I developed this website for my friend James. He was a coach of mine in the past, and continues to be my greatest muse. This site started as a hard-typed HTML website featuring a few dozen of Jim's articles, but quickly blossomed into a behemoth. In an effort to hedge the tidal wave of content, I put together a very simple content-management-system where he could post on his own. It started there in 2010. A year later we sold our first PDF.

Why this weird website and not Wordpress or Blogspot, etc? I thought building a CMS from the ground-up would be a good opportunity to ply some computer skills I had, and a create a sandbox to learn new technologies. Also, Jim preferred the ultra-simplicity of the backend I created. It's worked to fulfill these two needs since the beginning, and despite some hiccups along the way, the project still stands.

I wanted this website to reflect what I appreciate about the old[er] web: no Cookies, no Ads, no Banners, no Social Media junk. I wanted it to have a little personality - thats why I've efforted to make custom graphics as much as possible. I wanted it to be a place of free speech - which is why I moderate the comments and allow everything thru as long as it's not promoting violence.

Hopefully [we] can continue to produce and moderate this website. One day, it may be hosted on a toaster oven. If you'd like to help, continue visiting the site and consider:

• Buying a PDF (goes to James, no one else) 📚
• Donating to the site fund 🤞
• Report a bug (webmaster @ jameslafond.com) 👾

If you're interested in getting help with your (web) project, email me!
If you want to talk about reading and trading books, email me!
If you want to train in contact martial arts including weapons, email me!
webmaster @ jameslafond.com