13 June 2002 - 10:00

Well, a week has passed, and things have happened, but I don't want to talk about that. Actually I want to talk about me. Or about me talking about me.

Vegging out on-line over the past few months I've taken a bunch of on-line personality quizes. A way of wasting time that's also self involved. Results can be seen on this page. Only one of them has really stuck in my head. There's a test for what psychological disorders you might have tendancies towards, and I got moderate schizotypal, dependent, and histrionic. Low in everything else. But that's not the interesting part. What interests me is one of the questions from the quiz, one of the ones that got me the histrionic score, and the only one I still remember. "Do you feel that you always have to have a story to tell?"

Yes, yes I do. That describes how I feel very well. I want my life to have a plot. I want my life to have an interesting setting and interesting, lovable characters and a killer soundtrack. I want my life's dialogue to be well-crafted. I want to be an idealized (yet human) hero protagonist. But most of all, I want my life to have a plot. A really good plot. With a happy ending (that part's important).

(Then why is this journal so random? you may ask. Well, being a journal, it looks at things on the scale of days and weeks. The "plot" that I make up occurs on the order of years and decades...)

Anyway.

I'm totally full of myself.

I want to be famous, although not if it's gratuitous. I want to be famous for something worthwhile I did. Like Jane Goodall. I know, if I think about it, that I probably wouldn't enjoy it. You don't need to tell me. I know it, but it doesn't change the impulse. I want both to be famous on my own merits, and, perhaps slightly more, to do something that merits it--something important. Like Grace Llewellyn.

In the meantime, I simply enjoy talking about myself. And I enjoy being unusual because it gives me something to talk about. Unschooling. Dolphin research.

And on that note, I'm going to switch over and talk about my webpage.

I want fan mail.

My webpage first went on-line six years ago, although of course it's changed dramatically. For several years it was shared with Turquoise's webpage. Minor changes in the format have occured, although the text-descriptions have existed since the first revision. The server location has changed, but hopefully it won't again for a really long time (nbtsc.org should stand forever!).

Most of the changes have been additions.

So what's on my webpage? I'm glad you asked.

There's the section all about me, of course. That's where I link here, and to photos.

Recently I've been working on a list of environmentally sound products that I may want to know about/buy someday. I just got an e-mail from someone with an MLM company that makes personal care products that are supposed to be eco-friendly in some way. The e-mailer had found my list and wanted to send me sample packets. What I want to know is how she found my list...

I get, oh, maybe a dozen or so e-mails every year from people who have found my website. Most of them are asking about homeschooling (ironic, since I still haven't put much of anything there yet... or maybe that's why people write and ask me). Then about Hawaiian language (I'm one of only a very small handful of pages about Hawaiian languague). Then the occasional missive regarding dolphins. Yes, of course I have a dolphin section on my page, which includes a couple of papers that I've written, and a large semi-sorted set of dolphin links (I think the raw alphabetical listing is more useful than the annotation attempts at the moment.)

Of course, the section of my webpage that I put the most energy into is that showcasing my various arts. You can read my poetry and short stories, or if you have the bandwidth for MP3s, you can do even better and listen to me read my poetry. Then there're some of my lovely drawings and paintings. I did a 24 hour comic last year. Then there's assorted polymer clay sculptings and fiber work. And I've never once gotten e-mail about this part. Oh no. People write to me saying, I hate highschool, can you help me leave? (I do my best to). People write to me saying, "I'm learning Hawaiian, do you have any resources for me? Can I practice with you?" (I do my best to). Very very occasionally people write to me saying, "I have a webpage about dolphins, could you add it to your list?" (yeah, when I get around to it) or "I wrote a book about dolphins, you should buy it." (yeah, when I have the money. Can I have your autograph?) or even "Do you know anything about the dolphin internships at EPCOT?" (a little) or "A friend said I should give birth in the ocean near dolphins, is this a good idea?" (no).

But my narcissistic heart yearns for fan-mail. For, "Neat polyclay dolphins! Do you take commissions?" or "Wow, you spin and speak Hawaiian and wrote a computer game and didn't go to highschool and you're going to study dolphins? That's amazing!" or especially, "I downloaded Dragons in Chocolate Land to check it out... it's really cool! Will you please finish the last bits of it?"

Dragons in Chocolate Land is a computer game that I wrote a couple years ago. It's a text-adventure game (like Zork) with a very cutesy, but not quite sickening plot. You play a teenager loner who's always loved fantasy stories. Then one day he wakes up in a strange land full of dragons. You've got to find your way back home, and along the way you might make some really good friends. It is pretty damn well written and very expansive. I spent a lot of time on it and I'm proud of it. There are three stages, and unfortunately, none of the people I've showed it to (my friends) have bothered playing it long enough to get past the first one. Much less to the end. Now, the game isn't quite done yet. It's possible to win, but the third stage is a bit narrow and buggy, especially compared to the first and second (which are finished). I want to put the finishing touches on it, but I just can't bring myself to since no one will play it.

You can download it off my website and make me very happy. It should run on most PCs (it may run better on older PCs).

Well, that's about all I have to say about that for now. I'm hoping to revamp my webpage soon, and then it will be even cooler.

...

The title quote is from a Fraggle Rock song. I won't clutter up my page with the lyrics, but I encourage people to read them here. With my unschoolerish backround, I tend to think of it as a song of good advice for people in school...