Welcome!

Welcome to The 36th Lock! It's been a while since I've written anything so I guess the best way to start is just to start.

I used to run a website called RustyRedRock that was part blog, part forum, and part old-school site. It had a puzzle for charity, my then 6-year-old nephew's stock picks, 1980's movie haiku, polls, some product reviews, ads, and a lot of other stuff.

It started off fun, then eventually became so complicated and time-consuming to maintain that it caused the fun-to-work ratio to scream well past the point-of-diminishing-returns while laughing and making rude hand gestures.

But that's me all over, really.

Whenever I take on a project I have nothing but the most innocent intentions. They all start off the same - "I think I will build a simple whatevertheheck". But before the neurons that thought that thought even have time to recover from their effort, the idea has magically blossomed into a triple-deckered, super-sized, and Bedazzled extravaganza that is a monument to wishful thinking, poor planning, and borderline competence. You know - the type of scheme that would work out if only there were 30 hours in a day, if you and your six like-minded clones were all going to live to be 300 years old, and if there weren't so many darn squirrels out there to distract you.

Oh, don't get me wrong. For the projects I actually start that don't "die in committee", even pundits agree I finish them and finish them well. It's just that I tend to swing for the fences when it is most prudent to just make contact with the darn ball - even a base hit would be perfectly fine. But no. Ol' Casey at the Bat here not only strikes out, he wrenches the hell out of his back and needs to be helped off the field by less-than-sympathetic onlookers... Only to do the same exact thing the very next chance he gets.

However, in my defense, I am not alone. I know at least two others that have this very same... ummm... skill. It's a good thing we are as geographically separated as we are because it is harder to join forces this way. Individually, our half-baked schemes leave the garage a mess and might result in mild embarrassment. The half-baked schemes we would undertake if we were to ever join forces would definitely make headlines around the world. Headlines like "Wives Rightfully Divorce East-Coast-Wrecking Morons".

I know it. My friends know it. We all know it. But whoever said "And knowing is half the battle" had absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

You see, merely knowing something about oneself is useless if you don't consider it a problem. And, personally, I would rather be the type of person that swings for the fences all the time instead of constantly playing it safe.

Cuz when you finally do make contact it's pretty damn sweet.

Again, welcome! Thanks for stopping by. I will be sprucing the place up as time permits so expect a lot of changes "soon".