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The Knork

What?

My Story

I got my start about four years ago (in the long-ago year of 2000), under the name "GlitterSugarFairy."

I have no idea what gave me the idea to start a webpage. It was completely directionless, filled with over-sized graphic files and gaudy fonts and music (of all things). I don't even know why I put music on since it was too much for my computer to handle so it crashed every time I opened up a page. Anyhow, I think I had some shoutouts to friends and about two pictures and THAT WAS ALL. Looking back on those days kind of makes me cringe.

I'd show you a picture if I could, but all attempts to remember the password to that site have failed. Let's put it this way: there was actually a graphic of a fairy sprinkling glitter. We'll call that version 1.

After coming to high school, I wanted to start anew, this time without the guestbook (because 8th grade politics were just too much for me to handle). In combination with that and the fact that someone told me my name made me sound like a gay porn star, in April of 2002, I started up here at "The Strawberry Knork."

I've gone through a few layout changes, just trying to make things easier to access and, in occasion, to shake things up. When I had Paint on a PC, I used wish I had PhotoShop or some kind of editing program, so I could make graphics easier. Now that all I have is AppleWorks on this Mac, I would settle for a "print screen" button. Hah.

To my recollection, this is the evolution. I'm sure there have been more, but all traces have been erased.

Ver. 2: Spring 2002 - What's a knork, anyway?
Hopefully you know what a knork is.

Ver. 3.0: Autumn 2003 - Nowhere to go but up. Take off.
When you've reached rock bottom, they say there's no where to go but up.

Ver. 3.1: Spring 2004 - Spring is in the air. Catch the fever.
It was spring. Everyone was hooking up quite feverishly.

Ver. 4.0: Autumn 2004 - Follow the leader - crossing the chalk line.
That being my first year in college, I was living in a dorm. Among its other problems, we had an infestation of ants. I read once that if you a drew a chalk line, ants don't cross it. For them to cross the line seemed the greatest act of insolence...a lot of people I encountered then seemed insolent. It seemed fitting.

Ver. 5.0: Spring 2005 - Not minding the rain 'neath my parasol.
The title came from the song Beautiful Girl originally in the 1933 musical Stage Mother, which was later re-worded for the 1952 musical Singin' in the Rain. The line of my inspiration, "April doesn't mind the rain 'neath her parasol," only appeared in the 1933 version, however. It rains a lot in Davis springtimes.

Ver. 5.1: Autumn 2005 - The Strawberry Knork in London - It's always hot at Casa de Bauchery
I was living in London at the time. We nicknamed our flat Casa deBauchery (for obvious reasons) as well as "The Sauna" because it was always hot.

Ver. 5.2: Winter 2005/6 - Like a shoebox of photographs with sepia-tone loving - in Between Dreams
Inspired by Jack Johnson's song Better Together from the CD in Between Dreams in which he describes a "shoebox of photographs with sepia-tone loving" as the one of the things that dreams are made of. In that spirit, all my photos were in sepia. ...because I was in between dreams, of course.

Ver. 5.3: Spring 2006 - Putting it off for another day
That quarter, I was taking an English class that used the text where I found Christina Rossetti's "Winter: My Secret." I disclose secrets, but not all of them.
Perhaps some languid summer day,
When drowsy birds sing less and less,
And golden fruit is ripening to excess,
If there's not too sun nor too much cloud,
And if the warm wind is neither still nor loud,
Perhaps my secret I may say,
Or you may guess.

Which brings us today where I am still as directionless as ever. But working on this is a great way to relax. Seeing a finished product gives me an immediate gratification high that I can get behind. Once, I said that I would be happy with this if the only purpose was that on any given date, I would be able to remember what happened 1 year prior. I'm still working on that goal. Thanks for making the journey with me.

And remember: After all, it's only a diary. And everyone knows diaries are full of crap.