The Team
About Chris Stegner
I tried just skipping the "About Me" section of the website. However my plan was foiled when visitors became curious.
So to apease the crowd here is some brief information on myself.
Born in Oklahoma City, OK I spent my childhood as most, on the warm sunny days climbing branch after branch to the top of tallest trees and sitting at the end of a fishing rod. At the age of 10 my parents moved my older brother and I to Seattle, WA.
I still remember the gift my Dad brought back for me after his first trip to Washington. A blue fishnet cap with a white foam front that read "How do you know when it's summer in Washington?" the next sentance would discribe my life for the next 11 years "The rain is warm". The rain was my main motivation to stay at home and learn that computers were good for more then just word processing applications.
Many years later as the internet began to grow up I would start my first website, 3dsMax USA. MaxWW.com as it would later be known became my alternative to joining my friends delivering newspapers in the always cold and drizzling rain. Later I would close the doors on MaxWW.com to write for "Design 4 Discreet Users" a magazine of simular content and to concentrate on school. I was 15 years old.
Fast forward 9 years and a few things have changed. I moved this year to south Florida with Janin my girl friend of 5 years, and have reunited with my best friend, the sun! Ohh and I am back climbing trees, except this time the tree is much larger. This site was a big branch to conquer, and I am looking forward to the next one.
About Kim Mantas
Ah I also try to steer clear of these 'About Me' things. But I, uh, don't have a driving license (yet) and so I shouldn't really be steering anything.
OK, here goes... I was born in Australia with an English Teacher for a mother and a Chemical Engineer for a father. Evidently they had good time coming up with a name for me; in the end deciding upon Kim Innes Mantas. I don't much like my name but it was years before I came up with the nickname 'Fyorl', something completely unique and a nightmare to pronounce - perfect.
Anyway, after four years of Australia (of which I remember nothing) my parents took me and my baby brother to a country no-one's heard of, Laos, in-between two countries everyone's heard of, Thailand and Vietnam. We lived there for two years in which time I learned to speak fluent Lao... and then prompty forgot it after being taken to England.
I grew up never really knowing what I wanted to do. I tried Football (Soccer to most of you), Karate and even Archery but I never could stay interested. One thing I did stay interested in was my Computer and writing. I was never really content just playing games. I always wanted to create something that was perfect for me. I wasted many hours of my free time trying to program in obscenely complicated languages (for an 11-year-old anyway) before giving up and thinking I would never realise my dream.
Then, about 4 years later, I came across the Internet.
I spent the next 2 years programming for websites with my company partner, Ben, over at
Soul-Scape.com. It was during this time I realised my dream of creating the perfect game for myself was pretty selfish and... well... nerdy. So I decided to try and make other people's lives better in some way. When I heard about fo.rtuito.us (now Friends4Days) I was all for it. Finally there was something out there that I really agreed with.
Nowadays I still spend my time creating websites with Ben but I do devote a lot of my time to this site as it's something I really believe in. Thought I'd forgotten about writing? Well no, I do have a deviantART account and occasionally put my mad creations up there. On top of all that, I've gotten in touch with my musical side and now play Bass Guitar with my friends in a local band called Sobriquet.
Yup... that's about it I suppose. Can't really be much more anyone could want to know so before I bring this to a close I'd like to thank Chris for giving my this awesome opportunity and for just being a great guy in general =P
