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August 28, 2007
Character1: He doesn’t like you.
Character2: I’m sorry
Character1: I don’t like you either. You just watch yourself. We’re wanted men. I have the death sentence on twelve systems.
Character2: I’ll be careful.
Character1: You’ll be dead!
June 7, 2007
Posted through savetheinternet.com and sent to the FCC:
Independent Media in Jeopardy
I am a former editor of an independent newspaper called Vigilance. It is now gone like many other papers of it’s kind. Either small, locally-owned publishers are merged or driven out of business by the circulation & market leveraging of the giants.
70% of circulation is made up of a small group of corporations with multiple subsidiaries and 50% of total daily circulation is controlled by a mere 10 companies*. What’s wrong with a centralized media? It creates a hegemony of information and alienation of a large part of the US population.
We need to keep the Internet available to the public and not allow the corporations that already own much of or information resources to co-opt this currently fluid communication channel. Please support net neutrality to sustain a fundamentally necessary aspect of our democratic society.
*Source: http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/
To send your own letter visit http://www.savetheinternet.com/yourstory and keep this valuable resource in our hands.
“But wait…just what the hell is Net Neutrality?” you may be saying. Just hit play below for ultra-hip infotainment.
February 5, 2007
Just walked outside (5a.m.) and it’s so warm for Feb.
In other news, I am now gainfully employed at WSU (note: video below). The access that they afford me, as well as anyone that wants to come down to the computer lab, is amazing. They have the new Intel-based Macs with video editing software, audio-blogging ‘wares and cameras & mic’s right on the monitor/body. If you are in the Jefferson County, WA area, I highly suggest you stop down, even if just to check your email.
December 7, 2006
Well, the note was kinda smudged and it was delivered by an emissary (that’s how he rolls). In fact, upon looking at it, it reads more like a directive to go into novel writing versus the design track down which I’ve been headed. And there’s no return address on this thing. I’m not even sure which god sent it.
The messenger was Pope Wassmattayou the 3rd, a.k.a. Jennifer Jackson, a superlative reporter for the Peninsula Daily News. She met with the small turnout that was our local thank-JHVH-it’s-over party to commemorate the NDE of our novel writing adventure. She put up with our rambling diatribe and somehow managed to string together a coherent article.
I am grateful that she wrote about the NaNoWriMo phenomenon. It was hard getting any word of it out to the area. But I am also glad that she focused on a lady named Phoenix that was one of the winners of the contest.
I didn’t want to make too big of a deal of it around her, but I was thoroughly impressed that she completes this contest year after year while dealing with having lupus. She said that the pace of the contest was the only way that she could overcome her cognitive disorder.
Puts things in perspective.
So you can click on the image at upper right to read the story. Or maybe the article will be online at some point at which I will append this post.
Oh yeah, and I’m in the article, too. That’s my ugly mug, second from the left.
December 2, 2006
I did not make it through those silvery doors of achievement. I blew a lot of things off to try to win the battle against my procrastination. I did not reach the goal, but I did learn a few things and come farther than I had with my project in the past.
I’m talking about the NaNoWriMo contest to write 50,000 words in the month of November and come through that experience with a rough-cut of a novel. I did not attain that, but I did find something closer to my own voice. I truly believe that to be the real goal of this exercise.
I did not kill my own internal editor, though. And that made getting through the process a lot like hauling a wheel-barrow full of rocks up an interminable hill. One thing is for sure, writing 10k words in one evening is a lot harder than one would think. It’s exhausting even if you are just flushing out ideas that you have already written and not creating them from the ethers.
So I will continue to write with no accolades on the horizon, save my own. And I’ll have a lot more time to write here in case anyone is reading. I wish good luck to the writers that did (and did not) finish in hammering out a finished novel. We all need it.
November 17, 2006
I was going through the materials of my career up ’til now to create a portfolio. It was at this point that I realized I have done some pretty neat stuff (with a little help from my friends of course). I ain’t no goddamn son-of-a-bitch.
The main thing that was hitting me was my re-visitation to the old newsie stomping ground of Vigilance. It was a local, free, independent paper in the North Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. I learned a lot there, including how to use digital layout programs.
I had been making fake flyers (for bands or movies that didn’t exist) and things like that since I was in junior-high with the use of photocopiers and magazines. So this was kind of my passion from early years.
I also took great interest in photo class when I got to high-school, specifically where it applied to the dark-room. Playing with over-lays and juxtaposition was really intriguing.
I guess what I’m saying is: if you are an employer, click on the picture above. Look at that site and then give me a job. Consider this a cover letter and that offering a resume.
November 11, 2006
I was having a largish bottle of beer with my girlfriend who is trying to console me about the fact that I have no job and $11 in my account. I called it a 40 (as in 40 ouncer as the kids say) and she said, “Actually, it’s a 24 oz.”
Well…i can’t have somebody actually me without finding my own info (it’s all good, it keeps me on my toes). I can never remember how many oz. are in a cup, pint, quart, etc., but I remembered I had an analog list of measurements and their conversions. I say analog because my brain lives on this thing that you call the internet and my source off choice this day was my composition notebook that a good friend gave me to use for writing.
When I looked in the back, I found that they skip from “gills” (gi.) to pints, then gallons. Well, my blood was up because I couldn’t figure out if we were drinking a pint or not (it turned out to be a pt. and a half, but that’s not important right now). So I got out the measuring cup and had to write my new found data in the “useful information” section in the back of the notebook in case this happened in the future.
And this is what came of my calculations:
Liq.: 8oz/cup, 4c/quart, 4c=32oz, 1pt=16oz
1gill=4oz, 400 gills = a crowded fish-tank
…
I know it was a long way to the well and the bucket came back empty, but that is my little nerdy joke that I made today. It helps to try to laugh when things seem really, really hopeless. Or go insane, but that kind of laughter is always really unfulfilling to me.
BTW, 400gi. is equivalent to 3.125 gallons if you are curious. It still is even if you aren’t. That’s the great thing about math.
November 7, 2006
I don’t know why I’m writing here, except to hide from working on what I’m supposed to be writing. I signed up for this NaNoWriMo thing that I mentioned in The Store post. It entails writing a 50k novel in one month…this month. I just can’t find the flow.
It’s been 7 days since the event started, people all over the world trying to get the book in them out on pages. Since starting, I realized that my experience with writing has been as more of a columnist than anything. Even my college papers had that kind of feel.
So right now, my stuff feels kind of wooden. I haven’t been able to reach the organic taproot in my psyche that will let the dams burst. I will trudge on, however, and hope that my control mechanism lets loose.
Good luck to anyone else out there that might be doing this, too. It’s a bitch.
October 28, 2006
Why it’s the AT-5000 Auto-Dialer. My very first patent.
Aw, would you listen to the gibberish they’ve got you saying, it’s sad and alarming. You were designed to alert schoolchildren about snow days and such. Well, let’s get you home to Frinky. Hope your wheels still work, bw-hey. -Professor Frink
