[This lovely couple combined their talents to provide you with over 1500 links to graphics, WebTV sources, HTML, page building, fun pages, spiritual and fantasy sites. Oh, and be sure to catch Annie's "Sea of Graphics" which contains rainbows of sparkling colored gifs, some of which are animated and full of explosive colors!--ck]
If you ever have a spare couple of hours, you may want to check out the sites put together by John and Annie of Ohio. This happy couple has been married for 11 years and have been WebTV Plus users for one and one half years. Annie has three sons from a previous marriage (21, 24 and 25) and she and John have a nine year old son of their own. All of Annie and John's children are very creative and all are involved with music. The oldest even sang at Carnegie Hall and cut an album. John is a manager of a local luxury car wash and is a "Jack-Of-All-Trades." Previously, he was in sports while growing up, then served in the Marines. Annie has dealt with partial disability during the past four years, but with time, she expects to return to work and engage in more activities outside the home.
When asked why they bought WebTV, John said it was a mutual hobby. Also, Annie is recovering with "Post Traumatic Stress" and a neck problem. She desired a way to maintain contact with others and wanted to be able to express her creative nature. Annie had neck surgery in May of 1999 when the pain in her right arm and neck became severe and she could barely walk.
John and Annie began putting their homepages together in November of 1998 and continue to work on them. Their first website was Comfort & Hope After Trauma & Grief which Annie says is a haven for other cyberspace travelers to come to and hopefully feel that they are not alone in their journey to endure some of life's more difficult circumstances. Part of this website is the Embrace-A-Diamond page. This page allows web surfers to "Adopt-a-Diamond" to show their support for survivors and supporters around the globe. This was begun in January of 1999 to act as a middle ground for all those who have experienced grief or trauma through varied experiences.
John and Annie's next project was Web Treasure Links which was built because Annie's favorite folders were all full. It has over 1500 links for people to explore. These include links to graphics, WebTV resources, HTML help, kewl stuff for page building, educational, fun, spiritual and fantasy materials.
Sea Of Graphics was created in May of 1999, because Annie loves collecting colorful graphics and sharing such with others. The other site, done by these two budding webmasters, is Treasures For You which Annie says features greeting pages for persons to read and/or to send to their significant others. This was started around February of 1999, because it is absolutely fun to be creative with page building and know that others can enjoy the contents of it as well." (Usually Annie builds the pages and John critiques them and I think they have done a terrific job!-RC)
John and Annie are both very active away from their WebTV. John likes golf, fishing, relaxing in the pool during the summer, landscaping and remodeling with the designs that Annie draws, and sports in general. Annie keeps herself busy with RPGs for Playstation, building web pages, photo journalism, freelance writing, cross-stitching, playing piano, National Geographic and Discovery channels, being involved in community improvements, building 3-D puzzles, relaxing in the pool during the summer, landscaping and remodeling designs, archaeology, oceanography, Egyptology, collecting angels, teddy bears, fairies, unicorns and Victorian artifacts.
They are both also active in the ADH Homepage Helpers group. Annie was surfing the web for unicorn websites when she met a wonderful lady, whom she still interacts with, named "Velma" of "Velm's Fantasy Realm." Velma introduced her to ADH. Initially, they joined in order to receive help in building their first webpage. Thereafter, Annie also met Tom, Bruce and TBOOB, who encouraged her and her endeavors. They are now a part of the "Welcome Wagon" committee.
I always like to ask people what they would say to the WebTV founders, Bruce Leak and Phil Goldman if they had the chance. John and Annie would tell them, "For the most part, WebTV has been a very enjoyable, fascinating, and productive experience. There have been a few times where glitches created interruption in the services and/or problems on the web. But all in all and in consideration of the monthly fee, the pluses have absolutely outweighed such problems. We also have marveled at how WebTV conducts its advertisements on TV by focusing on television enhancements. We tend to believe that if the general public comprehended WebTV's other capabilities, like surfing and web page building, there would be more of a demand for the units and ultimately, more money could go into providing better services and features to customers. Most of our offline friends did not even know about WebTV's capabilities. Our 21 year olds friends are blown-away by it when they see it for the first time." Overall, John and Annie give WebTV a B+ grade.
When asked what advice they would give to their fellow WebTV users, John stated, "Enjoy the WebTV experience to its fullest, which can include educating yourself on netiquette, learning basic HTML and being considerate to fellow webbers."
I would like to thank John and Annie for agreeing to this interview and for building such great web sites. People like this are what makes the WebTV community so special!
[Community Editor's Notes: John and Annie! What splendid and beautiful pages. You are to be commended for your fine work in "Comfort and Hope!" I especially loved your fun pages and got pleasantly lost in the animated rainbow gifs! A work of art!--ck]
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