Category Archives: General

As I sat in Skip’s basement, watching the files fly by as they were deleted, I had a brief realization of the passage of time. Thousands of photos and files drifted up the screen, hundreds of pages of posts, years of my life, so quickly and easily erased. For one quick moment, a sliver of hesitation, and then it was gone. I’d archived all the important posts, so I wasn’t really losing anything. There was a thrill of setting it free, and it was exhilarating.

When I did my first website update, about a year or two after I started, I simply erased everything I had written up to that point, starting from scratch, with no archives, and nothing of the previous year or so on record. It’s simpler to move forward with nothing of the past to hold onto. Too many of us get pulled back by nostalgia, and it’s always tempting to revisit the past. Sometimes it’s easier to look back and return to where we’ve already been – there’s safety there, it’s a known entity.

But to become better, you have to let the past go, and find new ways to inspire. That’s what we’re doing here. That’s what we’re doing now.  There will be a certain bit of repopulation as far as previous posts being archived goes, and the major projects and written work will remain intact, but much of it must go. We’ll be better for it. Watch and see…

It is 1:25 AM. I’ve just returned from an expectedly-lengthy website redesign session with Skip. As you may have noticed, we’re still in the planning/remodeling stage, so bear with us a bit longer. A little after midnight we figured we better stop, so I joined Skip for a quick jaunt to Wal*Mart to pick up ‘The Hunger Games’ on DVD. Don’t ever let it be said that I don’t suffer for my art, and right now my art is this website redesign. And my suffering was waiting betwixt pre-and-post teens in a fifteen minute line of, well, I don’t want to say losers, but no one was winning any prizes either. Thankfully, the lady at Hess Express more than made up for it with her kindly offer of a ten-minute hot dog. This revamping may turn out to be more entertaining than anyone expected. Stay with us… who knows what mischief tomorrow may bring…

As it is 11:11 PM, and we are nowhere near getting the website to where it eventually will be, we’re calling it a night, as I still need to drive home. Much progress has been made, and I owe a debt of gratitude greater than a dinner of mac-and-cheese to our Webmaster Skip, for seeing us through the treacherous waters immediately behind and ahead of us. I thank you for checking in, and promise that we will have this as pretty as it ever was as soon as humanly possible.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Tonight I am planning on revamping this website with the indispensable aid of Webmaster Skip. Actually, he’ll likely be the one at the helm, with me dangling precariously off the back end trying frantically to keep up. It’s an update that’s long over-due, as this website is operating on an antiquated platform, with a WordPress theme that went hopelessly out of date several years ago. That means it’s a big change, and one that will probably knock it out of commission for a day or two. I invite you to come back in a few to check the progress.

This will be a giant learning curve for me, but rather than try to perfect it behind the scenes first, I’m going to do it all out in the open, bringing you along for the ride. That means you get to see all the mess-ups and mistakes, and I get to act like a less-than-perfect human being for once. Everybody wins. Stay tuned… and wish us luck. Lots of it…

As the torch goes out on another Summer Olympics, I am reminded of the 1988 Games – the last time I remember watching the summer version. (Usually the only thing that brings me to the Olympics is the figure skating.) This year, however, I was swept into all of it – due mostly to all the Guy Candy on display, but also for the contagious competitive excitement. It became addictive wanting to see the reactions of the athletes to their wins and losses – and when it turned into good sportsmanship and mutual admiration and respect I was truly touched.
Back in 1988, long before the Internet, when television was the medium that brought the world together, the Summer Olympics were the biggest event of the season. My parents allowed me to spend the night in the family room, in front of the television, on my Grandmother’s fold-up cot. I’d fall asleep to the flickering background of the latest track and field race, and wake as my Dad left for work the next morning.
It was, for the most part, a solitary experience, but it felt better knowing the rest of the world was watching at the same time. That was echoed in these games, in the way that social media made it a collective event, in ways more direct, if more diffuse. While we may be more fragmented in some ways, we’re closer in others. The strange twists the world has taken in these ensuing years, and the ticking of time, struck me as I watched a grey-haired Greg Louganis – the gold medalist in 1988 – looking down on David Boudia completing his gold-medal-winning dive.
Another circle is complete.