Contabulous Fabtraptions

So, way back when the internet was this new and shiny thing unspoiled by, well, everything that the internet has become in the intervening 30 years, I flirted with web design. It was a lot easier back then, and it was a simple enough matter to view the source of any given page that had something cool I wanted to steal and pilfer the HTML code for myself. It was a creative pursuit that I engaged in just for the sake of it, and would have continued, but eventually it was time to go off to college and pursue a degree in zoology, because who would ever pay you to make web pages, right?

Right?

…well fuck.

But from the very jump, I have seen potential in trying to leverage web pages as a medium of interactive or alternative storytelling. I think the furthest I’ve ever gotten was some half-assed choose-your-own-adventure thing. There was just never alignment between what I envisioned, what I was capable of, and what technology would have allowed, so I let all that lie fallow and just went about doing other things. But I had such ideas, man.

But with the tools that are available today, the Venn diagram of what I want, what I can do, and what technology allows has finally become a single circle. The page you’re reading now and the site that contains it are things that are within my ability. I haven’t done it in a while, and it would take me some time to get it right, but I could have done it. My current projects, however, are way beyond what I can do, but I have been breezing right through it all with results better than I could have imagined.

This rambling preamble is all to introduce a new section on the site where these sorts of experimental efforts will live on their own. These are the Contraptions of great renown that are mentioned on the landing page. The first of these I present to you is Blueskies, an idea I had long, long ago about a story told over the span of a social media timeline. I have a few more of these ideas immediately top of mind, and they’re coming together just about perfectly, with practically no concessions in what I’m shooting for and in far less time than I would have imagined. So Blueskies won’t be lonely for long.

Give it a shot and let me know what you think. Would hate to have done all this for nothing.

–🦄