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February 10th, 2022

Hey, look at me. Actually posting a blog on Thursday. Which means Thursday Blog Day is back in session. Welcome!

It’s been a crazy busy day, with the big news being that GoDaddy once again beat the benchmark they gave me for having assignments done as they designed, created, and built my new website. The first draft of the site was supposed to take more than week, and it was done three days early. The second draft was also early. We had a Zoom call scheduled for tomorrow, Friday the 11th, to go over all the final changes and hopefully get my approval.

When I woke up this morning, Barbara said, “So what’s on you calendar for today?” And I replied, “Nothing yet, but I’d bet some things will come up.”

Somewhere in mid-morning I got the email stating that the new website was ready to go. My guy Michael, who serendipitously is not only a former college baseball player but also a friend of the stepson of Jack Jones. “Who is Jack Jones?” you ask.

Well,  Jack Jones was a drag racer. A Top Gas racer from way back in the day. After a few years of giving out fairly inexpensive and absolutely enormous trophies to race winners (all of which were unique but not equal in quality) NHRA founder Wally Parks decided to come up with a permanent champion’s trophy. At some track out west, Jack Jones was chosen to pose for the photo that would be cast in metal atop a heavy wooden base, to become that trophy. He had his fire suit on, his helmet in his left hand, and had his right hand on a big racing slick. All these years later, that’s still the trophy and it is revered and adored by racers.

Yes, we collectively call the trophy a “Wally” just like the Academy Awards trophy is an “Oscar” but that is not Wally Parks on the trophy. It’s Jack Jones. And my rep at GoDaddy knows his stepson. And he played ball in college. It’s a small planet, right?

So, back to today. I just had a feeling. I was answering emails when the note from GoDaddy came in, and a few minutes later Michael called and we walked through it. The only change I wanted to make was a tiny one that was my fault. I felt like we needed a disclaimer on the site, noting that reproduction of any content was by written permission only, and we added that to the foot of the “Contact” page. Except when I sent the text for the disclaimer to Michael, I put it in quote marks so that he would know that was the wording I wanted. I should’ve noticed that the quote marks got copied and pasted onto the site, too. Michael removed them with two quick key strokes, and we were ready to go public.

It was literally like the countdown to liftoff. And then he said, “There you go. Your site is published and live on the Web.”

That was big moment. I’ve been part of numerous websites, and have managed them for Del Worsham and Tim Wilkerson. Obviously, I write this blog here on The Perfect Game Foundation site, but this is a minor part of what our site is about. My brother Del was ultra-gracious enough to offer me a spot here when I retired from my NHRA career. There has never been a website solely about me and what I’ve done and continue to do.

The landing page, or the “home page” if you will, is just for navigation, but I absolutely love how it looks. It’s clean and easy and very attractive (I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about the page.) From there, you can browse summaries of “How Far?” and “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” and below each synopsis and photo of the cover is a button that will take you directly to that book’s page on Amazon.

The landing page is split in half vertically, so on the right side you can click on a button to read an extensive bio of the author dude, and a timeline of all the major moments in my life, followed by a photo gallery that we’ll add to as time goes on. Michael cautioned me about not going crazy in that regard. Some people still have slow internet connections and too many photos can grind a device to nearly a halt. But, I’ll add a few more as we go…

The contact page is mostly for members of the media, and it directs them to my esteemed publicist Elon Werner. There’s also a mail icon, and if you click on that you can send a note directly to me, although I’m still learning how to actually retrieve those notes.

It’s a simple and easy site to navigate, and I love the look of it.

Now let me tell you about GoDaddy (this is not an ad or a paid endorsement, it’s just the experience I had.)

Barbara and I knew we finally needed to get this site designed and up and running. The only person we knew who had just started a new business and wanted a site, was her brother Tim. He used GoDaddy and raved about them.

I rave about them too. Very creative, very friendly (Michael and I had a lot in common and a lot to talk about between the changes and drafts) and really professional. And, as stated above, every benchmark or estimated deadline they provided, none of which were noticeably far in the future, they beat easily. Each change was done exactly how I wanted it.

I highly recommend them. Good people who know what they’re doing. A seamless and enjoyable experience. And affordable, which is key in the world of a new author. I watch every penny.

And now I have a website. I guess I can say those dreaded words, “This time, it’s all about me!”

Check it out if you haven’t yet.

Bob’s Website

So that’s my quick update on an actual Thursday.

As always, there’s this little thing at the bottom of this blog that’s called a “LIKE” button. It would please me to enormous lengths if you’d click on that.

I’ll see you again soon.

PS: Did you buy “How Far?” yet?  Just asking for a friend