Tell me about yourself, where do you live, what is your FULL name, how old
are you?

I live in Etobicoke Ontario, but its now a part of Toronto. My full name
is A J, and as of today, im 23

Why did you want to put up a site (or page) devoted to something about
Degrassi?

Initially to make myself laugh, I liked the show enough to spend time
creating the webpage, but I soon found it was also entertaining others.
First time I saw Degrassi was around 1987, on television, and soon after
they were showing it in grade 6,7, and 8 guidance class on a film projector.
While most people moaned about watching another "educational" film, I
thought it was great entertainment. It was a pretty low budget and cheesy
show, but I was hooked. Thats what I liked about the show. There werent too
many Degrassi sites back then, not like today anyway.. so I was one of the
sites online from way back when. Once I got hooked up in search engines and
in the webring, things really started to pick up.

 When did you come up with the idea to have a Degrassi site?

It was back in 1996, and I found myself with nothing to do, after being
rejected from all the university/colleges I were interested in.. I decided
to make a webpage for myself for fun. This was before the internet was
really affordable, online accounts were expensive, so I made the webpage
just for myself on the harddrive, and would show it to friends. It was
horrible. I needed content, and since I liked Degrassi, I decided to make a
one page "webpage featuring" some bios and some episode guide commentary.

 How did you finally decide to put it up?

At this point I already had a personal site called "Aj's morbid site (of
love)" and with the need for additonal content, I uploaded the Degrassi page
around February of 1997.. and received many a email from people who
"remembered that show" and found my site funny, on the other hand I also got
email from people who couldnt take a joke and said I was a bad seed. Both
sides of emails are great however.

 How has it evolved?

My initial "Degrassi site" was a wopping 25k. A small intro paragraph, 14
character bios, pictures I screen grabbed on my computer of each one, all on
one easy to view webpage. After that, I added additional tid bits to the
bios, and added new charcters. By November of 1998, the page had to be split
into a main page, and a character bio page.. it was just too big. Graphics
and the writing also improved on the site, now its all frames for better
navigation

 Have you gotten emails from Degrassi cast and crew?

This one is gonna be a little long, but is worth it I feel. I received an
email from Pat, May 11 1998, it was hilarious. Basically everyone that
visits my site either gets the joke or not. Pat had a good sense of humor
about it, originally in his Bio on my site I had written "I think now Pat
delivers Pizza downtown, because I saw him once and he was delivering
pizza's downtown." While true, that I did think I saw him once doing that,
it turned out to be false and he emailed me to set the record straight, and
to tell me he was in the new Godzilla movie. Everyone in the "Degrassi fan
community" was impressed with the email I received, and the floods of "Can I
have Pat's email address" soon followed. I continue to keep in contact with
him to this day, and have helped on his personal webpage as well.

Aside from Pat, the rest of the Degrassi related cast and crew email have
been negative. I received an email from "Shane" (Bill Parrot)'s real life
sister, she was quite angry. At the time he was starring in a commericial
for Eaton's, playing a cashier who gives free cds to everyone. It was pretty
bad. She "set me straight" on other projects he was working on, and also
included this nice tid bit: "Ive
also noticed that I was the only person to visit your web page , people may
show up if you get the facts staight." I think at this point, my site had
received at least 10,000 hits. So she was a little off.

I also have received angry emails from friends/family of; Nancy, Arthur,
Lucy, Allison, and Liz. They are all very hilarious to read, people really
get upset. I saw Nancy walking downtown once (honest) and the friend mailed
me up and got upset that I said I saw her walking around downtown. "Arlene
Lott who played Nancy DOES NOT walk around on Queen Street. Nor does she
wear a button.". I agree with the button part, as I made that up, but the
fact that she DOES NOT walk around on Queen Street is hilarious. Whats so
bad about walking on Queen?.
In my bios, I mention that Lucy is currently living in a hospital (in the
Degrassi world anyway).. I made this up, it could be possible! A "fan" wrote
me an angry email about how she approaced the actress who played Lucy and
asked her if she was in the hospital.. as it was reported on "my site".
Hilarious again..
Allison and Amy were always together on the show, I wrote that they were
lesbians, again a joke that was pretty clear. Allison is now a teacher, and
one of her students asked her if she was a lesbian, as she read it on my
site. When they heard "she wasnt", the student proceeded to angrily email me
 correcting me. Its great fun, because I really could care less, I just find
it funny to write the things I do..and to get the hate email as well. Id
like to receive more emails from the actual Degrassi peeps.

 Any future plans for your Degrassi site?

Well its an on-going thing, I plan on adding the "Degrassi Dirt" section one
of these days, I know a person that dated a cast member, and was invited to
many a party back in the heyday of Degrassi (early 90's). Lots of Dirt to
discuss thats for sure, and it should be pretty controversial.. at least in
the Degrassi fan community, a page dedicated to the Lucsious twins, and
continue to add to the character/episode guide pages.


 How long have you been a fan of the show?

Im pretty sure since 1987, around grade 4/5 for me, I used to watch it after
school, or as a part of school lessons which was pretty cool. The kids were
older than me on the show, but I could still relate. I was never "hard core"
into it, I guess that came later in life, I kinda wish I was more hard core
into it, then id have some vintage Degrassi swag to show.. like posters,
shirts etc.


Tell me more about your self, hobbies,  are you a student,  do you work
full time, part time, what is your profession?

I like collecting toys, mostly 80's era stuff.. starwars.. transformers, gi
joe, etc. I graduated a while back, but it really hasnt led anywhere. Im
pretty lazy, and laidback. I do webdesign I guess as a profession, which has
landed me enough money to stay afloat and live within a comfortable
lifestyle, but certainly does not aern me enough money to venture out into
the world and live on my own. That will come one day, but right now I feel
just fine relaxing. Play guitar, like to watch/collect Dvds, and hang out
with friends.




 Tell me about other sites that you maintain?

I run the official page for a cool band out of California called Fu Manchu
http://www.fu-manchu.com

a great punk metal band from Texas called Speedealer
http://www.speedealerrocks.com

My big Tom Green Machine website at
http://www.fu-manchu.com/tomgreen

A friend of mine is a great photographer based in Toronto, I do his site for
him 
http://www.methodinc.net