To say the least, this site has grown far more than I ever thought it would. With fan fiction, sound wavs, bios, pictures, quotes, and a healthy imagination, this site has climbed to the #1 spot on the NBC.com poll and is popular with fans. I can only hope that this continues.
Thanks to all of you out there who have inspired me, E-Mailed me, signed my guestbook, or just visited! You have helped make this site what it is today and will be in the years to come.
The View From Behind The Desk
Ever wonder how this little site came into being? Well, I am here now to answer that VERY question! Read on to find out what made me build this site, how it got its name, as well as other facts you never wanted to know. So hang on tight as I take you on a tour Behind The Desk! (As I go along here writing to you all out there in Internet Land, amuse yourselves- place your cursor on the various pictures that I have included on this page and read some extra tid-bits and thoughts I have on the people in these pictures.)
The place to begin is the day I brought this site into being- June 30, 2001. After many days and nights of surfing the Internet for "Law&Order" websites I found that while I loved them all, there just weren't enough of them. I had been running a site dedicated to the television show "The X-Files" for about two years at this point and knew that there were hundreds of sites on this subject. In comparison, I found only a hand-full for "Law&Order". Soooo... I decided to start a my own website.
That was easier said than done, though. I had founded several sites after my "X-Files" one and none of them had lived more than a month. I knew that I had to pick a subject more precise than just "Law&Order" in general if I wanted to stay interested in maintaining a site.
Through "Law&Order" I came to know a GREAT actor named Sam Waterston. Until then I had never heard of him biut after I realized that he had been around a long time and would be around for a long time to come. I came to admire him and even wrote about him for a project in my 10th Grade Literature class. And so it came to pass that he would be the main focus of my new site.
It was only after I decided who I would dedicate my site to that I realized that it needed to be about more than just him (not that he isn't reason enough for creating a site) but I had to include my favorite character performed by him. I mean, Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, etc., etc., etc.. all have sites for themselves so why not my main law man? Yes, I'm talking about Jack McCoy- he needed to have a fan site of his very own and I was going to be the one to do this. Sam and Jack would share my fan site and live in harmony here. That's why it's called, "The View From Behind The Desk: A Sam and Jack Fan Site".
Now that I had a subject, what I call my latest creation? Unlike other websites I had made, this one picture you see to the left and a thought popped into my head, "What must Jack McCoy think as he works behind his desk everyday? What does he see from behind it? The view from behind the desk?" And there it was- The View Behind The Desk named for the beloved desk behind which our favorite A.D.A. sits everyday. 
After the site had a subject and a name, the only thing left to do was to fill it with information and anything else I could think of for the Sam Waterston and Jack McCoy fan. After I closed my "X-Files" site, I had more time to put toward this site. I even took some of the things I did there and transfered them to this one. I have spent many, many, MANY hours online while consuming pop (or soda, depending on where you are from), gum, chips, dinner, lunch, Sweet Tarts, breakfast, mints, milk, water, and listening to The Beatles, Billy Joel, Bon Jovi, Japanese anime music, Rob Dougan, Celine Dion, Pink, and various movie soundtracks to bring this site to you.
For those out there who are wondering about what I used to create this site, well, this is an easy question to answer. The site was built using a Pionex computer with a Pentium 2 processor and Windows 98, second edition. See, you do not need a big, fancy computer to start a website- just an idea and time. As for programs- I used Corel WordPerfect 8 for writing fan fiction and iPhoto Plus 4 for image touch-up and creating banners. I used a scanner (I can't remember the brand for the life of me) to put pictures that I found in the my local newspaper on this site. I had everything pretty well down pat on using this system and those programs for updating but then came college.
For my graduation present, my parents bought me a laptop computer (I love you, Mom and Dad). It is a HP pavilion ze5300 with a 2.66 Pentium 4 Processor and Windows XP. To say the least, this is a step up! ^_^ The only problem was transfering all my website files and images to my new computer and learning how to use it to update. That was a pain in the butt, but well worth it. I still wasn't happy with HP's photo editing, though, so I took the iPhoto Plus 4 from my old computer and loaded it onto my laptop. My laptop can also make screen captures from DVDs (something my old desktop could not). This has allowed me to increase my picture gallery and have more images to work with when making banners. In addition, I now get to use Corel WordPerfect 10 to write my fan fiction and overall have a much better machine for maintaining a website (or three, as I have). It goes wherever I go and it is my baby... e.i. you touch it, you die... You break it, I kill you many times over... This computer is what I have used for working on The View From Behind The Desk since June of 2003 and I think its done a great job... Yeah, I'm a computer geek... *shrugs*
"Your mother may have some problems..."~Sam Waterston in Serial Mom