This
web site represents a slice of my life, some of my interests, hobbies,
creativity, past, present, future, and a little bit of my personality.
I had debated for several years about whether to actually
create such a site before finally deciding to do so. Once I
made the decision I set about the process of creating, design and
building. What you see before you is the end product of that
process, which is still ongoing. It is and will always remain
very much a work in progress, as my life changes, so will this web
site. I hope to continually add to it's content. It
was my hope to create a site that was more than just a few pictures,
links and brief bio. I wanted to create a place of interest
that contained something the visitor would enjoy and find useful.
I hope I succeeded and I hope you enjoy your visit here as
much as I've enjoyed creating it. Comments or suggestions are
welcome. Please let me know if you have any trouble viewing
any portion of this site.
This is a larger personal site than most, so I've tried to make it easy and quick to navigate. The buttons under Contents at left will take you directly to any section of the site at any time. Some of the buttons under Contents have expandable menus with additional links to various subsections of the site. The Contents menu will always be visible to make navigating between sections easier. The main document area (where this text is displayed) is where you will see the contents of the various sections. This site was designed to operate on most browsers (any browser compliant with HTML 4.0 Final should have no trouble with this site). However, since most browsers refuse to consistently use HTML in the same way, and since not all browsers support HTML 4.0, this site is best viewed with Internet Explorer 5.0+ for which it was optimized. It is also best viewed at a 1024x768 resolution or better, though it will display at lower resolutions. This site also requires a minimal use of javascripting, please be sure java is turned on in your browser. However, this site does not, and will not, make use of popup advertisements or other irritations frequently done with javascripting.
This site continues to grow since it was first launched in January of 2000. By September of 2000 it had outgrown it's original host and had to be moved to a new host which allowed more space. Unfortunately that did not work out as well as I had hoped and was moved to a temporary host with some features disabled. As of June 9th 2001 the site was moved to it's new home and all features were restored. With the initial move over, work immediately began to update the site and add material that had been delayed due to the problems.
Here you'll find info about me. There is a bio which tells you a little of who I am, my background and my personality. You'll also find information about contacting me . There is a bit about my family history and Irish roots as well as one of my family traditions. And of course there is a small gallery of personal photos.
This new section showcases what I do for a living, my business, O'Neal's Designer Painting. Here you can find out a bit about what decorative painting is, what kinds of painting I do as well as other decorative things I do as part of my business. There is also a sample gallery of some of the decorative finishes I have done.
One of my many hobbies is spelunking, exploring caves and caverns. This section contains an essay and pictorial about the hobby and caves I have personally explored along with pictures I have taken while in these caves. Most of the photographs will be linked to larger versions which will open in popup windows simply by clicking on the photograph. I will be adding new photos as I have time to take them and eventaully a gallery of all the pictures I have taken.
This is an online collection of my creative writing. You'll currently find some short fiction here, all original works by myself. I'll be adding to this archive as I have time. I enjoy writing but never seem to write as often or as much as I should. I have finally started to add some of my essays to this section, more will be added as time allows. I'm also considering adding a poetry section containing some of my favorite poems by other authors. I don't write poetry myself however, with the exception of a couple of original limericks.
Drawing on my own experience with the wide variety of books I have personally read, I have begun adding reviews of some of my favorite books here. The Library is organized into various sections by general topic with short reviews of books in each. I hope you'll enjoy this new addition to my site as well as find it convenient and helpful.
I have begun reconstructing this into a collection of art galleries showcasing my various artistic creations. Presently there is a small collection of photographs here, a sample of my photography. I will be adding to this as time allows and intend to later include galleries of my sketches, 3D Digital art, and painted miniatures.
This section includes an introductory page which explains what role playing games are and some of their history, some of the misconceptions about them and other general facts. There is a personal page giving info about my experience with RPGs, as well as my gaming interests. I have also added pages with articles on topics useful to gamers and GMs. There is also a section reviewing various games and game related products, including links to buy thes games and products online. Future plans include sections for GURPS games, Fading Suns, and HarnWorld material. Also, I hope to eventually provide a web bulletin board for online game discussions.
Here in this section is an organized listing of all the links to various sites I have collected. Listed by topic they provide a wealth of information on various things discussed on this web site as well as some stuff just for fun.
For those visitors wishing to contact me, this link will take you to the site based email form which you may use to send your message.
Currently the following items are of particular interest or have been recently added to the site.