Site History

I've owned so many domains that I barely can remember all of them. Anyways, here's a list of my previous domains in order of dates registered.

• Personal Sites: Aiwei.Net, Tsui-Mong.Org, Mezza-9.Net, Style07.Net, IvyTan.Ca
• Portfolios: Chinese-Maiden.Com, UrbanExhibit.Com, Mezzascape.com
• Misc: Ascetik.Net, Ascetik.Com, HyoleeFanClub.Com

I started Web Design way back in late 1996 when Geocities just started. I had my own Geocities URL (/SunsetStrip/Stadium/4680). I remember the days when I had to wait for the right time to sign up so I could get a nice URL with something like (SunsetStrip/Apartment/8888) instead of (Hollywood/Shack/8133). LOL!

I was actually inspired to make my own site when I saw a very famous Backstreet Boys Geocities fansite. So, from the basic HTML builder, I learnt the very basics of HTML. My very first graphics were made in 1997 where I opened up Microsoft Paint to make two guestbook buttons and animated it with Microsoft Gif Animator (which I still use). Here are the buttons I made:

I can't believe I still have it! LOL! Anyways, I had almost 50 different sites at many different freeservers. Some are actually still online. Try and see if you can find them.. HAHA!

My very last site on a free server is still available. Of all my personal sites, this was the one that became really popular. There were more than 100 hits per day at its peak. It was then I decided to buy my own domain. Screenshot of my last personal site here:

AiWei.Net was my very first domain. If my desktop didn't need to be reformated, I would still own the original files. Now, it's only 'online' in my memories. Anyways, I made it to be just another personal homepage. Then the blogging trend started. It was 1999 and a new site had sprung up called Blogger.Com. I was pretty reluctant to blog at first since it meant daily updates and I'm not a big fan of exposing my entire life to others. But in the end I did. It however wasn't worth it, too much drama.

So I stayed on low profile with Tsui-Mong.Org and Chinese-Maiden.Com. C-M.Com is where I started 'vexeling'. It was a vexel of a a flower. That took a lot of time. Then at the beginning of 2004, I was bored. So I jump back into the webdesign and I think most people would know my store from this point onwords. And then came Mezza-9.Net. I didn't mean for it to become so popular. I still don't know what made it so. Thinking back brings mixed feelings of pride and anguish. Maybe it was the layout-whoring. This was where I started to bloom as a designer, where my real creativity was expressed. This was when I fully maximized the potential of Adobe Photoshop and learnt new languages like PHP and to a lesser extent ASP.

At Mezza-9.Net's peak there were 300 visitors a day and it had a Google PR rating of 6. If you typed in just my first name 'Ivy', Mezza-9.Net was ranked #1 on Yahoo and #7 on Google beating out Ivy League and the band Ivy. I received tons of fanmail and hatemail. I was overwhelmed. Partly exhilarated. Partly scared. I didn't want to lose my ground. I didn't want to be searched so easily. Blogging also started becoming a chore. At one point, it wasn't the real me blogging anymore. It was just the Ivy that everyone wanted to see. The site became both a pride and a misery. Not to mention the amount I had to pay for overage bandwidth. So with a heavy heart, I closed it. Never revealing my new website. I couldn't take it anymore.

So I made IvyTan.Ca. It was a pure blog. No content. No graphics. My blog entries had much to do with philosophy and politics. The crowd was different. Much older. Mostly white educated men. It was a nice relief from Mezza-9.Net. I thought it was going to last forever.

Then I started working for Leave The Pack Behind as a Web Designer in August 2006. I realized how much I loved the creative arts instead of Philosophy. With that realization, I've been planning the birth of a new site, which is now IvyTan.Net, which will triple as my professional site, portfolio and personal site.