Some pithy comment about how I'm back, or something.

I'm not sure where to begin, wading through this practically defunct blog to figure out whether or not I want to keep it going, or make the decision to retire it for good.  I suppose the fact that I'm typing anything here at the moment means I'm leaning toward giving this blogging thing on the interwebs another shot.  My last post was back in 2011, so what has happened since then?  Well...

I taught college English courses and was settling into quite the hermit lifestyle in Iowa, and then, in December of 2012, an old friend who had moved to California contacted me to let me know she'd be back in town and wanted to catch up.  I got a text when she arrived, asking if I was doing anything and wondering if I wanted to get together that day.  That day marks the beginning of the end of my hermitude (hermitage? hermitude sounds better), because she convinced me to give San Diego a try, and so in August of 2013 I sold, gave away, and/or packed all my belongings and drove west, getting married in Las Vegas along the way.  As I write this, we're planning a move back to Iowa, and it's bittersweet, to be sure--six years as a Californian for her, and only a little over one year for me.

California has been fun, but circumstances have arisen which made this move the right choice for us.  It's best to avoid bringing up the topic of Iowa winter to Alyssa, but we're both eager to see family and friends, not to mention the cost of living expenses, which are dirt cheap compared to out here.  There are more details on our time out here, and I'm sure some of them will show up in future posts, but I shouldn't get too ambitious with this blogging thing, or I may just sprain something on my first run out of the gate.

Oh, and I have tan lines on my ankles that look like I'm wearing short white socks when I'm actually barefoot.

More later...

Band Names. Get Your Band Names Here!

I do it.  You do it.  We all do it.  No, not screaming for ice cream; we all like to think up goofy band names.  My goal is to compose a definitive list of band names, but I need help from the powers of the interwebs.  I'll start, but you are invited to contribute your contributions (?) in the comments below.

Let the rockin' commence.  Or whatever your genre of choice does that is equivalent to rockin'.

• Inflammation Overload
• The Smokin’ Spoons
  (I can’t quite recall what the inspirational context for this one was, but I’m confident it was food-related; upon reflection I can see how it could be viewed as a drug reference—use this one only if your band or your fans are into freebasing.)
• The Cheese Weasels
  (Later that night, Pete was heard saying: “That outfit would give anyone a cheese weasel.”)
• Hobo Chic
• Madman Chang
• The Chicken Kickers
• He-Man Salad and the Bloody Muppets
• Hangnail
• International Footwear 
• Klingon Freak Show
  (Duh—but you’d have to pay me royalties until we’re both served a cease & desist from the Star Trek goons)

Woah ho ho, yeah....

For the past few months, I've sat and watched this blog get about one hit per week, a whole batch of spam comment notifications that were apparently nuked by Blogger within moments of appearing (thank`ya kindly), and a couple random anonymous comments kindly prodding me for another post.  And here it's sat, desolate, the equivalent of an Old West ghost town with only dry winds and tumbleweed to fill the streets.  I've made mention a few times in the past that I'll put forth the effort to keep this thing alive, but I think that seems to be what jinxes everything.

What I will say is that blogging is on my mind quite often, but, much like my email habits (the bad ones), I tend to put off writing anything because I feel like I should have something important or worthwhile to say. Somehow I've forgotten that the Internet was invented for the very purpose of filling all those tubes with things that are entertaining, time-wasting, and sometimes downright horrific to fight the good fight against all things productive.  Although it was forever ago, I'm pretty sure that's the whole reason I even started this blog.  So from now on, I intend to fill it up with stupid, and if anything worthwhile is posted, then it was entirely by accident.  Trust me.

REMINDER!

This is what things have come to.

I Hate It When

I'm not one for taking part in developing resolutions each year that I know will most likely be abandoned, but I had told myself that I should really start showing a bit more effort with my writing, which I guess would include the blogs.  Teaching has kept me busy to the point where I spend my free time doing, well, pretty much nothing.  I love doing nothing, but the nothingness gets old after a while.  I'm sure there's a Neverending Story joke in here somewhere, but rather than dig for it, I'll link to this picture my friend TR sent earlier today instead.

Anyway, the biggest reason for not writing anything (blogs, emails, stories) is that once I get started, I tend to eat up most of a day, which probably isn't all that good for my job.  Prepping for class doesn't take as long as it used to, but I find I keep obsessing over materials, or the specifics of what I want to talk about, or even the errands I have to run outside of class as I travel from one campus to another.  My plan of attack so far has been to try and get more organized (usually a good plan regardless), and most of these writing ideas need to come out, even if it's only a little bit at a time.  So, my goal (piss on resolutions) is to get in the habit and update more frequently, but most of the posts will probably be relatively short--maybe even tweet-length.  At least it will be progress.

I have this fortune to thank for inspiring me.

At first the fortune itself troubled me, but now I'd say I finally