Yesterday, July 6, 2000, I shockingly found my site on Yahoo!

Not that I didn't want it to happen, but having suddenly some fifty visitors in a day pushed me to think about what exactly I am doing and why.

Once - on hearing I had liked a movie so much that I had made a video of the best scenes with a fitting soundtrack - a good friend of mine (Jo, are you out there? do you remember?) told me: "You just can't sit still and watch, can you?" She was right: I can't, not when I find something I really like. I think I made abundantly clear on the other half on my site how much I was charmed by Sgt. McKay in "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman", and why. It was natural for me to begin writing fanfic, to give the character more background and more life. This site was born to give my friends an easy chance to read my fanfic and see my period dresses, just like one does between friends. In my original design, it should have stopped at that - a very domestic enjoyment.

Then I discovered that few were able to distinguish Sgt. McKay from Sgt. O'Connor... and fewer still knew who David Beecroft was. So I started with the essential filmography that became the Scrapbook. Then came the AMC Watch. Then came the News. Then came the moment I looked at my site and realized that a good deal of it wasn't about the character anymore, but about the actor. And yesterday I discovered that it wasn't anymore a matter of a few friends and some members of the DQMW list, but of the world.

Now, an actor is a real person, not some extension of a fictitious character. I'm a bit uneasy about the way my site could appear to a wide audience, because, no matter how much attention I'm putting into it, I've never been and I'll never be a celebrity hunter. I can't post enough Disclaimers about this. I don't know Mr. Beecroft in person, but I have the utmost respect for him and his work. Despite some tongue-in-cheek reviews and some goliardic escapades (the infamous essay "On Uniforms" comes to mind) I know very clearly the distinction between the person and his characters. I've never tried to let him know of this site, and this may seem very rude, sort of talking about him behind his back, not caring if he could hear me; but I feel this site is never good enough. I hope at least that if he ever comes across it he'll appreciate it for what it is: a resource for fans and would-be fans, made by a humble HTML novice, open to improvement but totally sincere and in the best intentions.

This is for you, stranger who came in here, so that you can know me a little better. Welcome again, and have fun!