This site was created sometime in August of 1998, starting out with the name, Kenshin's Closet. It originally revolved around the main character of Rurouni Kenshin, and primarily functioned as an image gallery for Kenshin Himura early on in its inception.

The first version was a design disaster since the text was plain unreadable. Being a staunch follower of the monochromatic movement (if such a movement even exists, that is :p) I have this inevitable tendency to choose colors that are very similar because I find them visually pleasing. So for my first website, I thought of doing just that and ended up picking a font color that matched too perfectly with the background, which was the crimson image of Kenshin and Saitoh's faceoff. I'm not even putting up the screenshot. Haha @_@ Nonetheless, that was the humble beginning of this website and if I hadn't started back then, no matter my ineptitude, I wouldn't have it like it is now.

As the website grew and increased in content, mainly images for that matter, Kenshin's Closet came to be one of the subsections in the image galleries, along with those dedicated to the other characters. The site was renamed, Chesed's Rurouni Kenshin for the 2nd version, and although truly forgettable, that was the only name I could think of back then. Better than nothing, I guess. ^^6 The layout was very simple since I used only the most basic HTML to put it all together. I was just starting to learn webauthoring (actually, I'm still on it) and I really didn't know much when I started, sort of like going to battle without a sword. Eheh ^^6

The screenshot above is the main/updates page but the format was generally the same all throughout the site. Basically, it had plain black background, with individual banners for each section, purple centered text, and frames. The image galleries had individual titles like Saitoh's Lair, Sano's Shack, Misao's Burrow and Soujiro's Void to name a few, and they functioned as mini-character shrines. I also added an image map later on as the menu-slash-splash page.

I ditched the frames and the side image, but the site was basically the same on the whole. If I'm not mistaken, this is where the purple theme started, a feature that spilled over to the succeeding versions. I've also unwittingly started using CSS attributes and to be honest, I didn't even know what CSS meant back then. ^^6 I just saw this neat effect in some Fushigi Yuugi website where the font color changes when you hover over a link and I thought, "Hey, that's really cool!" So I did it as well.

The next version lasted the longest and took a major overhaul to achieve. The site was loaded from a pop-up window and was later modified to be the chromeless type. With the help of free scripts and frequent headaches, I managed to install this as well as a page scroller and a scrolling menu for the site's affiliates. It was quite challenging to put it all together but the results were well worth it. ^^ On top of the technical modifications, I also ditched the plain black background for my first all out effort to make a real layout. I guess part of the reason why it lasted was because I loved it so much and didn't want to replace it. I just couldn't bear to take it down after all the work it involved. Did I mention that I love watching reruns? Well, there you have it. Haha. :p With the major facelift, the site came to be known as.. Ehem, drumroll please.. Chesed's Rurouni Kenshin Shrine! Pretty inventive, huh? You can really see that I've been very creative with the site's name over time. Haha :p

And so, after seemingly ages of stagnation, I've decided that it was time for another overhaul since my tolerance for the site's old layout was just about running out. Call it a "seven-year itch" if you will. But the truth is, I've just been gone for a long time. I've neglected the site for so long and I'm sorry that had to happen. You graduate and get sucked into the daily grind. Growing up sucks, I say. Hahaha :p

So I guess that wraps up the site's history. With any luck, I finally get the name right this time. Jaa ne! ^^