Two At Large began with an upload to a server at Simon Fraser University from the public library in Tuba City, Arizona, in April 1997. You can still read those original pages, which were created on the road as we travelled around some of North America in a Chevvy panel van.

Two At Large exists for several reasons:

1. To keep us in touch with our scattered family and friends, in the UK, the USA and Canada;

2. To offer information and experiences to others who share our interests and outlook on life;

3. To create, in a sense, a visual dynamic artwork — a continually-changing body of images and words that reflect the world as seen by two very different individuals.

"Personal" web sites are often denigrated, these days, by web professionals, media critics and the like. This is probably because they don't exist to make money, and aren't controllable. We don't always record and communicate what the powers-that-be want us to! Various pundits exhort us to "grow up", to create organisations to create and maintain "standards" (i.e. to do as they want, not what we want). The world already suffers from a sufeit of them, the mysterious and tedious they, who know far better than we do how we should run our lives. Unfortunately they have yet to demonstrate that they can create a better world, so we don't give two hoots...

Personal web sites are perhaps one of the remaining vestiges, along with blogs, of the "anarchistic" approach to the web — they often don't answer the question "Why?". They sometimes exhibit eccentric design, minimal programming skills, verbose text, lack of "sophistication" (whatever that means), weird subject-matter, peculiar pictures, meaninglessness, photographs of cats and much nonsense. But they also demonstrate enthusiasm, commitment, good humour, energy, originality and independence, plus more sense and fun than all the political, religious. "educational" and commercial sites put together.

Like picking books at random from the shelves of an immense library, personal web sites offer the chance of serendipitous discovery, inspiration and catharsis. Long may they survive!