Welcome to Balamb Garden!

Hello! I'm Squall, and this is my new site! I plan to write about and focus on many of my interests here, including the following:

• Anime
• Books
• History
• Mythology
• Video Games
• ... And other miscellaneous topics!

IAQ (Infrequently Asked Questions)

Why Did You Choose to Create a Site Here on Neocities?

There are a few reasons:

• I started using the Internet as a kid in the late 1990s (early 1997, to be precise). My early experiences with the Internet, especially after I got my own PC at home in 1999, involved browsing countless sites hosted on Geocities and similar hosting platforms. I have a lot of nostalgia for that era of the Internet and view it as far superior to today's Internet, which is mostly boring, centralized, hyper-commodified, and dominated by a handful of social media companies. I would love to see the web design styles of the 1990s and early/mid-2000s and the kinds of communities that formed in that era make a comeback, and I believe that using Neocities is a good way to start that process.
• I want to keep a record of my experiences and thoughts, especially pertaining to the games I play, the shows I watch, the books I read, my studies, and just my life in general. I also plan to include shrines to some of my favorite games. This seems like an ideal place to do that.
• I want to get some experience building web sites and using HTML.

Why Is This Site Called Balamb Garden?

As you may have guessed based on my name, Final Fantasy VIII is one of my favorite games ever. As one of the biggest JRPGs released during the genre's heyday in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it also seemed like an ideal source of inspiration for this site's name. Balamb Garden, the comfy home base of the game's protagonists, is perhaps my favorite location in that game, and thus I chose to name the site after it.

Will the Site's Layout Always Look So Basic?

Definitely not! :-) I just wanted to post something here so that people will know what types of content and information they can expect to see here in the future. As I get more practice using HTML, I intend to make this site look much nicer and far more interesting from a visual standpoint.

Site Updates

• July 13, 2024: I know I haven't updated this site for a while, but I'm still alive and planning to get back to work on it soon. Stay tuned!
• February 19, 2024: Updated Anime and Links pages; added pages for Final Fantasy VIII fanfiction and fan art.
• February 7, 2024: Added a brief book review to the Books page. Added info to the Anime page. Made small updates to the Video Games and Final Fantasy VIII pages. Updated the navigation menu.
• February 4, 2024: Added contact info, links, the Final Fantasy VIII page, and the Jet Set Radio page. Updated the About Me and Video Games pages.
• January 31, 2024: Added info to the History section.