So you really want to know what inspired this craziness? The truth behind the Billy-love? Who the heck I really am? Well then, read on!

Site History
The Blue Traveler began its humble existence on August 5, 2001. I was lucky enough to get hosted at (the now-defunct) emeralda.net from the get-go. The webmistress was really nice and basically let me have free reign over my space. When it first began, this site was... pretty scary. It only had about a fourth of the sections it has now (which is only about half of the sections I WANT to have), and the design pretty much sucked. Soon after, I changed the layout to something more acceptable, but since I forgot to take a screencap of it, no one will see that again. I added a few things as I went along, but the next major update came with version 3. If you've been here before, you might remember that version, as it was up for many months while I procrastinated my butt off and did very little to improve the site.

However, I finally snapped out of it and produced version 4 in May 2002. Lots of changes came with it, including a lot more content and major revisions to the old stuff. Version 5 came along just in time for the site's first anniversary in August of 2002. It's probably the biggest revamp I've ever done to this site, since I reworked and added a lot of stuff (this section didn't exist before then!). Unfortunately, soon after version 5 went up, emeralda.net mysteriously died and my site was left homeless for a very long time. I bought my own domain, phandaria.net - cookies if you know where that's from - in February 2003, and since then I had no excuse but my own laziness for leaving the site dead. But it's back now, and that's all that matters... right? Anyway, The Bow Came Back™ in time for the site's second anniversary in August of 2003. Version 6 was somewhat of a new beginning for this site, since it had been gone so long and probably presumed dead. Should it have stayed that way? You decide!!1!@1

Sometime after TBT reappeared on the surface of the internet, I realized that... people liked it? It was such a rush to be linked to by people I didn't coerce into it, have positive comments on my guestbook, and just see the hits go up, and not from my own reloading to test new updates. I know I'm slacking on the updates, but I do really appreciate the visitors to my little site, and that's why I kicked my ass into making version 7. I hoped it would motivate me to do more actual work and leave less time between updates.

Recently The Blue Traveler has become the proud home of the TFL-approved Billy fanlisting, and in August it celebrated its 5th birthday! Crazy stuff. I continue to try and improve the site, although I admit I can be lazy. (Guestbook, anyone?) The current design is version 8, and will probably be here a good while because Billy with tentacles is awesome.

Why Billy?
This is a tough question to answer. I've thought about it a lot, and I honestly can't pinpoint exactly why I think Billy is the coolest thing ever. A lot of people don't like him. He's uptight, sometimes even condescending, he hates his dad (at the beginning anyway), he's prissy, he suffers from an inability to use contractions, he's too holy and wholesome for anyone's good... but that's why I love him. Billy is cool because he's uptight and prissy and has a large stick permanently up his ass. He shoots stuff and goes "Yeah!" He eventually learns to get along with his dad. He calls Sigurd "Siggy." He's angsty, but not in the sickening way. He makes that fruity bow look good. There are a billion other reasons why Billy is great, but I'll spare you all. Even through all that, though, I can't really explain why. Everyone has that one strange obsession, and I guess mine happens to be a gun-toting cloak boy. I've gone through phases where I've gone crazy over other characters, but Billy's always been there. There's just no other character like him, or even close. So yeah, basically I'm scarily obsessed with Billy and I have no idea why. I just am. ;o

About Me
Previously I just had a dumb little paragraph here that didn't really say much about me... I hope to remedy this right now!

Hi, I'm Jennifer, more commonly known as Jen. I'm currently 21 and I reside in Hickville, Texas, in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. (not the actual name of the town, but close enough) I'm currently a bum who has no idea what she wants to do with her life, and who hopes to figure this out before she hits 35.

I obviously love video games; my favorite genres are RPGs and music-oriented games. Favorite games include Xenogears, Xenosaga, any Shin Megami Tensei game, Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana, Thousand Arms, Final Fantasy 7 and 9, Star Ocean 2 and 3, Legend of Dragoon, the Silent Hill series, Bust a Groove 2, and Guitar Hero. ;D

Probably equal to video games in my "list of totally awesome things" is music, and yes, video game music is included. I tend to divide my favorites into English music, Japanese music, and game music, since they seem to be so different that it's hard to compare them. As far as English-speaking bands go, my favorite is The Aquabats. I highly recommend you at least check them out; they're unlike any other band I've heard. I also really like Garbage, Goldfinger, Depeche Mode, ska that doesn't make my ears bleed, bad 80s music and random other things.

I'm into Japanese music, generally more the rock than the pop, although I am a fan of some J-pop. My very favorite J-rock band (possibly my very favorite band ever, but it's close) is Pierrot. They're just amazing... or were, until they broke up. :( Other favorites are L'Arc~en~Ciel, Janne Da Arc, Olivia (Lufkin), Kagrra, Aikawa Nanase, m.o.v.e and Tommy february6/heavenly6. I really cannot stand drooling fangirls who obsess over the newest pretty boys. They make me very sad.

As for game music, my favorite composers are Yasunori Mitsuda, Shoji Meguro, Yoko Shimomura, Akira Yamaoka, Nobuo Uematsu and SoundTEMP. My favorite game OST is definitely Chrono Cross, followed by Persona 3, Xenogears, Legend of Mana and Silent Hill 2. I also love game remixes.

Aside from all that, I'm into art (although not that good at it), graphic and web design and other fun things. Okay, so I'm a big nerd. And I rambled, but I don't have a personal website to put this stuff on so you're stuck with it here. If all this useless info didn't satisfy you, you can check out the interests listed on my LiveJournal info page.

Contact Me
I'm not the most talkative person ever, but feel free to drop me a line if you get the urge. Generally, if you're here that means we already have one thing in common, and it's something I can talk about for a very long time. =3 However, for various reasons I've set my AIM to buddy list only, so in order to talk to me there I'll have to add you to my list first. I know that's a pain, but if you let me know your screen name I can add you.

AIM: Cactuar Wizard
e-mail: jen@phandaria.net
LiveJournal: kula
Last.fm: Emeralda
Xfire: emeralda

Layout Information
The current layout features a crazy Billy tentacle monster! I love the image and figured what the heck, I'll make a fun layout from it. Nothing fancy, but don't insult it or Billy will eat you. Crazy Billy image is from the doujinshi Shall We Hara-Dance? and I used a texture from Hybrid Genesis.

All image editing done in PSP7, and HTML done with CoffeeCup HTML Editor, because I can use Notepad but I'm too lazy. Steal my website design and suffer the wrath of Billy's eye lasers.

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