This is Eight Mine Fortress

December 28, 2005

Welcome. This is Eight Mine Fortress. I’m Katrina. You may remember me as having created such websites as Tomato World and Science Village, and I wrote every single thing on this happy little website. I like it. Serves as a nice depository for my old written gems, my new ones, and whatever the hell else I stick on here. Look around. You’ll figure it out.

Anyway, you’re probably wondering how I came up with such a name. Eight Mine Fortress. Just what is that? Well, much of what gets churned out and posted on this site took lots of thinking. When I think, I like to play a game, and that game is almost invariably Minesweeper. I play it not so much for best times, although I do sometimes. I play for the numbers. I play for the more elusive numbers trapped in squares surrounded by lots of mines. Sevens are fascinating in and of themselves. Always a treat to open one of them, particular in Expert (as opposed to the same-dimensioned but higher mine density custom fields I play). Yet the Seven always pales in comparison to the wondrous joy that is opening an Eight.

Elusive Eight. Trapped on all sides by mines, touches no other number. That’s what I play for, and that’s what I think for. Whether the pleasant occasion of seeing Eight or the light bulb in my head when I get a damn good idea, it is rare and great.

Although, perhaps a better answer in regards to why this site is named Eight Mine Fortress is because, well, I just felt like it!

Oh, did I mention that my nickname for an Eight in Minesweeper is a Fortress? Well, it is.