The Daily News
1 After I sent off yesterday’s DN, I looked back over it and decided to take an astral ride to www.ybdrama.com, just for old tyme’s sake.
2 What struck me immediately was that the website had steadied itself since Halloween, my last attempted visit.
3 I abandoned the site a couple of years ago when I couldn’t work with Geocities any longer. My account had expired, so I gave them more money, and then the website wouldn’t let me layer things any longer.
4 I don’t know it that makes any kind of sense, but layering is simply the ability to lay one thing on top of another, much the way one can put magazine pictures over other magazine pictures in a collage.
5 With Geocities, I was able to put words over pictures, and pictures over other pictures. When I created the website in 2002, I had attempted to learn web building and all. At the time I was completely unaware of Xanga, so I spent the early part of the summer trying to go digital. I had noticed that almost no teachers had websites, so to me it was a bit cutting edge, even as late as 2002.
6 Anyway, I put together a rather rudimentary website, but enjoyed working on it, much the same as I now enjoy working on a garden each summer.
7 The website took shape, and soon I was able to post DN’s. What’s fun is seeing old DN’s, because it’s a bit like reading old comic books. The original ideas are different than what eventually emerged.
8 For example, I now refer to my summer retreat in Tahoe as Mars, and it has been that for many years now. But it was originally referred to as Jupiter!
9 I also noticed that in my entry of 8/14/2002 I had put, “So…Ed Headrick, inventor of the Frisbee, flies into a tree…”
10 This struck me as weird, because a guy ALWAYS walked into a bar…
11 Until I thought to myself that the inventor of the Frisbee WOULD fly into a tree.
12 This was confirmed on 8/20/02 when I reported that former Dodger Johnny Roseboro walked into a bar…
13 Anyway, visiting the website was fun, but also a bit dangerous because I started reading all the early online DN’s, of which there
were many.
14 There was a gap between 2003 and 2004 when Geocities screwed up the account, so those DN’s are in hard copy in storage, but later on, May 16, 2004, I began the present form of the DN.
15 It wasn’t until a few years later that I began posting a lot of pictures and colors, and moved to the Ariel font, but it was still fun navigating around the old ybdrama.com haunts.
16 Especially interesting last night was the fact that when I visited the website on Halloween, everything was at different angles and looked like a scrapbook that had taken a fall off a high building. Pictures were out of place, and it was embarrassing sending my students to it to read the Heidi Chronz.
17 But the other night, by some miracle, it had been restored to its original design. Everything looked better, and it looked nicer, all the links worked, and I really enjoyed looking over it. It was still a work in progress, but had a really alive feel to it. On Halloween, it seemed dead as an old tree.
18 Maybe it’s the Spring that watered it and brought life back into it.
19 I don’t know.
20 The Message Board was invaded by Viagra ads and other nonsense, but still works, as far as I know. I’m thinking of posting on it after I write this, just to get it all going again.
21 I may be able to add some things, although I don’t remember my password, nor anything else about how to make that site work again. It’s also a bit distanced, since I’m no longer at YB.
22 You can still get to the DN, as well as my old Xanga spot if you go there.
23 It was an enchanting visit, all in all. I was amazed that it righted itself and that everything is back the way it originally looked.
24 You might wish to visit. It’s a bit like a trip through the Winchester Mystery House, especially the Heidi Chronz, which I attempt to edit each year, and which always goes wonky when I attempt it. I think I caught the entire website off guard last night, and caught it celebrating itself.
25 I’ll visit again, but right now it’s almost 5 a.m. I awoke at around 3:30 as per usual. Insominia runs my life these days.
26 Anyway, if you’re bored later on, take a glance at www.ybdrama.com just for fun. I think it’s a good two-hour tour of all that nonsense, but it’s a sort of fun tour.
27 And it is filled with coincidences, ghosts, and other fun stuff, like Strong Bad, my hero.
28 Meanwhile, I’ve corn to plow. I’m tearing down the Catedral, or the Cafe’ Verona, if you will, up at the Chill. My room is now boxes and empty walls, save for a the Renaissance masks. Sort of soulful for the first time since I got up there.
29 Working with five full classes brought a great amount of soul back to teaching.
30 I’m still a teacher, and it’s great to have had this year, for what it’s worth.
31 Whoops. Getting off subject, or maybe onto tomorrow’s.
32 Visit the site.
33 Peace.
~H~
VISIT STRONG BAD BELOW.
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The Daily News
