I got thinking about the history of the original site (This one is a rebirth from 2017). I figured I needed to share some memories of the pages past so he we go...
My start of the website was actually called TeamCite.com "Cite" became a word my friend group used for when something was awesome. It's origins itself is a whole other blog best left to the mind of either Ed Companion or Justin St. Louis. Just know that we yelled it when we were doing something cool an eventually became Team Cite. When you think about how big TeamCite.com got please know that we had our own racing team comprised of Alan Maynard, Shawn Sicard, and myself. THis was an actual racing team with like real cars... well mine was a Geo but it did have a roll cage, and thank God it did because I rolled in my first race. And in doing so was awarded the most "Cite Points" possible of any of that weekends participants.
On that website I'd post pics of stuff we were all doing. We had the racing page, pics of our friends weddings, basically anything the squad was doing. Later I actually added the Weav' Poker Tour to the site. A poker game we hosted at my crib every Monday night that became a large affair seeing 2 12-7 players per week on an average week. We had a points system, special weekly trophies, and of course cash payouts. It was... illegal but it this particular case it was Cite all the way.
As the site grew I started to expand it with things I'd write and stuff about myself... to the point where there was too much me and not enough Team Cite. So I created Piche Pages with hopes of expanding individual pages for each of us to work on as we wanted. But I did a lot on my pages and no one else's really ever took off. This was pointed out to me and at the time I didn't much care. I was paying for hosting, and editing the website all by my lonesome so I just kind of did what I wanted. But I realized that wasn't truly a Cite way to have the site be. Trying saying that sentence three times fast.
So I created JasonPiche.com and oh boy did I go nuts. I included everything I could on there. In an era before Facebook was mainstream, while Instagram and LinkedIn didn't exist... there I was with a website with WAY too much about me. I mean so much my mother often suggested that I share less. But I couldn't I was all-in.
Of course doing so meant I spent less time on TeamCite.com. Which eventually led to its downfall. Also we starting "Citing" less... these things happen as you grow up... so I'm told anyway. #Cite4Life Hell even hashtags weren't a thing back then!
Eventually I moved the Weav' Poker Tour over to my site to keep that going and a few other parts as well. In fact having the WPT over on my website almost got me in legal trouble once as I received a cease and desist notice from the actual World Poker Tour. Which was fair because I had taken their logo and changed the red/blue to green/yellow for our purposes. So I removed the logo and tamped down the WPT mentions.
As time moved forward I would blog adding the popular "State of The Pich' Address" segment (which still appears today) where I basically filled people in on my life... often oversharing. Be that as it may to this day I always feel good after writing something then sending it out there for the masses... even if that is only like one friend and my mom. I always sort of feel like I can move on then afterwards.
It became the online spot for my sports talk TV show called Talking Trash and again that's a topic that deserves a deeper dive than this but it was the host for show vids, clips, times, and more!
Another fun one was at the end of every year when I handed out the Pich' Awards. They featured a fun write-up, pics with the winners and in some cases acceptance speeches! More than a time or two I'd see one on the wall of someone's room or office and always get a smile. These were great and I need to find the old records and add them here. Losing that is one of my greatest laments to losing the original site. And I'll get to why that happened in a second.
So this one time I moved to Milwaukee. Seriously this story should be a movie (I started one once on iMovie),or at least a book so let's skip the heavy details on that for the time being. I moved there because I was interviewed for a job at the Bradley Center, home of the NBA's Bucks, AHL's Admirals, and Marquette University Men's hoop. The biggest indoor arena in Wisconsin, at the time. During this interview I was told how much they liked my website and that I was an "East Coast Guy" one of the bosses was from the Syracuse area. They loved that I knew how to drive Zambonis and could also do other stuff too. I checked a lot of boxes for these guys so I moved out and got to work.
Again a lot of stories and tales of interest while there but JasonPiche.com gave me a way to connect with people back home and friends around the country. It was a great source of relief to me and I even got permission from the Bradley Center to have small page about my role there and to help promote events. Of course they later used that as an excuse to fire me. Claiming in August 2009 I had shared backstage info in a blog I wrote about a WWE visit to our arena. And I had... but I also had a readership of like 10 people. Regardless years later I'd learn from those who let me go that the WWE called for my head... whether that was true or just a way to soften the blow... it didn't matter. After I was gone they added rules about sharing to the job descriptions that were unofficially known as the Piche Rules.
So after that things took a downward turn for me in Milwaukee and by the end of April 2010 I was heading back to Vermont. Right back to same job at UVM.
While back in VT I sort of tried to get things back to where they were. Poker on Mondays was big upon my return but slowly faded. Talking Trash started up again and eventually settled in with a new host but with shows now live on UStream we didn't use my site much.
My site labored sitting unused for a long time. I'd frequently get on a kick and hope to bring it back but never really did. In many ways I was scared to share as much now. Sort of a good thing but also bad.
I moved to Hudson, NH in 2014 and started a gig in Chelmsford Mass. during this era where I was working super hard and was over doing it the domain ran out for JasonPiche.com I wouldn't look in to it again for years as I was busy enough with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Why fire up a website when all that exists?
Well when I looked in to it again in 2017ish while poor, bored and living in Rat City aka Allston, Mass. Things were much different. I was ready to have a creative outlet again, but alas I had to reregister JasonPiche.com and find a new host site that is easier to use. I came up with the format of a blog-centric approach. Less stuff about me... if you can believe it, than the original. A less is more approach. Even my State of The Pich Addresses are tamer and more cognizant of the fact that although only 10 people might read it, all can. So basically I protect the stuff that doesnt need to be shared online like my bank account information, blood type, and poop log (yes that's a real thing, and yes i have one).
After hitting it hard for awhile I stopped again as I found myself on a computer so much at work that I rarely craved time in front of it while not at work. Then Corona virus struck in 2020 and had us all doing puzzles, making Tik Toks, hoarding toilet paper, and finding anyway to stay sane in an insane time.
I turned to video games first, after I got over my nasty bout of the flu, but then again dove back in writing and with that a reboot of JasonPiche.com is back again. I've recently wrote for some rink publications and will share those here along with an occasional State of The Pich' Address and whatever else I fancy.
So that's a brief history of the website started in 2004 or 05 I can't recall exactly and while it's faded away from time to time it always comes back with the goods. Hopefully this time it's here to stay!