A New Era

While visitors here are demonstrably rare, today marks a significant milestone in that I’ve switched my domain to HighcastleofGeek.com from Strumzilla.com after having used that site title since its inception in 2007, sixteen years ago. The site is mostly unchanged other than updating the social media links, some individual pages and uploading most of my artwork from the past year.

The move to Highcastle of Geek as a brand (so to speak) has been in the works for a few years now. I think I purchased the domain a little over a year ago, around the same time I started a new Youtube channel of the same name. My online business, Highcastle Foundry has been active since 2021. Highcastle of Geek is primarily driven by the YouTube channel and my other social media presence that deals with my art and other creative content. This site has long been a glorified blog for everything under the sun, but mostly music-related content. I may eventually branch off the archival content to the Highcastle of Tone domain, but for now, it will remain here. Highcastle of Tone was just a rename for my longer-held YouTube channel that was previously just called, wait for it…Strumzilla.

Strumzilla was my attempt to create a unique domain name evocative of my music-related pursuits, but it was probably about my twentieth choice since all the others had been taken. While Highcastle of Geek isn’t the most original name (I’m aware of the more popular Den of Geek, but the idea didn’t come from them), it stemmed from an older idea. I had been brainstorming ideas for a pen name so that if and when I ever published anything fantasy or science fiction related, I wouldn’t be using the real name that I use professionally in my healthcare jobs. I settled on Darren Highcastle since it’s similar to my actual name, but to me a tad more evocative of fantasy although one could argue Hightower is evocative as well, look no further than GRRM or Robert Jordan for several named Hightower characters (of questionable moral integrity and motivations methinks).

All that rambling to say I still have that on reserve as well as a few other domain names, but since most of my creative pursuits are going to revolve around the Highcastle of Geek YT channel and brand, it made sense to make the switch. I’m probably going to just let the Strumzilla domain expire as it hasn’t necessarily been a successful brand or one that any significant number of people would associate with me or my content.

I’ve updated my social media links and added a few as well. More content to come…