Information about the history of this site.
This site started out as a drunken idea! I was slightly intoxicated one day in early August 2000,
when I came across one of those pages that lets you check availabilty of domain names. Next
thing I knew, I was putting the credit card away and beginning my new life as a dot com! Once
I had sobered up it seemed to me a little pointless to have the name but no site to use it with so
the search was on for a decent provider. I tried all the free providers first but found that space was
restrictive and the ability to use my own domain would not be feasable. Added to which were all
the damn adverts I would have been forced to display. A search through charging providers found
a large variance in facilities provided. I eventually decided on the present host after having had
it checked out by a friend in the web design business. A trip to South Georgia was looming, so
I used the providers online design tool and put together a very basic, seven page 'piece of crap' web site.
The journey to South Georgia proved to be in the mould of the movie 'A Perfect Storm'. I had
downloaded every html tutorial that I could find, and loaded them onto my ancient P90 laptop.
For the next six days of mountainous ocean, I wedged myself in a corner of the ship's bar and
learnt as much as I could. As I went through the various lessons, I put together a blank site
as an excercise. Everything linked well and I thought it to be fairly presentable. Upon a brief
return to dry land for repairs to the ship, I found that my original effort had disappeared from
the web. Probably as a result of drunken tinkering the night before sailing! I decided to upload
my little project and put a little flesh into the bare frame. A couple of photo's were added
and the resulting site has been online since early september 2000. As you might have
noticed, the site is continually evolving with more content added regularly when I get a chance.
I haven't really figured out a direction for the site yet but will over time. Until then I hope that
you like what you see and promise that I will continue to develop it.
So there you have it, this site is the result of a drunken impulse and a sea voyage through hell
and back! The site is still hand-typed rather than using drag'n'drop programs! I find that this makes
the code shorter and quicker to load. Also, it is easier to edit when time is short
If you have any suggestions or criticisms I would love to hear from you and will give you credit for
any changes. The whole business of digital marking of the photo's came around after numerous
people messaged me to tell me that they loved this or that photo so much that they had copied
it to their computer for a wallpaper. I have no problem with this but became increasingly worried
that some unscrupulous person could use my work for their profit. If any dosh is to be made from
my work I believe it should come to me and help finance a life of luxory!
Thanks for visiting this site and please come back regularly to check out the changes. I make no
money out of your visits and promise to keep advertising at bay while I can afford to.
The Nickname - Boogenstein?
When I first reached the Falkland Islands, I found myself surrounded by guys from Scotland and Tyneside.
These people have really difficult accents and I found it almost impossible to understand a word they said.
At work, to prevent confusion I took to wearing an old Sony Walkman without it even having batteries. If a
person with an odd (to my ears) voice came near, I would pretend to be absorbed in my music until they
went away! Over time I grew to understand their accents but the name was set for good by then.
In the middle of the South Atlantic, in line with Cape Town, is an Island called Saint Helena. The Island is
best known as the place where Napoleon was sent in exile. He died when a pigment in his wallpaper
reacted with the tropical heat and grew a fungus that threw spores containing arsenic into the air! Most of
the low-paid labouring jobs down here are carried out by workers from St. Helena, known as 'Saints'. They
have a tradition of giving each other bizarre nicknames, even going as far as to hand down the names
through the generations! They didn't coin my name but were instrumental in it's longevity.
In those days, a Walkman was often referred to by the slang term 'Boogie-Box'. One of the only fellow
workers to come from my area and who was therefore easy for me to understand, one day said "Look
at him with that 'Boogie-Box' on, we should call him 'Boogie-Box Bill'". For a stupid joke, a few people
that worked with me took up his idea for a couple of days. The 'Saints' working nearby, heard this name and,
because of it's similarity to their odd names, assumed that this must be a Saint nickname. They immediately
shortened it to 'Boogie-Box' and promptly forgot my real name!
Over time the name got further shortened to 'Boogie' and later to plain 'Boog' or 'Boogs'. This is where it lies
now, over 11 years later after having been mentioned in the local paper as Boogie. I was even once introduced
to the Governor of the Islands with this name, only for him to say he had heard of me!
Having had this name for 4 years, one night I introduced a newly arrived friend to a potent beer from Denmark
by the name of 'Elephant Beer'. Between us we drank a whole case that night and he was suffering a great
deal the next evening, when I called round. As I perched on the edge of his desk chatting, I couldn't help notice
that in the middle of a letter he was writing, in huge red letters, it said: 'The Evil Dr. Boogenstein'! He was
using this new version to explain the reason, to his wife, for his failure to phone home the night before. This
name was subsequently used when I became a volunteer DJ on the
British Forces Radio Station . We tested Adrian, Boog and variations on my surname, Balfe but none of them
sounded right on air. However, Dr. Boogenstein had a good ring to it and seemed to match my brand of humour
and the music I selected.
When I came to register a domain name for the web, I first tried numerous variations of my real name, but to
no avail. I drew a blank with Boog but Boogenstein was available with all the different suffixes! I chose the 'dot-com'
because it is so easy to remember!
So there you have it, the complete and unabridged evolution of my nickname. I am so used to being called it that
I use it in online chatrooms. It does seem to stick in peoples memories as well. In the UK my friends call me by my
surname - Balfe. Here in the States my friends call me Adrian. Down in the Falklands, everybody, even the boss called
me a variation of that original 'Boogie-Box Bill'! Now that I am married and have changed my surname, who knows
what I'll be known as now! Rinehart-Balfe is a little long and difficult for the intoxicated to pronounce!
Cheers...........Boogenstein, Adrian or whatever you are used to!
This site is designed to be viewed at a resolution of 1024X768 or bigger. It will work perfectly well at smaller sizes but might cause you to do more scrolling and not see the pictures as intended. Ideally it should be viewed using the latest version of Mozilla or Safari/Camino on the Mac. It should work under the more recent of Netscape's browsers but I have only been able to test it on the latest version. It has also been tested on the latest versions of Opera and Internet Explorer (for Windows) and looks OK, if not exactly as designed! If you do have any problems, please let me know and I'll do my best to get things working. I have had a few comments over the months but in every case it turned out to be the fault of the visitor's browser!
I view the web exclusively using Mozilla. I find that it's implementation of the various standards is far superior to the offerings from Microsoft etc. The effect that is on the homepage does not work under IE (Windows version) at all. If you are using IE, the image behind the text will not be perfectly alligned with the outside image, not only that, it doesn't stay locked in position when you scroll. Even Netscape's latest version shows this properly, though I hasten to add that I am not a fan of the program. Mozilla is free and seems to be the most 'Standards-compliant' browser available right now. As you can see by the link on the right side of the homepage, I have thoroughly checked all the code for this page. Any strange display is down to poor browser design! Netscape is based upon an earlier version of Mozilla but it has been tweaked. I urge you to try Mozilla and you can get it Here!
Go ahead, make my day!
(If you are using IE for Windows, may I apologise for the strange look to my homepage. You'll have to get used to it as more of the pages are updated to the latest standards)
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