Saturday, January 2, 2021

The Cave 2021: Look Forward

My theme right now is "look forward".

I am looking forward to a lot of things. It seemed like this nightmare might never end. While everything is pretty much the same, there is stuff I can look forward to and I hope that you can, as well. I won't go into my life, since we've all dealt with the same circumstances to different degrees, but it's been busy and stressful on the work and family side, same as most of you, I expect. 

I appreciate all the concern. I am surprised but appreciative. It is not something I anticipated, so it's not something I prepared for. I'll be honest, it didn't really occur to me that people would worry or even care. Writers and bloggers disappear all the time and I've never particularly fretted it. At least not to the point of worrying. Maybe that makes me a bad person. I have good friends that I only connect with once a year so it's not just y'all. I guess I'm just used to long stretches of silence.

Anyway, it makes me feel good that folks would care but a little guilty that I just cut myself off from this part of my life so completely. I have not looked at this blog, any other blog, any wrestling videos, or my gmail in months. Still haven't gone into gmail. I did find some spam comments here and deleted them this week when I knew I'd have a new story coming. Hopefully nobody was gullible enough to click on them.

Since some of you do care, let me confirm that I am healthy. Actually, healthier. I turned my commuting time into workout time and have lost weight, getting to a number I haven't seen since I put on the "Frosh 15" and never looked back. No COVID or anything like that. No major concerns. Some depression for the first time in my life but nothing I'd consider extreme. 

Looking forward to the blog ...

There are more unknowns than knowns. I did not post yesterday's story with some grand plan in mind. Compared to how planned I've been in the first five years, that's how unplanned I am right now. I have a couple more stories started. I'm thinking about posting on the first of each month, rather than the 1st and 15th. Unless I get more momentum. Reviews are up in the air as well. I've just watched my first video in months and have a small backlog to catch up on then actually grab images, GIFs and write my thoughts.

2020 Caveys

I don't know exactly how or exactly when these will return but I do plan on doing them. The Oscars are moving two months, so surely my little awards can, as well. They will happen but I need to catch up on the last three months of videos, maybe post a few reviews of candidates. I'm thinking late January.

Mindsweeper Mondays

I don't know exactly how much I will be posting but I will have two stories every month for the next two years at least. A couple of Mondays every month, I will post an older wrestling or superhero story from the old Mindsweeper site.

I've loaded 57 wrestling stories in about 50 posts through the end of 2022. These are all from an old Yahoo! Group that started as a multi-author teen wrestling story group then morphed into a series about college age men. There's no sex in any of them but I still think they're interesting. They're not meant to replace the content on the blog, just add to it. I'm looking at the superhero stories now to mix them in, too.

That's all I know.

Thanks again for sticking with me for the past few months of silence. Months? It feels like years.

Happy new year,

Alex


11 comments:

  1. Welcome back! You're Mindsweeper? I loved the site back in the day and I still have the Tarzan stories saved on my computer. There was a Robin story I always wanted to reread, o I hope to see that soon!

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    1. Thanks, Larry.

      I’ve got the three Tarzan stories coming in April - June. Haven’t found a Robin story, yet, just Superboy (although Robin briefly appears at the end).

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  2. Welcome back ! I'm so glad that you've decided to post again. I look forward to discover the Mindsweeper's stories. Since you didn't post, I've re-read some old stories on this blog (Jae and Xaq are still my favorite but I've discovered many cool characters). Many thanks for your great work. Take care. Best regards from France - Dum72

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    1. Thanks, Dum. I’m glad you found more to enjoy.

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  3. So good to see you back! Yes, you were missed. People were concerned. And people are very glad to see you're okay. But no doubt the break was welcome, and it's gratifying to see you're doing well.

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    1. Thanks. I plan to go into gmail while watching games this afternoon and answer anything folks sent me over the past few months. We’ll see how that goes.

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  4. Glad to have you back. Good to see that you are using your commute time to improve yourself (wish I had that motivation). Looking forward to your new stories!!!

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    1. Well, I was helped by two things ... one, I gained five pounds in the first few weeks at home, and two, we’re in a pandemic where your health can impact the outcome. That was all the motivation I needed to get my ass in gear.

      I’m looking forward to catching up with your blog, too.

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  5. Great to have you back! it's been a trying time, but it sounds like you have a handle on things, so hopefully things will work out better for you going forward.

    Am excited to hear of your plans on the mindsweeper and yahoo grp stories. so many gems have been lost over the years particularly from yahoo grps - i feel so silly now for not saving any of these stories. hope to see some of them again, perhaps amongst what you will be posting!

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    1. Mangler sent me a link that might lead to the stories (I haven't had time to follow it). I'll share after I check it out. I can post the Mindsweeper stories but I don't feel right posting anyone else's unless they reach out and give me permission. So if they're posted at the link, folks can fill in the gaps.

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    2. thanks, that's something to look forward to for sure!

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