the collective

*brings out cane* Pay attention to your teacher! MWA HA HA! xD

A 12 year old girl called Espo was just a plain, normal, healthy, girl. Her only ambition in life was to become an author, (which she still has; I hardly have time to write due to homework or my sites) as she liked to write, and was praised often by her teachers for this skill. She wasn't really into anime/manga, and had only seen Pokemon, and Cardcaptors (but hey, thats all you can see in England). She was reading her magazine, Pokemon World, and read an article about a website. She was just browsing through, and spotted the name of her town in the paragraph. She re-read it, and found out a girl called Nessa, nearby, had a site, and was looking for people who also lived where she did. So Espo, excited, asked if she could use the intenet and how (yes yes, I hardly used it then xD though at the time, I was better than the majority of those in class; I came top at a summer school about a year before and I was rubbish at it when I think about it :P) and visited Nessa's site; and the change came into action.

Espo was amazed you could actually make websites for free, and popped the question up about a week later, on a beautiful May evening (now I sound strange...). Her father said yes, lets do it as a joint project (didn't last very long though xD), after about three days of bantering. So Espo signed up for a site, and started to type up the few pages there, on this pre-made purple butterfly layout. On May 29th, 2004, the visitors started coming. She was soon at 100 hits, and was so excited; she even began to make graphics and awards (first attempts were a bit... er... not very good). And one day, in early July, a question was asked by Emily, one of her affiliates; would you like a html layout? Espo replied with an eager yes (thanks Em ^^) and waited patiently for this. Meanwhile, Ki Ame (formerly Shelby) was looking for assistants at her site, ASSA (now deceased). Espo decided to apply, and got the job! ^^ She was struck slightly when she found it all in html; but little by little, she wrote an update, and this was the biggest change yet. A few days later, Emily made a layout and sent it forward to her. Espo began by planning it out (all that html 'practice' had worked); and in late July, she added it to her site.

By this time (early July), Espo had already made two other small sections on her site and had become a preminium user. She had built Sakura Shrine (MSAM), a shrine to Sakura (now located here) and Pika Mayhem, a shrine to Pikachu/Pokemon (deceased). After she had learnt a little html, she took a big step, and created a blog, and a fanlisting (one to Sakura, known as 'Feel the Power'), which was a great achievement. She first came across thefanlistings.org and animefanlistings.org, two websites that would have a major impact on her during the next couple of years. She wanted her 'fanlist' to be approved, but learnt of all the rules and regulations so just left it as it was. It was near the beginning of November when she was browsing through and joining some when she noticed one for one of her favourite characters wasn't there; Ringo Seto. She applied and was approved, and requested a layout by one of her affiliates. Her knowledge of html has expanded since then; and in November 2004, she took a real step; she made her very first html layout (and featuring Sakura, for my blog!). As from January 2005, she has made several more sites, and a couple more fanlistings; and decided, the time had come to make a site to house all her sites. And this is the result ^^

In March, Espo's pact with her dad was completed; if she got 12000 hits in a year of EGS being opened, he would buy her a domain. She completed it in 9 months! Domain was registered as of March 2005.

In the summer of 2005, Espo wanted another domain. Mainly, for her fanlistings, since Lost-Legends was filed under freewebs and took ages to load etc. So I bought Fractured-Memories, my second domain, in August 2005! =D This will eventually move over there ^_^;; Roughly around December of 2005, she decided to remove the site part of her collective and just have the main information on fractured-memories. So it went to a fanlisting collective of 80 or so fanlistings.

Finally, in 2006, Espo, being the lazy person she is with too little time, moved everything over to Fractured. All she wants to say is Buruma, thanks for putting up with me so long. You saved me from leaving this world behind when I lost my original host. You were my light within the darkness, and I can't thank you enough for hosting me.

The End. Fin. Whatever xD

So... the future? Espo still wants to be an author, and a web designer. And she also wants to stop talking in third person now, I'll have you know xD

the name

I thought about it for a while, but couldn't find anything Japanese that I really really liked. I decided to go for a phrase I liked, and ended up with 'Holding On.' Why? Because it can have several things at the end, like 'to my memories' and 'you' and 'life.' Good for different versions. And it's kind of like Sakura, my fave. manga/anime character; she is 'holding on' to her beliefs, her family, her friends, etc. Not to mention at that time in Dance class there was this song where it said 'I'm Holding On to you..' in it. It's also a very popular phrase in songs, I bet every artist or something has used it once. And I'll 'hold on' to my favourites forever, right...? ~ I debated changing it for a while, but ruled it out, after I started hearing this phrase crop up in the genre of music I love. Especially when Goo Goo Dolls sang something with it <3 That's all I can really say! I just... like it!

the layout

Version 19 of Holding On features Tifa Lockheart and Marlene Wallace from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children by Square Enix. This layout was made by me in Paint Shop Pro 8. The fonts used were Gilliam 2, Literate, and Monarch Bats. The lyrics for the title from the song 'Hallelujah' by Rufus Wainwright. I can't remember where the text brushes and image brushes came from, sorry guys D: Image were found a while ago using Google, I don't recall the except location.