Monthly Archives: May 2008

What to do?

Poets at WorkI have been thinking about giving up the internet handle “rockstarpoet”. I am not thinking about giving up on blogging. Just blogging under a new name.

Lately, I have noticed a growing trend for everyone being a rockstarthis and rockstarthat. So, two years ago, rockstarpoet seemed cool. Today, it seems desperate and antiquated and I don’t feel that I am either of those things.

So I am thinking of switching my internet handle to something very different. And I feel a certain responsibility to tell you about it and possibly get your feedback. On the other hand, I don’t necessarily care what you think and I am not being rude, but I write this blog for me first… but I do like having you around.

Why should I worry if other people are using rockstar___? I guess it’s not even important that other people are using rockstar. I feel as though I have grown out of rockstarpoet. I no longer relate to rockstarpoet. Maybe it’s because I don’t know that I would label myself as a poet anymore. A writer, yes. But me and poetry have always been at odds.

But my real question is how easy is it to leave a developed handle behind? Aside from all the administrative changes, things like search engines, social media sites, will people accept me as someone else? Will I?

Thoughts, feedback, criticism of my arrogance?

Photo by Doug

What’s Going On or Happy Birthday

Two years of blogging. Two years. May 2006 I started blogging here. When I started I saw other bloggers who talked about blogging for that long. Now I have this incredible catalogue of the last two years of my life. And there have been lots and lots of changes around here. Frankly, you can only expect more. Although, I imagine you wouldn’t expect anything less.

Work. Work with Zoom is going good. I have really learned a lot. It has also made me a lot more confident knowing that my thoughts on the web are pretty much bang on. I have also been able to help a couple of friends get their web projects off the ground as well. Which has been great and as those go live, I can certainly let you know about them (including some podcasting that I will be doing with my new UK friends).

House shopping. I am ready to spend. Last night, we saw a pretty good place, with some fairly decent sized problems and so we decided to place a fairly conservative offer and stick to it. We did just that and once again we did not get it. That’s three offers. The first two we were just outbid. This time we just couldn’t agree on a price. Interestingly, the price difference between us wasn’t that much, but neither side was willing to budge. The good news in all of this is that this place was priced very appropriately and I think we can expect to see more sellers (who want to sell their house) will start pricing more aggressively. The bad news is that house shopping continually seems to sap my energy and take up a lot of time, which has certainly affected my ability to blog.

I have a lot of plans for myself on the web and there should be a lot happening soon. There are just a couple too many balls in the air to add more consistently. But there will likely be a new design here and also there will likely be another site or two where you can find me blogging in the future. I don’t know how many of you use Twitter, but I am using it fairly regularly and you can easily follow me there. It’s definitely my favourite social networking tool at the moment.

My Father’s Taste in Music

I think one of the most important things in life is to be able to admit you’re wrong. Fortunately, I have never had to do that, because I would look like such an idiot for not knowing everything. However, I can admit that, from time-to-time in the past, I questioned my father’s taste in music. But, I am happy to report to you that my his taste in music has improved. Recently, while he was here visiting, he brought me a couple of his CD’s for me to listen to. One of the bands was The Black Keys. I am in the process to listening to all three of their albums. So far, I have to say, that their song “Strange Times” is deadly. Take a listen.

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Venture Bros Season 3

I just learned that The Venture Bros third season will be coming June 1. I can’t even begin to explain the awesome-ness of this. Check out the preview:

Facebook IRL

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=nrlSkU0TFLs[/youtube]

Am I Insane?

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein

I keep making minor changes in my life and expect that they will induce major changes, but I am still just the same guy that I have always been and it’s not enough.

I left Marketwire expecting that a regular schedule with regular hours would help me to do more. Write more, read more, be more. I now have regular hours and a regular schedule, but just found more ways to waste my time. I worked at St. Peter’s Abbey for a summer thinking that I would write more, but I just spent my time thinking about how I wanted to waste my time. In University, I did a mentorship with Shelley Leedahl and took 3 classes because I wanted extra time to write. I just wasted time and got very little writing done.

I keep doing the same thing, keep getting the same result and always hope that I will get a different one. Right now I am hoping to buy a house so that I can have my own space and then I will write. But I will put any money on the fact that if I get it, I will just waste time.

I will propose a new truth to you today—Insanity: knowing the answer, but never using it.