When Internet smelled like new

Yeah, I remember it with a kind of longing. It is like remembering your childhood... Well, I WAS in high school when first I got into the internet. It was such a new thing for me. First, I would listen to the modem ring and snap and crackle while it connected, and then, as if it were magic, information would pour down on the windows.

Going into yahoo was an event. Well, not going into yahoo... but FINDING yahoo, because I didn't know yahoo existed until, probably, three months later. I remember those days on Internet Explorer, clicking on the now-totally-worthless (to me) Search button... the sidebar would open and there we had Altavista, Yahoo, Msn, Lycos (I wonder what happened to Lycos) (hmm, its still there, collecting dust in oblivion) (I guess).

Oh, I remember the first night of chat. Because, the thing about the nineties (or 98-99 at least) was going into the chat. Ooh! and the webpages looked so 90's too, so Windows 98... So,I wrote "chat" on the sidebar search engine of IE, and there it came up: Microsoft Chat, the best chat that there ever were and that there ever will be, ready for me to download it. And "oh, Dios, what the heck is download?", I said to myself, probably in a marked spanish-ly-ish-accented-english. I trusted my gut that it meant something like loading it down (whatever that shit means; my gosh! who made such an oxymoron of a word?!!!), or it meant getting it all set-up. In those days microsoft could be trusted (or I was more naïve than now). I chose my nickname *Joel tries to remember which one it was, but in the meantime he will digress*:

That Microsoft Chat was awesome. It featured characters, as in comic-book characters, and it also showed them in action. When you wrote something, your character would move into one of 10 positions, according to what you said, it was great (although, messy when there were more than three people). So, I chose my character, it was called Xeno, he was an alien, he was black and white (color came later, just like color came to TV-sets). And I was off. I went into a room which I don't remember now, and talked for the first time through the wires of the computers... The chat even had the sweet, new smell of unpacked hard plastic, just like my new ergonomic keyboard and my hugeamongous 19"-screen monitor; the chat also had the same electrostatic tinkling that the plastic had, it was the energy of new things.

*Joel cannot remember his nickname*

And I went into the room. So many things were going on at the same time. People were saying lots of things (by this time I took the comic-book off and let it all be text, just like a messenger). And then, all of a sudden someone whispered me. I was sooo nervous! I don't know why!! I was shaking uncontrollably. I was laughing uncontrollably. She said "hi". And I said "hi" back. We started to talk. My english horrible, and my typing even more so, I probably took ages to answer her. But, we managed to communicate. She was 25, I remember, she lived in frigging Korea, and she was chatting from her job. I was already helping on an illicit affair!! By this time, my mother had parked herself behind my chair reading what I was reading, and asking me to translate. She was also asking me how the hell I could find the keys on the keyboard. I typed back to the girl, word by word, letter by letter, one finger at a time that I was 16, that I was puertorrican, and that I was in an art highschool. And then I added (and I clearly remember this): "it is so weird that the first person I talk to on the internet is 12 hours away". It was awesome. It was like loosing your virginity (well, it was, methaphorically speaking).

But, there was this unfounded fear that, by giving away your email address, you could get your identity snatched. She was the first stranger I gave my email to. But, as hard as it can be to believe it, my email wasn't a hotmail account, so, I dont have it anymore. She sent me a mail once, and I emailed back, but she never answered. I thought that she was surely thrown out of work for chatting during work-hours and she is now living in a country house over a river.

But, do you remember that fear of giving away your email? To me, it was like giving the address to my house to a serial killer, that's how it felt. Now? Well, now I don't really care... wait, that's not true, I do care, because now I fear 1. stupid FORWARDS, 2. spam mail selling viagra, 3. hi5 emails (whatever that shit is), so it is a different fear now. Not fear, but wary. And now, look, WE even write about ourselves in huge and public blogs.

Microsoft started asking for money to use his chat, and so its demise came. Then, came accesible porn. Then came latinchat. Then yahoo games: chess. Then Yahoo became my homepage. My computer has had at least 6 or 7 upgrades since 1999, its original cd-room just broke down two months ago. I still use Microsoft Works from 1999 (which is so much lighter and hence functional, than the over-achieving Word!). My ergonomic psychedelic keyboard is dirty, but intact, none of the letters have become erased, nor have the keys fallen out. My mouse went through three metamorphosis: 1. plain-white ball mouse, 2. transparent-blue ball mouse with roller, 3. grey, ergonomic optical mouse with roller. The speakers have also been changed three times. The monitor still works, but it has to be warmed up, so my brother has it on another room. And the printer, best printer ever made, still works, as if it were new. And me, oh gosh, internet is like eating almost; or not as dependable as eating, it's more like taking a shower (optional in many cold contries, NOT here)...

Amazing how life changes and sometimes we don't realize it.