Ah, so you must be rather bored or equally curious to see how this site got started...well then, I'll tell you! Have a sit, if you're not doing so already...and now it's storytime with Randell! Sorry, I don't have pictures to show you guys.

It started out as a middle school hobby of designing random websites that didn't really have visitors to it. I learned how to code HTML by looking up websites with tutorials and such on them. My first major website operation was called "You know you're obsessed with..." which worked a lot like the Nerdisms on this site, but it covered other categories like SimCity, Final Fantasy, The Sims...and the non-game thing: Band! You'd be amazed at how good I am at coming up with that sort of stuff...but anyway...

I don't remember how long I kept it going, but...sometime during my sophomore year or late freshman year, I had the bright idea of expanding the "You know you're obsessed with...band" page because the KHS Band makes you think on a different level after being in it for a while. I remember not wanting to start it until I had other features to my band site. Pondered this, I did for a while. And it wasn't until mid-sophomore year that I finally came up with the idea of the quotes section and actually having quotes to put on there. Then I also thought...hey! I've got pictures! So, parent's scanner + Randell's pictures = The Gallery.

So, now armed with some content, I designed the first ever Obsessed With The KHS Band site! However, I was still new at HTML...and I had no sense of aesthetics...so...my first version of the site looked horrible (of course, I say that now, but I thought it looked decent back then). It had green links to places, it had a bright blue background, and everything was centered. No graphics anywhere 'cept the pictures...and the pictures had an ugly yellow border around them because I didn't know how to turn that off. It was just...clunky...but yet, people liked it regardless (check out page 1 of the Guestbook).

Naturally, the site had to grow...so I came up with nerdisms during class, listened for quotes in band (my music has a bunch written all over it), and begged/urged/bribed people to submit their own ideas for me to put on the site. I think at one point I had some background music going on the main page and either the nerdisms or quotes. I used .midi files of Concerto for Orchestra (the real versions) to put on my site...some people liked it, other people didn't want to be reminded of it...but meh.

There's only so much of a bad site layout you can handle, so...I tried implementing frames (which is HTML-speak for displaying different webpages in the same window). I wanted to ease up the navigation on my site, plus my picture collection grew so that I had more pics in different categories. Of course...I sucked at frames because it was my first time at using them...and I think the site ended up looking clunkier than before...but I stuck with it...regrettably.

At some point, I added a logo page, so whenever you click on www.geocities.com/obsessedwithkhsband, it'd go to a page with a logo on it. I added this at the beginning of my junior year and I designed a cruddy looking excuse for a logo: star constellation with the name of the site in neon letters...and then the name of the show...oh boy, I was not too proud of it...but eh, I didn't have time to come up with a better one...

Mmmk, so...it was starting junior year when I started falling behind in updating...coz AP classes suck your life away, and I took pictures faster than I could scan and upload them. I didn't bother too much with pics, to be honest...they took a lot longer to update (due to scanning and designing a page to hold them)...so, I mostly kept updating nerdisms and quotes.

And again...I got tired of my webpage and I wanted to change it again...to version 3.0!!! So, in summer of 2004...I designed button images for all the parts of my site...and even came up with a title banner to put at the top (the one that said something about my site being a collection of memories and inside jokes and such). Using my new buttons, I designed a menu on the left side to put on all the pages of my site...for easy navigating! And, I was really excited about this one...but I got the idea of putting the shirt design as the front page to my site, especially since I'm friends with Jessica Bennet...and she came up with a really good shirt design. Yay, go Shades of Autumn go! I also changed the color scheme of my site...to dark blue background, yellow links, white text...unfortunately, I just never got around to updating the new look on all the pages in the Gallery, so...my Orlando shots and a few others didn't get the Version 3.0 treatment...ever.

I ran into trouble while trying to upload the Corpus trip and band banquet from 2004...because I ran out of webspace because Geocities only allows you to have 15MB to work with, and I definitely had more than 15MB worth of pictures...yikes. So, I was stuck with this dilemma for a realllly long time. Mr. McGahey even wondered about my non-updatingness on the pics...

Summer 2004 was a crazy time because I suffered from various emotional distresses and I was in a consistent, generally unhappy mood...so...my site was kind of the last thing on my mind. I think I did like one major update...but not much more than that.

The beginning of senior year was crazy too because my classes and marching band kept me busy, but that never stopped me from trying to get more quotes or coming up with more nerdisms...all it was a matter of was putting those on the site (and still, I had not found a solution to adding more pics). To make up for not updating pictures, I randomly thought of putting band pick-up lines on the site! I asked quite a few people to help me out on that one...and, I even went around telling people the Band Pick-Up Line of the Day during band practice. I'm psycho...but anyway, I added it to my site. Fun stuff.

So, Spring 2005 rolls around and wow...I've got 4.5 rolls of NY pics now...and I still haven't added the past two marching seasons, and last year's Corpus trip...Then, by the miracle of AIM profiles and Lesley Wachsmann and Sarah Freed...I discovered the wonders of Webshots! Of course...being in English IV AP and loving to hate my job at Hobby Lobby...I scarcely had time to actually use Webshots.

Then came the part of trying to figure out in my mind how I want to organize my pictures, because...Webshots only allows you to have 240 pictures max (it doesn't matter how much space they take up). So, after seeing Sarah Freed create like...10 accounts...I decided that I'll just make a new account for every category of pics I have (because I know that my pics would exceed 240 unless I split them up). So, I worked on the Corpus ones first...and that was uber exciting...coz Webshots keeps it all nice and organized for you ANND there's a slideshow option! Orlando pics came next, then the New York ones...then Bandquets...and then as of the writing of this history...marching pics are the most recent.

I built my own computer, bought a new all-in-one printer (w/SCANNER BABY YEAH!)...so, I went scanner-crazy to finish scanning the rest of the pictures. I also started using FireFox for a browser...then I realized that it has issues displaying my site because my left menu would be in the center of the page, rather than at the top where I want it to belong.

So, that upset me, the whole FireFox thing...so, after marching season started again (alas, but not for me), I had the motivation to give my site the Extreme Makeover: Band Site Edition. I spent like, a whole week designing the new look...hours at a time...I fixed the FireFox issue, came up with new buttons, borrowed graphics from the official KHS band site, changed the fonts, changed the color scheme, got the new shirt design from Jessica, implemented more navigation links to make it easy to go to and from places, took personal control over my guestbook rather than having Geocities handle it, and just...wow...just made it look awesome.

What I think is pretty interesting about this site is...there's nothing complicated about its code. I mean, I didn't use Java or Javascript at all (even though I have some really basic knowledge). The most complicated things I've done are probably those marquees and the background music of yesteryear. So, yay for simplicity!

So why make this site? Well, there are so many memories that one experiences while being in this band and I just want to preserve what I can. Either that, or Randell is too lazy to get into scrapbooking...but either way, I just want to remember the great times, and I want to share those memories with the rest of you.

So, now you're looking at version 4.0 of Obsessed With The KHS Band...and wow, you just read the history (or skimmed over, or totally skipped it till this sentence)...congrats. I hope you enjoy this version, and please keep coming back!

And, just a word to the viewer: I will continue to maintain this site even though I'm off in college, you have my sincere, honest, Filipino, KHS Band nerd word on that.

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