Actual comments from actual visitors...

I fell in love with cartania.com. Will keep on visiting...

I couldn't resist sparking a "little dance". Thanks for... er... you know... whatever it is this is.

After being on the internet for the past several years, your site is the first one at which I've signed the guestbook!!! Very nicely done. What a legacy you have created. If I can do 10% of what you have done with my photos and such, I will be thrilled!

Thanks John for the gift of your talents. Your site is inspiring and uplifting and everything from the writing to the photographs are first-rate. My favorites were your numbers soliloquy and the tour of Ireland. Both were magical!

I began my Internet voyage tonight at 9pm, planning a trip to St. Martin for next month. It was typical; you know, those tedious airline searches, decisions on deluxe beachfront resort vs. private hillside villa, whether to stay "Dutch or French"..etc. Somehow, however, I ended up in Cartania, and have spent the last 3.75 hours here. I'm not quite sure what just happened, but I do know that I didn't book my trip. In fact, this island wanna-be, "we've got to move to the islands", "got married on the beach in St. John", transplanted to New Jersey, 'Philly Girl doesn't even want to go now. Right now, I want to write all those overdue, unwritten letters, emails, and thank-you cards to family and friends... I want to go and finish my 6 year old daughter's baby record book that there never seemed time to complete... I want to call my old friend I haven't seen in 4 years... I want to go dig out my old photo albums buried in the basement and know it's OK that I look a little different now... Thank you for sharing the gift of your Website. Where the hell have I been ?????

I am an economist specializing in developing country health systems. I work at the World Bank. I got here by looking for examples of good personal webpages (combining the personal and the professional). Yours is the best I've seen. Thanks.

Your site is a delight. I was directed to it from a post at Metafilter and I wanted to thank you directly. I posted the following: "Here is a man who has found a beautiful realm that delights him and wants to share it with others, and is doing it while reflecting the radiant charm it has been his pleasure to experience. No sadness. No wasted time here folks. Just humanity." This makes me very happy to see what you've done. I am grateful to you for sharing it with us and your calm, delightful wonder. I can't help but think that ultimately, with a million-year perspective on things, every human being is a ponarvarian but pretends not to be.

I love your site! I have been sharing it with everyone I can the last couple weeks. The starmaze in particular is really amazing to me, and a lot of people I know seem to agree. I wish more people appreciated these things- the beauty of living in three-dimensions is immense and I am amazed how often it is taken for granted. Anyway I won't ramble too long but I really enjoy your work, and I just purchased a starmaze poster actually! Can't wait to get it. Hope to continue seeing more.

I am quite impressed with your work and your approach to internet art. You are technically proficient and have expressed a refreshing and elegant aesthetic in your graphics.

I'll bookmark your excellent page and keep an eye on it.

Wow, this site just seems to go on and on......the more I explore, the more I learn. You seem to have a great life, a great family, a great past, and no doubt a promsing future. Really well done site, very inspiring.

Wicked cool!! ...I got *completely* distracted by the nooks and crannies of your geneology pages, among them, the interview with your grandmother and the Civil War stories of your great-great-great-uncle. Some excellent reading there.

I came to your site through a Google search for 115th Ohio. I very much enjoyed reading Hogue's memoirs re: the 115th. My great-grandmother's brother, Pvt. John Ririe, was in the 115th Ohio (Company C) and was also captured at a railroad blockhouse in Tenn. in Dec. 1864. He survived both Andersonville and the Sultana tragedy. The first person writings posted on your site really helped bring the situation and experiences of that time to life and I appreciate it very much.

I was looking for info in 115th Ohio hanging civilians at Overall's Creek in Middle Tennessee when I found this site. Very well written...

I truly enjoyed reading this narrative. Imagine my surprise when I realized that a great deal of this took place about 10 minutes from my house. I live in Murfreesboro, and have been through the Stones River battlefield a few times. Now I plan on going back, and this story will make it that much more memorable. Thanks for sharing this information.

What a nice looking homesite! Very classy! At last someone's whose background doesn't swallow their text! Great links. Great personal writing. Definitely a first class homepage.

"And then we laid down our cards and I revealed the gift I had received from a benevolent universe, as clear an omen as any man could find on his wedding eve: a natural flush, five hearts, the winning hand." -- I love that part (that it could happen, and how you interpreted it)!

Brilliant! Pure Genius!

Just like to mention that I found your pages very inspirational in difficult times.

I'd like to thank you for your incredible list off strange and wonderful books. I wrote a lot of them down, and found some of them at a great used book store I had never been to before today. The timing could not have been more perfect. I will always keep this list on me, just in case. Also, the Eulogy to your father was heartbreaking and wonderful, as it reminded me so much of my dad. I'm 23 and sometimes I feel trapped by pop culture and the people around me. Your site was refreshing.

Just plain thank you for sharing directions to take in the still of the night. It was serendipitous in pure form.

Very nice MT maps.

You have an interesting quality: you can write well of Big Things: abstracts, intangible concepts like love, death, aging. It is difficult to write of Big Things without slipping into the quagmire of cliche but you've managed to do this. I clipped your Midlife Crisis page and sent it to a friend of mine, who I think might get something out of it... Thanks for the thought provoking pages.

Loved your home page and your romantic story!

When surfing I found your letter to your friend on mid life crisis. I have shared this with several of my virtual friends in the same boat. The thoughts expressed all hit a chord. What I want to know is did you ever come to any conclusions? What happens after mid life reevaluation (preferable to crisis)?

Very impressive web pages, they look great. I can honestly say this is the best done personal website I have seen for a long time... I also have tons of genealogy on my website so looked over yours, NICELY done.

Well, I am impressed! Now I see why you're up until all hours of the night!

I've revised my page a gagillion times and it still doesn't even approach this design. Great job! I'll be returning to your developers page soon, I'm sure.

Nice job! I bet you spent quite a few hours making this page.

What a wonderful gift you have already given to your new daughter. The family history, your personal feelings, trips - all were enjoyable reading. I was especially struck by your writings about your father. I just lost my mother this April and couldn't keep from crying as I read your pages. I've not tried any web publishing, but perhaps I will give it a try. Keep up the good work. I hope you have plenty of disk space, because I'm sure you'll be putting lots of new pictures and stories out here in the near future.

Salutations! I liked the flying lesson.

Great place you made here!

Pleased to meet you. Consider your site bookmarked.

I really enjoyed your website. I found the list of books to read very interesting and will check out some that I had not already read. I will probably come back again, a tourist visiting again...I like what you said about poets. I am a poet and now I have some new understanding of why some people don't like poets...thank you!

Hi, John. I love your website. I've set my sights on buying several of the wonderful books you've listed, and your humour and verve for literature and life is catching and wonderful in itself. Cheers!

As an airline pilot, I identified with the flying lesson essay. It reminded me of the reasons why I wanted to be a pilot in the first place. Flying a modern jet airliner is essentially nothing more then number crunching and typing. The only flying I actually do is taking off and landing. After that, it's pull out the newspaper or sandwich. Your essay recalled the early days when I flight instructed and flew freight out of the Bay Area.

Really enjoyed my visit to Cartania. I'm gonna tell all my friends to come here on their vacations, too. One question in particular, though--do you really consider Aristippus to have been your MOST eccentric friend, ever?

I really love your Cartania pages. I looked you up after viewing the HyperCard 10th Anniversary stack. I was just wondering, have you received many comments on "Scotch, Squid, and Bowling"?

A great page! Because of you, I can't wait to have a mid-life crisis.

To read and look at your first page was a very relaxing experience! I loved it! It brought a calm to me that was really refreshing. Now I can go to sleep and dream my own dreams and they should be peaceful. Thank you and sweet dreams.

I enjoyed visiting your site - I'll be back :)

Amazing site and breath of fresh internet air. I'll be back!

I can't even remember now how I managed to end up on your site. I think I was searching for nostalgic something-or-other. Anyway, I have been perusing your site for going on 3 hours and I just don't normally do this. I haven't finished seeing everything yet, but I have really enjoyed my visit. What an interesting man you are, and such a good writer. I just now finished A Table and Four Chairs and it was great! It had me rolling on the floor. You have style and flair and a beautiful family. I'll be bookmarking your site to check back. Thanks for an enjoyable evening/morning.

I found myself on your website because of my love for books. After going through the list [Great books] I couldn't help myself the next thing I knew I was on one of your vacations in Alaska. I spent the past two hours engaged in your website. What a pleasent surprise, I loved reading about your father...I lost my father and mother in 1996 close to the same time and I could relate to everthing you said. [I was born in 1960] Your father was a gifted man who helped mold you into the well rounded person you have become. I also enjoyed your mothers mother story. All the pictures of your family and monthly shot of your daughter are beautiful and well done. I will check back for the things I may have missed. You have many talents....well done.

A Beautiful, Beautiful Website! The Civil war history was really interesting... Will visit again.

What a wonderful story on 'Uncle Harold' and his WWII outfit, the 506th. I run a WWII Paratrooper website where stories like that are gems for the coming generations.

Your site really got me between the eyes. This is THE GREATEST site on the web. Never have I been so struck by such a wonderful contribution on the web. I look forward to more. Perhaps a book series?

Came across your page while looking for digital camera examples, to use without copyright on cheap tv show. What's it feel like to be the first result in an Altavista search? Stayed to tour Ireland and read about your father. Really good, thoughtful and perceptive. Reminds me of mine. Sigh. Cheers! Keep up the good work.

Your thoughts on Aristippus were beautiful memories. That essay was worth several books in itself.

I am very impressed by your images and writing abilities. The web page I just this week created is my first and seeing yours just makes me want to know more. I have kept your site as one of my favorites.

Great site. The dream and flying stuff real good!

I can see I still have a lot to learn! Really enjoyed the site.

Loved your pictures and your wonderful descriptions of Ireland. A place I'd like to visit some day... Having lived in the Bay area in Benicia, your colorful descriptions really brought back the memories. Thanks and keep up the good work.

I came by your web site in looking for references to Herbert Read's The Green Child. Found it a fascinating and beautiful production. I'm a old, low-level technical illustrator. The book list surrounding The Green Child I shall print and pass on to my wife's 16-year old son who reads fantasy and is heavy into math. My introduction to the book was as an English major in college, jeez, about 37 years ago now. Anyway, thanks for your contributions.

Greetings from Ireland. Your pages are of great interest.

Best page I've hit - congratulations

I like the way you have this set up and the info you have on it is very interesting. I have ran across a lot of web sites and have wondered what was the point? I think you have captured the point.

Your page looks great.

I thoroughly enjoyed your page, John. Excellent.....

I stumbled into your web-site quite inadvertently, but was unable to leave after reading about your wedding. I found all of your pages extremely interesting and some quite humorous! Thank you for the smile today!

Impressive web page.

Stumbled on to your web site looking for a layout idea for my grandmother's 90 birthday. I have now saved this site to come back to so I may read and view your comments and the ideas you've shared.

I love your dream page. Thank you for putting it up.

I have learned more from you regarding issues crucial to my upcoming purchase of the digital still camera than from dozens of others sites put together. Keep sharing your experiences. The WWW needs more sites like yours. Thanks!

I found PONARVs interesting and inspirational. I'm going to practice ponarvianism more often. Maybe I'll become a ponarvologist. Maybe I already am.

Fabulous photos, fun essays, and my favorite concept--PONARVs! Visit my site to see that I am doing my part to make PONARV a familiar word in our language.

Wonderful Website, I love the concept of Ponarv.

Wow, your website, which I found through your wife's website and through my love of quilting, knocks my socks off. I feel as if I know you. Your eulogy for your father, your genealogy of your ancestors, your trip to Ireland, your wedding, make me feel as though you have opened your life up to the world and I have been priveledged to be among the number to serendipitously stumble onto it. I am definitely going to make my brother aware of this site. As a minister of media for a large church in Fullerton, Ca. and as our family genealogist I think he will be interested. Mahalo for your artistry and your openness.

I finally got here, and wow, just look at all you've done.

Your site looks fabulous, amazing, splendiforous! I like the geneology pages - they're so clear and uncluttered. I also like the variety of stuff on the site, everything from letters to book reviews. Your wit and sensitive voice really come through in the personal pieces.

Wonderful site. Feel so priviledged (sp) to have "met" such a talented family through this medium. You are an inspiration to everyone to whom I have introduced your site. Thank-you.

We enjoyed the picture of Alice.

Nice job on your site, John -- most impressive! Hope you don't mind, but I will be peaking at your code to further my own education, but I promise not to steal any of it.

This site is so polished, so professional, and so thoroughly thought provoking that it almost takes all the fun out of viewing it. I'm suddenly filled with depressing thoughts of inadequacy. (Fortunately I have a short attention span, so that will pass.) Congrats on a first-rate site.

It's difficult to find sites that are truly designed well. Thanks for the inspiration.

Very nice work. Captivating writing. I also like using Vistapro and I found your page on the Vistapro Links page.

Your essay on Ponarv's was lovely. Wonderful to see a technical head quoting Keats' negative capability letter. We'll meet again upon a Grecian Urn.

I love the concept of the ponarv! This is a refreshing web site! Great work!

I hope that you get your entry in Websters.

What a charming bit of chuckles...and seriousness... Keep it coming!

Your page is beautifully designed, but what impressed me more than the design was your contents. Your prose is poetic, and your observations on life made me laugh and wince and nod in agreement. I'm glad I came here.

Thank you for this page... It's a sort of bridge between you and the world.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 'Table and Four Chairs' piece. It reminds me of the short-story style I used to use when I wrote (once long ago). Perhaps you've inspired me to start it up again and follow your web-publishing example. Anyway, I hope you enjoy creating this as much as we (the internet audience) seem to enjoy it. Don't hurt yourself dancing as a result of this guestbook message ;-)

Cartania is even lovlier than I remember it! You inspire me to PONARVs of my own...

I enjoyed your website... I stumbled upon it when looking for my favorite Mark Twain quote. It's a joyful site that celebrates life!

As a fellow owner of the RDC-2 camera your photography has both fascinated and inspired me. In the true Irish tradition, you have a way with words, and your essays are not only interesting; they are amusing, and, needless to say, well written. I will visit your site often to continue reading what I missed the first time and to look for new additions.

Thanks for Northwest Passage. I like the contrast between the colorful flowers, balloons, and exhibits on the one hand and the white whiteness of Barrows on the other. Of course, your site is <any_superlative>. I'll be studying "About This Site" for a long time to come.

A very interesting site. I have bookmarked it so I can return at leisure and peruse to my hearts content. You have touched a chord within me. Thank you.

This is the first time I'm on your site but already enjoying it muchos. Keep up the lovely work.

This is the best page I've ever seen. I am intrigued by the idea of the webpage as an artform and am amazed that I have not seen any references to it as such until yours.

I like anyone who dedicates a web page to a cat named Ralph.

I've never seen anything like your web pages. They're amazing! (And better designed than my employer's website....)

1:25 am, Saturday Morning. Browsing the WWW, and decide to take a turn up Cartania Way. Pleasant surprises, great layout. Very subtle. Always well written. Lots of pix. Several great essays that I usually have clicked through - I finally read Aristippus. You may inspire me to do my site. Thanks.

I love your essays. I could relate truly to the Sears story... I am so impressed with your page, I'm going to add it as a link from my link page.

I stumbled across your essays while visiting your wife's page describing printing on fabric. I enjoyed your essay, however, I must comment on a side issue. It was absolutely refreshing to read an essay with such good grammer. In our electronic world we run across lots of information, web pages, etc., but good grammer has been lost, tucked out of sight, forgotten or perhaps it's just old fashioned. Thanks for an excursion in nouns, verbs, prepositions, participles all with their pluperfects flowing. Thanks.

Great Pictures. I'd like to see more!!

A great website. I found it by accident while searching the web for strange old books (I have just purchsed the Maze book). Made me think back a good few years when I loved gaming, maps etc.

Cool...you have one of those sites that draws you in for hours at a time.

I think your site has been one of the best sites I've been to in a long time. I love your point of view on things on life. Though I may be a little too young to fully apreciate every minor detail of this wonderful site, I do give it respect. All in all, your site kicks ass!

Not only are you a wonderful writer, you're also quite the photographer! I thoroughly enjoyed your website, keep it updated!!

Stumbled on to your site by accident and ended up spending a wonderful hour here. I enjoyed your writings, I was touched by your father's eulogy, and your love of your family and pets. May happiness and health be with you and yours. Peace.

Came to "cartania" by accident... was actually looking up Miss Manners/Judith Martin... Now I feel like I've been visiting a richly wonderful new country...in a strange dimension of travel... am warmed & touched by your inspired, gifted, & deeply human writings & this glowing site you have created. You live & think about life, and have so much talent. All I want to say is thank you. Keep on, & be blessed.

Wonderful! Couldn't read it all and WANTED to! I truly appreciate your gift and eloquence.

That's about the most astonishing and beautiful thing I saw on the web in a long time. I greatly admire your dedication and capacity. Long Life to you!

I really like your site, John. It flows very well, and has randomly interesting stuff like your great-great-grandfather's civil war diary. Why was making coffee such a big deal back then? How can a day where they lose a third of their regiment be described as "fine and pleasant" ? Was weather the all-determining factor?

I really liked your website, especially the ponarv philosophy, it reminded me of J.L.Borges writings, just the kind of imaginative and crazy stuff he wrote. Keep it up!

You have made a satisfying art expression out of your website exercise. It should inspire some of us who have been trying to walk into this area where so many angels are fearlessly threading. Like you, I'm a devout individualist, doing my thing as I see it. At 83, I'm happy to applaud your masterful work. Thanks for showing me that here are those out there who do not have the herd instinct. It's good to see what you have done. In the slums of personal websites, you have created your own beautiful Tajh Mahal. It will surely stand the test of time. Carry on, Brave One!

Excellent! So excellent that I went out and upgraded my Mac to accomodate "Bryce". Keep up the great work, I liked all of your sites and enjoy coming here.

Visiting you is part of an INTEC assignment at UGA as I learn to make a website. Thanks for making yours available. It's great!

So few sites use images and design effectively, but yours does - and with a concern for how long it takes to load those pages, which seems to something so many designers don't consider. Bravo! You've got me rethinking some of my conclusions about the limitations of this medium.

You've done a wonderful job with these pages. You've really shown how great the Web can be in the right hands.

Hi. Your site has a warm and charming feel to it, I love it. I don't know how else to explain it, other than the way you explain it. I'm referring to your interview with about.com. I found you from an article on their site. I'm working on some websites of my own and I appreciate the web site design advice you give. Your daughter is precious.

You Rock and Sarah is a cutie. Whenever I come to Cartania-land and see Sarah I feel such joy.

Nice site John. I particularly like the pointless discourse about chair delivery. More people should write more words about such generally uninteresting subjects. Thanks for diverting me, I was in danger of doing something useful.

Hi John, I saw your web page in the cool web pages book from AOL... Thank you for your wonderful trip to Ireland!

I enjoyed going through your 20 strange books list. I have read or gone through a few of them, but it has definitely given me a lot to look forward for. Thank you for the list.

Read the 20 strangest books. You forgot The Mouse that Roared. Amazing book, strange concept, strange writing. Keep up the good work, please let me know of updates to the strange books in the future. Thank you!

Your website fascinates me! I am entranced by the books you have listed, most of which I'd never heard of, thus appropriately making me shun myself for lack of further exploration on my own behalf. Anyway, if you can direct me to more of your taste, I'm open to some help. Thank you.

I am so jealous. I wish I had taken a picture of each of my children every month. I hope my children will do it with their children - it is a priceless treasure. The list of twenty books is a great insight into who you are as a person. I like you even though I haven't had the opportunity to meet you yet.

I can't even recall how I ended up here, but this is truly an amazing site. I love your month by month of your daughter, your insights, your entire site. Inspirational! Beautiful!

The web is wonderful; if I hadn't done a search on "Portstewart", I wouldn't have found Cartania, I wouldn't know about Sarah, and my children wouldn't have been able to read your brilliant prose, which has probably been more beneficial to them in their English studies than their set texts.

I loved your take on the ant & the grasshopper. I'm a freshman im college, after not being in ANY type of academic situation in 28 yrs. I'm including your take in a paper I'm doing for English (properly footnoted, of course). Thank you for taking the time to illuminate the intellect of some 1st yr Eng. students.

Didn't spend much time but none of it was wasted. Lovely design, well crafted & gentle humour. A true renaissance site.

Were looking for ideas to set up our homepage - currently under construction Enjoyed yours very much - easy to read and get a sense of the people behind it - Just what we were looking for - And hurray for not having a black background.

Amazing page- well thought out and planned! A great site. I'll be back!

Great site. Your talents are quite staggering and inspirational. I was moved by your words for your father. Creativity is your gift to share. Thank you for sharing.

Enjoyed reading about Alexander and all your notes!

Loved the pages on Alexander!!!

You've done a great job of sharing with the world, and I was particularly touched by the eulogy you wrote about your dad. It really captured him and how many of us feel about our parents. Thanks for sharing it!

I thoroughly enjoyed your essay "What it's like to be 36". You call yourself a programmer but, alas, you are a very talented writer first and foremost!! May only good karma and peace come your way.

I read your essay "36". It was fascinating. I wonder if there was ever a bubble for me as you described. Your website design is awesome. Great job! Oh, I forgot to mention - in this world of anyone-can-write-blogs, web 2.0, myspace and crappy websites, yours stands out like an ornate cathedral. Very beautiful!

Good looking layout, quick to acess, easy to read.

Well done tribute to your father. I can only hope my children are as proud of me when they get to be your age.

I came here from about.com, because I needed some ideas on what I should write in a personal homepage, and now I get it. Hehe, thanks a lot for your informative personal web. Will come back again... [Later] Yeah, it's me again - just read some of your essays, quite funny. Every page of your site has different layouts; that's breaking the rules of standard design concepts. I've had fun browsing around your site. But one thing is that I got lost in your site. Haha, I can't get out and don't know where I am sometimes. I don't seem to have a clear position in your site. You should make a site map for it, that's my little suggestion.

I believe I wrote you once before (perhaps 4 years ago) about your site. Thanks again for it. Many people have blogs now - some quite sophisticated. Your site is more structured and well designed - each part with it's own style. P.S. I enjoyed your Gilligan story. Reminded me of that show which I have not watched in many years. You brought each character to life. I got a special laugh out of Ginger's reasoning as to why there was so little sex happening on the island.

I am a new computer user who has nervously decided to try and create a web page in hopes that I am not too ambitious. I found your web page in hopes of finding a good example and found instead a true inspiration. My compliments.

What a brilliant story! Glad to know I'm not the only one who ever speculated about the social intricacies of that island. Does that make me interesting or sad? Hmmm... Love your writing and your website.

Loved your story. You're a great writer.

Love the strange and wonderful books! You might be interested to know (if you didn't know already) that your list has real influence in the world. I've downloaded Flatland, The Well at World's End, A Voyage to Arcturus, and When the World is Quiet to my Kindle. I have two other books to finish first, then I plan to dip into these. I don't know which I'll read first. Maybe I'll sample all of them, then decide. After I read the first one, I'll know more about your taste, whether it matches mine, and whether I'll likely enjoy other books on your list. Based on your fascinating descriptions, I have a feeling I will. Thank you for taking the time to make this intriguing list. I feel as if I'm about to leave on an adventure.

A beautifully designed website with well-written history and stories that deserve more of my attention than I can give them at the moment. I plan to return later . . .

Came in search of dragons - left with a new booklist.

Came for the books, left with something more....

I was looking for something about John Waterhouse and came accross your site. There is so much that reminds me of myself and my family. Thanks.

Just wanted you to know that I love your website... My degree is in web/development... very impressed... keep up the good work.

Thank you so much for sharing your work of art with the world. "Website" doesn't describe the experience you have created. I plan to visit often, and perhaps someday will attempt to create a place of my own in the ether.

You are a person of incredible insights, and your web site reflects every aspect of who you are....A beautiful person! I have enjoyed my journeys through your site. Thank You!

Absolutely awesome website! I used to work as a webmaster and I just had to add a comment because this is one of the best websites I have ever come across. I forwarded this to a friend to see how you have journaled a snapshot of your daughter each month of her life. That's awesome!

Great page! I couldn't stop reading it!

Nice site, nice eulogy for your father. Cool photos.

I am a student studing Web design online with Kaplan University. I visited your site as part of a project to identify different types of sites and talk about their structure. I found this site to be very unique and both entertaining and informative. For me, at 62, I guess I'm an old dog trying to learn a new trick. When I grow up to be a webmaster, I hope that I will be able to do as well.

I'm currently taking a web design class, and our most recent assignment is to make a personal website. That's a pretty broad assignment, and while looking for ideas on the internet, I came across your site. I really like the PONARV approach! Kudos for the awesome site!

Excellent read. Had me gripped all the while. Love the way you write. This being the first chapter of the many I am still to discover on your website.

Really enjoyed visiting your CARTANIA. Each page is a MASTERPIECE. Beautiful vocabulary. Excellent writing. Superb Romantic story. Amazing maps. Great essays. Splendid approach. Oh! I am really searching for words,which can praise you and your work in a much better way. I'll definately mail you when I get a few of them. I will surely visit your site as frequently as possible. LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST "SURELY ONE OF THE BEST PAGES I HAVE VISITED!"

Very nice work!!! You have a very unique writing style---one that I like. Keep it up!!!

Cool, intellectual, artistic, cute and yet simple site.

I would just like to tell you how much I enjoyed reading all of your stuff. I found I could not tear myself away from it before having read it all although it is already way past a decent bedtime and I do have to get up early tomorrow. I have been to Ireland a couple of times myself but had never visited the North. After reading your stuff I am certain I will go there as well. Loved everything! Thanks.

Great stuff! Regularly recommend your site to friends. Keep up the good work.

Thanks John. Love the site. I need to stop by more often. Much depth and humor!

While pondering whether or not to join CafePress, I stumbled onto your website. What a twist of fate! Your site has seemingly answered "all of life's little mysteries and problems" without appearing like an episode of Oprah or a lecture from my Mom! Your insight is awesome and inspiring. No doubt your daughter will grow up well adjusted and free-minded to the world around her. How lucky she is. How lucky you are to see the world in such a "real, plain, simple and honest" form. The truth's of which I've never quite heard your way before. I'll bookmark your site and return often. I'll also URGE my friends to visit. I am 41 and have been told I have terminal cancer. Since my diagnosis, I have refused to look at world in the same way and have sought to "capture each moment". Your sight has NO DOUBT enabled me further to do so! THANKS A MILLION. Keep up the great work. I'd rather see you hosting a TV Talk show than some of the "I'm-so-famous-listen-to-me-celebrity-has-beens" that are on the air now! Later!

I was looking for local furniture stores and I found your table and four chairs story. Incredible, I loved it, I didn't even intend to read it and I kept thinking I would stop and get back to work. I read it all the way through now I must get back to work. Thank You

The sign to me of a good homepage is looking at the clock and seeing just how much time you spent surfing it. Your website is very well done and very interesting.

Absolutely one of the best sites ever....thanks!

Random visitor, nice guestbook idea. Tim Berners Lee would be doing a little dance.

I have owned the book MAZE by Christopher Manson for 5 years now (I'm 14), and I've rediscovered it every year. This years project was to look to other peoples ideas of the riddle presented in the book. I searched in Yahoo and stumbled upon your page through the 20 strange books page. For one who lives so close you excel in your capabilities of both web page designing (go to my site and you'll understand) and writing. I've spent the last 3 hours reading and I'll definitely be coming back for more! Lastly, a question I'm embarrassed yet curious enough to ask: Such a web page and contents hardly seem the work of a mere mortal. Are you one of those starlit authors of whom everyone has heard of but me?

I ended up here while visiting sewing/quilting websites and visited your wife's site. You have a wonderful and most interesting site and I am anxious to show my 16 yr. old son the variety of things you are doing with it. I plan to bookmark it! Have a great new year and keep up the great work and writing!

You have a lilt to your style that feels good!

Excellent site - you're a very gifted writer and developer. I found it by coming across your bit on mid-life crisis - which was nice in and of itself.

Hello! I just had a glimpse of your site (we are having courses in web-design here, so we were told to look around for good sites). I liked yours, and will there be something more about the cats or does it end at the pics of them?

I got on your homepage via a link from Bryce2, which I was following in search of clues as to how to get my own landscape taken from a DEM to actually resemble the piece of land it represents. Your page was entertaining.

This is really an amazing Web site. You should be raking in mega-mounds of money doing this for others who are more creatively impaired.

Hello! access from Japan! I was been cafepress.com to create page to sell my design but I am not sure yet, and lookin a pege for how to create a page which I found your shop as a exsample 'View Some Basic Shops:'compare to Premium Shops. and next, click your photo found your proper page which is SO interested !! that your family history and loveletter etc, very lovely idea! all your effort to make those large contents, wonderfull!

I actually came across your site by googling help on how and where to start with MY first ever website...wow what a time consuming but fun project :) I think your site is adorable...hope you can add me since im pretty close to you, sorta..just over your shoulder in canada :) Take Care of you and thanks for making such a sweet place to browse :)

Such a personal and revealing web site. Thank you. AND such beautiful and inviting designs. Clearly you have a talent there! My web site also has a certain revealing trait (too much so?) but not nearly the style and charm of yours.

Excellent... You know beauty when you see it! Thanks for the lovely and indeed, interesting, images. Keep it up!

I had to stop and tell you how very much I enjoyed your web page. I can especially relate to your page about your beloved cat, as I have been adopted by cats, for the first time in my life. What an overwhelming experience. I followed a VistaProlink to your site, and fell in love with both your paintings, and your stories of Montana. I fell deeply in love with the Big Horn Mountains, and the state of Montana, many years ago. But when I readabout your courtship with your wife, I knew that I had to post to you. I met my fiance on line, as well. He is from England. And I will be traveling there in a couple of weeks to get married. The world is truly getting smaller. It warms my heart to know that others have found true happiness through these digital lines.

You seem like a genuine, smart person who is having fun exploring what it is to be a human being. Keep up the good work and say hi to the kitties for me.

I like what you did with your web site, I got lost a few times in the ones I chose, because I was so interested in what you put on them. Thank you for letting me come.

I really enjoyed your stories. I especially liked "The Dreamer and the Dream." I was just surfing the net and stopped on your home page to check it out. Nice Work!

Like your site and the photographs are creative - keep up the good work.

I saw your license plate frame, and just HAD to check out your site -- very nice!

What a joy to me is your gem of a website! How appropriate it is that its facets reflect, in cyberspace, some pillars of your life! How marvelous, and with such felicitous mix of art and technology, you conjure to life from the Internet and fractals those Montana mountains of reverie and realize in life a virtual lady to be your real wife. And, will that cat come back, that dear Aristippus, who peers at me, morphing between you and he? Aristippus has not gone completely -- he lives on in cyberspace with, it seems to me, a little smile on his face!

A more pragmatic reason for my liking your site so much is that it is not complicated and cluttered with frames and slow-loading images conveying not much. I can just dive into it, pick a lilly pad nearby without swimming all day, and soon start enjoying the view from the pad!

Great site. Good medicine for a student of logic. Forces me to remember to play (even with my studies)!!! Thanks.

I am just starting a website and was looking for ideas when I came across yours. It is the greatest! I know mine will never look like this but I am impressed on the things that can be done. It is the best personal website that I have found.

I really enjoyed reading your website materials and very nice navigation. I did like some ideas as well.

Beautiful and interesting website, can wander for several hours in your world. Thanks for sharing your experiments and interests.

Thanks for the fun!

Thank you for your 20 strange books page. I bought Labyrinths and it has been one of the greatest short story novels I have ever read.

I happened upon your fascinating site while searching for a image of the Golden Gate Bridge out on the web. It's a great site to get lost in for awhile.

Bumped into your site quite by accident while looking for images of heartbeats... found the ultrasound images of your daughter of course... and kept following the links... I have not seen many sites of this detail. One thing to another... family history, vacations to Whittier (where I have family) Skagit County (where I spent many years) Seattle, (where I grew up) so much to look at, so many familiar things, and a most fascinating snapshot into a young childs life. What a neat site. I will be back.

I did a web search trying to find reviews of one of my favorite novels, The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold, and came across your site. I planned to only read your review of that particular book, but couldn't stop myself from scouring nearly all the contents of your site. Very well done, and I especially like your letter regarding your own mid-life crisis. While I'm not quite old enough for my own version, I hope when I do get there that I'm able to face it the way you have (I was planning on not only buying a sports car I couldn't afford, but also maybe something like robbing a bank or kidnapping someone famous. Now I'm not sure). Great website design, and inspiring thoughts about your dad, too.

Well, an hour has passed with me tangled in your pages... Now I feel like I have spent time with old friends, and I never really met anyone at all. Thanks for taking the time to snapshot your lives, crossings and passions. I've had a great time learning about the lives you've woven for yourselves. What a wonderful, free spirited fabric! I am touched by your world and your deep curiosity about life and dreams and journeys...

Well I have now spent the better portion of an hour... umm... maybe longer... looking at this site of yours. A real construction. Actually fascinating. Your mid-life thing and the response, the Sears story, Civil War romance, with pix, really fantastic. And your list of books... I think you must read twice as much as I do, and I read a hell of a lot. I tried a link on the geo map thingie and wound up at the personal site of some programming guru at Macromedia. Really too much. I can see the time and effort in you site. A lot of it is thought-provoking. Only the best sites are like that... and those are the ones that people have stood over, watching the kettle boil so to speak.

Most excellent! I thoroughly enjoyed travelling through your work (and life) and actually felt as if I were part of your family and was being welcomed into your home. Thanks, for your work and for sharing it with all of us.

I love good UI, nice to stumble across your site.

Excellent site! I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the Starmaze.

The StarMaze is a total trip! Have you thought about building it in Second Life?

Came across your site looking up tesseracts and read THE page on Cartan's Triangle. Am definitely not as clever as you, but enjoyed it immensely. Couldn't absorb all the concepts at once, but am giving my puny brain time to catch up.

I think the starmaze is the coolest thing ever!

I first ran across your Strange and Wonderful Books page several years ago while trying to find out more about Maze by Christopher Manson, which I'd gotten as a child. I read many of the books at the time, and yesterday I was thinking about Flatland and wanted to look your list over again, and became curious about who you were, so I looked at the rest of the site. So beautiful and diverse! I spent a long time thinking through the starmaze; I'm a graduate student in Classics, but my favorite non-Greek and Latin thing to do is to speculate about abstract math, and I loved the philosophical curiosity with which you approached the problem. The story of your courtship was also so wonderful - I went to high school in the mid 90s and I remember the strange ache of meeting someone online and suddenly realizing to what extent physical space limits our options. Thank you for putting your beautiful thoughts on the internet!

Great Page!! I loved checking out the Cartan family history. I'm still trying to figure out if my grandfather, Joseph Francis Cartan is at all related into what you have here. Regardless, it was fascinating taking a look at some more Cartans. Your page is wonderful!

As a descendant of the Ellis branch of the Cartan family tree (E40), I would like to state that this is a wonderful site. I have enjoyed reviewing the family tree and will pass it on to my neice and nephew. Thank you for all the effort and hard work.

I found your web site most entertaining and enjoyable, and it was done with such heart and style! I wish you and your wife and your three delightful cats a long, healthy, and happy life. Thanks for sharing your time and talents with the rest of the world. I'm glad I stumbled onto this delightful site.

I just read the eulogy you wrote for your father and I wanted to let you know how very beautiful it was. It really touched me and reminded me a bit of my father-in-law. I'm sorry for your loss. Your father must've been a remarkable man.

I am back after a long two years and still like your site a lot. Keep dancing.

I love this website! Dance away!

A truly delightful site. Made me stop and wonder what I'm doing out of my life... Wish I could see you do your little dance. Can hardly wait to see a new light glow on your map and know it's "me"... Thanks for a site/life well led.

This is one of the very best web sites I have ever seen. You put alot of your soul in this!!!

This is the best web site I have ever stumbled upon. I wish that I knew how to do what you so expertly do. Good luck to you.

Informative, inspiring, enthralling, imaginative.

Cartania is like a good book - worth coming back to again and again.

I will never forget this website.

EXCELLENT SITE, WILL RETURN!!!!

Mail comments to "john". I'm located @cartania.com.