Greetings, weary traveler!

Yes, the year 2011 is over... and I have mixed feelings about it. What a ride, full of peaks and dips. I won't bore you with the details... you can check my blog if you're curious for some odd reason...

Yes, my blog! You know... that place where I spend 98% of my time, as opposed to this website! Ring a bell now? This poor, neglected site... I love this site dearly, but I am a quintessential scatterbrain, and thus, when I get the creative juices to fire, I update my blog... and then go about my business. Hey, I'm flighty, it's what I do. 

But I did just create and flesh out a new page for the latest Christmas play we produced, called The Big Picture. Written, directed and starring ME! Yep, I did just toot my own horn. Hey, I'm allowed to! I remembered all my lines, which was quite a feat! So, yeah... toot, toot. [Dave puts his horn away]. Check out the script and/or the video, if you'd like.

Beyond that, I'm looking forward to seeing what God has in store for me in 2012. Hopefully, it involves some maturity on my part... I'm tired of being such an infant, spiritually.

Bring it on, Lord! And please... HELP me!

Dave the Goof

See, the problem is, I haven't finished either of my novels yet, and I have ideas for at least three more, PLUS I have a title for my sixth book, if I ever get that far. Ready? It will be called "13 Farts: A Love Story"... of course, I only have the title so far... but I trust my creativity. I'll figure out a good story for it...

Yeah, "love"... what do I know about love? 

I know I have a vast reservoir of it stored up inside me. 20+ years' worth. I finally got to set some of it loose upon my wife this Summer, and it was wonderful. But now, alas, the breach has been sealed, and we are back to our "business as usual" system of isolation and self preservation. Well, hey, all love stories have to have some tragedy mixed in, to keep the tale interesting, right?

Why am I writing about this here (as opposed to my blog, or my journal)? I don't know. Boredom, I guess. I doubt the one or two people who might happen upon these words would really want to know about the highs and lows (extremes of both) that I have experienced this year. Chances are, you don't know me from Adam, and the travails of some random dude like me are likely thoroughly unintersting to all but those closest to me. 

Sorry.

But it's my site, and my post, so unless you want to try your hand at hacking the site and taking it over to post your own nonsense, you'll just have to endure! MUAHAHAHA!!!!

FACT: I love my iPad. I have the Kindle App on it, so I can carry an entire, ever-changing library of books everywhere I go. The best part seems to be my new addiction to downloading free samples of novels, so I can test the style and see if the author/story appeals to me before pulling the trigger on a purchase. I've saved a ton of money thus far, while also finding new authors I likely never would have found otherwise. When I float around to various book-related websites and blogs and see books talked about, I hop on Amazon, download a free sample, and file it away for future reading. Looooove it.

Plus, I have the NetFlix App on my iPad, so I can watch streamed content from my Watch Instantly queue, whenever I feel like it! Not to mention games, etc.

In fact, my shelves are being practically eliminated. I'm getting rid of most of my hard- and paperback books (since now all I need is digital), and my DVD collection as well, and my game boxes, too. Steam is awesome... I have a hard time wanting to ever buy a game in a box, and install from disc anymore. Steam is so easy... one-click, buy it (usually on crazy sale price), install it, it's auto-patched to the latest version, and ready to play. So easy, it isn't even funny.

All that to say, my addiction to entertainment is much easier to facilitate and organize, now that I'm becoming completely digital. 

Why did I talk about all that? Who knows. I'm just free-association writing right now. Right off the top of this pointy head of mine...

2011. I'm 41 now. Had an amazing Summer, and an even better birthday. It was everything I'd hoped my 40th birthday would be, but wasn't. I went from the absolute low-point of my life (June-ish), to the highest point of my life (July-August). I mean, pendulum-extreme. I wish it would last, but alas, not so. But I'll always be able to say, "at least we had the Summer of '11!" Why can't it last, you may ask? Well, I wish it could. But there's usually two people in any marriage (unless you're a Mormon, lol), and it isn't up to me. One of us is addicted to drama, sadly.

I will leave that there.

But it has given me a strange new hope for the future. I mean, I still have most of that reservoir of love available, waiting for another chance to spill out. We'll see.

Dave the Oddly Optimistic.

Greetings to the one (or so) people that might actually read these words! It is I, Dave, back with a post promising great things for this website! Hey, I have to give you something to roll your eyes about... In my head, all the work here is done: all my writing and samples are posted and organized, with great accompnaying artwork, and very easy to access. All my work samples are up and sufficiently impressive. All the video embeds on my video hub pages are working and worth watching. I even have my T-shirt designs posted, new web comics up, a page for my inventions, and my blog and front page are worth visiting!

In my head.

Now, in "real life", it's another story... if I could find the right way to bridge the two (and was able to apply across all facets of my life), then life would be grand! 

But, alas, life is more complex than that. I know, I know... if I had a dime for everytime someone somewhere online said, "I know it's been a long time since I updated, I'll try to do it more often" I'd be a rich man. It galls me to be included in that crowd. The funny thing is, when I do get on here and update stuff and writing posts like this, I get all inspired and have every intention of making progress. I don't get it. I'd write it off to laziness, but actually, I have put a ton of work into this site as it is... if I was truly lazy, I think this site would still just be a figment of my daydreams.

All that to say, who knows what tomorrow will bring? 

Signed,

Dave the Empty Promiser

Just wanted to pop in here and say that I posted a couple new book reviews, for the following books...

The Heroes, by Joe Abercrombie

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The Warded Man, by Peter V Brett

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and

What If They Lived? by Phil Hall and Rory Leighton Aronsky

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If you click the pictures, you can go right to the review page, if that sort of thing intrigues you. ALSO: if you click the nuke in the upper-left corner, you'll go to my blog. Try it! It's fun!

Dave

Up and down, up and down. One day, I feel great, riding high. The next day I'm low, and seriously bummed out. I usually just shrug my shoulders and write it off to the fact that I'm 40 now - as though everyone is expected to crack in places once that milestone is hit. All things considered, I'd really rather just be happy and helpful all of the time, instead of feeling like I'm destined to die alone in a houseful of people...

I'm working on some new things lately. I'm writing a "book" for my Eldest Daughter. Sort of a memoir, containing info from my childhood, and through high school, and how I ended up meeting her mom, and how she came into the world. I'm hoping it will shed some light on who I am, how I'm wired, and why I made decisions the way I did as she grew up. I've been working on it for a few weeks now. It doesn't really have much structure, in the traditional sense of a book. It's more a long, free-association letter than anything, I suppose. I'm going to send it to her on her 21st birthday, which will be in a couple months.

My next project will be to rework and adapt a play that a friend of mine wrote so that it can be filmed instead of produced as a live play. I found a new piece of writing software called Celtx that is supposed to be good for managing books/screenplays/scripts, etc. I'm hoping (as usual) that it will help me finish projects mo' bettuh.

It's been unexpectedly difficult to revisit the decisions I made in high school, and just after. I'm so torn. How can I wish I could go back and do it differently when doing so would undo my kids? I can't imagine life without them - so I'd have to do it all over again the same way, step by bloody step. It's depressing!

So I'm going to stop thinking about it.

Not sure why I feel fine rambling about personal stuff in this particular venue (rather than my blog, or my own private journal). Probably because I know no one is likely to read this. By the time I get this site in any shape to actively drive people here, this particular post will be long gone from the front page. I guess coming here and seeing that it's been so long since I've done something new here is also depressing. So I pulled up a new blog post and started typing. As is my custom.

I guess I'll get some sleep, regroup, and hit it again tomorrow.

Dave

Thankfully, the year 2010 ended. It was a rough year. I turned 40 in August, my blog died in September, I had my 20th wedding anniversary in December, I spent New year's Eve alone and bummed.

But a funny thing happened in these first two weeks. I'm on a rather dramatic upswing. I won't bore you with the details, since, if the past is any indication, it will continue a while, then, like the tide, slowly reverse and dip for a while. Such is life, I suppose. I'm going to ride the upward trend as long as I can, and try to regroup and catch my breath. 

My blog lives again, by the way. If for some reason you've never read it, you can see the 2009 archive here on this site, or follow this link to My Little Corner of the World, and read the very latest. 

I posted the following video on my latest blog post - a video from Julian Smith called "I'm Reading A Book" that is very amusing and catchy.

I also added it to my Video Hub, under the Music section, since this blog post will eventually move downward and off this page. I try to put the real winners on those Video Hub Pages, since I can hop on over and watch them all when I need to be entertained or cheered up.

I'm not going to make any wild New Year's Promises here, though I'd love to. I know this site needs work. I'm proud of it, in it's current state, but I also have a lot more I want to do. I'm not going to promise to finish either of my novels either, since I hate feeling lame for not following through. I have great intentions, but get overwhelmed with life too easily (since I can't seem to say no to anyone, and accept new projects with depressing regularity). My personal projects are always the first to get sidelined. 

I hope the year continues to improve, and I hope that it does the same for you, the intrepid web traveler who just might happen to stumble in here and read this.

Dave

Fall has fallen, winter doth approach, bringing along the usual barge-load of angst and strife, ironically enough. Peace on earth, right? Riiiight...

It would be wonderful to be able to enjoy the build-up to the holidays for once. Perhaps someday, I'll be able to. Until that day, I will continue to cinch up my belt, take a deep breath, and press on (if you'll pardon how corny that sounds...)

This season brings with it the added stress associated with my 20th wedding anniversary. Congratulations to me and my wifey for inflicting 20 long years of marriage upon each other! 20 down, ___ to go. Go ahead, fill in the blank. Your guess is as good as mine.

This man's skill on a bike surpasses anything I've seen before. If you hi-res and full screen it, you can be blown away with me. 

If bike riding isn't your thing, marvel with me at this next clip...

I need to see clips like these every once in a while, just to help me retain my sanity. Almost like I need to update this site once in a while, even though no one comes here. I do it for my own sanity. I could go into detail on the dynamics of it all, but I don't have the strength at the moment.

Lots of interesting things in development, in just about every area of my life. Maybe I'll resurrect my blog and write about it. Or maybe not. Who knows. It certainly does help to pound out words on a keyboard, even if it's just "hunt and peck" like I do... add "learning to type correctly" on my long list of things I tell myself I'll do someday, but deep-down know it'll never happen. 

Starting to depress myself. Better quit while I'm ahead.

Dave

My blog is deceased. Added to a long list of things I've begun with great enthusiasm, and then watched with a mix of confusion and ennui as they suddenly die. I can't explain it - things with me seem to have a season and then they are done. 

In any case, this website seems to have hit a lull, but it doesn't feel dead to me just yet. I still have plans, which I hope to endeavor to pursue, especially now that my blogging has ceased for the time.

That doesn't mean I'm not still finding fun things to share! Like this video clip, which I found particularly amazing -- you will too, if you like great guitar playing...

I love to see/hear people with intensity and talent in equal parts. I like to fool myself into thinking I'm such a person, at least on some levels. Heck, maybe we all are, in some ways.

I hope to post again soon, with news of nice changes here at Wagnervana.

Dave

Just wanted to toss a quick note up here saying I put a few new Book Reviews up in the Book Review section (appropriately enough). Reviews for the following books have been recently added.

Pretty good books, if you want the summary. The Folding Knife (KJ Parker) was a great character-driven tale, Legend (David Gemmell) was a fast, fun read and The Way of Shadows (Brent Weeks) was a solid (if clichéd) effort. You can jump straight to the reviews page by clicking this link, or click each cover to go straight to that review.

Other stuff in the works for the site. In the interim, you can access my eBlogger blog (which I update every other day or so) at this link here.

Thanks for dropping by.

Dave

Hey, my site, my rules! I'll be back with some content once I organize my thoughts better...