I kick-started 2010 with the launch of a project I've been working on for a bit now: the rebranded website of our family business, Cystems Inc. The site went live on New Year's Day and let me tell you, there is just no better way to start a new year than feeling totally productive and accomplished! So with that said, check out the website here at cystems.ca and feel free to give me any feedback/comments.

via Pop + ShortyAnyway, building the site reminded me of my early days working with HTML...way, way back during the time of AsianAvenue (which I have just recently discovered is now known as "AsianAve"). I know there are a number of you who still remember that site (don't lie now!). It's probably the first social networking website that I was ever involved with and now looking back on that, it's easy to see the seeds of this whole social media/social networking revolution. I remember back in the late 90s to the early '00s (yeah, it's been that long), all my friends and I would be on this site 24/7...it was the Facebook of that time, no doubt, and that's where I first learned the magic of markup languages. We'd all show off our "AA page" whenever we had a new layout up or any other kind of new addition. We'd write about our thoughts and about our day to day life...like an unrefined version of how we blog today. And we'd write on "guestbooks" just how we'd now write on each others "walls" or write each other a "testimonial" (remember Friendster?).

So even though I cringe at the thought of my AsianAvenue days, the truth is that I owe a lot of what I'm doing professionally to that time in my life. It's funny looking back and tracing the path of technology at a time when it was just bursting at its seams and being in the middle of its incredible explosion right now.

...But anywho, just thought I'd share some memories with you before I shamelessly plug Cystems Inc. one last time! Check it out, check it out!