This past week I put the finishing touches on another song. Well, as finished as I get, which ain't that finished by contemporary professional standards. That brings my count for 2007 to 6 that are good enough to work with. Not bad for someone who hasn't spent their whole life doing it. Out of the 6, I'm becoming more convinced that "Superman" is a gem of a song. I get requests for it whenever I play, and I have had several people tell me I need to sell it. And that's what I'm working on...
I've had a running thought for awhile, and I thought it might be a good idea to put it out there. Most bloggers have at least some desire for online social networking. To meet people and establish relationships. Over the past ten years, I personally have been a part of numerous online communities, and I am betting that experience is not unique to me. I would like to start a message board at some point where people who have lost touch with various online personas can reconnect with their ol...
Well, over the last couple weeks I have been playing with my myspace page. Not to be trendy, mind you, but because so many of my friends use it and I use it to access their blogs. I still don't have a picture of it; when I find one that won't break the Internet, I'll post it. BUT, I did get a short playlist (10 songs) up of some favorites. I could have uploaded some of my own and made the favorites more fun but I actually enjoyed perusing what was out there. I found much of what I was looking...
In my time online, I've seen online scams come and go. The pitch is the same; they promise something they don't deliver. I'm not ashamed to say I've "fallen" for a few of them. I generally weigh what it costs me, and if it doesn't cost me anything substantial, I usually give it a try. Still, I can't say I'm happy with undelivered promises. One of the things that's lured me in were the blog exchange program. While I have had no problem with one, which is why I still link it on my sidebar, t...
Before going further, let me warn you that the following is about the ongoing feud between me and another user on this site. If you want to stay out of the blog drama, I understand. Now would be a good time to find another article. I truly intend this to be my last word on the topic, as I want to move on. OK, you've been duly warned. For those not following the argument it stemmed over my relief that the TX legislature had overturned Governor Rick Perry's executive order mandating the HPV ...
There was a recent article stating that blacklists shouldn't be used on featured articles. Backstory: it's someone who disagrees with my blacklisting him and unleashed a torrent of attack articles in response. The disagreement is because an article of mine is featured and he wants the ability to take the feud he insists on perpetuating to that article. The purpose of a blacklist is to control who can comment on your blog. The idea is that if you have a disagreement with someone you do have th...
(Thanks, LW, for the inspiration) This exercise was inspired by a mini challenge issues by Little Whip in which we were to use various words from the blog in a paragraph. That wasn't enough for me, so I hunted down some obscure words and decided I would issue a challenge to put together a story or poem using as many of the following words as possible. I was going to give the words without the meanings, but I didn't want to deter people. Because of the potential scope of the project, I und...
In my quest to get a degree, I took a big gamble earlier in the year on being able to finish by December. The thing is, I have a Technical Writing course that is a core requirement, and English Comp is a prerequisite. I discovered all of this at the beginning of the semester when I *accidentally* discovered I had been basing my predictions on getting an AA in CIS, when the course track I was on was actually the course for an AAS in Computer Technology. The coursework is very different, and a clo...
As I perused the "Current Events" section of the forums, I noticed a proliferation of Imus articles. It made me think. When I started blogging, if it was current events, I nailed it. I didn't let a lot of headlines pass me by. But the truth is, I've been more than a little perturbed by the nature of the news lately. I am finding the Onion FAR more insightful and thought provoking than the New York Times. While that has pretty much always been the case, NOW I'm finding them more accurate as we...
Over the last year and a half, I started to think I would never make this milestone. This is my 2000th article on JoeUser, a testament to staying power, stubbornness, and not a little loquaciousness and inflated sense of self importance. I could not merely allow 2000 to pass without notice, and over the past week, with this article looming, I have invested a good deal of time and effort in deciding what, precisely, I should offer for my tooth article. 2000 is, after all, rarified air, an...
I'm going to start my oldest two girls on blogging here in the next week. Now, they already know and understand that I will be looking over their shoulder. If they publish it, I will be checking it. I'm not too worried about them, although I may have them create custom audiences to start out. Realizing in advance that JU has no way to authenticate ages or to heavily police the blogs, would it be possible to create a separate forum where kids like mine could post their articles and make it ...
When people come and go on JoeUser, one of the things that constantly amazes me is the perception that, because someone is highly ranked on the site, they are a "target". The shameful thing about this is that it's a perfect metaphor for life. Too often people will look at someone who's successful and feel it is their duty to bring that individual down in order to bring themselves up. Not only is it flawed thinking, it rarely ever works as planned. See, success is not a "zero sum game". Tha...
JU's resident psychoanalyst decided to make his big entry by launching a load of personal attacks against JU regulars. In writing about me, he made the following summary: GideonMacleish - writes for the sake of writing - loves to hear his own voice - the louder the better. Arrogant. In that summary, he proves he knows absolutely nothing about me. The part about being arrogant is true; I've admitted as much so many times over that this individual's "revelation" is nothing more than d...
Ever hear a song and just wish you wrote it? A song so perfect, so real, so magical that you wish you could your muse would have snagged it and sent it your way? Below is a list of some of the songs I really wish I'd wrote, but just wasn't cool enough (or alive enough) to have done so. Highway Patrolman, by Bruce Springsteen The Freshman, by the Verve Pipe Mr Tambourine Man, by Bob Dylan City of New Orleans, by Steve Goodman Pancho and Lefty, by Townes van Zandt Mr. Tanner, by ...
Working in my little cubicle, with these days where my schedule consists largely of working, school, eating and sleeping, I eat out far more often than I should. It's usually a pick between "do I want to go out and GET dinner, or can I have it delivered?" Delivery consists of three choices: pizza, pizza and pizza. Three restaurants, basically. Now, technically, there's also a sandwich shop, but unless I can get my coworker to go in with me, that's usually out as they have a minimum order fo...