This came up in a thread on Hacker News regarding 3D elements in HTML5 and I thought I'd share it here - my proudest ever moment on the internet.
I wrote Strongbad while supremely frustrated with Flash. I was in an Interactive Fiction course, an elective within my major course of study (Fiction Writing), and we were putting together websites to carry our narratives, either directly or as sort of a compendium. I was self-taught in CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, but had never before encountered Flash or ActionScript other than on sites like homestarrunner and had not an iota of knowledge about its inner workings.
So I'm sitting in this class getting nowhere on even the simplest of actions on my page, so I wrote Strongbad the email linked above. I used "website" in every sentence to be funny - the email was the vessel upon which I let loose my frustrations with the class and its teachers (a joint effort between the Fiction department and, what, I don't know, the Graphic Design department? or something? we were using those candy-coated G4s or G5s). If my frustration was the bump and the email was the set, Strongbad spiked it home with not only a hilarious reply but also the extra-special bonus of an actual website built almost entirely out of animated gifs.
That's ridiculously cool. I will always have severe nostalgia when it goes to Homestar and the fact you got a Strongbad email is wonderful. That was a good one.
Awesome. Did you get any sort of notification that your e-mail had been selected? I love Homestarrunner and Strong Bad. The guys that make those cartoons are pretty damn talented. I am wearing a "Pistols for Pandas" t-shirt as I write this. In case you don't know what I mean, it can be found here. I have had it for . . . fuck, like, 8 years and I have worn it on 5 continents. So far, it has never betrayed me. Edited for stuff
That Pistols for Pandas shirt is pretty amazing, not solely for its design but also its apparent durability. Thanks for linking to it, might have to check out a "4 Gregs" tee and see how long that lasts me. To answer your question - no notification (that I was aware of) which was probably for the best, as it was a tremendous surprise to find that my email had been picked. There weren't any other fans of the series in the class so I had to explain to my pals just how big of a deal it was to me, at the time (and still is).
That is awesome. I absolutely loved Homestar Runner and it's really cool to see the story behind a sbemail. When I first discovered it my sister and I spent an entire weekend watching everything on the site and exploring it (back when the fansite Homestarrunner.net was up). And that website SB made is a nostalgia trip in and of itself. I don't remember seeing the Sad Journal link but that is hilarious too. I do remember learning HTML in my InfoTech class in high school and designing things like navigation bars in iframes with animated fire GIFs. Fun times.