A Maniac ponders his Navel.

Well, great. It's almost 2008 and I'm still not rich, famous, or even a deity. Not only do I not have a rocket car, I don't have any car at all.

It also occurs to me that I more or less started this blog a year ago; yes, some of the posts go back farther than that, but some of them were originally posted in this blog's prototype, and other's came from the MySpace version (which was only ever done in fits and starts, and I no longer even mirror over there anymore.)

It started at work; I was bitching about having to update a website I created for tracking various projects, and one of my co-workers said "You should totally start a blog, man!" I did some research, and started a blog on Blogger. I'm still running it, but it's on another account, and it's really all about business. Boring stuff to outsiders, but the staff loves it.

Then I went up to my sister's for the holidays, and on the way back I passed this cool bridge, and snapped some pictures of it. Then I wanted to share those photos, but I wanted more substance than just a photo hosting site. AHA! I'll put them on my BLOG! I had briefly flirted with blogging when the Herald fired Defede, where did I put it.... AH! HERE it is!

Yuck. Like so many others, I had started a blog with a limited purpose, and when that purpose became impossible, I stopped blogging. Now I had a NEW purpose, so I needed a NEW blog. But I'll keep THAT post, and THAT post. And here's this MySpace posting I like, so I'll toss THAT in. What to call it? Hmm. I have that MySpace blog, I'll just use the same name. Heck, I'll just repost here what I put up in there, mostly.

Then I got my digital camera. Suddenly, I was taking more pictures. But my blog didn't seem to welcome them; thus Camera Ephemera was born. With the onus of photography removed from MoM, it started to become more a place for thoughts and observations. Still more pictures than words...until June.

I'm at work, and we're brainstorming on ways to promote the theater. As ideas are tossed about, my boss grumbles that the local news media don't do enough theater stories, and when they do them, stuff gets left out. Hmmm. Initially, I though about starting a blog to promote out theater. Realized that to be effective, it would need new content at least weekly, sooooo...I started a blog about theater in general, and invited a lot of other people to post to it. Thus South Florida Theatre Scene springs onto the....uh, scene.

So my pictures have a place, and I have a place to write about theatre.

And then the School Board tries to ban a book - AGAIN.

Suddenly, people are READING my blog, and I can sleep at night.

The name comes from a mad rant from Back In The Day; a bunch of us on stage crew were regarded as mad geniuses; Rob Lynch and Dave O'Brien had this "Wright Brothers" shtick: "Will it fly, Orville?" "Not a chance in Hell, Wilbur. Shut up and tighten that bolt." Well, I couldn't be a Wright brother; that was taken. So when MY projects were near completion, and the guys would ask if it would work, I'd reply in my best insane voice "Well, now it's time to see: am I a man - OR AM I A MANIAC!! Bwa - HAHAHAHA!"

Recently, it occurred to me to look up "maniac" in the dictionary. I more or less KNEW what the definition was, but the entry is so much more insightful than I knew:

Etymology: Late Latin maniacus maniacal, from Greek maniakos, from mania

Date: circa 1763

1 : madman lunatic
2 : a person characterized by an inordinate or ungovernable enthusiasm for something

BWA - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!