Front page
E. Ray James: Words & Pictures
Inspired by a spring 2007 assignment for Special Topics in Information Architecture taught by Dr. Don Turnbull at the University of Texas at Austin, this Web site became a personal statement, resume (résumé, for those devoted to absolutes), and digital repository for creative artifacts and the detritus of a life fully lived, if not always well-lived. It may eventually become one of many digital historical memories of this era. What yellowing diary pages and fading tintypes are to those looking back in 2007, maybe this and others Web sites like it will be in 2107. I bequeath it to that time with no affirmations of its quality or value. This site provides a picture of me, one Eldon Ray James, in his sixty-first year and showing some signs of at last abandoning a quest for uniqueness and getting on with it, whatever “it” might prove to be.
Some folks have asked about the why I use “E,” as in “E. Ray James.” The reason is simple. As a child growing up in Texas my immediate family called me “Ray.” My aunts, uncles, and cousins, being Texans, called me “Eldon Ray” (say it in a drawn-out drawl), you know, like Billy Bob. I hated to be called “Eldon Ray.” When I tried for my first email account I was told my address could be rayjames7652.whatever or but erayjames.anything was always available.