The Proper (Re)Birth of Dana’s 6 Cents

Welcome to my new blahg!

New followers: Hello!!

Old followers: Please don’t freak out.

Here’s a little background: Since 2004, I’ve been writing a “blahg” on ThisisDana.com to ramble about miscellaneous happenings in my life. It’s where I told the world about almost dying while DJing one time. I enlightened my readers with the economic and sociologic factors that determine raffle ticket sales. I documented a trip that my lovely girlfriend and I took in our deathtrap Volkswagen through the mountains to visit my older sister in a far away part of New York. In the 6 years, I talked about my eye surgery, domestic challenges, confusing love/hate relationship with music, run-ins with reindeer, tattoos, and I even reported sightings of my alter-ego “Tootsie Roll Man.” It has been great fun … for me, that is.

On purpose, I just wrote on a page in my DJ website that wasn’t interactive. Unlike real blogs, I never created a forum for readers to participate in any way. It was a one-way relationship and I loved it. Well, I loved it at first, that is.

Through the years, I had no way of knowing that or if anyone was reading my postings, so I sometimes went close to a year before updating things. And then I’d bump into someone and they’d say something like, “Hey, does this mean that I’ll be in your blog?” Or, “Dana, you’ve gotta update that blog more often! You’re totally leaving us hangin’!” Cool!

And so, I’ve decided to give a proper (re)birth to my “blahg.” Dana’s 6 Cents will live on in a more proper form from now on. I promise. Enjoy and please don't hesitate to interact. 

Thanks!

Okay, you can stop reading this post now. 

I’m done talking.

I Love Cars

My love for cars started when I was a kid, for sure. I remember collecting matchbox cars and spending a lot of time just looking them over. I loved the shapes and curves and how the parts so cleverly fit together. I don’t remember ever outwardly expressing my passion for cars – I never hung posters of sports cars on my walls … nor where there ever scaled models on my shelves … and I certainly didn’t hang around the “gear heads” in high school. No swap meets … no exotic car shows… I just sort of secretly adored cars on my own.

I wasn’t old enough to drive when I bought my first car. It was a heap of junk, but the perfect canvas for racing stripes and Bondo. I have owned a lot of cars since that first one … sometimes as many as six at a time. “What do you do with SIX cars?!” might you ask? Well … I spend a lot of time just looking them over. I love the shapes and curves and … you guessed it … I love how the parts so cleverly fit together. I love it enough to endure the ridiculous insurance bills that come every month.

My VW Baja Beetle has to be the craziest of them all. It’s a good ole fashioned bug with the roof cut off and doors removed. The engine is beefed up to about twice the factory horsepower. It has a roll cage and 5-point harness seat belts. Best of all, it’s road legal. (read older posts to hear about our trip to upstate NY in it). I’ve been having a blast sawing parts off and welding supports on in a slew of places.

So where was I going with this blahg posting? I can’t remember. I guess I just wanted to confess my gear-headedness. So there. I got it out in the open. Are you happy now?