'My Favorite Things_sm' © 2012 by Dahni & I-Magine, all rights reserved

December 25th, 2012

our last Advent calendar

Dear Family and Friends,

   First of all, thank you for being here.

   Secondly, there is no snow, no animation and no music here, just a few images and some heart-felt words from my heart to yours. 

   Like the image above, these are some of my favorite things, like brown paper packages decorated and tied up with string. And when the Post Office stopped appreciating string, I painted the string. My favorite things are simple things. But oftentimes, the simple things are very complex and time consuming. I had fond memories of an Advent calendar as a child, opening each date like a little window to find a little surprise each day until Christmas Eve. I desired to keep this old tradition, find a way to make it new and to share my joy with you. But trying to replicate this online has been difficult and time consuming.

   I consider myself 'New-Old' in that I am excited about and embrace a lot of the new while holding onto much of the old. Call my old holding on to, the "tried and trued" or just what works for me. In 1998, I was already getting somewhat familiar with a new computer and the new Internet. I remembered the Advent calendar and like much of all that I do and all that I am, I just believed and hoped and loved for others to experience my joys. I don't want to just share, I really have a need to share!

   I thought it would be wonderful to take the old cardboard Advent calendars and experience them on the computer; via the Internet. An exhaustive search was performed with no less than 30 search engines available at the time. To my surprise, no one was doing this online, but I did find the original Advent card company that made the ones, I remembered as a child. The company is in Germany and it remains a family run business. They even have reprints available of the same cards I recall. For several years, one of the grandsons of the original owner, Frank Selmer and I carried on email correspondence and shared each other's links to our websites. I will share this link at the end of this letter.

   Not finding an online Advent calendar, I decided to make my own. My intentions initially were quite simple (as was the quality). My purpose for these calendars began as a simple desire to share them with others, to express myself artistically, musically, by the written word and to bear witness to the graces and mercies I have been so blessed with, my entire life. For richer, poorer, in sickness, in health, in joy and in sorrow, I am a wealthy man in experience only, from all of this!

   It was never my attention to charge anyone for these online calendars and that they would be suitable for all ages and compatible with all kinds of computers, browsers and methods for accessing the Internet. My rule has been that since many people still do not have High Speed Internet, was to make most of the pages load in under 30 seconds. I used to run compatibility tests of every page made, to make sure what was intended could be experienced on any browser by anyone. On occasion, I would make extra pages, just for those that have High Speed access.

   As the years progressed, the calendars became more complex and were filled with content and pages after pages. Email communication between myself and people I met were from all over the world, including every state in the USA was a yearly thing, in preparation of a new calendar. I am not bragging, just stating the facts and you will understand later why I am writing this now. My calendars were being seen and appreciated. I started lists of email addresses for notification when a new calendar was up and running each year. I detested mass mailings so usually, I would copy and paste the text and then personalize each, to each person these were being sent to. I worked hard to make these available to the search engines, other sites and social media, before there was ever a social media. So as a secondary motivation, I tried to use these calendars to draw attention to other things I am interested in and would like to make available for sale to the general public. Poetry, greeting cards, original music compositions, several e-books, a hard bound book and many other pursuits I tried to market and had at least one marketing company that pretty much marketed our money into their pockets. I tried to make myself into a brand name, even changing the spelling of my first name and dropping my last name. In 2006, Susan and I traveled to and stayed in Japan for a month, visiting with son Chris. The syllables and pronunciation of my name Dah ni (or Donnie), in Japanese were researched and I was able to obtain my own kanji (pictorial representation of words). This kanji I can stamp on my original artwork and technically, even use as a means of identification in Japan. No two of these are alike. Each are unique. To this day, I am primarily known as, just Dahni.

   It seems I have no end of interests, projects and pursuits. I operate four web sites and over a dozen blogs. I can be found on the search engines, FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter and many other places online. Despite all of these efforts, I am still virtually unknown. There was a time not long ago when a website, any website, could operate on the same playing field as any large company, familiar brand, or recognized name. Those days are long since past. I am not suggesting that it is impossible for any good idea, product or service to start with humble beginnings today and become highly successful (financially and otherwise), but it is just more difficult now. For me, for whatever reasons, my pursuits have not been financially successful. Any supplemental income derived has been mostly our supplementing the lack of income derived, just to keep things going. And that's OK to me, it really is. I do not believe that I am a failure, without talent or lacking some degree of skill.

   Over the years since 1997, I have been able to participate in many extraordinary events, all online. I was part of some of the first chats online. In fact, I met Susan online at a poetry chat. I was an invited guest to the very first online wedding and made little images for each guest as a champagne toast to the newlyweds. Everyone had their own little icon for the wedding, but at the precise moment, all the guests turned into a bunch of champagne glasses and we toasted the surprised couple. We were chatting, text-ing, developing social media and many other things, before they were ever so named and became, what they are today. I would like to think that I am the originator of the online Advent Calendar. I would like to believe that my work inspired many others to go far beyond what I have done, was ever able to do or will ever be capable of and that I am now, putting the finishing touches on this, the last and final one. There was a time when our calendars were seen all over the world and were quite unique. Around 2000, I became aware of an English artist (Jacquie Lawson) that started to develop e-cards and she inspired me to learn flash animation. I would like to believe that I inspired her to produce online Advent calendars, which she started doing either last year or only a few years ago. She is a wonderful artist, along with the company of artists from Germany that still produce cardboard calendars and reprints of many of those I was familiar with as a child. For these two enterprises, they are commercially successful. I love what they do and highly recommend them. And they are very reasonable in price as well.

   Today, as I reflect on these past years, I have decided that this will be our last year of producing these online Advent calendars. There are several reasons for this and I believe they are all good reasons to end what has truly been a joy of mine. The numbers of people viewing these has greatly diminished. They are not really all that unique anymore. My computer is old. I am slowing down. The software used to produce these is old. The software I use to get a website and these calendars online, has not been made for about 10 years. I have not had the time or the resources to replace them or upgrade them and learn the 'new.' I honestly believe people are more busy now and they just either don't have the time or won't take the time for a lot of content. People are into what they are into and they want it now. We have all to some degree or another, have become less patient, more self-centered, over stressed with an overload of information and technology. Are you aware that in the last four years or so, more information has become available than in the last 1,000 years?! And there is no end in sight. Yet we still have difficulty in thinking clearly. Many people do not seem to want to read much anymore. A lot of people question the need or desire for music on a website and midi music is almost never used anymore. The talent and the technology is so incredible now, all my hours and hours of work don't even come close to what is available today. But I will match my design and imagination with almost anyone. I just have great limitations in delivering the technical expertise. I love flash animation, but I do not actually have a flash program, but one that was cheap and compatible with flash. Most of what I have been talking about is in the world of the PC. I am a big fan of Apple. I own an iPod, an iPad and an iPhone. I may get one of their computers (desktop/laptop or both) sometime in the future, when this PC finally dies. Susan already wants one when her PC dies. But Apple does not support flash. Can you imagine how frustrating it is for me to spend so much time in developing flash animation and I cannot experience my own work on my own Apple devices? Yes, I do understand that Adobe's Flash 9 will most likely address this issue, but I do not have Flash 9. And I get it that companies want to keep loyal and faithful and credit card paying customers, and want their stuff to be proprietary, but for crying out loud, enough is enough! There has to be standards so that all of us can enjoy whatever is online that we may be interested in.

   I am entering into another chapter, the next chapter of my life. Trust me, I have so many ideas, projects, plans and unfinished works that closing this chapter on these Advent calendars will not place me into the land of boredom. I cannot for the life of me, understand how anyone could ever be bored in this life! But my dear, sweet; patient wife has probably felt like a widow for years, especially during the month of December. I have loved making these calendars and I love all those they have been made for. If you think I am just waxing nostalgic or getting all poetic, I honestly believe connections can be made online with people you have never met and may never meet in person. I met my wife and soul mate Susan online, so I know connections can be made.

   I may never be rich and famous and have 1,000's of friends online or in real life. But I have a wife, immediate family and a few friends. My wife and I are in the process of moving about 45 minutes from where we are now. We are moving from the city to the country. There are other pursuits coming up, but most of these involve real live face time with a few faces in my immediate space. I am a grandfather of twin boys and another grandchild is on the way. I hope this one is a girl because, I have mentally at least, already picked out a really lovely child's tea set. I would love to get this and give it to her and play tea time with her. But I'll gladly take another grandson. I look forward to some rocking chair, on my lap, story time. My wife Susan and I share four sons, three daughters-in-law, each of us have one brother, I have a sister, and there are many nieces, nephews, a few cousins and a handful of close and dear friends we share together. We are looking forward to making new friends and this has already begun, even before we move. I am looking forward to a new pursuit and learning how to become a piano technician, at least so that our piano may be tuned whenever needed or desired. I would still like to go into a studio and record my original compositions, sometime in the immediate future and make some CD's or whatever medium is the current one at such a time. My wife Susan would like to listen to them. I would like listening to them too. But mostly this remains an unfulfilled promise, to just one friend, Cathy. She for at least ten years has been waiting, so she could hear my music whenever she wants to. So that's at least three copies I'll need to make (1 for Cathy, 1 for Susan and 1 for me). I'll probably give those three away too. For the rest of any one interested, don't lose a moment's sleep waiting to find these on the shelves in music stores anywhere or online. :) We have family in two countries outside of the USA. We would like to travel and to see family and other loved ones. On writing, Ernest Hemmingway once said, "write one honest sentence." I suppose what I am really trying to say here is that over the years, I have sacrificed myself, my time and resources gladly for others, often at the expense of myself and others and their resources too. It is one thing to try and make and capture and share memories for others and another thing to make and share these memories with others. With that being said, you to whom I have never personally met and may never meet, you are no less real to me, and are no less personal to me. I believe, hope and love you no less than anyone I personally have met or may one day meet. This next chapter of my life is just, well, it's just going to be different.

These are my present connections. And I am considering downsizing my web sites, maybe even discontinuing one or more of them, downsizing and/or eliminating some or all of my blogs and even social media. I may install some new communication equipment called tin cans and string. :) I may actually go off grid somewhat and become only available to a very select number of people that I actually, really and truly face time with, on a daily or regular basis. These are my reasons for packing up the calendars and putting them all, into a storage box of fond memory.

'Storage Box of Fond Memory' © 2012 by Dahni & I-Magine, all rights reserved

   I am aware of so much desire that exists today for fame and fortune. To be honest, I have sought these. I have personally seen fame destroy lives. But on the other side of the coin, how would we ever know, aspire to or experience greatness, unless there were those willing to take the risks, extend the effort and make sacrifices to become rich and famous or just extraordinary? Still, please do not spend most or all of your life dreaming about tomorrow and forsaking all else and all others in the present. Right now, at this very moment, right where we are and with whom we are with, is really all that any of us, truly have!

   Please start your own Advent calendar traditions with those you believe with, hope with and love.

   For the original cardboard type Advent calendars, please visit and purchase them from Richard Sellmer Verlag. I am not paid for this nor do I receive anything for this recommendation. I just love what they do.

http://www.advent-calendar.de/

   For beautiful electronic/digital/flash animated cards and digital Advent calendars, please visit and purchase them from  Jacquie Lawson. I am not paid for this nor do I receive anything for this recommendation. I just love what she does.

http://www.jacquielawson.com/

   Thank you one and all, for your time in reading this. Thank you, for allowing me to share this online Advent calendar with you, for this year and for those through the years. Thank you, for taking this journey with me over the years. I believe in you. I have great hope for you and just remember...

Dahni Luvs Yah,