This page is an attempt to recreate from memory my geocities website from the year 2000. I was ten years old and I was only just really starting to understand the web - we had had the internet for a few years by that point - my email address (which I still use!!) was registered in 1997, but my dad got a work laptop which gave me access without an adult showing me what to click, etc. It cost a fortune to dial in during the day so I was only to use it after a certain time - I'm pretty sure we also had some kind of AOL arrangement too which gave you cheaper calls at night. I would be sent to bed at 9pm, but my dad understood the value of me Getting Good At Computers so he let me run a phone line from the hall into the bedroom, up into my bunk where I would sit on the laptop for an hour or so in bed and work on my website. I remember really clearly that I would have to sit at the wrong end of the bed so the cable would reach. Geocities made you name your website/account before you could get started and I was totally paralysed - I was sure this was going to me my entire online identity for the rest of my life so I wanted to get it right!! I called it "hollow blanket" because I gave up and couldn't think of anything - it came from the fact I had to sit the laptop on my knees on a crocheted blanket my gran had made for me.

I don't remember a huge amount about what was actually on the home page, although I know I had this background and that I used the above animated border. Both were defaults in the geocities WYSIWYG editor - I made the start of my website in that before butting up against the limitations and having to learn a bit of html. I'm certain I had some sort of problem with the background and had to "fix" it by having a background colour behind it - this colour here is, again, one of the geocities defaults and I'm pretty sure it's the exact one I used. I thought I was a proper hacker genius for that move. I defo had two gifs up the top really similar to those two. The only other content I can remember was that I had a stomach churningly embarrassing section called "GREAT COMEBACKS" which was a list of things I thought it would be so cool if I said to my bullies. I remember they were all really wordy and just so, so cringey. A year later when I started high school some boys in my regey class came in one day and READ OUT my comebacks to me which was an INTENSELY humbling experience, although I remember playing it off like I was dead cool and funny. The other thing I remember on the homepage was a list of my friends and some kind of lame-o in joke remark about each of them. I remember thinking that being listed in someone's website roll of honour like that would be the greatest acolade achievable. Honestly I still think that.

My Best Friends
Kathleen	Can you play your clarinet a little bit LOUDER???????(-:
Sadie	Yeah I'd like a MOME too please... eh???
Ryan	computer god ò_ô
Angus	he ain't heavy he's my brother (I did not know what this quote was from)
Nicola	England????? (ㆆ _ ㆆ)

The dreaded return of...

The Hollow Blanket
Genius Brain Comeback Zone!!!!

(this is honestly about how I remember it)

You're quite good looking . . . underground, in a cave, with the lights out, wearing sunglasses

Okay I think that's probably it for now - there were a few other wee things I remember, plus a really cursed page I added when I wanted to look cool and edgy. I'll probably add those another day. Thanks for visiting, and if you have any thoughts send me a message on mastodon or whatever! This was really fun to make and if you had a web presence back in prehistory I encourage you to do this too. Bye!!!

Welcome to Hollow Blanket 2000

The Hollow BlanketGenius Brain Comeback Zone!!!!

The Hollow Blanket
Genius Brain Comeback Zone!!!!