Since its initial launch on 10/01/04, www.octocorp.com has gone through many iterations. From the good ole days of Yahoo Sitebuilder (before Facebook and even Myspace), this site has been a place for my friends and I to dump all of our wacky and boy, do I mean wacky ideas, movies, images and anything in between for whomever to see. Want to get just a small idea? Check out the following video:
Would it help any if I explained these were all outtakes for a movie, or would that just raise more questions…
To my increasing surprise, our content was actually consumed, and not by me constantly inflating page visits with my own inability to stop hitting refresh. I’d get daily comments on how hilarious the site was, how people enjoyed taking a break from work to check us out, and how some (though there were few haters) visitors wanted to know more about us (as if we had accomplished some form of celebrity status) and it was wild. It was wild to receive that sense of instant gratification and know that something I created, or helped create was not only taking a life of its own, but others were also taking ownership of it. To see others contribute whether on paper or in conversation about a concept of Octocorp lit my little heart up with joy and I began to slowly (I wouldn’t quite be able to put my finger on it at the time), come into my natural passion of taking something from nothing and not only making it real, but consumed and appreciated by others.
From being perceived as a “para-military site,” to a place where our growing Dodgeball community could check out the latest videos and photos, the site evolved of its own…that is, until life began to finally happen for me. A bit of a late post high school bloomer, as I progressed into the later portion of 2000’s and into the early teens, I started to find my own way as an “adult” and deviate from the importance of what Octocorp meant to me and once stood for. The characters, ideas, and concepts (see What is Octocorp) were all put away, to exist only in some form of external hard drive or another.
Yet, its existence would not be ignored forever, no could my insatiable need to create and so zipping between WordPress, Go-Daddy, Site builder to name a few, www.octocorp.com has had many incarnations throughout the years, all with grandiose plans to take over the world and give conformity The FINGER, but at the end of the day, maturity and responsibility would ultimately win over. Thankfully, of course and I am completely okay with how things turned out. On a personal level, the amount I’ve been able to experience and accomplish far surpasses the active curation of a site that filled a temporary need until Social Media evolved. After all, I didn’t want to be that 40 year old screenwriter living with his mom in the basement.
The Octocorp as I remember still lives on, but now in the “oh man I can’t believe we got away with it” memories of those that I raised it with, those that still have an “Octo-Patch” (and yes, they are making a comeback), the stories that will one day reach some form of platform for few to read and if there is an opportunity to safely bring it all out, I MIGHT find a way. However, with the creation of (totally not a shameless plug here) www.octo-mart.com, I am able to separate “business” from “pleasure” even though to me, they’re one in the same and with said separation, am going to use this blog as more of a personal blog on how an aimless 20 something evolved into a aimless 30 something that is somehow, despite his best efforts, doing okay. If people can glean value from it, superb. If not, well, I am sure there will be many referenced individuals and programs that you’ll find that will.
So, if you’re reading this blog because you somehow stumbled upon it, or know me personally and are like “wtf?” just know that my pet projects are still alive and kicking, but just being raised differently by a more fiscally responsible and mature parent.
Have fun!