I set up the first version of my homepage in March 1996. It wasn't much of a page, just some minor modifications made to this template.
The most notable loss is "Gord's Obnoxious Backgrounds," an archive of .GIF images that could fit seamlessly together to form backgrounds for Web pages and/or desktops. I culled the Internet (remember, this was back in 1996-7, when the Internet wasn't nearly as immense as it is today) to find suitably colourful (read: obnoxious) images. I then used a nice little utility for the XWindows environment to adjust the colours. Eventually, the image folder ballooned up to 6+ MB and forced me to move it to the Web folder for my fraternity's Web page, of which I was the administrator. The folder, along with all of the images were then relegated to dev/null by one of the University of Manitoba network administrators. At its peak, it was the second-largest image archive of its type.
These pages promised naked photos of Bea Arthur since their inception. I finally got around to looking for such incomprehensible smut, and I found a doctored photo of Bea in a one-piece bathing suit. I had it linked, but it seems that the image's host (www.beanaked.com) has died. I'll keep trying.
Prior to my wedding in June 2001, this page had a JavaScript clock that was counting down to the date and time of the wedding ceremony. After the wedding, it became redundant and, to be honest, a bit annoying. Now that it's been removed, it should be safe to say that I stole the code from a Y2K countdown clock which had been written for AT&T WorldNet customers with PWPs.
Previous to its current homes, this site had been hosted in three other locations:
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umreid12 (March 1996 - September 2001)
http://home.att.net/~g.and.k.reid (August 2001 - May 2002)
http://omega.uta.edu/~gbr5097 (January 2002 - November 2003)
First of all, there's information about me. The usual, redundant PWP garbage: a short bio, a list of favorite links, etc.
Also included (jeez, I sound like a K-Tel commercial) is a handful of stories I wrote while working at The Manitoban. I've let my stream-of-consciousness run amok in my Rants and my blog, and my mouth (among others') runs loose on the Quotes page.
Oh yeah, there *is* a picture of me wearing nothing but a pair of boots, sunglasses and a smile.
Presently, this site resides in two locations:
http://www.prettybigduck.com (Since November 2003)
http://www.angelfire.com/mb2/caknuck/ (Since Fall 2000)
The biggest changes to the site will be in the blog. I am in the process of switching the blog over to Blogger.
I've started a semi-regular series or Rants entitled "Shirts I've Owned", which will be updated...well, semi-regularly.
As for the Toban articles, additional postings are forthcoming. In total, I penned over 200 articles and eventually most of them will make their way onto this page.
Several of the pages created during the Spring 2003 site redesign are a bit... er, lacking in content. These pages will be filled in accordingly.
A new "Shout Outs" page will be added shortly to the Words section. This page will be used to send long overdue messages to people from whom I have drifted.
My bio page will undergo a major reworking sometime in the future, probably being split up
into several separate pages.
What will never be found here...
I'm not going to make too many promises, as "never" is an extremely strong word. I, however, will make some guarantees...
No cheesy animations. No guestbooks. No illegible text/background colour combinations. No blind links to porn sites (I prefer my porn links to be nice and overt, thank you very much. Try this one or this one for starters) or warez sites.
No preachy "WWJD" bullshit. Fuck, that crap bugs me.
I'm not going to sell you anything. Nor will I beg for donations. This includes Amazon wishlists and the like.
And finally, I resolve to -- though cannot promise to always -- avoid spelling mistakes and
grammatical errors. If you find one, e-mail me. I'm not too proud to admit it when I'm wrong.
What are they going to do...fire me? --
blandscotsman@hotmail.com
This page is ©1996-2006 by Gordon Reid.