notes on an ageless web
(edited 02/12/25 for clarity)
Several recent guestbook posts at bulltown got my attention.
wowo cool site 😁
followed by
holy shit you're older than my dad
Hysterical laughter ensued!
In all seriousness, it reminded me that the web is ageless and those thoughts could only have been written by someone as extremely young as I am old. As it turns out, the words came from a 14-year-old.
We now follow each other at Neocities. She’s a nice person and her creativity is exactly the type of thing that made me wanna join Neocities in the first place.
so what does ‘ageless’ mean anyway?
Long ago in the age of Web 1.0, blogging, Geocities, Yahoo, and pop-under ads, I set out to make a point, creating the ageless project. Unfortunately, all that remains is a list of links to about 5 dozen kind people who supported the project, linking to it from their own blog or personal homepage - there once was a large directory of links (not only to supporters) organized by the authors’ ages - but link-checking (and fixing) took its toll…
When I first launched the project, many people wrote about it as if it was a directory of old peoples’ personal sites. Not at all - it was a directory of personal sites authored by people of all ages - from teenagers to people in their nineties. I truly believed back then as I do now, that the web brings us all together regardless of age (and gender, ethnicity, or sexual identity)!
With all that said, I have to admit I might very well be the oldest person in the Neocities community. Maybe not.
But I love it!
looming
political opinion (toggle)
the grand pay-to-play
happening in front of us
a train wreck looming
impact - life changing, world changing.
Sometimes, when we’re just hanging out having fun, I’ll tell Kim, “I need you to add something to my urn.”
Like ‘he sure could make a sub!’ or ‘he was a friggin’ genius!’ Sure. I care about my legacy especially at my age.
Nope. Ain’t telling. I never suggested she add ‘damn! he was really, really old!’ to my urn. 😎
My upbringing was full of shouting and sometimes violent fighting around me. Needless to say, it took a long time for me to grow up and out of the chaos. What I had so abhorred eventually helped me understand myself better.
I guess my own need to be happy helped me understand the value of making others happy. From deep within my soul, I see myself as an entertainer of sorts.
If something I share gives one person a moment of joy (or at least a thought provoking idea to ponder over), then I’ve made a little difference in the world. I live for that…
A crappy upbringing ain’t the whole story. Add Neil Young, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and David Bowie to the list of people/things which impacted my life in huge ways. You can also add computers, the internet, and the power of hypertext and web building while you’re at it.
Of everything above, I’d have to say David Bowie inspired me in the biggest way. When he died, I was just a few years younger than him.
Knowing his demise was imminent, he managed to complete his greatest work (imo) - ‘Blackstar’ was released just 2 days before his death.
He taught me it’s never too late to live out one’s dreams and visions… until it’s too late. I live by that.
Read between my lines - hopefully, you’ll understand the sense of fulfillment I’m lucky to enjoy.
This post is in response to Indieweb Carnival November 2024: Reflecting on Impact, hosted by the library of alexandra.
Related: inspiration opening doors
as our world loses
we should always remember
love wins in the end
#haiku
isn’t it ironic...
…that some feckless character who offends everyone is the first to say he’s offended?
…that groups of people sharing some afflictions break out in song about some pharmaceutical like they’re in a Broadway musical?
…that the good news always comes at the end?
😎 just sayin’
