I'm really not a stalker, I swear.

Been a pretty busy few days in the semi-white North.

The reason I haven't been posting as much lately is because I've been working as much as humanly possible in order to make up for the holiday, make a little extra cash for Christmas, and my upcoming snowmobile trip.

Thanksgiving was really low key. The only relative that I saw outside of my immediate family was my grandmother. That was ok I guess, but sometimes I miss the days when the whole family would gather around the bird.



On my way to work this morning, the local DJ's were running through the list of celebrity birthdays. If you're a longtime reader here, you'll know who I think the hottest actress is. Today is Christina Applegate's birthday. She's 34 and still married. Dammit.










Random Thought:

Am I the only one who gets half a chubby while watching the Weather Channel? I usually don't watch the weather forecast on any channel, but lately I've been watching it in order to dress appropriately for work and to keep tabs on my upcoming vacation. 9 out 10 women employed the Weather Channel are certified hotties. And don't leave comments denying it.

My balls.

Since everyone seemed to enjoy it the last time I blogged about my nutties, I thought it would be appropriate to share again.

It's (relatively) cold here. Lows in the teens, wind chills at or below zero.

For the last 8 years I've boasted to friends that I'm a cold weather person. We'd sit on my porch in Texas drinking beers, soaking up the sun and I'd eventually tell them how I missed the cold and snow of Wisconsin. At some point I'd tell them the story about the day that I left for basic training. It was 20 below zero with 40 mph winds and the windchill was somewhere around 70 below zero. That my friends, is cold weather! At that point in time, early in 1997, I was completely comfortable with that sort of weather.

These days I am not :(

I still consider myself a cold weather person, and I'm enjoying the recent snowfall. However, it's my first "real winter" in 8 or so years, and I do have to admit that it's been a little tough. I get cold and stay cold all day. When I get home from work I hop in the shower just to warm up.

I almost forgot.... my balls.. The boys are doing fine, but they are in the Winter Protection Program. Safely hidden somewhere in abdomen. I haven't seem them in a couple of weeks, but I know they are just fine.

Sprigs is still my featured blog. I haven't found anything yet that can knock her off the perch.

Introducing Lynn

It took me a while to pick a new Featured Blog. As I mentioned in my last post, I contemplated giving up blogging so I really haven't been looking.

I'm really glad that I've found Lynn. Her blog appears to be pretty new, I only see archives to last month, but I don't doubt the quality writing will continue. I don't want to steal any thunder, so you'll have to check it out for yourself.

The Dark Days of Blogging.

Who in the hell gave the directive to execute Order 66?

A lot of great people have recently given up their niche in the blogger universe, all for valid reasons, but it's still unsettling to me.

When I first started this blog, I wondered if I'd have enough material to make it a worthwhile adventure. It turns out I may not have, as I've been in a creative slump lately. As late as last week I had considered canning my own blog and becoming strictly a commenter. For the last couple of months I've gotten more enjoyment leaving comments about the creative efforts of others than I have from constructing my own work. One reason (maybe the main reason) I decided to stick it out, is because others were also deleting their blogs, and I don't like being part of the crowd.

Just to be clear, I don't think other people were deleting blogs because it was fashionable, they all have good, personal reasons for discontinuing, and some just needed a couple of days off and are now back at it. But I wonder what people's expectations of blog authors are? I'm 27 years old, and single. My life affords me the time to blog if I chose to. Some day things in my life could change. Does anyone expect me to blog until the day that I die? Should blogs run a couple of months? Years? Decades? I would think that at some point we will all run out of meaningful things to say, at least at the quality that we want to say them.

At what point do we have an obligation to our readers? Maybe we don't have any obligation but force ourselves to think that we do? I think I've seen every possible emotion from various readers out there when blogs are shut down. Some are sad for selfish reasons, some are sad for the author, some are concerned, some make jokes, some even get pissed. I think to a degree those are all perfectly appropriate feelings to have, but it also shows why authors get burned out. Even if you create a blog with no intent to serve a viewing audience, at some point you almost feel compelled because of the comments you receive, the sheer number of people that find you. All of that creates pressure. Maybe we, as readers, put too much pressure on our favorite authors to keep up the good work?

It seems like a lot of good blogs are disappearing lately. Hopefully they come back, and hopefully us as readers will be more understanding if our favorite author calls a time out, requesting a break from the action.

Dammit George

Those who know me know that I'm a mild Star Wars fanboy. I don't sit around in a Darth Vader costume or anything like that, but I do enjoy the movies. When Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith arrived in theaters, I always intended to see it, but I never got around to it. I've been waiting for today pretty uch all summer because I wanted to buy the DVD and watch it immediately.

I did watch the movie, and overall I did like it with the exception of two things:

1. It seems that Anakin went from "that's not the Jedi way" to "Sure, I'll kill kids" too quickly. I didn't like the timing on that, and thought they should have showed more internal conflict.

2. In the scene where the Emperor tells Vadar that he's responsible for Padme's death and he breaks himself off of the table and screams, I immediately thought of Frankenstein. I realize he's supposed to be recoverring from massive burns, but his stilted walking looked funny, and I didn't like it.

Like I said, overall I enjoyed the movie, and I'll probably watch it again soon looking for things I missed the first time.