The first thing that everybody has said to me when I have told them that I am putting this website together is “Why?”  Well this page is to answer that question, but not only for you but also for me because honestly, I sometimes wonder why too.

To answer why, you need to know a bit about me.  I am a 30 year old, career driven (read work obsessed) married father of two girls aged 4 and 2.  Add to that I live a 90 minute each way commute from work and generally put in an 11 or 12 hour day at the office and you will notice that I pretty much have a limited amount of free time.

In my limited amount of spare time, I have extended family like most people, and I have a fairly large circle of friends which I, as any normal human being does, interact with on a regular basis.

So true time to myself is fairly limited and generally consisted of me between the hours of 10pm and midnight during the week surfing the net, playing computer games and watching TV.

Another aspect about me is that I am addicted to knowledge.  Strange?  Well basically, I read and read and read.  I have this insatiable thirst to read about “things”, anything really.  And whilst I have my personal tastes (I am an avid fantasy and sci-fi novel reader), and I like such things as sports and comedy, I found that I was increasingly exploring current affairs and political stories.  But not the sugar coated, ratings pulling tripe that is displayed as “modern journalism” but the real stories, the truth behind the publicly displayed “half truth”.

I guess in short, you could say I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist.

(I know I still haven’t answered the “why?” of this site, but I promise you, I’ll get there.)

Anyway, given I am so time poor, and increasingly became (and still am I guess) addicted to surfing the net I slowly became a different person.

I became increasing stressed, easily frustrated, self-conscious and angry.  These were the results of “burning the candle at both ends” for at least 6 years.  In the end, out of frustration, something had to give.

A good friend of mine listened to all of this (over several cups of coffee) and suggested that I do something creative.  Do something that would free my mind and give me a new passion.  “Do something exciting” she said.  Good point I said, but one problem – I am not an artistic or creative person.

I have had a guitar at home and have only ever learned 3 chords.  My talent for drawing is limited to stick figures and a dodgy cartoon character.  Painting?  No that’s for my more talented kids than me.

So what does a non-creative netizen do as a creative outlet?  Well build a website of course!  Take my “knowledge addiction” and learn some html coding, take my “conspiracy theories” and build some content and voila, there you have it… my own website.

So in short, this website is the end result of those endeavours.  It will develop over time and the content will be wildly varied.  Overall, it is simply “my place” and given that it is “my place” I will live in it, dirty it, clean it and present it as I see fit.  The readership will flourish or it will whither on the vine, but I truly don’t care.  The important thing is that this is something I have created and will maintain.

Finally a few other things…

Why the name “ClayInfinity”?  Well, basically its me going on forever.  A lot of people say I have verbal diarrhoea so here’s the proof!

Secondly, a few thank you’s…

To my wife Niki, thanks for understanding and realising that we both need to get out of our collective ruts…

To my friend (and ex-work colleague) Kylie who helped me realise that there is more to life than work, work and work…

To my mates, The Fella’s, for giving me the support and the appropriate sledging when I needed it…

I also thank anyone who has gotten to the end of this article (too long Pete?) and had a reaction of one kind or another.  That is exactly what I want, for better or for worse.

Clay

21 July 2003.