Q: Who are you and what is this place?

I'm just some guy who goes by the pseudonym 'Stopdoor'. As a kid surfing the internet, this was common practice. A bit less normal in the days of Facebook and a less private internet, but it's still a comfort to post under a pen name.

This is a website I wanted to be about video games, but then realized worked much better at being a place to dump all my stuff. It currently hosts a large collection of art mostly made in MS Paint (I'd like to think it's at least a bit impressive), some rudimentary games I've made, a place to leave any writings, and links to content of mine elsewhere, all housed in a website fully designed by me. It works well as a hub of any interesting stuff I make.

Q: Where did this come from?

I coded it through sheer force of willpower and hosted it with the awesome power of small financial transaction. It's currently in that semi-regular comatose state visited upon most hobby sites; everything looks ok, got some things up, could probably be a lot better. Considering how impossible it seemed I would even be able to get this site up, I still feel accomplished and I don't really regret anything. Isn't a pretty website just as appealing as a content-full one? Who needs actual things to bide your time when you can just gaze at the beautiful upholstery and be totally jealous?

I'm just going to post some old random pictures here

Q: Why "Eh hem"?

To briefly explain; Eh hem is just a word really. It doesn't have any real meaning, other than it being that term that's occasionally used when someone decides to clear their throat or catch attention. It originated as a simple silly in-joke between two young people (read: one of them was me), and it essentially became a word to base stuff I make around. I like to use words in any pictures or things I create, and something as meaningless as 'Eh hem' works well most of the time.

So, nothing that special. I've also latched onto my orange sea monster theme in a similiar way.

Hey, it's this site as a fetus!

Q: Why put so much work into something as, erm, pointless as this?

I made this website because I did nothing. Wandering around on video game forums, sitting idly on internet chats, I realized I was getting older and had way too much free time. I wanted to talk about video games, create things, yet I saw no point of scattering my opinion and content all about the internet.

If I had all this free time, I needed something to show for it right? That's part of what started me making art on the computer. But as I accumulated all these things, I wanted a place to put it all. I strived toward some sort of central spot I could put everything I've ever done, or what I plan to do, on display.

A website seemed like the ideal vessel for everything. But I had nearly zero experience in web design. Did that stop me?

Obligatory Minecraft screenshot

Well, yes. I meandered around for almost a year, trying to will myself to do anything. Why not just use some blogging service, or some simple template web designer? It's just too limited, that's why. I don't want to be one vaguely similar blog in the middle of thousands of others. I wanted full control over all my design, do crazy stuff. do art, write words, make games, make websites, do anything. And what would I have learned from just using a blogging service anyway? Unfortunately, I don't have any wise mentor or friend to look to, so I'm just learning and reinventing the wheel even if takes me years.

I finally did build on a small base of web design class in 11th grade and made this website from pretty much scratch in the summer of 2011. Really, it's a technique I learned while doing art; if you bang your head against the wall forever, no matter how good you are at it, you usually get a pretty nice dent eventually.

Poor coconut

Q: But if you had so much free time, why are updates so slow?

Of course, while I mentioned I started this website because I do nothing, I finally got it up at a time when I was ramping up for university, trying to get a job, getting math homework every night, and couldn't even play the games I had so much time for because I was doing this website instead. Now I balance university, jobs, free time, and my troubled future along with this, wondering if it's worth it.

It may not look like I'm updating the site, but there's a decent amount of behind the scenes work, especially when you're one guy. This site is good source of learning and I think it's worth the time, so it's unlikely I'll give up on it... but I realize it's difficult to create a popular website without a decently consistent stream of content. But why work on stuff when there's no audience? It's a self-perpetuating cycle.

Q: Anything else?

No, that's it. I feel like I could go wandering into any old topics or tidbits, but I hope I've done a good enough job explaining what this site is so far. While feedback like comments or a forum would be ideal for really letting people express their opinions, like I said I'm only a novice web designer and I'm adamant about having some degree of control over my site's aesthetics. I used to have an active chat, that's still hidden on the sidebar, but it's inevitably been abandoned as my internet cohorts grew older. My e-mail is now down below for at least one contact method. I'm very open to any criticisms, ideas, or discussion, so I would love to hear it. I'm especially critical of my writing; this is why none is up on the "Writing" page right now. So any criticism on that is good!

-Stopdoor

Ways to Contact Me/My Internet Presence

An e-mail of mine; in flat picture form to discourage spam (too much work to figure out complex methods at this point). Just some random hotmail address, I know. This one has 4 'L's in 'roll'. So copy this down and send me something!

The Backloggery
This is my game collection (I have alot of games). I update it extremely regularly; if you like games and don't have an account here, I reccommend it, it's very addicting.

Xbox Gamertag: The Stopdoor
Playstation Network: Stopdoor
Nintendo Network: Stopdoor
Steam: The_Stopdoor

I also frequent a forum, Nsider2, but I mostly just lurk it. I also wouldn't recommend it either.