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Who is this Dan guy, anyway?Good question!
My name is Dan O'Leary, a thirty year-old Professional Corporate Drone, Semi-pro Musician, and Amateur Pop-Culture Cynic. I live in Seaside Heights, USA, home to the 1998 and 2002 MTV Summer Beach House and several early-80s Bon Jovi videos -- insert gasps here. When not overseeing my virtual domain, I'm usually working on my different creative interests: my band, composing music, my first novel (under the tutelage of an author-friend), or writing my Comedic Column of Curmudgeonly Critique, These Days: A Commentary.
By day, I work as a Customer Consultant (read:"wage slave") for a large corporation (who shall remain nameless). By night I work in two band projects (The Pulse for covers and Exit 82 for originals). My time between is spent with family and friends trying to squeeze in a little social time: games, going to a club or movie, or wandering the boardwalk in Seaside Heights. I also take an occasional surf session on the Web, and do some freelance publishing and promotion through a home-based business.
My wife, Jackie, survived many years in the child daycare industry (she has the scars to prove it) and now freelances as both an artist and crafts designer. (She's available!) Four years ago she added "mommy" to her already-impressive list of talents.
The Rarely Asked Questions
list about
Dan's Wide World of Stuff
DWWoS started out like most web pages, a place to hang my hat and promote my interests (my band, mostly). The page has begun to mutate far beyond that, and taking up more of my time in the process. I'm hoping that it will continue to grow and evolve, and that you, dear surfer, enjoy what you see.
Most of my HTML knowledge is self-taught, so this site improves (noticably, I hope!) as I pick up more ideas and tricks. Those whose continued support keep making all this effort worthwhile are appreciated as always.
History
For those interested in such things, we present "The Evolution of a Web Page."
- Version 1:
- Dan's Wide World online on July 15, 1996. The world fails to beat a path to its door.
- Version 1.5: August 1996
- Cleanup of links and layout.
- Version 2: November 1996
- Business District and HQ added. Cleanup of layout and navigation.
- Version 2.5: December 1996
- Adding further improvements, Realm icons, new material. Musician Exchange added.
- Version 2.783: May 1997
- Further improvements over last few months, HUGE amount of updates and deletion of old info. The S.A.R.C.A.S.M. Awards added.
- Version 2.9: August 1997
- Updates of old info, purged a couple of low-traffic areas, and added half a meg of new text and graphics.
- Version 2.95: October 1997
- More updates, improved organization, larger pages unwent HTML mitosis to separate them into smaller-loading files. Storyville added.
- Version 2.96: January 1998
- Back from the holidays! Improved some level organization. The Plot Hole Zone added.
- Version 2.99a: March 1998
- Let's clean house! All areas getting new updates (including the neglected Magic and Comics areas). Testing some new ideas in navigation. The page now stands at 500 files!
- Version 3.0! (Finally!) August 2000
- Out with the old! New format, setting uniform color scheme for all Realms, purge of some useless areas in Misc (far better sites to track Books and Software have sprung up since I started this in 1996), better organization, file organization, dated info purge. Beginning the long process of filling up this site's content appetite!
- Version 3.5: August 2001
- A year after starting the v3.0 update in my spare time, the site's finally converted. Got rid of the old animated icons which looked cute when I made them five years ago, but now just seem cheesy. New menu hierarchy and better buttons for navigation.
Future plans include:
- a writer's forum,
- a virtual labyrinth (as if there weren't already too many twists and turns on this site),
- some improvements to the World's organization,
- a local musicians support center, with further connections for struggling artists out there,
- connections to NJ-area social events, clubs, organizations, nightlife, and businesses,
- Java-driven video games online,
- a Web chat area,
- and some other stuff I haven't made time for (or have figured out) yet.
Stay tuned!
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