November 12th, 2005 is where my internet history begins. I was in fourth grade at the time. Actually, it might have begun a bit before that, but I’m not going to count playing games on the Disney Channel and Cartoon Network websites or my short time with Neopets. They don’t really count with me. I barely remember those. But in November of 2005, my best friend Venessa (who is still my best friend today!) and I were hanging out in a field during recess. She told me of a website her cousin had gotten her to join called GaiaOnline and how she wanted me to join it, too. Her username was foxylove. Mine was annicamax (still using that one all the time -___-). It was on Gaia that I made my beginnings and from where my internet life branched out to where it is today.
I remember asking my dad to join Gaia soon after Venessa told me about it. I lied and said that I was thirteen years old, though I was only nine. At the beginning, the most that I did was spam the forums for gold, talk to my IRL friends that lived two blocks away, and role play. Recently, I went back to look at my old posts on the forums and my old role plays. They really are atrocious. I did type much better than most people on Facebook today, however.
Here are some of said posts:
Between then and 2009, I never really moved out further. Gaia was always home base for me. I did make a MySpace (which I used to stalk people I went to school with) and accounts on some other websites, but they were almost always forgotten for Gaia. I continued to pretty much do the same things on Gaia: talk to my friends and role play (I did get much better, but I was still a total nerd).
In 2009, I began frequenting the General Discussion forum on Gaia. It is totally the ‘high school’ of the forums, if you will. Everything was about who had the best pictures in their signature and who was the funniest and all of that. From there, I saw a link to someone’s ‘tumblr’. I clicked on it, but it was just someone’s blog. It took a while before I was finally interested and made an account of my own in November.
Now, time to rewind a little to the summer of 2009. I remember going into my older brother’s room (to bother him, probably) and seeing him look at a book called “Paper Towns” on the Amazon. He told me that a friend had suggested it to him, and he read to me what it was about. I was vaguely interested. When I went with my dad to a really big, really awesome book store called Powell’s about a week later, I was looking around and around for a book to buy. In the young adult section, I found the book my brother had been looking at on the computer. Not knowing what else to buy, I snatched it up.
I read Paper Towns, and it was amazing. It had been a long time since I had read a book that good. I related a lot to Margo Roth Speigelman. It was hilarious as well. To this day, Paper Towns is still my favourite John Green novel. Anyway, I think that it was through Paper Towns that I found the vlogbrothers. Either that, or my brother showed me. I subscribed around the video ‘This Isn’t Hogwarts! A Harry Potter Song’, but I thought that it was just a couple of weird nerds. I didn’t fully unsubscribe until the video ‘Vegetables That Look Like Penises’. It was difficult to listen to these two guys talk. They talked fast and I had no idea what they were saying. There were a lot of inside jokes as well. I felt left out. I subscribed again around September (after I had read Looking for Alaska, I believe) and stayed. Through the vlogbrothers, I found channels such as the fiveawesomegirls (;____;) and nerimon and charlieissocoollike and the such.
Around the same time that I read Paper Towns for the first time, I went to go see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with my family. Harry Potter never really interested me. I had read the first book before and watched the films, but I just thought of it as most people do today. After seeing the sixth movie, however, I was intrigued. I went home and read the books while I went on a trip to go visit my relatives on a road trip. It was then I fell in love. I think that my sudden love for Harry Potter was one of the things that made me stay with the vlogbrothers and that whole community.
That’s pretty much the extent of it. Now, of course, I have made a Facebook, a Twitter, a blog, and everything, but those aren’t really interesting. I actually don’t even remember when I made a Facebook or Twitter or blog. :/
I remember asking my dad to join Gaia soon after Venessa told me about it. I lied and said that I was thirteen years old, though I was only nine. At the beginning, the most that I did was spam the forums for gold, talk to my IRL friends that lived two blocks away, and role play. Recently, I went back to look at my old posts on the forums and my old role plays. They really are atrocious. I did type much better than most people on Facebook today, however.
Here are some of said posts:
Between then and 2009, I never really moved out further. Gaia was always home base for me. I did make a MySpace (which I used to stalk people I went to school with) and accounts on some other websites, but they were almost always forgotten for Gaia. I continued to pretty much do the same things on Gaia: talk to my friends and role play (I did get much better, but I was still a total nerd).
In 2009, I began frequenting the General Discussion forum on Gaia. It is totally the ‘high school’ of the forums, if you will. Everything was about who had the best pictures in their signature and who was the funniest and all of that. From there, I saw a link to someone’s ‘tumblr’. I clicked on it, but it was just someone’s blog. It took a while before I was finally interested and made an account of my own in November.
Now, time to rewind a little to the summer of 2009. I remember going into my older brother’s room (to bother him, probably) and seeing him look at a book called “Paper Towns” on the Amazon. He told me that a friend had suggested it to him, and he read to me what it was about. I was vaguely interested. When I went with my dad to a really big, really awesome book store called Powell’s about a week later, I was looking around and around for a book to buy. In the young adult section, I found the book my brother had been looking at on the computer. Not knowing what else to buy, I snatched it up.
I read Paper Towns, and it was amazing. It had been a long time since I had read a book that good. I related a lot to Margo Roth Speigelman. It was hilarious as well. To this day, Paper Towns is still my favourite John Green novel. Anyway, I think that it was through Paper Towns that I found the vlogbrothers. Either that, or my brother showed me. I subscribed around the video ‘This Isn’t Hogwarts! A Harry Potter Song’, but I thought that it was just a couple of weird nerds. I didn’t fully unsubscribe until the video ‘Vegetables That Look Like Penises’. It was difficult to listen to these two guys talk. They talked fast and I had no idea what they were saying. There were a lot of inside jokes as well. I felt left out. I subscribed again around September (after I had read Looking for Alaska, I believe) and stayed. Through the vlogbrothers, I found channels such as the fiveawesomegirls (;____;) and nerimon and charlieissocoollike and the such.
Around the same time that I read Paper Towns for the first time, I went to go see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with my family. Harry Potter never really interested me. I had read the first book before and watched the films, but I just thought of it as most people do today. After seeing the sixth movie, however, I was intrigued. I went home and read the books while I went on a trip to go visit my relatives on a road trip. It was then I fell in love. I think that my sudden love for Harry Potter was one of the things that made me stay with the vlogbrothers and that whole community.
That’s pretty much the extent of it. Now, of course, I have made a Facebook, a Twitter, a blog, and everything, but those aren’t really interesting. I actually don’t even remember when I made a Facebook or Twitter or blog. :/
In other news, NaNoWriMo ends today. I really don't like what I wrote. It's terrible. That's how everyone feels, however. I'm sure of it. I am extremely proud of the fact that I finished, however! Well, I'm sure I will be proud once I get out of this odd feeling like I've been hit with a brick in the back of my head (lolz maureen johnson). Right now, everything is just weird. I think I've forgotten how to use words. I keep making really obvious spelling/grammar mistakes.
In other news, my birthday is this Saturday! Yay! I'll be 15! o:
I would fill you in with other things that have been going on in my life, but nothing interesting is really happening. *shrug*
EDIT:
Oh, wait! I do remember something I was going to say. I think that some of our lovely followers should COMMENT (if they want to, course). Tell us about your internet history! Tell us what you think about whatever hubbub we talk about! It would make my day if you did. :3
Song of the Day: We are the Champions by Queen (lolololol)
Currently Reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
(FINAL!) Word Count: 50,024.
Welp, I'm off!
Winona, I'll read you tomorrow!
xo,
Annica
No comments:
Post a Comment