Matthew Allen
Welcome to my home page - take your shoes off and stay a while.
Welcome, one and all, to my home page. If you know me, you probably already know what's in here. On the other hand, if you don't know me, you probably don't really care... but maybe you'll find something here that you like anyway. I can always hope.
I know that people often put pictures of themselves in these pages, and eventually I'll probably do that myself (in fact, since I now have a scanner it's even more possible), but so far I haven't gotten around to making a good .gif or .jpeg picture of myself - so you'll just have to muddle along without one until then.
Now that that's out of the way, I can start talking about stuff I like..... blah, blah, blah...
Here goes - my interests:
- First, I enjoy reading "speculative fiction." Favorite authors include:
Orson Scott Card,
Anne McCaffrey, L.E. Modessit Jr.,
Robert Heinlein,
and many others. You name a science fiction/fantasy author and I've probably read something by them. As time goes on and I feel more comfortable with this whole html thing, I'm hoping to put some reviews of some of my favorite books on this page, which is why I decided to move into the Geocities Area 51 section. Of course, by now pretty much everyone knows it as basic Yahoo! stuff instead, but what can you do? Well, I can keep sending people to my own "Area51" link as long as it keeps working - that's what I can do. Heh.
Also, my wife has written a first draft of a book and various short stories (more on her later), and I'm lucky enough to get sneak-prieviews of any writing she does. The book is a few hundred pages long and, in my completely unbiased opinion, it's really good... better than some of the published schlock I've read (and I've read more than my fair share of schlock I can tell you!!). So hopefully I'll be able to add her name to my list of favorite authors some day. :-)
- Second, I like singing. I have been singing since I was a wee lad. Starting out as a boy soprano in my church's childrens choir in Tulsa, Oklahoma (until my voice changed - I sing bass now); then in my school's chorus and Madrigal Singers group throughout High School; then in College with the
Alley Cats and the Whiffenpoofs
of Yale. Most recently, I was musical director of a co-ed, 16-voice, a capella, jazz/pop group based in Washington, DC, called
Take Note!
If you have any questions about the group which aren't answered by our homepage, feel free to
contact them. Since then I haven't done much singing, but will hopefully get back into it again before too much longer.
- Third, though I haven't been keeping up recently, I have enjoyed telnet muds. For those of you who don't know what muds are, I could try to describe them, but I recommend trying one out for yourself first. The first of these which I discovered (and it's still, in my opinion, the best I've found - beginners luck I suppose) is
Ancient
Anguish
(for their web homepage, click
here). I have tried several others, as well, all of which also have a fantasy theme. The best of these others is
Ancient
Dreams
(homepage link). If you don't want to take my suggestions (or try them and don't like them - unlikely, but possible) there are hundreds of other muds with a variety of themes. The best place to go hunting for one that suits you is at the
Mud Connector. This is a great location for mud-enthusiasts - and way bookmarkable. Enjoy the variety.
- Fourth (and this is certainly not in the correct order of importance) is my
wife. I'm not going to tell you her name, cause those of you who know her already know her name, those of you who know me can ask me her name, and those of you who don't know either of us don't really need to know her name ;-). Anyway, she's an aspiring author, a poet, a dreamer, a sweetheart and basically all-around wonderful. She also happens to be Canadian, though we now have moved to Texas after living together up in Toronto for about two years. I moved in with her in December '98 and life was wonderful. We met on the internet (yes, a real '90s couple), through the mud Ancient Anguish (see Interest #3 above), and our primary methods of communication before we moved in together were: through our characters on that mud, with an internet telephone program called
VoxPhone
(which is generally excellent) and through a text (and some voice) chat system called
Powwow.
For those of you out there considering an internet relationship (or already slipping into one) rest assured that it can work! I asked her to marry me at midnight on New Years Eve 1999/2000 during a vacation in Mexico and she said yes! We've since gotten married (following the time schedule of the INS, but happily nonetheless) and she is working on building her own buiness as a personal chef - The Whisk Wizard.
Well, that's my list of interests - my main ones, anyway. There are lots of other things I enjoy, but I won't bore you (any more than I already have, anyway) with an exhaustive, not to mention exhausting, summary - at least not here. Besides, a guy has to keep SOME things to himself, eh? What I will do is give those of you who have the inclination, another page of
links to people/stuff I like, for your edification and amusement. Plus, if nothing else, it'll get me on the good side of some people who like getting hits on their pages.
Thanks for wading through my trivia - makes me feel good to know someone actually read this stuff. For your information, you are (at least as far as YOU know) visitor number 
to my page (at least since I reset it in January '02).
OK, enough for now... I'd say "stay tuned for updates" but who knows when I'll update this next. If your so inclined, feel free to send me an
email
with any comments or suggestions for improvement (glitch/bug notifications) on my page. I won't hold my breath. ;-)
Oh, yeah... almost forgot. Matthew's words to live by:
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth...
And personally, I don't recommend looking in the other end either.
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Last updated on January 18, 2004.
"Illigitimi Non Carborundum"