That's why I built this website...to help relieve boredom and keep me out of trouble.

What exactly does that mean?

You know that old saying about idle hands being the devil’s workshop?

That’s pretty much what I’m trying to avoid here. I’m not necessarily the kind of chap that believes in devils and such, but I do know from experience that if I don’t have enough shit to do, I have a tendency to get myself into trouble. Not huge trouble, mind you. I mean…I don’t ever end up in prison or anything. Well, once, but nevermind that. No, what I mean is that without something to occupy my oh-so-easily distracted mind (woah! something shiny!), I find myself wanting to spend money that I don’t have, or obsessing over impossible scenarios that involve me winning the lottery, or wanting to get drunk on a Tuesday afternoon for no good reason, or considering the feasibility of selling my house, buying an old foodtruck and figuring out how to use it as both a residence and a means of income.

These are all dangerous thoughts for someone like me, because no matter how crazy my ideas can get, obsessing over them is not out of the ordinary. Sometimes I follow through, and sometimes…that’s where the trouble comes into play. I guess I built this site as a distraction of sorts.

Typewriter Blog
Bits and Bytes

Okay, but why tho?

Why a website? Why not any number of other hobbies? Why not weightlifting, or juggling, or knitting, or baking? Why not anything else? There must be a million things to keep an obsessive mind focused.

That’s a valid question.

The short answer is that I’m a web developer by trade so it seemed a natural choice. I’ve been doing it for over twenty years and I’ve gone through a dozen different web presences in that time. This is just the latest. With any luck, it will be the one that sticks.

The long answer, which I’ll try to abbreviate anyway, is that I actually have a shitload of hobbies already. Arguably, I have too many hobbies, and that’s part of the problem. I don’t seem to have the ability to be satisfied with a single hobby. Apparently, I must have all the hobbies. Believe me, I wish it weren’t the case. I’d prefer it if I could just pick a skill and roll with it. Someone like that has the natural ability to excel at it over time. Unfortunately, on the other side of the coin, someone with many hobbies never gets the chance to excel at any of them. They say that the jack of all trades is the master of none, and that kind of sums up my life. I’m okay at a lot of things. I know a little about a lot. I guess you could say that this site is just another hobby on a list of many, but perhaps, if I do it right, it just might become the one that ties everything else together.

So…are you crazy?

3That’s another valid question, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that sometimes I wonder about that myself.

Then again, maybe it’s not that I’m crazy. Maybe I just have a tough time organizing my thoughts. Maybe what one might perceive as “crazy” is nothing more than me trying to get a grasp on a more efficient thought process. Maybe this site is the tool that finally helps me untangle it all, and if so, maybe the voices in my head will finally shut the hell up.

(I was just kidding about the voices…as far as you know.)

Crazy Horse
Guitar Man

Great, what should I expect to see here?

As of right now, I can’t precisely say because I’m kind of figuring it out as I go.

I suspect it will start out mostly bloggy and I’ll see where it goes from there. That being said, take a look at that beatiful string of icons at the very top of this page. (thanks Font Awesome!) Each of those icons represent a hobby or interest. I play guitar. I enjoy grilling and smoking meats. I love whiskey and beer. Especially beer. I can’t get enough beer. Hell, I make my own beer in an attempt to spend less money on beer. It doesn’t work, but I do it anyway. I draw. I write. I enjoy camping, and traveling in general. I do a lot of stuff.

I’ve been told that if you’re going to write at all, write what you know, so I suppose anything that I write about here on this site will be just that. Shit I know. I may not know enough about any of those things to come off as an expert, but I can still have a go at it. It’s all in good fun. Those icons above may eventually come to represent actual blog categories. I’ll have to see how that goes but as of now, that’s what I’m shooting for. I can’t promise that the rest of the world will find anything I say here interesting enough to keep coming back, but I’ll at least try to make it entertaining. I hope to eventually grow this into something much more than a personal blog. As a web developer, I have ideas that I’d like to try, but I’ve have to walk before I can run. First things first.

Rad, now what?

Well, if you’ve come this far and haven’t been scared off yet, I’d recommend just diving right on in.

The menu at the top lives on every page. There’s not much to it yet. If you’re curious as to who I am and how I became to be the lovable web developing lunatic that I am, click on “About”. The bulk of the site’s contents you’ll find under “Blog”. Well, eventually that will be the case. If, for whatever reason, you feel the need to reach out and talk to one of the voices in my head, that’s what the “Contact” link is for.

Thanks for dropping by. I hope you find something of interest.

Dive In