An End of an Era

My dear readers, all two of you,

I have at long last decided to close this blog and re-direct you to my other blog, which I have renamed "Fred In the Can" despite the boring URL. I will have to be a bit more discrete with some of my posts, but in a way it will be good to become more aware of the power of my words on teh internets.

So, without further ado, I give you: http://epfreelancewriting.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your long patronage and patronizing of the original Fred In The Can. Hope to see you over at the other homestead.

Signed,
The Management

Password Debacle

Maybe they don't like that I haven't been here in over a month, or maybe they don't like the fact that I run this off a Yahoo account, or maybe the password was hacked in that debacle earlier this month.

It doesn't matter. They can suck my dream's dick. I'M BACK.

More to come...

Too many notes

It has come to my oft-times scattered attention that I do, in fact, have too many blogs. I have this one, plus three non-anonymous blogs: one for writing, one for my film, and one for my pursuit of physical and personal wellness. It occurs to me that as I'm compartmentalizing these aspects of my life, it actually makes things harder. Not only am I trying to update too many blogs, but Blogger is increasingly harsh about me using a Yahoo account to run this one. It's always trying to trick me into signing in with my Google account (from which all the other blogs are run), and it won't let me be signed into both at the same time, so I'm constantly signing out and signing in and signing out and signing in. It's a total pain in my butt.

I am toying with the idea of retiring this blog and sending you all over to my main blog, which would be my writing blog.

However, this blog, being mainly anonymous, is a great place to be stupid and vent spleen. Not something I want to share with potential employers or even present ones, necessarily.

What to do?

Incoming

Note the two additions to my list of Places and Faces: Sci Fi Media - reviews of books, movies and TV, and Thrall - entertainment news of the sort I care to know (i.e. not gossip). Give those folks a peep when you have a mo.

The New Banner (or, "Gramma's Ghost")

I'd just like to take a few moments to spew forth about the new banner. You may have noticed that it doesn't have ocean waves or palm trees or spring blossoms. It's also in black and white. This photo was taken from my grandmother's front porch I'm guessing in the 1940s, by the design of the car whizzing past. (Did cars whiz in the 40s? Or did they just sort of roll by?) This photo is one of a kabillion old photos I inherited/collected from my parents' immense collection of "who the hell is that? I don't remember that photo being taken. now where was that at?" Me, I adore old photos and have vowed to make them a regular part of my every day life.

Anyway, so check out the border of said banner. It's that sort of pink-salmony color right? Dude, that was the color of Gramma's house. I'm not kidding. Imagine this house in pink-salmony glory:



That house was in an area of Elmira, NY called "The Patch," which was an Italian neighborhood. When it was first built in the 1800s there was nothing - and I mean nothing - around it. Check it:



I'm not sure when my grandparents bought the home - I'm thinking some time in the 1930s, but this is how I remember Gramma at that house:



So as you can tell, I love that house. I think for the time being, I'm going to keep this banner - it is far more personal than some of the other images I've swapped out over the years. Oh, and in case you're wondering about the "INT./EXT." reference - that's a screenplay shot heading for a scene that is shot partially Interior and Exterior at a location.

As an aside, I used to have dreams of going into this house, only it was terribly haunted. Not by good people like my grandparents, but by evil spirits and suchlike. At some point in the recent past, I dreamed of going in there, but it was "clean," as Zelda Rubinstein would say. Seems to have been the end of those recurring dreams. Think of that what you will.

I keep working my way back to you, babe...

I've been Facebooking waaaayyy too much lately. So this weekend I'm "taking a break," which makes me sound like a junkie who's just going to drink coffee and poke smot for the weekend.

I'm trying to pay more attention to this blog, which is a much more productive use of my time, don't you think? I mean, really. Dear Blog, I promise not to play around any more and cheat on you with Facebook. At least, for the weekend.

Check out the site of a former student of mine: RedSpace. The guy has a way with words and is destined for excellence.

Take note

Two new sites to visit on the blog roll: Annie's Journal From Ireland and Magician's Gambol.

Annie will be a senior at the college I teach for; she was a student of mine a year or two ago. She's exploring the land of her heritage and I am insanely jealous. She's staying in Galway for the summer, making day trips and weekend trips around the Emerald Isle. I'm hoping she makes it to Loughcrew, one of my favorite sites, a megalithic cairn complex on a mountaintop. Go Annie!

Magician's Gambol is a site built by one of my oldest and dearest friends, and promises to be a place for mind-bending entries, discussion and debate. Hop on and suggest some topics. My friend had an unusual upbringing by Rosicrucians (AMORC) and has been involved in the discussion, dissection and debate of metaphysics as long as I have known her (26 years - gulp!).

Enjoy!

Some new sites to dig...

WannaSurf includes a surf atlas, member profiles, forums (fora?), ratings, surf spots & sessions, etc. Fun graphics with UFOs!

TaraPopp's blargh on Korean media, part of a larger blog on Asian media. Lots of manga, gaming, geekery and fun stuff to peruse.

P.S. I think I'll eventually have to do something about the morass that is Places & Faces.

New Look

Since it's a new season, and since I'm really looking forward to my trip to The Land Where I Was Birthed (the South Shore of Boston, that is to say, near the ocean), I thought it appropos to change up the look, including a photo I took in May at Scituate Light House.

Spring Look

I've changed things up a bit. It's spring (even though Ogreville is now experiencing "normal" temps in the 50s which seem frigid compared to the 80+ degrees we had a week ago). And because it's spring, I thought some earth tones with a bit of blue sky were appropriate. Also, check out my new avatar. Appropriate, don't you think?

To the left is a gorgeous shot of cherry blossoms, the symbol of spring in Korea and Japan.

Leaf Turning

In my last post I presented my intention to not speak negative, harmful or meaningless thoughts. In service of this, I have discontinued my association with my brother's chat site. There's nothing wrong with the site or the people on it (hell, two of my closest blood relatives are on there). However, I continually end up in combative situations with people who have different (often opposite) ideas and world views as I do.

Recently I made the comment that I was sick of liberal-bashing and conservative-bashing from anyone (I see the liberal-bashing on the site, and I hear and read conservative-bashing in the town in which I live). To my mind, it gets nothing done and it only furthers the intelluctual divide in this society. Anyway, my comments to this affect were met with paragraphs of rationalization about how the conservatives have come under heavy fire from the liberal elite (media, academia and politicos) since the middle of the last century, so why should they hold back? If someone on that board talks about McCain or Obama, they are jumped on about how liberal both candidates are, and there is a CLEAR undercurrent that liberal = evil.

Now, I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool liberal. I don't agree with Democrats on all issues, nor do I agree with Republicans. I try to vote my conscience and I try to remain informed. But what I really can't stand are the tactics of BOTH sides of the proverbial and literal aisle who are so entrenched in the Us vs. Them paradigm that they can't get to work for this country.

Okay, so that's my soapbox and I'm going to let it end here. Getting back to my original point for this post -- I am no longer going to put myself in an environment (physical or cyber) that leads to hard feelings, mistrust or other harmful thoughts and words. I can't change their minds, and they can't change mine. There's no sense going around and around on these issues, and I sure has hell have better things to do with my time.

My Apologies

To anyone who has tried to access my blarg in the last 12 hours and couldn't get in. I clicked when I should have clacked. It's all better now, there, there. Dry those tears and post me a comment, okay?

Here's something to make up for my transgression:

50 Years of Lego

Check This Out:

My friend Vix is in Chile for a few months working with refugees. She's started up a blog you can see here. I'll add her to my blog roll.

Last few hours of '07

Just want to say thanks to my Fred In the Can readers, and happy new year. Be safe out there tonight.


Sunrise at Gangeulgot, S. Korea, where the sun rises first on East Asia.

One-Third Done!

As of now, I am one third of the way done with the semester at Out of Town University. Woo Hoo! Only 6 more weeks until T'giving break, then classes are over on Dec. 7 or some such thing. And in three weeks, JEB's wedding in Boston!

The ESL class continues to go well, but every day there is some reminder of why it's not the optimal situation. Today, the air con was busted on the 2nd floor of the building where I teach, so the classroom was 85 degrees (not exaggerating). The poor students - I felt bad for them. It was not a pleasant learning or teaching environment.

I've decided to scale down my office hours, form 1-2 instead of 1-3, twice a week. I'm still doing the required hours - and of course on the weeks I have conferences scheduled, I'll be there after 3:00 anyway, and conferencing before class as well. But today I left at 2;00 and it made all the difference in the world, getting home by 3:15. I was able to stop on the way home and get some gourds for the fall window dressing (next to the gargoyle) and some locally grown Concord grapes (Mmmmm, Bitch!).

And now it's time for some food and then to grading. Yipppeeee!

P.S. Ghosthunter's season premiere was on last night. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Pondhopper

A former student of mine who is also a friend is in London this semester, doing an internship at CBS Paramount. You can check out her adventures here, and I'll add her to the links on teh sidebar.

Tweek

I messed with the color scheme a bit today. Just got bored with the same ole' same ole'.