About Matt

Matt Elliott is not taking this sitting down

But I mean that generally, not specifically. Specifically, right now, I am sitting down. Mostly — and it’s for this reason that I feel it was appropriate to start with — sitting is what I do.

In between alternating bouts of sitting and standing, I’ve been known to create, author, grow tired of and abandon websites. On and off, I’ve been updating websites since 1997, which is both stunning and sad, depending on how you look at it. Back then, I was hosted on a free French language webserver I stumbled across one day by chance (altern.org). Now, I’m hosted by dreamhost. I’m not sure which is better.

I’ve always toyed with the idea of being a writer, but it wasn’t until I worked in the offices of Oakville Today newspaper in my hometown of Oakville, ON in the years of 2000-2001 that I actually started to believe I could write for a living. Sure, I was 17 and spent most of my time with the publication making up facts about football, but it was then that something within me sparked. And ever since I’ve had a relentless drive to write letters, combine those letters into words, combine those words into sentences and, most astoundingly of all, combine those sentences into paragraphs.

It’s all part of a crazy desire to make sense to people.

Following my stint as a journalist, I attended the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Originally intending to study journalism, I quickly realized that I was already jaded, lazy and bored by most people and thus had nothing left to learn about journalism. Over my four years of study, I changed my majors twice, but never regretted any of it. I graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in History.

Life in the real world has been a bit of a kick in the head. I’ve spent the last year working at the Halton Industry Education Council. Though hired as the Communicators Officer, I spend much of my time these days focused on program development, with random bouts of design, marketing and forgetting to bring my lunch mixed in. It’s a satisfying job, but it makes me so very tired.

As I write this, I live in a two-story apartment taking up literally half of an old Victorian home in the Cabbagetown area of Toronto, ON. It’s been a bit of a culture shock to go from the sleepy suburbs of my childhood to the mean streets of the city, but my girl Erin I survive by following a simple code: hustle, loyalty, respect. And bystaying inside and watching TV a lot.

Even More Matt

There’s lots you can learn about me by browsing the archives of this site, which date back to 2000, when I first installed the wordpress platform on my server. Much of what you’ll find is bound to be more than a little confusing, as I tend to write a lot of inside jokes. Many of them so inside that I am the only one to get them. But I do hope that within that sheer volume of posts, you’ll find something good.

Between 2004 and 2006 I produced a (mostly) weekly column called “The Best Things.” Originally conceived as little more than a list of five things I enjoyed, it somehow became an outlet for all kinds of ramblings: from superhero fiction to stories about love to tales of road trips to the occasional poem. If you’re going to start anywhere, start there.

The Photos

The site also has an extensive Photography section. I want to caution that it shouldn’t be confused with real ‘photography’ that involves planning and white balance and not pointing the camera at entirely the wrong thing. It’s mostly just pictures I took when I was drunk at school in Halifax. Almost every set of photos included after the first year has an associated blog post, but it’s not really necessary to know that to enjoy things.

Contact

Lastly, if you need to get a hold of me, leaving a comment is probably the best way. I do also occasionally read e-mails and rarely check MSN at gvlaptop at msn.com.

You could also facebook me, if you really wanted to. But that would be pretty lame.