Chi-town

In a few hours, I will be heading to the airport to fly to Chicago for a literacy conference. I won’t be a part of the conference, but rather helping sell books at an exhibit there. I did this back in November in Providence and it was a lot of fun.

I haven’t been in a plane in quite some time (can’t remember the last time), and so I have that anxiety that comes when air travel is not a habit. I am trying not to pack too much. For a few hours yesterday, I resigned myself to the fact that I couldn’t bring my camera. But, I decided to fuck it and bring it, because I really feel lost without it.

I just finished a book by John Robison, which was actually a gift I had given to Matthew for Christmas. I borrowed it from him after he quickly finished it post-Christmas. John Robison is the brother of Augusten Burroughs and lives in Amherst. He grew up in Shutesbury, just around the corner from where I work right now. The book is his first and it is about his life with Asperger’s. It’s a quick and engaging read; I highly recommend it. If you do get it, consider the hardcover edition. The paperback edition that I purchased removed expletives so that younger people could read it and learn about Asperger’s, or just growing up different (and all the bullying that comes with it).

Now I am between books and don’t know which one to start. I’m thinking that I’d like to switch to fiction, so I am considering Andre Dubus III’s latest The Garden of Last Days, which I received as a gift. I also received two nonfiction books that are en vogue right now–Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food. I heard about them at JBo’s tea party in December and put them on my Amazon list.

I also got Obama’s The Audacity of Hope, but I have already decided against reading it next. Something about reading Obama while in Chicago seems awfully cheesy.

I think I’ve settled on Ande Dubus III. I don’t know anything about the book. A perfect escape.

I won’t have any computer access for a few days as far as I know. Back on Friday night.

sighclub is on flickr

I caved and decided to put photos up on flickr. Over the years I’ve used different photo sharing sites. I have photos all over the place–from buzznet, which ended up appealing to a much younger audience than I am a part of, to facebook and everything in between. But from now on, you can find my most recent photos at flickr. Of course, I’ll always pull photos out on occasion and write about them here.

Check out my flickr profile here.

happy marriage license request day

Matt and I headed to City Hall on Tuesday to “apply” for a marriage license. I use quotes around “apply” because although that is the standard way that one might describing going to the City Clerk’s office with the intent to acquire a marriage license, there appears to be no application involved whatsoever.

There were papers to sign, but there was no real need to prove that we’re worthy of a marriage license. They didn’t even ask for any identification, a fact that chilled Matt and me to the bone.

Fact: We are the 100th couple to declare our intent to marry to the city in 2008.

We were way more prepared than I thought we’d be so that may have contributed to the quickness of the experience. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts no longer requires a blood test, so that wasn’t necessary. We did have to raise our right hands and swear that what we wrote down on the application was true. I think I said yes. Matthew confirmed later that he had replied “yup.”

Read more »

fireside chat with tony pierce

I’ve been reading tony pierce for pretty much as long as I’ve been reading blogs. I’ve purchased his books and rooted for him all the way from the xbi to laist to now the big time latimes. He still updates his famous busblog (where he writes about women, music, and sometimes politics, sometimes religion, sometimes his job.) As the blog editor for the LA Times, he oversees that entire section of the site. That’s kind of amazing, considering the fact that he wrote a lot of revealing stuff in his blog over the years. It says a lot about LA Times’ forward-thinking editors who clearly value and respect and understand blogging. Anyhow, seeing that we’re now working in the same kind of profession (overseeing and producing online content as part of a newspaper-branded site), I wanted to get his insight on some topics.

Me: Are there any new trends you’re seeing in the blogging world that bother you?

Tony: Most of the new trends I love: Twitter, Tumblr, FriendFeed, SocialThing, because they are helping bring back the idea that the individual bloggers’ lives matter and those tools make it easier for people to share their experiences with their readers.

The only trend that bothers me, as you say, is the ongoing obsession with people trying to make money off their blogs. I am speaking of the popularity of the Make Money Blogging blogs. These blogs don’t tell the truth about blogging which is: less than one-tenth of one percent of blogs make any real money. You’re better off playing the lottery or OMG getting a second job (or a better primary job) than thinking you can either tweak your blog into some sort of money-making machine.

There are over 100 million blogs out there and about 500 people making money blogging. You have a better chance being a starting quarterback in the NFL. So if you want to blog, blog and forget about the money. Do it because you want to express yourself. If you wanna make money: get a damn job. Read more »

pod

I am going to co-present a class on podcasting at UMass Amherst on Wednesday night. If you were a student (or if you are a student), what would you want to know about podcasting?

Read this

Here is a list of blogs/videos/audio that I need to get to this week.

How not to brand/market your site/newspaper (via Jeff)

Speed Up Windows XP (can’t remember but prolly via Jeff)

Adding blogs and multimedia to your newsroom (via here)

When I have more I’ll add them here

free public phone

Uploaded using facebook photos plugin. Check out my facebook photo galleries here (imported using the fotobook plugin). I am into the facebook plugins, because I already use facebook to upload my photos and I like the idea of having an integrated social network where I can share photos, but also communicate with my friends in other ways. I think this is why I’ve resisted flickr and other photo sharing sites.

And to think we all used to use a phone to organize our social lives.

sticking with it

Ok, so I found a template in Wordpress that I’m going to stick with. My next step is to go in and search and replace all of the photos from Typepad to Wordpress. I am sort of avoiding that step. After that, I want to find a really good photo plugin.

My old site was sans serif, but I’ve taken the serif plunge. I guess as I’m getting older, this big Georgia font is easier for me to read.

Over last weekend, Amy and I went to Nikon School in Manhattan (Our instructors were Reed Hoffman and Bill Durrence). It was a fantastic experience and we learned a lot, much of which we tested out on a short excursion in Amy’s Astoria neighborhood the next morning. There are galleries on our facebooks and I will try to post some of the photos here. Not incidentally, the photo that is my banner above was taken in Astoria while playing around with white balance settings.

The trip was a battery refresher. I had a lot of time in the car to think and listen to podcasts and music and reflect on my life, since I feel like I’ve been too busy to do that lately.

The Mighty Update

I warned you. I said I wouldn’t be sharing much about my life in my blog. I have started to feel that nagging feeling that I am neglecting this space, though. I pay a lot of money per year to keep it up and, just recently, I pre-paid sighclub for another year.

2007 has taken me on many new paths and I’ve been thankful for all of them. To recap, I bought a house, became a landlord, ended a long-term relationship, met someone new and got a promotion. All in that order. The brightest highlight has been meeting someone new, with whom I have packed so much life into the past three months. I am grateful for the way my life has turned out, but really could not in any way have predicted things would be this way just six months ago.

Out of respect for all who are involved I will say that the end of the last relationship was a long time coming. Compatibility is so important (although it’s not the only thing) and I have felt with this new relationship that I am way more compatible with this person. I can’t say that I regret anything that has happened to me. I think it would be foolish to do that, considering everything I have done in the past has led me to where I am today. I might not be in the fortunate position I am in were it not for the support of my past relationship. Same with my loving BFFs who have been so steadfast. Oh my girls (not THOSE girls).

So, in the new world life is coming at me pretty fast.

The promotion was huge and although I’d expected it for quite some time I was pleased at how much of a bump-up I got. As recently as this week the pressure has begun to increase. I find that I have virtually no downtime at work, except to run out and grab a bite to eat. Recently, editorial has experienced a number of big successes, so the professional satisfaction is all part of the package. We just need to be able to continue to perform at this heightened level. THAT’s the real challenge.

I’m not going to lie. I do enjoy the job a little less than in the past, but I suspect that will level off and I’ll find my groove again.

In just a few weekends Matt will be coming along with me to Pennsylvania to meet my family. He’s already met my father, so some of the pressure is off. I am excited for him to meet my mother and other family members and to show him the land where I am from. We plan to bring our bikes, ride around ole’ Palmyra to see the sites (ahem), and probably go to Hershey Park. The added bonus is that I went against my nature and took an extra day off of work, so we’ll have another day in PA.

I have to say that one byproduct of getting a promotion is that even though I am much busier than in the past, I didn’t feel bad about taking a day off. I think that is one thing that I should have done more of in the past but I was always worried it would reflect badly on me, that I wouldn’t be seen as a hardworker. So mea culpa and here’s to more balance. Work hard, play hard, right?

The landlording hasn’t been perfect, but overall I’m so proud to be a homeowner. Last weekend Matt and I did some mulching in the front and are now proud to call our mulch job the Patch of Grass Garden or PoGG for short. We tried to mulch around the phlox, but since the flowers have all fallen off and there is grass growing with the phlox, it just looks like 4 to 5 patches of grass. All in all though, it’s pretty freakin’ cute. I need to get the handyman here to start working on my railing. The insurance company is requiring that I install it because of how steep and slopey my front stairs are. This is on my huge to-do list. Also, a big piping problem in the basement was affecting the (let’s say) plumbing in the business part of the house, so that was an added expense. And now, let’s just say that I 1) unfortunately got to see what a (my) sub-basement looks like and 2) the smell of mothballs permeated the house for a while. When I would come home it would stink of them as I walked up the stairs. One day Matt was walking up, the smell hit him, and he yelled out “Mothballs!” Molly was standing right there, so we took to calling her Mothballs for a while. Nicknames always seem to wear off of her, though. Guess that means Molly was a good name for her.

My dad came to visit me a couple of weekends ago. It was a lot of fun! We went to the Basketball Hall of Fame, ate a lot of dinners out, took pictures at the top of Mt. Sugarloaf, went shopping for a camera and a little garden buddha (for his GF), went bowling. I kicked ass at bowling. I’ve still got it people. My dad generously bought me a nikon d40 with an extra zoom lens and 2GB SD card so I have been enjoying getting out and using it. It was his housewarming gift to me and I am grateful for it. I also got a piece of stained glass from he and his GF Maggie when I first moved in. I am trying to find the most perfect spot to hang it. It may end up in the office for now, though, because that’s the only window in the house without mini-blinds. I think it would look funny to hang a piece of beautiful stained glass piece behind a mini-blind, don’t you?

If I can be diary-a like for minute, today is going to be nuts. I have
to drop my car off at the mechanic, work like a dog all day, go into a
meeting at 5:00 (!) and in between all that I have to figure out a way
to get back to my car. I’m sure it will all work out, though.

I know that I glossed over a few parts, but I felt you deserved a proper update. I won’t make any promises, but I will at least be posting new pictures as I get them.

looking

my company is looking into finding people who would like to blog about certain topics… like the red sox or music or anything of that nature. If you have an interest, please send an email to sighclub @ gmail dot com. we’re launching a brand-new blog platform this fall that will feature a huge multimedia package.

-kb