I suppose it is obvious that it has been a long time since I have made a post here. The reasons are varied and are beyond the scope of this post but I do want to mention a few things while I am here. I have completed and self published two books now an am working on a third one both of them are available on Amazon if you are interested. Secondly to try and promote my books I now have an account on Twitter where I usually post something every day. I don’t know how long that will last though as it takes a lot of time away from my writing so it depends on how successful it becomes. If you are on Twitter and would like to check it out you can find me at @TheJimAdkins

My first book has finally been published! I am really frustrated with how long it took. I would much rather be occupied writing something else than all the other things that deal with getting a book self-published. However, I don’t have the resources to hire a professional publisher to do the work for me. Even if I could secure a traditional publisher, which would also take on the publication duties, I would be unwilling to relinquish the rights. So that option is off the table as well. If you aren’t bored to tears by now, check out the Books tab up top for a look at the cover.

Can you smell what this thirty-seven year old Dwayne Johnson look alike is cooking?

It smells like he’s cooking up some good company: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson can now brag about joining the likes of Brad Pitt, Taylor Swift, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston, Amy Schumer, Prince Harry, Lady Gaga and Cardi B in the unofficial “Viral Celebrity Lookalike Hall of Fame.” Alabama’s Morgan County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Lieutenant Eric Fields is a doppelgänger for Johnson — and his growing global fan base has turned into something of a “running joke” over the last few years.

On the old site I used to have a section I called Weekend Reading it was amusing links that weren’t necessarily technology related. I think this fits the bill.

Now there’s another kind of Roman pizza, however — and it comes out of a vending machine. Rome’s newest pizzaiolo (pizza-maker), “Mr. Go,” is a vending machine pumping out four types of pizza for whenever you feel like one. Not for Mr. Go the weekly closures and afternoons off of regular pizzerias; his indefatigable metal “hands” are spinning and stretching dough, slopping on toppings and firing it all to a crisp 24/7. The machine is the brainchild of entrepreneur Massimo Bucolo, a Sicilian living in Rome.

I just updated some stuff on the backend. Like the theme that the site runs on for one. So if you wondering why there hasn’t been any news in the past few days that is why. Also if you notice anything strange or wonky with the site please drop me a line. My contact info is in the ABOUT US page. Peace out.

I got some free time today and I imported the very first piece of content from the “before time” when dinosaurs still ruled the planet. It is only twenty years old but nonetheless it seems like forever. I actually had hair when I wrote it and my joints didn’t sound like Rice-Krispies when I got up in the morning. I haven’t yet decided on how much of the old content will make it over to the new design. After all it doesn’t seem to make much sense to import a review on a twenty year old CPU Cooler to the new design so it may end up that none of the old reviews are moved over. I guess we will see. If you have some insight or would just like to make a suggestion my contact info is on the “ABOUT US” page. BTW I did clean up some of the typos and punctuation errors that seemed too egregious to let remain.

There has been more progress on polishing my first book for publication. This last week I had an Author’s Proof printed. This is the first time my book has actually existed in a paper form, so it was kinda a big deal to me. Most all of my free time has been going into working on it. All the things involved in preparing a manuscript for publication have been, for me, at least harder than actually writing the book in the first place. When I restarted this website, I had planned to make more frequent updates about my writing, but judging by the feedback (or lack thereof), there is not much interest.

After several days of searching I found the MHW case badges from many years back. This was the surprise that I mentioned here in an earlier post that I wasn’t sure I could locate. If you would like to have one drop me a line. My email is on the “About Us” page. While the badge itself is free you will have to cover the cost of postage. A S.A.S.E. is my preferred method for taking care of that. Sorry but this offer is limited to those that live in the USA.

Since I am an old man now for the sake of nostalgia I had planned on using the original MHW site Header to make a new Header today. When I say early I mean back when I coded the site by hand in .html (badly I must confess) early. The problem was it seems the font I used from a 1,001 piece budget clip-art collection I bought for that purpose is apparently still a commercial font. Since I can’t find that package and I am not willing to pay FORTY DOLLARS for a twenty plus year old font. It seems that right now I am SOFL. I am not giving up all hope yet though as I am willing to bet I still have the original clip art software package somewhere. If I do, I will eventually make another header using it when / if I find it. In the meantime if you are wondering what the font that shall remain nameless looked like, look no further than the “Books” page.

It’s about time to hang up an “Open” sign and SLOWLY post some news. It is not like anyone is reading this yet though. I still am not satisfied with the site layout yet but if we wait for that to happen I might die first (more on that later). I have been considering trying a Patreon account here in the future. It would be nice if the site could stop getting into my pocket and be able to be self-sufficient enough to at least pay for the hosting.

I had hoped this time when I restarted the site that things could be different, that I could finally implement my original vision of public interactivity that I had for the site twenty years ago. But just like the first time SPAM once again quickly raised its ugly head. As you can probably imagine by SPAM I don’t mean canned lunch-meat, several varieties of which IMO can be quite tasty. In this case I mean “Comment” SPAM. Not five minutes after I made the first new post on the site it started. In an hour I had more than a dozen pieces, porn, extreme politics, racism, sexism, etc. it ran the whole gamut. Since I don’t have the time or inclination to manually approve each and every comment coming in for now I have just turned them off. Sad I know but at the moment this seems the best of the bad solutions. So for some reason if you want to contact me please see the contact information on the “About Us” page.

After an inordinate amount of digging I happened to stumble across the original twenty year old concept artwork I commissioned for MHW. Check them out on the right side of the site. I hope you enjoy it. No promises but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is one or two more surprises coming in the next few weeks. I guess that is all for now. Peace out.

I spent more than four hours yesterday looking to find a theme I could tolerate (barely). Not sure where this is going yet but definitely don’t look for 15 or 20 pieces of news daily like in the past. I will say I look forward to spending more time producing the occasional content than mucking around with the site design and layout.

It’s alive. Be patient. Stay tuned.