Our Hobbit Hole.Com

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 34

Introduction:

I must confess that I haven't had the time that I would have liked to have had to devote to the development of this forum for the past six months. Even so, this site has sitll enjoyed a great deal of daily traffic and the occasional newly-registered user on the forums. So obviously, we must have done something very, very right. All of this said, where do we go from here?

I've decided to do a regular newsletter aptly-titled "Rob's Ramblings". I always have a number of projects floating around in my head which occasionally I would like to share with anyone that's interested, as well as letting visitors to this site know what's going on in our lives and how we are progressing in this project in particular. The Hobbit Hole project has become a long-term goal, since things slowed down from the original whirlwind pace in which they occurred, and we realized that we were fairly happy with our current situation and wanted to help others share their own dreams.

How to sign up:

If you would like to get notifications of when a new issue of this newsletter is posted on these forums, then just register as a new user to the forums. You can always leave the forums if you decide to discontinue getting the notifications, and just visit occasionally to see if a new one has been posted. I promise not to abuse the 'mass email' feature by mailing more than once a week at most, but if you have already signed up for these forums I'll assume you're at least somewhat interested in our project and/or our lives.

Life Update:

I've been a home-automation programmer for a local company for the past 3 years and am very happy with my job. It keeps me very busy, but it pays well enough that I can support my wife Tania, who is legally disabled due to her juvenile rheumatoid arthritis which she has had since she was a baby. We don't plan to have kids due to her physical condition and our financial condition, but we greatly enjoy keeping our 4 cats as pets. If you share our love of cats or would like more insights into this portion of our lives, you can read our weekly webcomic about them at http://www.sugarthecat.com .

Tania and I are both very interested in writing, and occasionally work on writing projects. I once wrote an admittedly mediocre sci-fi novel and published it online at http://www.andhelived.com, though I'm thinking of discontinuing that domain as soon as another project idea comes up. Tania and I both keep livejournals, which you can read at http://loftgeek.livejournal.com/ (mine) and http://funnel101.livejournal.com/ (hers) if you're interested in minor snippets from our lives.

I am a firm believer in having your own computer room, office, or 'man-cave' as I call my own area where I do all of my creative work. The walls and shelves are filled with displays of my interest, from videogame and anime posters to sci-fi books, computer parts, and older videogame systems (12!). If you'd like to see a virtual tour I made of my office, you can explore it at http://www.robiscrazy.com.

Now I realize that by this time it must seem as if we're both horribly addicted to online projects, due to our somewhat over-the-top web presence. I must admit that we're just a tad more progressive than your ordinary young married couple, and I hesitate to mention that we actually have a few more websites I haven't linked to above. I may share more at some point, but for now I'll get back to my ramblings.

I run all of these sites because I don't believe a people should be defined by their day jobs. A landlord I once had told me that a man cannot retire or even get ahead in life just by working their day job. While I'm not doing too badly by my day job, I think that he definitely had something there. I think that having a strong online presence is important, but equally important is working towards your dreams and becoming known for your passions and hobbies.

I can't just work one job and spend the rest of my time slacking off. Something in me drives me to dream up another project and then to bring that dream to life. I know that there are other people out there like me, and that is why I'm starting this newsletter. So if anything I've said in the first issue has stirred your interest, please register for the forums.

Signoff:

If you would like to chat with me directly you should be able to find multiple ways of contacting me through information found on my other sites. I try to limit how many places I put my email addresses and various instant messaging accounts online in order to keep spam down to a small tsunami, but if you're interested I'm sure you can find me.

Rob Harrison