| |_||_ ( )
the simpsons ( )
folder, man! ( )
( ) ,__
suck, suck! }//{ ( ) / “
_///_ | | (_ _ _ ) | |
_///_ ,, ,,/_ (.)(.) (,, ,,) (.)(.)M
,>o(,,/_ (.)(.) /_ | C |) (.)(.)) C___ |)
(.)(.) /_ /C__, @_/ (___/| /C__, @ /___/|
/c @_/ ) |/ )__| ) | __)__/|__
C_, )/ oooo / \ oooo / / /
/ |/ / \ / \ /___\ / /

—————————————————————————————————————-
Fan Interview: Alex Southern

This document is done
—————————————————————————————————————-

Hello Alex, could you tell us something about yourself, where you from and how old are you?

Well I am 21 Years Old, I have a Degree in Sports Science and I am currently Living in a village near Colchester in Essex, Merry old England

Any disgusting habits?

I have many, smoking is probably the worst, I also have a tendency to sit around in my underwear all day (something for the ladies)

What makes you happy?

All sorts, my interest in the Simpson’s has always been something that raises my spirits, and I’ve just been watching the Season 3 DVD and all the Director commentary etc which has rekindled my love for OFF. Through this EOS has been somewhere where I can express this creatively, but this often leads to frustration. The recent downtime was actually pretty much filled up with design. Jon had done some great stuff, one in particular which was great, but it was to much to the norm of Simpson’s sites and I wanted something different. I literally did ten designs before I came up with what you see now.

What is your favourite episode on The Simpson’s and why?

That is a tough one, I think of episodes like this.

1. Episodes with brilliant storylines and scripts (Stark Raving Dad, Trash Of The Titans, Flaming Moes)
2. Episodes which have lines that make me laugh so hard Diet Coke comes shooting out of my nose.
3. Episodes which are visually fantastic.

So to answer your question I don’t know.

You are webmaster of Eye on Springfield. Who/what inspired you to create it?

Well I had fiddled around with Web Design for a while before EOS, and I actually started making a site about 2 years before EOS but never followed it through. The usual sites were inspiration, LETS, ET, TSM and of course the Folder, and I thought I could do this (and to a certain extent to some of the other sites out there, a lot better!)

Eye on Springfield we’re offline many months. What we’re you doing during that time-out?

Well partly trying to come up with something cool to replace the old design as I talked about earlier, but mainly because we didn’t want to leave it stagnant for too long. I was in the last 6 weeks of my degree and barely had time to sleep let alone make ::interesting and eye catching :: content, similar for Jon and Friz, we just needed a bit of time off. I has an idea for a design and we decided it was about time to bring EOS back. Here’s and interesting fact for all you Simpson’s Web Site nerds, it was going to be called Call Of The Simpson’s for the relaunch but I did the title and couldn’t be bothered to change it back!

How long does it take from you to design a whole site?

Since we switched to using PHP from html it takes a fraction of what it used to, the previous design I swear took about 2 days from start to finish to design and splice, this one was in development for about a month working pretty much every night. For instance the main page, it’s not one page its actually more than 10, i-frames and frames in frames etc. This is the longest by far it has taken, but in my opinion that is clear when you actually see it.

Do you have any new projects coming up that you can tell us about?

Well, I am trying to get some work doing web design as a living, and I have had a few jobs, but I have literally just received an email from a very large (£100m+ turnover a year) international company which I may be doing some work as an design intern as which could open a lot of doors. I also have a few idea’s I am working on, I am also in the process of teaching myself how to use 3d Studio Max.

What do you think about today’s simp-sites on the net?

Without offending anyone, rather poor. When I first got involved I would spend hours looking at sites like The Mainframe, ET, LETS the
folder etc, but I now visit the top 100, the folder, every other day, LETS once a week and that is about it. I think what has happened is we have lost a great number of really good sites and replaced them with a handful of awesome sites and a load of mediocre ones.

Are there any Simpson’s websites with an attractive design and layout in your opinion?

I like designs which inspire me, that make me look at design in a different way, I like the way LETS has used flash is a really cool way.
Little Miss Springfield has definitely inspired me (hell ask everyone at Nohomers Club, they’re convinced of it) The last folder site actually
led to me trying to convert Simpson’s building and characters into Pixel Art. But most of the other sites out there are bland in my opinion.

What is the worst Simpson’s site you have visited?

There are really obscure ones that are just shocking, but I never liked The Simpson’s Odyssey really, it had about 300 people working on it and didn’t seem to have much life or opinion. I think partly because it was very successful as well J.

Are there any design styles you love and hate?

I hate the Links down the left standard Simpson’s web design, and there are only a few occasions when it done really well that I thought, that looks cool. Apart from that I don’t hate much, I really enjoy sites that take a break from the norm, someone who tries something different.

Any defunct Simpson’s site you miss?

The Simpson’s Mainframe in particular, it was really an inspiration to me, and I miss Jeff’s twisted humour on updates.

The Simpson’s community. Describe it.

Dying.

How do you see future of community?

Bleak. The problem is that most of the Big Guns are now in there 20’s and have little time for this sort of thing, and the timing is just
wrong, the show is going downhill and I don’t really know if anyone is in the wings to take over.

Name 3 people from the community that you could meet in real life.

Alicia, Bryan and Yourself probably. Saying that I think meeting Jeff would be an experience.

What kind of computer system do you use?

I am running a rather old thing now. AMD Duron 750, 256 MB RAM, Voodoo 3 2000 GFX Card, 40 GB HDD, CD Writer, DVD ROM etc, I run Windows XP, and Use Dreamweaver MX, PSP 8, Photoshop 6 and notepad for EOS.

Describe your desktop. What do you see around your computer?

Mess! My Hifi, a TV and so many cd’s, music, games, computer, there should be an xbox around here somewhere as well!

How do you see future of The Simpson’s?

I haven’t seen any of the new episodes and only a few from season 14, it think they are still very funny, just not as good as seasons 3 – 7 by far.

Any final comments?

Yes, don’t start to run a bath when you start a Folder interview, water everywhere!

—————————————————————————–0———————————