Outside my window here in
Fayetteville blows one of the biggest, deepest snowstorms on record as I
update this little history page for 2004. It's the day before Christmas
eve, so I think it's time to complete this page in BWR history.
Our first child,
Benjamin Michael Wray, was born on November 24th. Life is moving even
faster still, and is becoming very much different quickly.
For practical matters, I decided
late this year to (try) to stop referring to Backwood Realm Systems as
BWRS, namely for grammatical reasons and the fact that I'm becoming a bit
more visible in the public eye (more on that later.) In the name,
"Backwood" is one word. BWRS would work if it was spelled as
"Back Wood Realm Systems", but it never has been. Being as I
created the name for the BBS in 1996 (when I was a freshman in HS), my
grammatical skills may have been less than adequate. So, for those of you
who are so very used to "BWRS", start getting used to "BRS"
as the short-hand version of the total name!
I dabbled in some DOS programming
for a couple of days this past october, namely on the uncompleted works of
E3 and Alien Hunter. One was a game engine and the other was a total game.
Both were the most in-depth complicated works I'd done in QB,
overshadowing the droning crappy code of Livin' In Buddha with sleek
design and quick speed. I doubt they'll be re-visited, though.
The one IT-based accomplishmet of
'04: Launching of two semi-major www sites that aren't just a hobby! One
is for profit, one is a volunteer for a not-for-profit I'm a member of.
In Jan '04, the Hoosier Hills Ham
Club voted to allow me to re-vamp their dead site. I built a new one and
gave it a dot com. The result is nice, with 405 TerraBytes (yeah you read
right, TB) served since February of this year. It is probably the most
item with a BRS label on it ever to date. It officially became www.w9qyq.org
on Feb. 22, 2004.
Click here to view w9qyq.org!
Late this fall, I negotiated my
first official contract with Praying Hands God's Gift, a basket/craft
business owned by my aunt. The site is getting attention, only being a
month and 1/2 old at this point.
Click to visit PrayingHandsGodsGift.com!
2004 was pretty good to us overall.
Not much got done as far as production of software, but websites brought
us through perhaps in a better way. Being in the public eye on the world
wide web could be a great segue to a software release someday. Perhaps
that someday will occur in 2005....click ahead to see...
Click for page 10
