As you can see from the above image, daveplemons.com is back up with a new site design, and a renewed focus to actually be used for something other than random tumblr stuff. I suppose the first question, for anyone interested or happens to stumble here, why? I’ll try to answer that particular question in as few words as possible.

daveplemons.com was purchased back in 2003 (that’s almost 10 years! Crazy!). I saw that my name was available as a domain and for the low price of 9.95 I purchased it for a year. Some of you remember when just buying a domain name was much more than the previously listed price, so I figured for 10 bucks it was a wise buy. That of course led me to the next question, what am I supposed to do with this? I read a few tutorials, learned some basic .html, and within a week the first incarnation of my website came to fruition.

As with any creation, I had big hopes for my newly minted site. I was going to upload music, blog often, create a web presence for myself, yada yada… This was before Facebook and Twitter are the ubiquitous personal conduits they are today. I thought it would be a great way to share the details of my world with anyone who cared to read. For a while I did blog on a fairly regular basis, uploaded a couple of music tracks, and generally kept up with my site. However, as also often happens with technology, I simply got bored with it. I eventually ported everything over to WordPress (which is what is currently running this backend) and that gave me some renewed energy. Yet, I eventually just got busier and busier with life and practically gave up on it.

The other consideration was the cost associated with upkeep of a site. Granted, it’s not terribly expensive, but when it starts coming down to the last dollar each month, cuts are a necessity. I still renewed my yearly domain fee but I said goodbye to the 60 bucks a year for hosting and ported everything over to a tumblr site (which is free). I also moved my daveplemons.com email address to Google (also free) and thought I was never going to look back.

During that season I also walked through some situations in my personal life that tested my faith in ways I never dreamed possible. Perhaps I’ll blog about a bit of that in later posts but those of you who know me personally are fully aware of those struggles. Praise God for His endless and extreme grace, His deep love, and the power of His redemption. God really is that good, and I mean that with every fiber of my being.

As I began a reboot personally and professionally I started thinking about ways to creatively re-energize. Spinning something up that has been dormant for a season is incredibly more difficult than sustaining momentum so my website remained firmly on the back-burner. Yet, as God continued to bless my socks off and opened yet one door after another, the need to technologically re-engage became more clear.

The last straw was when I checked my last tumblr post and it had been 9 months since my last post. Now, tumblr is a fantastic tool and I even had it set up to redirect to daveplemons.com. But tumblr also has its limitations and if I was going to reinvest in my site I wanted to have the full buffet available. So, I plunked down the hosting fee, started to brush up on WordPress, and after two days, daveplemons.com was back up and running with all the intentions of being my own personal site instead of quips and videos I discovered.

If you’re still reading, congratulations 🙂 So what now? Well, I’m in that season of setting goals professionally and personally. Two of the criteria for goal setting are Attainable and Measurable. I don’t want to claim that I’ll be posting new music here every week, because that’s not now attainable. However, I can certainly blog at least once a week. So for the next six months, that’s my goal. Blog weekly. I have a bunch of useful and not so useful stuff to share my opinions and musings on so I think a weekly goal is both measurable and attainable. Plus the writing is always good both professionally and personally. Yay me.

What sort of content can you expect? Probably a cornucopia of options but my posts will likely center on God, Family, Worship, Technology, and Time-Management. Those are easily five areas where I’m passionate.

Finally¸ and the most personal yet important statement in this entire post, a very heartfelt and sincere thank you to those of you who have faithfully prayed. I wouldn’t be where I am today without your willingness to walk with me in the dark and in the light, through green pastures and teary storms, and to consistently lift me up before our Father who never leaves us, never forsakes us, and always has our best interests in mind. Should the time come for me to walk with you, be certain to call.

I’m looking forward to this next year and the opportunity to share a bit of my always interesting world with you.

By fantastic grace,
Dave