Well, then.

That didn't work out quite as I expected.

I'm immersed in technology. I live it, breathe it, rely on it, love it and curse it. But sometimes I forget that it's not really like that for everyone else.

Case in point: My trip to Michigan. I had intended, dear reader (I think there is at least one of you) to blog my way through the journey, but a strange thing happened on the way to the electronic chalkboard.

There ain't a lot of Internets out there.

My first stop yielded no open wireless access, and no one could remember the password to the closed network. On my second stop, I stayed with folks that don't even own a computer. On my third stop, I once again encountered the "no wi-fi zone", along with the strangest proprietary router I've ever seen that had me baffled. I was reduced to snagging free wi-fi from McDonald's periodically on the journey, but by that time I was too baffled to blog.

So I shall blog parts of the trip in retrospect. It was, after all, an interesting journey.

Can't wait to tell you all about it.

Pure Michigan

I'm heading back to my home state of Michigan tomorrow for a week-long (and much-needed) vacation; I'll be visiting friends, family, and attending my class reunion...something I said I would never, EVER do again. Apparently, time has dulled the miserable memories.

Anyway, I'll be blogging the journey as much as possible. Stay tuned, folks. Should be fun. I hope.

Blog or not?

OK, so I gave up blogging for the bright lights of facebook, but frankly, facebook sucks. And since everyone I know is on there, I have no anonymity whatsoever, and can't say what I really think. So I'm probably going to start blogging again, if anyone cares. Stay tuned.

As Bill Cosby Would Say, "Riiiiiight..."

One year for Christmas, I got a copy of "Charlotte's Web" and a pad of light blue 3-hole punched paper. I proceeded to copy the first chapter of "Charlotte's Web" on the paper. Thus began a long love affair with words (or for the cynical, plagiarism) that continues to this day.

I've wanted to be a writer as long as I can remember. I had other childhood career aspirations, including veterinarian, fireman, teacher...but the writing thing just stuck. Eventually, I learned that being a writer isn't something you become. It's something you ARE.

Today, I own a photo/video studio, and I create images for a living. I love what I do. I love my clients. It brings me great joy and satisfaction to start with a blank photographic canvas and create something memorable that people will enjoy for the rest of their lives. I will do this until I can no longer press a shutter with arthritic fingers or view the image through a lens with failing eyesight. Even then, I'll probably find a way.

What I've given up to follow this passion is my desire to write. Lately, the itch has come back. I was able to find a couple outlets and was published for the first time in years, even if it was just in the local paper. But now, with the newspaper downsizing and production being taken out of town, that outlet is gone. Opportunities are few and far between in a small town and frankly, I haven't had (or taken) the time to investigate new markets.

But I keep writing anyway. Because as Billy Crystal intoned in the otherwise horrible "Throw Mama From The Train", a writer writes. Always.

A couple weeks ago, I misplaced my glasses. Once necessary only to keep horrific eyestrain headaches at bay, they've become essential for close reading. Briefly, my love affair with the printed word suffered while I was unable to read the small print in the books I love so much. It friggin' sucks to get old. Last night, I found the elusive spectacles (they were behind the couch the whole time! That's where EVERYTHING hides!), and I took a deep dive back in my books the way a starving person attacks a plate of hamburgers.

I loves me some words, folks. I realize more and more that I have a lot to say, a lot I want to share, and a lot to contribute. The pictures pay the bills, and in a way they communicate in ways words never can. But I miss the written word, and I think it's time to rekindle that love affair.

Anyway. That's what's on my mind. Hope y'all are doing well. Thanks for reading.

Yeah. What He Said.

Sylvester, J.J. (1814 - 1897)

"So long as a man remains a gregarious and sociable being, he cannot cut himself off from the gratification of the instinct of imparting what he is learning, of propagating through others the ideas and impressions seething in his own brain, without stunting and atrophying his moral nature and drying up the surest sources of his future intellectual replenishment."

New

Welcome to the new blog. I have no plans (at this point) to continue blogging over at the original "Liner Notes". I really feel like I gave too much of myself away on that blog, although I'll maintain the archives for a while. If you're here, it's because you're either really clever, or I asked you to come on over; for the time being, I'd ask you to not link publicly to this blog (although I am publishing an RSS feed, so go ahead and follow me that way if you like). I'd like to retain a modicum of anonymity for a while.

I can't and won't promise that this blog will be any better than the last one, but we'll see where it leads. Who knows...I may give up the whole thing.

Anyway. Welcome.