Tartan Alexander's Web Page
Hey! I'm Alex Collier, born March 18th, 1994. I'm a student, big brother and Christian Fantasist. That fancy little title basically means I love to write fantasy that still glorifies my Lord. My main job is keeping grades up in school, obviously, but I also have a lot of hobbies.
Chief among them is reading fantasy novels - the more epic the better. I'm a big fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's writing (a REALLY big fan) and I also love the writing of Lloyd Alexander, David Eddings, Raymond E. Fiest, Terry Pratchett and R.A. Salvatore. I have shelves of fantasy novels, and continually check out more from the library. People say that you can turn a career into a hobby, and I'm planning to write for a living. I enjoy reading enough that writing my own stories should be enjoyable. (As long as I don't think about the fact that other people will read it - I'm very shy.)
I don't often watch TV. I know, in this age of channel surfing I'm a heretic. The only show I love enough to watch whenever a new episode comes on is Doctor Who, which is a simply brilliant Sci-Fi show about a time-traveling alien in a blue box that saves the Earth (and often the universe). I know it sounds wacky, but the new Doctor Who that started up in 2004 is simply the best and only show I'd watch every evening. If I start sounding weird with the phrases I'm throwing out, I might be quoting the Doctor or his arch-enemy the Master. Here...come...the drums!
I also enjoy using the computer and Wii to play games on - I'm ace at Super Smash Brothers Brawl, especially as Ike, Marth or Snake; I enjoy Real Time Strategy games on the computer such as Battle for Middle Earth II and Age of Empires II. I also enjoy good Computer Role Playing Games on the computer such as Neverwinter Nights (the original, if you must know) and the old game Betrayal in Antara - none of my computers will support that one anymore. (*Sad Face*) I'm also a fan of the Japanese Role-Playing/Strategy game Fire Emblem - I only have Blazing Sword for the GBA at the moment, but want to get Path of Radiance for the Wii soon.
With all this talk of role-playing games, I'd be remiss not to mention Dungeons and Dragons - I pre-ordered the 4th Edition rules and enjoy them immensely. Now I've heard people talk about how Dungeons and Dragons is evil, and I want to tell anyone believing that something right now. Dungeons and Dragons is NOT inherently evil!!! To explain further, saying that D&D is evil is like saying an Xbox or a Playstation is evil - it allows you to play a ton of games, and which game you choose to play can be anywhere from 10+ to M. That being said, the D&D games I play tend to be rated T - there's violence and magic (more on that below) and the characters are heroes who defend the innocent from evil and harm. The games played with D&D can teach teamwork, courage, the victory of good over evil and good reading skills (Really!). D&D is at its best when played by a group of friends just looking to enjoy themselves, pretending to be heroes defeating evil for one night a week.
However, some say that D&D shouldn't be played because it has magic in it. Re-read the third sentence on this page, then come back down here. I'll wait. Got it? Good. My belief is that most fantasy magic is harmless, and that as long as you can remember that it's fake you'll have no problems. You cannot do magic by waving a wand around like a ninny, and even though 3rd Edition had "Spell Components" and a long list of detailed rules, 4th Edition simply says what the magic does. TANGENT WARNING: This is one of the reasons I love 4th Edition. It's a lot easier to just make up your own flavor for your character, and this is one of the many reasons I'd suggest 4th over 3rd. TANGENT OFF. Alright, you say, but you are still pretending to be wizards and witches casting spells and doing supernatural things without God's help. They don't have to be "supernatural", since this is taking place in a different world. My preferred explanation of magic in the worlds I create is that it is simply a law of nature that doing this with a oak staff and saying these words will cause you to briefly counteract gravity, or cause the molecules in the air to spontaneously combust. Or, could magic could be a talent or gift from God? An ability given before your birth from God that is part of his plan for you? Think about it, and think about the fact that in D&D, the decisions are all in the player's hands about how magic and gods are handled.
Whew. That was long, and probably boring to most of you. Suffice to say, I really enjoy playing D&D and would let any children I have play it. Your choices may vary. Now for something completely different!!! I also enjoy reading these nifty little things called Webcomics, ever since my parents let me read the webcomic Order of the Stick (Warning: PG-13) that started out as a gag-a-day comic strip and transformed into an epic story about the Gates and saving the world. Order of the Stick is absolutely hilarious for a D&D player, though risque at times, and has characters that you grow to love. Another Webcomic I enjoy reading is Irregular Webcomic, and its partner Darths and Droids. Both are very strongly PG - the creator wants anyone to be able to read the strips - and are very funny (or in IW's case, punny). Darths and Droids is more gamer humor, the premise being that Star Wars is not a movie but a RPG game, with Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi being players in a Sci-Fi campaign. Read it, especially if you hated Jar-Jar Binks in Episode I. (Jar-Jar, you're a genius!)
Now this last webcomic - technically a web graphic novel - deserves a paragraph to itself. Imagine a parallel universe, where the Industrial Revolution turned into full-scale war among the Sparks. What are Sparks? They are the gifted, the ones with the Spark - it gives one great mental power, sheer raw charisma and the ability to focus at the cost of oddity and often outright insanity. So, mad scientists rule Europa, specifically one Klaus Wulfenbach. The Wulfenbach Empire controls the Sparks and stops them from causing wide-scale destruction with their inventions and whims. The folk-heroes known as the Heterodyne Brothers are gone, and Europa is in Klaus's well-meaning but iron grip. Insert one Agatha Clay, struggling student and hopelessly useless mechanic, who has deep dark family secrets that are about to come to light. Add in monstrous super-soldiers with hearts of gold, huge airships and quirky, loveable characters and you have Girl Genius, one of the best webcomics I've ever read.
Other than that? I also enjoy posting on the GiantITP forums, on the same website as Order of the Stick. It has a great and very welcoming community - if you ever take a look my screenname is Raz_Fox. (But just call me Raz.) A Play-by-Post is a roleplaying game done on a forum, with each post you make on the forum describing what your character does and what you roll on the forum roller. They're very enjoyable, even though many die before they really get going.
Oh, and after talking about all this fantasy, I might as well mention Christianity. I worship Christ the Dragonslayer, and if I'm reading the Bible correctly I'm saved. Christ died and rose again to save me? Check. I trust Christ to take away my sin, and understand that I can't purify myself alone? Check. I'm not infalliable, and in fact I sin more than you'd think, but I know that Christ has taken the punishment on my behalf. I'm not affiliated with any certain branch of Christianity at the moment, being simply one of C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christians." I also try not to judge anyone too harshly - I'm a sinner, too.
Well, there you have it! I'm studying Chemistry, Geometry and Texas History at the moment, but I've often felt that you get to know a person a lot better by knowing his hobbies. After all, those are what he wants to do. I hope this has given the reader a bit of an insight to me, especially the fact that when I'm typing about something I can just keep going on and on and...