About Site Author
This storybook project combines two of the things I am most interested in: mythology/fantasy and the Internet.
I read fantasy stories growing up and learned about different mythologies in school. My general impressions of these genres were negative: they were for children or for primitive man. In high school, that all changed. I watched Star Wars and read the Iliad. I saw for the first time the power and the beauty of stories from another world, whether that world be in the ancient past or in a galaxy far, far away. I have been living in other worlds ever since. The non-fiction writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien have helped me gain a better understanding of why fantasy and mythology have impacted me so deeply. I currently spend much of my free time in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. I greatly enjoyed the Lord of the Rings, and Peter Jackson's movies have been excellent; but I truly love the Silmarillion stories. As I said in my project introduction, the Silmarillion has moved me more than any other book I have ever read. I have thoroughly enjoyed revisiting and exploring my personal experiences from it as I have worked on this project.
I first got online when I was in high school. I now use the Internet all the time; my Mozilla Browser is my favorite and most-used application. I love building and designing web pages. Web design is my most prominent creative outlet. I built this site using some of the latest HTML and CSS tricks I have learned, and I am happy with how it turned out. I am impressed with how the Internet is allowing us to share: not just information (which is important), but also experiences and stories. We all have something to contribute, and the Internet gives us that chance. We all experience life so differently, and I don't just want to assume otherwise. I am really interested in blogging -- I look forward to graduating and having more time to blog about my thoughts and experiences, instead of the just the current events of my life.
There are of course lots of other things that interest me; for information about these things and to look at my other web projects, visit my home page at www.randyhoyt.com.