The Site
Me
Writing
You
Credits
Where It All Started...
I've been interested in web design for a long time. Years and years ago, I found a tutorial about how to make a div layout that really inspired me, but sadly I don't remember the site (I think it's closed). Then I took a webdesign course in which I learned some HTML. My interest in webdesign was renewed when, during a point of InuYasha obsession, I found a fansite that had some pretty awesome layouts at the time. So, I learned HTML, CSS, etc. on the web, got Adobe Photoshop, and started out on my journey. I had used pagebuilders and stuff before, but now I wanted to go more "professional". Being ambitious, I decided to create a graphics site, which I hosted on Geocities and later Hostultra (when I ran out of space). My site was titled Twilight Serenade (formerly called Chiaroscuro Fantasy, but that name was long and cumbersome so that was the end of that).
After half a year of maintaining a graphics site, I was pretty demoralized because I couldn't get a lot of hits. I tried to quit web design, but I found out that I loved it too much to stop. So, I created a new website, Forgotten Hope, that was to be my blog with some graphics and other stuff.
Forgotten Hope existed on the net for two years before I decided to rename my site Rain Symphony.
What's In a Name?
This site's old name, Forgotten Hope, started to bother me after a while. It was a bit too...emo-sounding. So I undertook the task of finding a proper name that both had something to say about me and the site itself.
I got my inspiration from a trip to Zion National Park in Utah, U.S.A. The introduction to the park on the brochure was written in a poetic way, and talked a lot about the "music of waters." That's what got my mind going, and it eventually ended up at "Rain Symphony."
The name is significant to me for several reasons. I love rainy days, and I like listening to and playing music. But more importantly than that, the sound of rain is my favorite sound (aside from music). I find it comforting, soothing. I've always been in love with the symbolism associated with rain as well: rain can be destructive when it creates floods, but at the same time rain brings hope of new life.
Rain Symphony. A microcosm of my world. A refuge. A hope.
Past Appearances
Version 5.0: One Piece, One Dream. I started reading the manga One Piece and I ended up liking it quite a lot. So, I wanted to create a layout that would pay homage to One Piece, sort of. (Also, the last layout had simply been up for way too long.) Images from Aethereality. One Piece is © Eiichiro Oda.
Version 4.4: Sushi Bonanza. This layout was up forever, I swear. That was probably due to the fact that I love sushi and the color blue. Images from Stockxchng.
Version 3.0: Seeking. As it turned out, I bought the video game Golden Sun: The Lost Age by mistake, but I couldn't return it so I wound up playing it and liking it. This layout stayed up for four months, mainly because I had web design block for a long time. Image from Golden Sun Realm. Brushes from Imagination. Golden Sun: The Lost Age is © Camelot.
Version 2.0: The Phantom of the Opera. I was going through a PotO-obssessed phase when I made this layout. The only complaint I have about it is that somehow it ended up being brown, which is not my favorite color. But the Phantom is cool. Image from thephantom.org (closed, sadly). Brushes from Annika Von Holdt. The Phantom of the Opera is © Andrew Lloyd Webber and...all those other people whose names I don't know.
Version 1.1: The Last Page. The first layout I attempted with stock photos. I was sort of lazy with this layout because I didn't use any brushes or filters, I just blended the images (hence the bad layout XD). Images from stock.xchng. Coding help from Yingna and eno_diputs of the DDG Message Boards.
