This section is a Q&A about DEFORGE itself. Currently, it's in no particular order, but I'll organize it if it gets too unwieldy.

Q. What's DEFORGE about, anyways?
A. It's not about much of anything. I like making webpages as a hobby. In fact, my interest in making webpages often outstrips my ability to provide a ton of coherent, meaningful content. Therefore I post whatever I got cooking at the moment and work from there. Sometimes, my friends pitch in a little content, too.

Q. What's with the motto, "The Continuing Search for Life on Planet Earth?" Isn't that a little pretentious of you? What makes you think you're so important, anyways?
A. Yeah, I've sorta come to terms with the fact that unless I have some sort of meaningful knowledge to impart, having a website for a hobby is an inheirently pretentious act. Outside of that, I'll try to keep the delusions of grandeur to a minimum. Despite the pretentions, I think the motto describes the focus of DEFORGE pretty well. Essentially, all that gets posted here boils down to me trying to find interesting things to see, experience, or make, and posting articles and pictures about it. I guess an alternate motto would be "Stuff Dave Thinks is Neat."

Q. When did DEFORGE start?
A. DEFORGE was founded in September, 1999. I survived the great Internet bubble by not being profitable in the first place.

Q. Why does it take you so long to update this site?
A. My ability to post to this site ebbs and flows with whatever else I have going on, though I hope to be more consistient in the future. I just finished up graduate school, the last two semesters of which prevented me from devoting a lot of time to this hobby.

Q. I like/hate the calendar on the main page. Where can I find a long-winded explanation of the calendar, including the graphics used to mark the days of the year?
A. I've written up a good explanation of the calendar, here.

Q. I like/hate the backgrounds. I'm interested in hearing about how you made them. Honestly.
A. An essay on the backgrounds can be found here.

Q. I like/hate the graphics. I need to learn more on why you decided to inflict your artwork on us.
A. I go into detail about the graphics in this article.

Q. What's that stone thingie that you use as a mascot?
A. Many years ago, back in high school in fact, I was given this tiny stone gargoyle statue as a gift, and since he looked like he was deep in thought, I called him "The Pondering Gargoyle". He's been a regular on my Shelf of Clutter ever since. When I was first creating webpages for a hobby back in college, I came up with the idea of posting a random list of taglines, zingers, and one-liner type of jokes that I came across. Inspired by the Shelf of Clutter, I named the section "The Pondering Gargoyle" with the premise being that this random list was of things the gargoyle on my shelf was pondering about. When I graduated from college, that webpage was removed and regulated to but the most minor of historical footnotes.

Years later, I was playing around with some random digital photos I took of stuff from the Shelf of Clutter and managed to make a reasonably decent looking graphic from the Pondering Gargoyle. So, I resurrected the name as the new name for my essays and writings section. Eventually, when I re-re-redesigned the layout for the umpteenth time, I wanted a new graphic to serve as branding for the site, and the Gargoyle got a promotion, mostly because I don't have much else lying around to use.

Anyway, I think he makes a reasonable mascot/brand for this page. Since most things posted to this site seem to fit under the category of "thinking about stuff", it makes sense that the mascot is a thinker. Besides, I haven't come up with a good alternative, anyways.