WED, JULY 13 , 2005

Many thanks to Dana for writing in to the site - our very first correspondence! Thanks for the kind words, Dana. And if we ever do plastic figurines, I'm letting you know before anybody else.

Other than the email from Dana, I have to sing some Pink Floyd now: Is Anybody Out There? Come on, drop a line. My unpaid assistant Usuk is the very definition of the old saying, "Idle hands are the devil's workshop." Keep him busy, folks, before he starts drinking the cooking sherry.

(Usuk here: Don't believe Pillsbury. I drink only the best hard stuff, he's not classy enough to have any sort of sherry in his apartment, and he can't cook worth a damn. He can slander pretty well, though.)

I think that would be libel in this case, Usuk.

Before I sign off, by the way, my girlfriend didn't appreciate my "so I tell all the beautiful women..." comment from last post. That was me kidding around, honey. You know you're the only beautiful woman I talk to.

(Usuk: ffffwwww-CHHHH...that's the sound of a whip you hear, folks.)

Yeah, well, thanks for EMAILING HER THE EXCERPT FROM THE POST, USUK.

Seriously, folks, write in. Keep the jackhole busy.

MON, JULY 11, 2005

Someone asked me recently why I chose .us as the extension on this website.

Actually, just about anybody I tell about the website asks me that. (With the unspoken 'you idiot' to be inferred at the end of the question.)

In fact, one person (who's pretty tech savvy in the realms outside the internet) said, "When did THAT happen?" Referring to the .us extension, of course.

It makes me sick to think back on it, but there was a time when imaginaryfriends.com was available. I saw it, right there on the registry page. I could have bought it. I put it off because I had registered a couple of other sites, and I thought, "Oh, it'll be available..."

Two or three months later I check back, and not only was .com gone...so was .net...and .org...and maybe .biz. I could be wrong about .biz, but who gives a damn about .biz, anyway? (Sorry, .biz fans.)

A band / group of composers nabbed .com. It's a nice enough site, with pretty colors and nifty fonts and Flash animation on the main page. But it's not mine, so it pains me to visit it. One day I might try to buy it from them...if they're kind enough to let it go. For the pittance I can afford. Ha. Yeah, right. Maybe if I could harness enough of you, faithful readers, to deluge them with wrathful emails...

Until then, .us was the best choice. By the way, I don't pronounce it "you ess". Forget issues of patriotism - it's too long. Too wordy.

It's "you and me," baby. Dot US. As in ALL OF US.

So of course, I tell the beautiful women it's all part of my master plan...

FRI, JULY 8, 2005

Hopefully there's a few new visitors who have arrived over the weekend via some ads I've taken out on other websites. (Thank God for credit cards - and ramen noodles, and everything else that keeps me going...if not exactly financially solvent or healthy...)

If you've been seduced by a banner ad, glad to have you! Look around, especially at the first page of the prologue. The art you see above is kind of crappy at the moment, but the Prologue is much better drawn. (The FAQ explains why. It's going to all get better - trust me!)

WED, JULY 6, 2005

Page 2 is up. Enjoy.

MONDAY, JULY 4, 2005

And here is the very first regular update!
Happy 4th of July...

MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2005

Howdy, folks. And welcome to
IMAGINARY FRIENDS!

Thanks for dropping by for this, our inaugural week. Hope you like what you see, and come back for more.

The website isn't perfect - nor will it ever be. But after putting it off for so long, I figured I'd be better off taking the 'learning by doing' approach.

Right now, I've just got the barest basics going on. In the coming months, though, I'll be adding new features. One of my favorite things from comic book collecting as a kid was the letters column - a tradition sadly neglected in about 99% of the websites out there. So once I get some momentum behind me, I'll be featuring a letters column devoted to three different types of missives: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Be on the lookout.

Eventually we'll get a forums site going. Learning by doing, remember.

By the way, I welcome your emails, although I can't respond to each and every one. Until (and if) the emails become a torrential deluge, though, I promise I'll read each one...and the best will appear in the letters column.

Another thing that's fairly important: for this first week, I decided to post all five pages of the prologue. For now, the first page of the prologue will be on the Home page, but in the future, the most recent page will be featured here. Confused? Doesn't matter - just be sure to read all 5 pages of the prologue! Everything else will get sorted out beginning next week.

That's about it. Be sure to visit FAQ ATTAQ for more information on IMAGINARY FRIENDS, and drop me a line if you're so inclined.

And if you like what you see, tell a friend. No, tell ten!

And if you didn't like what you saw...well, check back later. Maybe things'll have changed.

And if you hated it...write in. I'll need a fresh supply of Ugly letters to keep things interesting.

And no matter what...y'all come on back, now, y'hear?