How I ended up with all these websites
When I originally filled up my hard drive with copious amounts
of graphics, sounds and text of Highlander in general and
Peter Wingfield in particular, it was never with the intention of
creating a webpage. However, after too many hours surfing the web,
my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to take the plunge
and try my hand at it.
I spent a couple of hours going through the AOLpress
(a WYSIWYG HTML editor) tutorial, then plunged into my very first
website — Adam Pierson's Homepage.
Looking a bit different than it does now (no fancy fonts and a different
color scheme), Adam's casa opened on November 13, 1997, and consisted
of the intro page ("I was born in the Highlands..."), and shorter
versions of the Timeline, Words of Wisdom and Ask Methos. Oh yeah,
there was one small page dedicated to the man behind Methos, Peter
Wingfield.
The website (and Adam's ego) grew quickly, and that Peter page
looked more and more out of place. I was also frustrated that all
my Peter-info was scattered about my hard drive, newsletters and
printouts. The answer was obvious — create a separate Peter
website. So two weeks later, on December 1, 1997, the Peter
Wingfield Homepage was born.
Around that time, I'd written some Methos-related filk (parody
songs). First they were posted to Adam's page. Out of place there,
I later moved them to the much smaller Peter page. They were still
out of place, but I couldn't create a third website with just two
pages... until the Chronicles '98 convention came along.
I went to Chronicles, but since Peter didn't attend, I didn't want
to post all my pics and con reports on the Peter page, as originally
planned. Naturally, it was time for a third site, the theme of which
would be all of my Highlander-related fannish pursuits. Besides
Chronicles '98, The Methos Fandom
page will eventually (when I get around to it) have some of my Methos
fanfic and artwork.
The Methos Chronicles began
as a separate website. Then I folded it into Adam's page. Then,
because of its size and totally different design, I made it a separate
website again.
After a year of tinkering with website design, during the Christmas
of '98, I gave up my AOLpress training wheels and graduated first
to Microsoft FrontPage then to Macromedia Dreamweaver. Along with
FrontPage and Dreamweaver, I use Microsoft Image Composer, Adobe
PhotoShop and CorelDraw to create all the site graphics.
Adam's Paris website has had the longest birthing because when
I thought up the concept with Emmanuelle, a French fan living in
Paris, I didn't have the needed skills or software to execute it.
Now I do, so stay tuned for a new website dedicated to the language
of love, the city of lights, and that cynical Immortal who's stolen
all our hearts.
How I got sucked into Highlander madness
I started watching Highlander in 1995, when the second season started
airing on a local TV station. I thought Adrian Paul was handsome
and had pretty cool moves. However, when I checked out the Highlander
message boards on the GEnie online service, I found most of the
discussion centered around a mysterious "Methos" character played
by, the fans assured me, a stunningly gorgeous British actor named
Peter Wingfield.
After a year's build-up, the episode "Methos" finally aired in
the fall of 1996, and I watched with breathless anticipation for
the promised vision of beauty to cross the screen. I must have been
expecting Pierce Brosnan or Ralph Fiennes; what I got was a pale,
gawky, big-nosed guy. "Well," my sister said, "he is kind of handsome
— in an English sort of way." "And the idea of such an ancient
Immortal has promise," I added.
Fortunately, around that time a Doctor Who/Paul McGann fan named
Dianne e-mailed me after seeing a letter of mine that was published
in Doctor Who Magazine. After finding out that I watched Highlander,
Dianne express-mailed to me all of the Methos episodes that had
aired to date ("Chivalry" to "The Messenger").
My family had the privilege of watching them when I hogged the
TV for a Methos marathon over New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
At the end of the nine hours, I was converted. Resistance was futile.
Methos is fascinating. Peter Wingfield is awfully cute. And hey,
that's a nice nose!
Syndicon: There can only be one — autograph line!
A few months later, I went to Syndicon, the worst-organized con
I have ever seen — and I've attended a lot of Creation cons.
However, even though I waited nine hours in the autograph line and
managed to get everyone's autograph but Peter's, even though the
closest I got to Peter was seeing a vision in blue drift by (while
I was waiting in the autograph line...), already out of sight by
the time I clued into who it was, I still consider Syndicon one
of the most fun conventions I've ever attended.
I met Dianne in person for the first time and we shared a hotel
room. The Jim
Byrnes concert was amazing. And I found out that Peter Wingfield
is every bit as witty, intelligent and charming as the character
he plays. And, as Peter
Wingfield Fan Club member Lisa said, that sure was a nice blue
shirt!
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Yes, I have a life beyond Highlander!
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Peter & Me
I continue to be amazed that the more I learn about Peter, the
more I find to admire — I always knew there had to be one person
out there who actually read Stephen Hawking's A Brief History
of Time instead of just putting it on the coffee table for show.
Like Peter, I count Star Wars, Toy Story and Field
of Dreams (which always makes me cry at the end) among my favorite
movies.
Peter plays the flute and saxophone, and used to teach Sunday School.
I also used to play the flute (not very successfully) and the sax
(much more successfully in a jazz band), and I've taught Sunday
School.
Unlike Peter, I've never clog-danced, but I did do a bit of square
dancing as part of gym class in high school and was once talked
into line dancing on a Caribbean cruise. Peter was almost thrown
out of university for climbing on the roof of the college. I managed
to get on the roof of my high school without getting in trouble
using the excuse of an aerodynamics experiment for a science fair
project.
I love pizza but I gag at the thought of putting any seafood on
it, much less anchovies (Peter's favorite topping). While I worked
as an editorial assistant at a posh book publishing house, I managed
to taste all sorts of gourmet toppings on pizzas — such as
squash, caviar, venison, and even eggplant — but unlike Peter,
I've never had fried eggs on pizza, sunny side up or otherwise.
Though Peter enjoys running marathons, the only running I plan
to do in the near future, is running web applications that I develop
as part of an IT consulting firm.
When not spending my spare time ruminating on what it's like to
be a 5,000-year-old man, I desktop publish the Canadian Space
Gazette for the Canadian
Space Society and The Rogue Report for the Unofficial
Peter Wingfield Appreciation Guild.
I also draw, have written a couple of Star Trek fan fiction
pieces for a fanzine I edited, and had a Highlander short
story published in Potpourri fanzine. (It's also on the web,
but not on this site because it veers towards slashiness. E-mail
me privately for the URL if interested.)
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The nice blue shirt. Nice profile... nice nose... but Star
Trek sideburns! Photo: Creach
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