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Our story begins many years
ago in the town of Fargo, North Dakota. Two
small lads, ever since meeting in their seventh grade technology education class, wanted a place to display all the things they thought
of as "cool." They wanted somewhere to air their grievances
with the world. They wanted something to call
their own. They wanted their own website. Those two children were thephilomath
and Jaybird. It all started
innocently enough one evening, most likely between
games of foosball and Cool Boarders 3, when
thephilomath revealed a piece
of notebook paper with some rudimentary sketches. "What's that?" Jaybird
inquired. "My idea for a website," thephilomath responded. What laid before them
was a crud drawing of their future, complete with fake
ads and a dog's head for a logo. "What is it
called?" Jaybird asked. "Dogheads of course."
The first step had been taken. What happened in the weeks and months
that followed was a slow process of discovering how to
create a website. The internet was still in the age
of Treeloot, Alta Vista, and AllAdvantage. Our
young creators were naive of such technical things
as HTML and FTP. Many different test sites were created, often using "freepage" templates
such as the ones found on Angelfire, Tripod, or Geocities
(shudder).
One of the many versions of Catheadz
Dogheads went through an evolution in its own
right.
The initial change was from Dogheads to Dogheadz,
most likely to mix things up and be totally awesome.
When it was discovered that both of these domains
were taken, the name shifted to a close back-up: Catheadz. It is with Catheadz that thephilomath
and Jaybird eventually purchased their first true
website, aptly named Catheadz.com. The two
pooled their allowances together and set up a
monthly payment plan with thephilomath's mom to
cover hosting.
The domain was purchased and history was ready
to be made.
An ancient relic
Except thephilomath and Jaybird still knew nothing
about updating webpages. In fact,
the lack of any real web
design knowledge was quite
embarrassing. For the next year, Catheadz.com
sat with a default "Coming Soon" page,
eventually fizzling out of existence. Jaybird
and thephilomath were shamed.
During that same year (Y2K as it is now known
in historical texts) the duo of thephilomath and Jaybird were broken
apart.
Jaybird's family, for the same reason that brought
them to Fargo, took them away from Fargo. And Jaybird with them.
With the team separated and demoralized, it seemed
that the dream of creating a website died.
Some time passed.
Then, for reasons
unbeknownst to most, thephilomath quietly created a
new website titled Aberrant Brilliance. It was
simple and to the point. It contained a picture and
a quote
from Albert Einstein. And that was that.
One would think
that Aberrant Brilliance would be doomed to failure
like the many that came before it. Yet, when
the site caught the eye of mutual friend Stretpharmacist,
hope was renewed.
Looking for an outlet of his own, StretPharmacist decided to type up an article
to post on Aberrant Brilliance. Interest was
reignited. Thephilomath began
writing. Due to the wonders of the internet,
Jaybird decided to contribute as well.
Suddenly, the three of them had a website.
As fate would have it, there were problems with
Aberrant Brilliance's hosting. The decision
was made to move the website to a new host and give
it an overhaul. In an effort to avoid any
negative karma associated with the website, the name
was also changed.
Aberrant
Brilliance became PsychoNoble.
Part 2 - The Pre-.com Years |
