought a landing page was highly necessary.
You live, you learn, you laugh at your old site design. ;)
Very inspiring. After two years of blogging I still have no clue as to what I am doing.
I have to say, you looked pretty good, even back in 2004. No scary clowns in the masthead yet, though. That took time.
I remember putting up that watercolor banner and thinking I was from the Planet of Coolness. Heh.
Thanks for taking us Way Back. It's a bit humbling.
I don't know how to feel about the fact that my blog looks EXACTLY THE SAME now as it did when it started it in 2004. The only difference is the addition of a few sidebar graphics.
That was kind of fun, thanks.
Thank you for this gift, of the website - that was a real treat, to see my old old blog pages. And of course to see the one that you shared!
WAHHH!!! I must be doing something wrong because I can't find myself in the Wayback machine...GASP! Maybe I came from the future!
Seriously though, I didn't "exclude robots" or anything, or maybe I did, what do I know?
too cool. can't wait to check these out now.
EGADS. I barely even remember when I didn't have the sweetney bird in place. INSANE.