My Internet Graveyard 🪦
A few years ago, I worked on a Neocities site where I created an Internet Graveyard. I found a neat retro tombstone generator and I listed out all the websites and blogs I’d ran over the years. I thought it made for an interesting page that also gave me time to reflect on my personal internet journey.
Recently, I mentioned this page and while I no longer have it, I thought it might be fun to rack my brain and try and remember all the sites I’ve run over the years. I think I came up with most of them.
1997ish-2000
Dozens of small pages made via AOL pages and random website builders. Most of them were single page pro wrestling themed websites.
The Ultimate Tazz Website
My first “big” site, this website was a tribute to my favorite wrestler at the time, Tazz.
The WrestleMania 2000 Page
My own website dedicated the Nintendo 64 game, WrestleMania 2000. The idea was to post my own create-a-wrestlers, but after the initial design I didn’t do a lot with it. I even turned it into a No Mercy page, but still typing out the create-a-wrestlers was a ton of work!
The Dukes of Hazzard Fanpage
I began watching The Dukes of Hazzard in my middle teenage years and became a fan. I couldn’t find a good Dukes of Hazzard website, so I set out to create one myself. I wasn’t all the knowledgeable so I just rehashed whatever else I could find online, and it made for a very sparse and boring site.
2001
The Memphis Pioneers XFL Site
When the XFL was first announced, the city of Memphis was awarded a team. The rumor was the team would be named the Memphis Pioneers, so I jumped on the bandwagon and created a football news site for the team. Eventually the team was named the Maniax, but I had already lost interest and many much better XFL sites had launched by that time.
Memphis Championship Wrestling
Being a fan of Memphis Championship Wrestling, I decided to create website for the company and be the official site for the company. I actually exchanged some emails with Terry Golden and he didn’t care at all. He said it could be the official site, but I never pursued it further. I was in a bit over my head anyway.
2002-2006
EvenFlow Productions/EvenFlow Films
Around 2002, I began formulating my ideas for a movie production company. I’m not sure when the site was launched, but I’m guessing closer to 2003 or 2004. I named it EvenFlow after the wrestler Raven’s finishing move, the evenflow DDT. EvenFlow Productions attempted to film one film, had two finished screenplays, released a book of poetry, and well… that was it.
2006-2007
Ramblings of a Common Man
I got on MySpace sometime in 2005-2006 and it became my blogging portal. I was young, brash, loudmouth and looking for a fight, and it became quite toxic very quickly. I decided I needed to stop being a jerk, so I moved my writing to my fist official blog on Blogger and calmed down.
2008-2011
Life On My Terms
One of my better successes, Life on My Terms ran the longest as a personal blog. It was about anything and everything, just my random coming and goings. This current blog is closest in tone to Life on My Terms, just even more calm and better written.
2008-2009
Fat Kids Radio
The companion blog to my podcast Fat Kids Radio hosted with my good friend Jimmy. This site was our catch all for random pop-culture fandoms. You can find a more up-to-date version of this blog at Middle-Aged Fat Kids.
2009
The Eighty-Eight
I ran across a blog that inspired me to create The Eighty-Eight. The Eighty-Eight was a list of eighty-eight things I wanted to do before I died. Some of it was super easy like paint a picture, others more difficult like visit an Old West ghost town. It helped push me out of my comfort zone and made me get out each week and try something new. Sadly, I was my own worst enemy. Some of the items, I didn’t care all that much for, and I kept changing the list and even modifying it to match things I knew were coming in the future. I sabotaged my own concept and the site ended with a fizzle.
2011-2012
EvenFlow Productions/Reality Bites/A Boring Ass Blog
This was personal blog, where I finally put to rest the EvenFlow Productions name.
2012
Chasing Retro
I began collecting retro games around this time and a former co-worker and I would go out each weekend to flea markets and shops to see what we could find. I had a blast doing this, but retro gaming was becoming popular and within a few months the prices began skyrocketing and the product dried up.
2013-2014
Seeking Calmness
I had a bit of a breakdown following the passing of my supervisor, the loss of my job, and my apartment. I was broken and Seeking Calmness was a place for me to put my pain and figure myself out. It wasn’t always entertaining, but it was therapeutic.
2015
Myers Writes
Myers Writes was my first attempt to using my real name and keeping my blogging more personal than diving into niche topics.
2016
Wrestling With My Thoughts
I began attending independent wrestling events and found my love for the sport once again. I channel that love into writing recaps, reviews, and one interview. Eventually, I became a bit exhausted with maintaining the site, so I moved my wrestling writing over to The Wrestling Insomniac.
2017-2018
Video Store Counter
This site walked so Middle-Aged Fat Kids could run. Originally envisioned as a podcast, Video Store Counter was my attempt at true retro blogging. I had begun writing on Retro-Daze and loved sharing my thoughts on various retro topics. I asked my friend Michael and Pikapal to join me and I’ve always felt like I let them down. Life got hectic and I shuddered the site.
2017-2019
Brandon’s Batcave
This site was both public and private through it’s time online. It was a place for me to regroup as my life was changing again and I was dealing with a failing relationship and needing to find myself. I infused some Batman fan pieces amongst my personal thoughts, and I thought it was a great side project. I used the concept of Batman’s post traumatic growth to inspire me to be better.
2017-Current
Originally titled 90’s Horror Review, Brandon’s Horror was my attempt at reviewing the decade of the 90’s in horror and showing the world it wasn’t all trash. Eventually, I wanted to expand my non-spoiler reviews to different decades, so I rebranded it and kept with the reviews. You can find some of these reviews on Middle-Aged Fat Kids. The site was a failure with exception of when I utilized social media to promote it early on. I’d go from one or two views to three or four hundred. I hated selling myself on social media and I put a stop to that pretty quickly. The site has been on life support for years but it’s still up and I still make posts every once in a while.
2022
The Dudeist/The Lamp
These were two separate blogs, shared only with a select few. Both were geared towards exploring faith topics in different ways and both ended up a distraction from my real writing. I decided I wouldn’t isolate any topics of faith or religion in the future, and I’ll will explore and discuss them openly on this blog should I feel inspired.
2021-Current
Middle-Aged Fat Kids
The requel/sequel/reboot of Fat Kids Radio debuted in late 2021 and has been the home for most of my pop culture ramblings. It was fun to reunite with Jimmy and to share our passions once again in an stress-free zone.
2020-Current
Brandon Writes Stuff/Brandon’s Journal/Brandon Writes
I took about six or seven months off in 2019 from personal blogging. I just wrote my horror reviews and wondered if I was done with this all. I’d started and stopped so much, and I just needed some time to see if I missed writing. As January 2020 approached, I knew it was time to get back to writing and so I launched Brandon Writes Stuff on Blogger.
Brandon Writes Stuff was my attempt at making blogging fun again. I kept it lighthearted, goofy, with bright colors. Inspired by the television show The Good Place, I tried to stay as loose as I could and even censored my potty mouth. I set a goal to limited how many words I wrote a day and tried to write something most days. It was glorious and some of my favorite blogging memories.
Then, we all know what happened. The world changed and the good vibes I had generated began to decay some. I struggled to keep it lighthearted and then in the midst of my writing, Blogger began having technical issues. My images started disappearing and since Google has all but abandoned the platform, I knew it was time to leave. I rebranded my site Brandon’s Journal and joined Write.as.
Write.as helped me discover this series of bloggers who were recently laid off or at home due to the pandemic. I saw the potential in having personal bloggers writing for their own well-being and not for profit. Despite the great community, I was disappointed with Write.as. The lack of themes and options bothered me, and I eventually made my way to WordPress. After a quick dabble with an HTML site called Brandon Writes, I made my way back to WordPress. I used Wordpress for a year before tinkering with Micro.blog and eventually shuddering my blog once again.
After a couple of months, I reopened it here on BearBlog where I’m hoping it’ll remain for the foreseeable future.
As I mentioned, this list is far from complete. I didn’t include the dozen or so blogs I created but never shared or never got past the initial design phase. I also know I’m missing several over the years, but these were the big ones at least. I know at one point I had blogs titled Relatively Useless and Clearly Quite Absurd, but I cannot remember when or if they even lasted all that long.
I used to beat myself up for all the starting and stopping, until one day when I realized each blog represented a chapter in my life. It’s even more apparent now when looking back over the past twenty years. I can see my natural progression, growth, maturity, and interests evolve. When I had access to those writings, I could see the writing grow as well.
While it could be fun to go back and re-read stuff from fourteen years ago, I’m glad that I have reset my blog so many times. I’m glad that people aren’t running across the thoughts of an angry twenty-five-year-old or a depressed thirty year old, that don’t represent my views and feelings today. I’m glad some random interest from ten years ago, doesn’t help define me online now.
So, will there be something else after Brandon Writes? Possibly. I’m sure I’ll grow and change, but I’m tired of all the branding and what not, so I think it’s more likely I’ll clear the site and just restart before starting over with a new name. Part of putting my name in the title was linking the site to me and preventing me from launching a site with a niche theme that I would most likely abandon.