Mafus.com no more

Howdy. My name is Matt Wieringo.

Until recently, I had my own Web site. Which was pretty dumb since I'm the only one who ever went there. Actually, that's not true. A couple of my friends from high school tracked me down there and that was the stated purpose of the site. In that case, I suppose it fulfilled it's purpose. But I gave it up for two reasons.

One. I felt stupid. I'm not famous and nobody was terribly interested in my movie reviews, links list or eBay auctions. The whole thing felt frivolous and was generally a big waste of time and money. The only thing I felt was worthwhile was the blog. It's not that I thought anybody would actually read it but rather that, occassionally, it was useful in an emotional sense. Blogging can be a cleansing, cathartic experience and mine was no exception. It's fun to have a diary that someone might actually stumble across and read. Maybe even enjoy. But who cares? The point is to write. Writing is one of the things I've always wanted to do and this is my chance. I've never been the kind of person who speaks his mind and, though I've been accused of being "intense", I'm not particularly open with my feelings. The simple way of saying it is that I'm "shy". But, when I'm writing, things come out that I would never say out loud. I think that might be interesting. We'll see.

Two. My site was called Mafus.com. "Mafus" (pronounced MAY-fuss) is a nickname given to me by my brother, internationally reknowned comic book artist and sex symbol, Mike Wieringo. The origins of the nickname vary depending on who's telling the story but it has something to do with him not being able to pronounce "Matthew" when he was young so it came out sounding like Mah-foose. In fact, my wife calls me, affectionately, "Foose" based on that story. Anyway, about a year ago, I was contacted by a group called M.A.F.U.S. They're a Christian group that apparently flies relief missions into developing countries and hotspots all around the world. They had let their domain registration lapse and I took the opportunity to snap it up. Mafus might be a dumb name but it's become part of my identity and I wanted it for my site. Well, the folks at M.A.F.U.S. took notice and very politely, by email, requested I relinquish it so they could put it to, admittedly, much better use. I agreed and told them when the registration would expire and promised not to renew. As far as I can tell, they've yet to do anything with it. Which is fine. I don't need it anymore.

I'm not sure what I'll use this blog for. As I said, I'm not of interest to anyone yet. I'm reminded of an episode of Star Trek in which the Enterprise goes back in time and rescues a pilot whose plane is breaking up. He's seen too much and Kirk's worried about returning him to Earth. Spock informs the pilot (Captain Christopher, I believe) that he can find no record of any relevant contribution by him. I'm like that. I've yet to make my "relevant contribution." I have something in the works that will, hopefully, change that. (No, it's nothing nasty. It's a writing project.) But for now, I'm pretty much just another Captain Christopher taking up space on the Internet.

One last thing before I sign off this time. My blog is called "Ad Nauseum." That's because I work at an advertising agency. Specifically, The Martin Agency. We're responsible for, among other things, the GEICO Gecko and Cavemen and those charming UPS Whiteboard spots with the guy that looks like Steve Perry. (He's actually a very nice man named Andy and I work with him.) I am but a small cog in the machine, but I like to think what I do there makes some slight bit of difference in the quality of the work. At least, that's what I tell myself when working until 4:00 in the morning and sleeping under my desk. (I guess that's where the "Nauseum" comes from. As cool as my job is, I get sick of the long hours sometimes.) Advertising is most definitely NOT what I wanted to do with my life but it's an interesting job and it affords me a very comfortable lifestyle. It just doesn't leave much time for anything else. Like hobbies, kids, fun, um...sex. Hmmm. I see lots of ideas for future posts right there.

This is gonna be fun.