Today I set up my personal domain name, williamdye.com. I had purchased the domain name itself about a year ago, just to keep anyone else with the same name from snapping it up before I could launch my own website. I had also created this blog — formerly secrettouch.wordpress.com — several months ago. I ended up more or less forgetting about the blog until about a week ago, when I was thinking to myself, “Gee, it sure would be nice if I had a blog.” It was then that I remembered … I already had one!

So tonight I finally got around to putting two and two together and making williamdye.com display the blog. Within a week or two, I plan to have a different home page show up when you go to williamdye.com (or http://www.williamdye.com); this blog will be available at blog.williamdye.com or williamdye.com/blog or something like that. I’m still sorting out the details. I also need to get my other blog, Pro-Grammar Programmer, into the mix.

Incidentally, I mentioned that this blog was previously located at secrettouch.wordpress.com. The curious reader may wonder why “secrettouch” when the title of the blog is “Alea iacta est.” I’ll put the answer below the fold in case you want to take a guess…

Anyone who knows me knows that RUSH is my favorite band. Anyone who knows RUSH well should be familiar with the song “Secret Touch” from the Vapor Trails album. If you don’t know the song, have a listen to the studio version or watch a live performance. (The fact that the live performance is just as good as the studio version is one of my favorite parts about the band. They are so good live.) I have also reproduced the lyrics below.

“Secret Touch”
lyrics by Neil Peart

The way out is the way in
The way out is the way in…

Out of touch with the weather and the wind direction
With the sunrise and the phases of the moon
Out of touch with life in the land of the loving
With the living night and the darkness at high noon

You can never break the chain
There is never love without pain
A gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart

Out of sync with the rhythm of my own reactions
With the things that last and the things that come apart
Out of sync with love in the land of the living
A gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart

A healing hand, a secret touch on the heart

There is never love without pain
Life is a power that remains

I really like those lyrics, for the words themselves and for the meaning they convey. It has the little bits of wordplay that I’ve come to expect from Neil Peart. I especially like the shift from out of touch with life in the land of the loving in the first verse to out of  sync with love in the land of the living in the second. It’s simple, but it has always intrigued me. The two phrases seem to have vastly different connotations for sharing so many of the same words.

I can also relate to the sentiments evoked by the song. I know what it’s like to be out of sync with the rhythm of my own reactions, and every tragedy ever written supports the claim that there is never love without pain. Moreover, I have felt a gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart: a moment of warmth or encouragement from a friend that has touched me in a special way. I think this song is very well composed, and, as an aside, I just love the drum part to it (also constructed by Mr. Neil Peart).

With so much going for it, the song was a clear choice for my blog’s subdomain name (secrettouch.wordpress.com). Now, of course, anyone who has created a WordPress account knows that you never get your first choice of subdomain. All my usual choices, like “williamdye” or “wdye” or “will2dye4,” were already taken. My first several choices in the category of song titles were also taken, things like “digitalman” (another RUSH reference) or “analogkid” (yet another RUSH reference) or “bigbadbill” (surprisingly, a Van Halen reference). (The fact that all three of those blogs seem to have been orphaned or abandoned frustrates me, yet it is beyond my control.)

Those titles were all intended to be self-descriptive (in a way). “Secret Touch” was next on the list, not because the phrase has anything to do with me, but for all the reasons above: in other words, because the song has meaning for me and because it’s just a kick-ass song. No matter how much ass it kicks, though, I would indubitably rather use my own name for my blog, so secrettouch.wordpress.com is no longer. Today marks the beginning of the age of williamdye.com!

P.S. If you’re curious about the title of the blog, “Alea iacta est,” and why I chose it, I’m afraid you’ll have to keep wondering.