Okeydokey! You wanted some photos of the fabulous creator of this site and this although I've warned you that I'm definitely not the Brad Pitt type of guy... - Well, here is a real life picture of the famous Artimidor which was taken after I have persuaded myself that a good website needs at least one image of its creator - which will also remain the maximum I will publish here (ok, I will think again about it if the bribing money seems appropriate *hehe*). As you may count existing photographs of myself in the whole world with one hand this picture is also somewhat unique, so keep this sacred view in mind - next time eventually I will see if I can find a razor too... The picture represents myself in a very rare moment when I'm not stressed or in utter despair (must be a  painting then, eh?). It is also one of the first pictures where you can see me with short hair after I've got my long hair cut... *ouch*

Though the photo above convinces most Santharians that I'm a really existing person and not a legendary figure who only sprang from your own imagination, some Santharians have their own picture of Arti in their minds. Our famous Singaporean writer Dalá'Valannía for example called Arti "her knight in shiny armour" as well as a "fuzzy bunny" (original quotes). As this really seems like a very interesting combination, Poland's finest artist, Faugar the Great, couldn't resist and tried to put this vision into drawn reality. Well, you can see the results to the right... *grin*

And here some things about life, the universe and everything, but in general something about myself:

In the beginning... (1972-1978)
That's quite a long time ago - and I haven't got the slightest idea what was going on then. I don't have any terrific memories, so it couldn't have been that bad. But let's jump over this one.

Primary school (1978-1982)
Oh, good old primary school! I made this fundamental experience in Kemeten (a rather small village somewhere in Burgenland, don't feel ashamed if you don't know where to put it).

Grammer school (1982-1990)
Visited grammer school - or as Austrians say: the AHS-Gymnasium - in Oberschützen.

University (1990-1994)
That was the time when I went to Vienna - that's a town you definitely should know of - in order to conquer the world (and if time allowed to study communication arts as well as philosophy).

The whole thing was done in 1994 when I completed my studies with an overwhelming philosophical work consisting of 269 pages, titled "Eine Ästhetik der Existenz" ("An Aesthetics of the Existence") and subtitled "Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Foucault als Wegmarken zum postmodern Anderen der Moral" ("Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Foucault guiding us to postmodern ethics").

Never heard of Nietzsche or Kierkegaard? Don't know the meaning of the term "postmodernism"? No interest in today's tendencies of morality towards sensuality? No idea about "aisthesis" and it's consequences in everyday life? No? - Can't be! Anyway, if you think that your ethics can agree to live without this wisdom, congratulations: You've won! - Just let me emphasize that I told you that you're going to miss one of the greatest philosophical experiences in your life in case you should decide not to read my work! No remorse? Ok, let it be. *grin*

And now for something completely different...

Community service (1994)
Law in Austria wants it to happen that young innocent males enter military service to do some kind of war games everybody dislikes. It was decided that I would be fit for the job, which means physically healthy, not completely insane (or something quite similiar). But due to my specific point of view that shooting Quake-monsters is by far much more fun than playing war games in reality I did my best to avoid military services.

So that's why I had to do some community service - guess that's the right term - as first aider at Vienna's Red Cross. This part in my life was really interesting, most of the time great fun and I still miss some drivers (hello Walter!) as well as other Quake-players doing the same job with me day in, day out.

Various jobs (1995-1996)
Having lots of ideas and plans but not knowing where to begin, I entered the difficult part of life: Finding the right profession. Which means on the one hand to earn some money and on the other hand not to become completely dissatisfied with life.

So that's why I stayed a little while longer at the Red Cross doing my job as first aider, then turned to a local provincial newspaper.

There I worked in some sort of "leading position" - which meant in particular that I had to do everything in every possibly respect to get the paper out: interview people, check every possible political and social event, make snapshots, get new stories, write these stories, do layouts, hunt up advertisements, plan future editions and, and, and... Plus earning nearly no money at all. Maybe that wasn't really the way I wanted my lifetime's future to be.

Being a passionate computer freak I changed my job to programming. Starting on boring and unspectacular OS/400 in a small company I soon turned to Visual Basic (ah: pics!, oh: colors!, can't be: there's a programmer's editor you can really program with! - or at least I thought so at this time...)

Programmer at EOP Austria (Since 1997)
In February 1997 I entered the company where I'm still working. I enjoy the job participating in programming the world's most famous Sales Management System - simply called "Smash" (nomen est omen) -, although we've lots of stress from time to time and can't seem to remember the meaning of the terms "holidays" or "vacation" (hello to my fellow-sufferers Tom and Bob!). Greetings also go to all those hundred people who have left the company while only the core survived these hard times...

Anyway: EOP Austria, European Organization Point of Sale, is expanding permanently and it's only a matter of time when we will end up rich with no idea where to spend the whole money on (or so the saying goes)...

The Santharian Dream (November 1998)
November 1998 I started my little personal fantasy website completely in German in my carse sparetime. The perfectionist in me said: It indeed is nice but won't make me happy for the rest of my life. So to gain more attention I converted the main pages into English and expanded the concept of presenting my (German) texts on the net by adding the fantasy world creation idea.



Half a year later and due to a first promotion rush the first "members" joined the Santharian endeavour - long live the names Coór'Efér, Dalá'Valannía and Vaelaron! Well, and the rest? Is Santharian history...

Programmer at Rescom (July 2001)
No big news, except that we've changed the company name. Same company, same programming, still conquering the world with our product:)

My personal website. At this library you find several literaric texts done by myself: Narrations, novels in progress, lyrics, dramas, the fantasy texts of course and other fragments (like diary notes) as well as my philosophical work, which I did on the Austrian university. German only, guys!



My personal Elfwood gallery. The Elfwood project is a fantastic opportunity for every writer and artist to present his/her works to a greater community on the web. Enjoy this great site!