I have so many ideas running around in my head. I've been blogging more than ever this year, and it's been my most productive stretch since I started blogging and building my own website—23 years ago. Although I don’t think I have many readers, and what I write may not be interesting enough to spark much interaction, I still enjoy doing it.

I remember when ISPs gave you what seemed like generous personal website space. My first real ISP was GTE, now Verizon. Before that, I had dial-up with AOL and those limited minutes, but I mostly used it for email and a bit of web surfing—usually hunting for information about new computer games.

Getting DSL from GTE was a game changer. That’s when I really got into building my own website. It was rudimentary back then, and I probably overloaded it with information while trying to figure out how FTP worked.

Funny side story about GTE DSL: they were supposed to install it two weeks earlier than they actually did, but kept putting me off. My sister-in-law had just started working for them, and after she made a few calls, they showed up on Labor Day to install it. At the time, I thought those were the fastest speeds available—and it was expensive.

A few years later, we switched to Adelphia Cable (now defunct and part of Comcast, I think). They eventually sold us to Time Warner Cable, which rebranded the service as Roadrunner. I couldn’t believe how much faster it was than DSL.

All of those systems feel archaic compared to what we have today. I now have a fiber connection with 1 Gbps up and down.

Back when I was with GTE/Verizon and building my website, I used Microsoft FrontPage. I still miss that program to this day. Eventually, I moved to Blogger. I remember thinking blogging was neat but very different from building a website. Blogging felt like online journaling—which it is—and I assumed nobody really cared what I thought. Honestly, I still think that’s true.

But with my website, I kept wanting to build all kinds of things. I had mouse trails, themed layouts for different occasions, and a couple of photo galleries. I even set it up to take a picture of my desktop and a webcam snapshot of me at certain times. I used Webcam32 for the webcam and TechSmith’s Snagit to capture the desktop. I tried to make it my own portal, piecing together different tools. It probably wasn’t well-structured, but it all worked.

When Microsoft shut down FrontPage, I was bummed and tried to find something new. Eventually, I settled on Blogger—which brings me full circle.

Today, I have five websites/blog spaces. I asked a friend who isn’t technical at all to look at them and tell me which format they liked best. They really liked Blogger (granted, I’ve customized it with the help of AI), and my Micro.blog site was a close second. I thought it was interesting that they preferred my oldest blog. They liked the style, theme, and layout the most.

Looking back, it's amazing how far things have come—from dial-up and mouse trails to fiber speeds and AI-assisted customization. Even if blogging still feels like shouting into the void sometimes, I enjoy the process. It’s my way of documenting the journey, experimenting with ideas, and keeping that creative spark alive.

#TechNostalgia #MicroBlogging #ProductiveYear