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:: What's this thing all about? ::
The whole idea behind this site was to sharpen my chops in blogging.
I've been following the development of web logs (blogs) and blogging for a couple years and
I finally thought it was time to test the waters myself. I signed up
for blogger in early April 2002 and started blogging
a couple times a day. Gradually I got hooked on the whole idea of instant
publishing and updates for family and friends.
I don't expect a great deal of traffic on this site, but hopefully it was keep those that come interested. My main purpose is to test out various features of blogger and the blogging experience. With that in mind, please keep coming back to see what's new with me and my blog.
:: Who is this Tom Strohmeyer guy? ::
Okay, just a bit about me and what I do. For starters, I live on the
island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the Western Pacific. I've lived
here for nearly 10 years now, since 1993. Suffice to say I enjoy the
island life, the ocean, the warmth, the people, and the adventures.
I was born in 1968, in St. Louis Missouri. Since I suspect only friends
and family will be visiting this page, I don't see any need to bore
people with all the details. I lived in St. Louis until college, when
I spent 4 years in Wisconsin. After college I ended up in graduate school
in Missouri, and took the first opportunity that came to come to Guam.
I work as a database analyst for a large mainland
health insurer with a presence on Guam. Mostly I write SQL all day
and develop databases. I find it mostly interesting.
In my free time I paddle canoes, hike and camp, ride my mountain bike,
enjoy the varied night life on Guam, read books voraciously, and piddle
around on my computer.
:: How'd you make this really cool site? ::
The main page is driven by Blogger,
a free web based blogging application. Using the web interface, blogger
makes it very simple to post thoughts, stories and links to other sites.
I sampled the free version of blogger for almost five months, then I
took the plunge and upgraded to blogger
pro, which offers more features and priority access to blogger's
servers. It was worth the investment.
The layout is actually a template that blogger offers to get people
started quickly. I liked it better than most of the others. I tweaked
the template to create this page in BBEdit,
the best text editor for the Macintosh.
:: What's up with the name? ::
East of the Sun, West of the Moon evokes several things. First of all, it is the name of an old folk tale. A young woman searches for her prince in an evil witch's castle. "It lies east of the sun and west of the moon, and never would you find your way there." The fairy tale is pretty good, but I chose the name for another reason. It was evocative of Guam's position in the Pacific, east of Japan, the land of the rising sun. (East of the Sun). And one of my greatest pleasures is watching the full moon rise over the Pacific every month. (West of the Moon)
Plus the name sounds really cool in Chamorro: Sangkattan I Atdao Yan Sanlichan I Pulan
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