How It All Began...

Originally over the summer in 1999 Paul Hebert, who has just finished his freshman year at Niskayuna High School found himself bored, and with far more time than a boy of that age should.  The summer before he had taught himself how to program HTML and he had yet to find a good use for this new skill of his.  Then, in the middle of a hot summer night Paul decided to create a site that contained within it all of the inside jokes that he and his friends had.  This was the beginning of the infamous website that would come to be known as "The Kinky Kouch"  (We readily admit that Paul is a complete and utter dork  He would have to be, the signs are all here.  He had nothing to do in summer and taught himself computer programming, dorky, and then the NEXT summer he still had nothing to do, so he built a web site, dorky, and what's worse is he thought of it some night meaning he was not out having a crazy time, dorky.) 

Paul quickly set to work developing this site.  His original plans no longer exist, and neither does the original site.  The only artifact remaining is the award that was originally produced so that the "Kouch" could be called an award winning site.  All the graphics were original on the "Kinky Kouch."  It's award was given out to several sites. The 101 list was deemed quite popular.  The guestbook quickly filled up.  Paul was much encouraged by this.

Programming genius that he was, Paul managed to get the "Kinky Kouch" connected to the Niskayuna School District Home Page - much to the dismay of the Superintendent.  However, he was told that the situation could not be changed by his programmers until the end of the summer.  His programmer, a math teacher at the school was impressed by Paul's work, and is noted as being an early fan of the site.

Paul kept up the "Kinky Kouch," updating it regularly - which was not a problem in the beginning as there was little content of any kind.  The Kouch began to grow in size though, and as it did so did the chore of keeping it up.  Eventually, in the midst of Sophomore year it fell by the way-side.  The Kouch was left untouched for months until the summer of 2000.

The summer of 2000 saw a reworking of the Kinky Kouch.  It received a complete face-lift.  A totally new graphic interface was given to it, including a new logo.  The logo was based on that of the previous one, keeping the same style couch graphic and font.  The current logo was created during this complete graphic over-haul.  Huge portions were added, including the Big Wangs, WLW, and the Paulist Church.  it was during this time that the name was changed to simply "The Couch" to avoid confusion over it's content.  (some people were visiting the site thinking it was porn.)  The content was totally updated, refreshed.  Yet, some of the Kouch's legendary content - such as the 101 Random Life Lessons were preserved for posterity.  They remain today in their unadulterated form. Totally new graphics where added including new banners for certain portions of the site.  These would prove to be the inspiration for the banner on every page format such as is the case now.

The duties of yet another school year got the best of the Paul and again the Couch fell to the way-side.  It was not picked up again until November of 2002 while Paul was a college freshman.  There the Couch yet again had all of it's content totally updated, a major graphics change and the addition of totally new portions of the site, and the completion of some parts - including WLW.

At the end of 2004 Paul saw that once again, thanks to school the Couch was falling to the side.  He decided that it was time to truly update the couch.  He sought to make the Couch not just a shadow of its formal self but something that was alive, and something that was relevant.  In the longest overhaul ever, almost six months and from two continents (he did all the programming from China and Africa) he stripped the couch of almost all of its original content, including the original 101 list, he added new inside jokes and totally new sites to represent everything that had happened since its inception.  All of the old advertisements were kept, the only remaining element of some of the old content.  Now as 2006 just begins and the Couch begins its sixth year of operation we celebrate a return to what The Couch was truly meant to be: a receptacle of fun, random stuff that reflects the thoughts, jokes, and exploits of the Couch's creators.  Viva la Couch!