And So It Begins Anew

Disclaimer: this post is meant to be an introduction to this website, why it’s here and what it has to offer. It may be long, winded, boring, nauseatingly narcissistic and all of that, but plunging into the good stuff without this having this here at the head of things would be like having the cart without the wheels. That probably doesn’t make sense, but it’s typical of most of the stuff you’ll be finding on this site, so get used to it. Read on at your own peril.

 

January 12th, 2014.

Chrome was already open. Facebook wasn’t interesting, and, believe it or not, neither was Youtube that day. I was done with exams for time being, and until the next and final session started anew, there was virtually nothing productive I had left to do. You know it’s bad when you’re finding yourself bored even with movies you haven’t watched before.

So that’s why I clicked on the address bar and typed in “blogspot.com”. Part of why I wanted to start a blog was because I had always wanted to be published. I already had over seven books written by hand and with homemade covers and everything. I knew someday I would be published, but till that time, the ‘when’ had always been hazy.

 

The page loaded. They were asking me to create an account. A new email id, a new name.

Maybe I had to take the first step to start down the road. And I needed another name, an alias, a pseudonym, to work under.

 

I started typing in. M. A. T...

 

 

Ah, hindsight. Maybe I should stopped and thought a bit more before I continued. After all, I was going to be stuck with this one for pretty much till the end of time. Maybe I should have googled a bit more, searched for something unique?

 

... W...O... R... D...

 

So, I as starting a blog. What was I going to write about? Did I even know that? At the time, no. maybe a little something or other, some random nonsense here and there?

 

...V... E... R.

 

And I clicked next.

 

Pretty much the tale of how I was born. The name that I will be stuck with for all eternity, the one all my future books will be published under. My name, my brand.  For better or worse, and all the future SEO headaches it would bring, I AM Mathew W. Weaver.

And that was my site.

 

To my credit, I stuck with that blog. I was never the most patient person (still not), but I still managed to keep to a schedule with that, posting something new and original every three to four days. Looking back now, it was far too easy for me, since the only other things to occupy my time were my exams, which I had a proud lifelong history of never paying too much attention to, anyway.

Over time, I figured what exactly my site was for. It was to entertain, make people laugh. I posted funny anecdotes, research on obscure, irrelevant and yet interesting facts, views on the world with what could more or less be argued to be somewhat funny.

I spent day after the other toiling on what to post next. What I didn’t do was write any books.

 

September came, and I started my first job. My last post was at the end of August, only eight months after the first one, right before my first week at work. Ever since then, I never had the time to post, nor the mood to do think and put in all the effort that it took to get those posts out. I always hated deadlines, and my patience was, well, mostly out on picnics with my Muse.

 

The site stood abandoned, by me at least, but it didn’t mean that Mathew W. Weaver dropped out of the internet, no. I was still on Facebook, here and there on Twitter, and I spent a lot of time interacting with the fine folks of the Iron Writer. There I submitted for and won challenges, learned the finer points of the craft, and even won the 2015 Annual Championship. Yeah, bragging rights, right there.

Oh, and yes. From January till the end of June 2015, I wrote and edited my first ever novel, which was finally published on this year.

 

It would seem I accomplished more when I wasn’t blogging than when I was purely focused on that. But even so, I missed making up new posts, reading the comments, thinking up the next ones, watching my site grow from nothing with every new thing I posted. It was beautiful, and I missed it, even with all the headaches the office threw at me and how much of my life it gobbled up. I missed blogging.

Yet nothing new came after 31st August, 2014. That time, that part of my journey, was over.

 

That was one year and eight months ago.

And this is a new site.

 

So this is it. Here I am. Own domain? Check. Hosting? Check.

Content?  On the way, check and check.

This isn’t just Ramblings and Ravings anymore. This isn’t only a blog with so many LIMITS on what I can do with it; it’s a full blown website, open to whatever I want it to be, and it’s all about me.

 

Two and a half years may not seem like much, but it’s time plenty to learn, and I have been soaking up. This site is here to stay, and since I know exactly what I’m doing this time around (....or at least I think I do. don’t tell me it’s not the same thing and burst the bubble. Just DON’T), things should go better than they did the last time around.

And what is the function of this site, you ask? Sell my books? Preen my feathers? Talk about how great I am?

 

Those are prerequisites, friend. But they merely come second to what this site is REALLY about. Yes, even the ‘sell my books’ part.

This site is dedicated to the thing I’m best at, what I realized was my calling, two years ago. This is about entertaining you. So, I ask you...

 

...well, maybe not right now. but give it a week or two.

 

So I’m sitting here, looking at this brand new site with my name on the address bar and no blogspot or wordpress tag at the end of it. I’m not thinking of how happy I am of how I came this far. Nope, not about how I have new direction with how my site will look like, or how this is going to be the best thing I have done ever since I started out.

 

No, what I’m thinking is that if I stop posting stuff and let the site go to waste like I did with the last one, it’s going to be far more expensive than it was before. Incentive to continue? Let’s hope so.

Back with the old blog, I used to make it a habit to post at least every three days. Back then my posts were long. Seriously, they were looong. I can’t decide which is more surprising, the fact that people actually read the whole things, or that I didn’t burn myself out far sooner than I did.

 

And yes, this first post has been a drag to read, and I don’t blame you for skipping paragraphs on the way down here. Heck, I’d have done the same myself. But if I’m going to do this properly, though, I want this site to stand for a long, long time. And for that to happen, you’ll see why this long winded, self-praising, I-am-so-awesome post needs to be here.

 

This site is for you as much as it is for me. Look out for a new post every weekend, either one calling back to the Rambling days of yore, or a brand new, retouched Iron Writer short.

 

This is my own domain, and the only limit is my creativity (...and internet connectivity, a constant in my world. A constant state of flux, that is.)

 

Back from the silence,

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