THE ARCHIVE

A creative life, more or less preserved.

I've been making things on the internet for most of my life. Some of it survived. Some of it disappeared into dead YouTube channels, forgotten websites, old hard drives, and whatever corner of the internet eats everything we thought would exist forever.

This is what remains.

2004–2008

BEFORE I WAS CREATING, I WAS CLICKING.

My first introduction to the crazy multiverse called the internet was through iconic early-to-mid-2000s web games, Webkinz and Club Penguin in particular.

I still somehow remember my Club Penguin username, “cooldude1371,” which wasn’t even my first web identity. I already had an email account in 2004/2005, when I was four or five years old, that my parents would help me use. I don’t remember that username, but maybe that old inbox is still out there somewhere.

Club Penguin really gave me a love for the internet. I loved the social aspect of it, too. Looking back, it was basically social media for kids. I still need to pay my parents back for all the Club Penguin memberships they got me over those years.

Club Penguin eventually led me to searching for Club Penguin videos, which is how I discovered YouTube. I didn’t have an account yet, but I’d watch Club Penguin videos along with whatever else was going viral around 2008. For example, “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” was my favorite video of 2008.

Once I started watching videos, I was instantly hooked on YouTube, and that eventually led to my first YouTube channel, EthanBlackCat, in 2009...