about me

Who am I?

Hi! My name is Stem. To put it simply, I'm a 14 year old - born in 2011. You may think it's too young to be on the internet, but in reality I've been perfectly fine so far! I do coding for fun, since it's really fun watching my code spring to life. You can also be really creative! I also love nostalgic stuff in general, like early 60s surf culture, Frutiger Aero (which feels very nostalgic to me), and whatever the heck dreamcore is. I have ARFID, Dyspraxia and extreme Omphalophobia (the phobia of belly buttons) - I'm dead serious, do not ever mention them around me. I don't know why but it makes my blood boil. I have a lot of specific interests that most people do not care about, like Super Mario Bros. Speedrunning, CD collecting, and Japanese Shinkansen trains.

My hometown

This is my hometown - Queenstown, New Zealand, if you don't recognize it already. Your first thought might be "Wow, that's paradise on earth! You're so lucky to live there!" Well, think again. Yes, i'm about to rant.
It's just that people perceive Queenstown as heaven; as paradise. in reality, it's a tourist-filled, car-centric hellhole. In the Travel Itinenary page, you'll see a lot of hesitation about travelling to specific places, because of reports of them being taken over by tourism; that's because Queenstown has been infected with overtourism. I've lived here for the past 10 years and I have experienced this place blow up into a "100% Pure New Zealand" hub, which in turn has made this place 0% Pure New Zealand. There are some good things, like some decent scenery & good education, but the car dependency of this place has contributed to the destruction of my social life, because it has limited me inside and gotten me obsessed with the internet. Sorry about that rant !! Hopefully you understand now though.

My love for the internet!

I believe the first time I went on the internet was at a really young age - around 3 years old, I think in 2014. I wasn't fully involved in it though, I just watched YouTube videos about my childish interests at the time. It wasn't until 2017 when I made my first contribution to the internet - I made a YouTube channel. I get embarrassed saying this, but I did make a youtube channel at the age of six. The videos were either just screen recordings of other people's videos or crappy gameplay footage. In 2018, I made another youtube channel which in 2019 I started making subscriber count-related content on. It kind of blew up the channel a bit and by 2020 it had 600 subscribers, however that year the channel got terminated. Of course, I made another one which today has nearly 800 subcribers. However with YouTube, I regularly upload to a new channel with just under 20 subscribers, linked in my contact me page.

Since 2014, the internet has been a huge part of my life! I sadly didn't experience the golden age of the internet, but I have gotten a glimpse into it and fallen in love. It makes me so happy how people used to express themselves so freely, with their own websites, and I wish that era could come back.

I've been looking to make my own website for years; in 2018 I experimented with website builders like Wix and Squarespace, but I could not figure them out. For many years I tried my hand at Google Sites, but it's not a very creative platform. More recently I attempted Strawpage and Carrd, but strawpage wasn't working when I first tried to use it and Carrd was too difficult to figure out. I did find another website builder that I forgot the name of, but my attempt to make a website looked ugly. Then in April 2025 I discovered Neocities and began to learn HTML. Within a week I had created the first version of this website, and while it didn't look great it was good for a HTML newcomer like me. I didn't really update it after that, until writing this now where i've been giving it a cool overhaul!

My musical interests

I think music is definitely up there, being one of my greatest interests. For starters, I have a large CD collection - last time I counted, I had 68 CDs. You can check out what I have here. I also have three vinyl records - Nevermind by Nirvana, Ride The Lightning by Metallica & Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.

But what music am I into? Well, it's difficult to explain. My music taste has only really developed since August 2023, and since then it has blossomed into some giant fungus of genres & preferences. To keep it simple, my favourite all-around artist is probably The Beatles. I love the Beatles because they have a wide range of music, all of which is just amazing. John, Paul, George and Ringo are some of the greatest musicians! I also love Pink Floyd, for their great recording skills - they were 50 years ahead, making 2020s quality music in the 1970s. David Gilmour is definitely my favourite guitarist - the solos in Comfortably Numb and High Hopes give me chills every time. Another band I like is Nirvana. They were simple, loud, and quick, which made me fall in love with them immediately as I heard them. Kurt Cobain is a huge inspiration to me; every time I see a clip of him performing at the Paramount Theater, or at Reading Festival (both years!), or MTV Unplugged, it always inspires me to play a small tune on the guitar. And actually, Cobain was the one who inspired me to start playing guitar! I wish he could've lived to see himself become a legend.

I have a whole page about my musical interests. This is just a summary. If you want to read more, check out my favourite music page.

My favourite geography facts

I am a large geography nerd, and I can't wait to tell you all the facts i've got! My friends hate my facts, I like to tell them my favourite facts as a joke, and it pisses them off a lot. So if you are one of my IRL friends, please do not scroll past this point !!

  1. Did you know that the Pacific Ocean contains its own antipode?
  2. Did you know the northernmost part of Brazil is closer to Canada than the southernmost part of Brazil?
  3. Did you know there is a cattle station in Australia that is larger than Israel?
  4. Did you know that the closest US State to Africa is Maine?
  5. Did you know that Uzbekistan is one of two countries that is completely surrounded by landlocked countries?
  6. Did you know that France has an island off the coast of Mexico?
  7. Did you know there's only one country separating Norway and North Korea? (Russia!)
  8. Did you know the city of Melbourne, Australia was originally called Batmania?
  9. Did you know the capital cities Brazzaville and Kinshasa are just across the Congo river from eachother?
  10. Did you know the whole country of China is in just one time zone?
  11. Did you know that the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal is further west than the Pacific end?
  12. Did you know that 50% of the world's population lives in a circle that covers a proportionally tiny section of the world?
  13. Did you know that New York City is further south than Rome?

I might add more in the future, but for now that's all you're getting. Fascinating right?

My favourite video games

Video games are a large part of my life! Ever since I was younger i've been non-stop playing them. Not exactly the classic video games I do now, but I have become a little bit of a veteran in some games - I started playing Roblox in 2016, so I have witnessed the place turn to shit. I don't really play it anymore, but if you to go the contact me page you'll find my name. Don't expect me to accept your request however, I normally only add my IRL friends.

Anyway, my favourite video game at the moment of writing this is Super Mario Bros - released in 1985, it is my favourite because of just how easy it is to speedrun - I have spent a long time trying to figure out how to perform tricks that allow me to beat it as fast as possible, and just now am I trying to implement them into proper speedruns - if you go to my YouTube channel you may see me livestreaming low 4:59 Any% attempts!

I am a huge fan of Mario games, I think you can tell. I also really like Super Mario Maker 2, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Bros. 2 & 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros U. I don't know exactly why Mario games interest me so much, but if I'm being honest it's probably just cause they're so fun to speedrun and they're just purely enjoyable.

When it comes to other games, Minecraft is another game that has been one of my favourites for a long time. I've played it since I was five and I've always been playing it on and off ever since then. It's reliable and is never not fun. I've been getting better and better at it too, as the years have gone by! Recently i've been building a large city in survival mode and I'm very proud of it.

To conclude, I am also a big fan of city building games. City builders are probably my favourite video game genre, just cause of how much creativity is involved within them. Cities Skylines may as well be my second favourite game; the thing that stops it from topping the list is how fucking annoying the traffic problems are. Theotown is also one of my favourite games, cause it's basically just Cities Skylines but a whole lot more simple and retro. If you want to see other games that I like, check out the favourite games page.

Other Interests

Once again, i'm a very diverse person. First off, I'm into aviation! Put simply, I'm interested in commercial airlines and airliners - my favourite plane is probably the Boeing 747. Second, I'm really into trains & rail. In Japan, they have lots of Shinkansen bullet trains which really fascinate me. China also has a lot of high speed rail. America? Yeah, you've got a bit of catching up to do. I'm into programming too - after all, this whole website was coded by myself using HTML and CSS. Finally, I'm interested in City Planning. I am very adamant that the perfect city is one that is easy to get around, highly walkable, and has good public transport. But for now, that's all. :)