Whine & Cheese

DVD: Julie & Julia

I've been sitting on this post for at least a week now.  I am trying to write (some) stuff in advance and let it marinate for a bit before posting, but still I shouldn't forget about it, anyhow...

I can't promise this will be a new W&C feature, but you'll probably start seeing more movie-related posts every now and then.  This past Christmas we gave ourselves a "house gift" of a new big-screen TV and were also quite easily talked into a Blu-Ray home theater system.  This has resulted in watching more movies (or Blu-Ray material), even going so far as getting a Blockbuster membership (which seems so 1993 or something!). 

As with my book posts, I suspect these posts won't be so much about the movie, but more about what brought me to it and what things/thoughts it stirred up...

First up is Julie & Julia.  Basically, I was looking to get some prep for this year's Oscars with the legendary Meryl Streep's take as the legendary Julia Child.  With this record 16th Academy Award nomination, it seemed as if Streep had the edge to win her 3rd (she hasn't won since Sophie's Choice in 1983!), but now it seems that Sandra Bullock has the momentum to win on her first ever nomination with The Blind Side. 

Again, I won't go too much into the film. It was cute and quite enjoyable, better than I had expected.  As expected, Streep is stellar, more of homage than distracting imitation.  With most of this movie taking place before Child became famous, Streep creates a younger and even more vibrant of Child than the one we are familiar via the television (easily compared thanks to bonus material featuring Child cooking show clips).

The surprise was the "Julie" half of the movie, which was rumored to have paled to the "Julia" part.  I think Amy Adams is just one of those uber-likable actresses (ala Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts) that can pretty much making anything watchable/forgivable, though I did not think this half of the movie needed "saving" (perhaps it was the lowered expectations going in).  It could have been the blogging component that made it more interesting for me as Julie Powell was really one of the first to turn a blog into a brand new life and career.

... and this brings me to the first detour: blogging leading to bigger and better things.  Blogs, and now even Twitter feeds, have become the new Hollywood Boulevard drugstore with starlets hoping to be plucked from obscurity with hopes of fame and fortune.  While this is a nice fantasy, it was never something that entered my mind when I started blogging (nor is it now!). There are quite a few reasons for this:  a) I'm not ambitious and b) I am not a good enough writer (we're talking grammar, punctuation, etc), c) my "material" is nowhere near focused enough... and that's just off the top of my head. 

Now, would I love to make a living writing?  Absolutely.  Do I think it will happen?  Well, even having dabbled in quasi-professional writing in the past, the answer would be... no.  I am not sure if it's  poor self-esteem coupled or just an honest self-assessment that I am just not good enough to do it for a living.  I think the same of those folks who are not so subtlety gunning for a book deal via their blogs/feeds/etc.  While I think many (most!) of these folks are far more talented than I am, I still think there is a good deal of delusion in play.  Part of me worries for them, but part of me thinks good for them for the self-belief!  Ditto to the person I stumbled upon who said they would love photography to be their new career.  Again, this person is a talented photographer, but get in line buddy... behind me! And, for the record, I assess my photography skills similarly to my writing skills.

The next detour is how fun would it be to live in Europe for an extended period of time.  It was thrillingly romantic to see Julia and her husband arrive in Paris for an extended (several year) stay... and alas, a palpable sadness when it was time to leave.  Our 2008 trip to Europe was absolutely life-altering for me and I would love to live in any of the cities we visited. There is just a whole different style of life/culture over there that I think would be amazing to immerse oneself into for an extended period of time.  I am sure it would get old eventually, but think it would take quite some time to get there. 

The thing is that we could probably figure out a way to do it.  Most of Todd's business unit (and his immediate boss) is located in France (alas not Paris, but a good-sized city), so there's that for starters... and I can pretty much work anywhere. 

But before dreams of a long weekend in Barcelona, a train rides to Rome, a quick flights to Santorini, or the allure of "coffee" in Amsterdam start dancing in my head, one is roused awake by the logistics of leaving, even temporarily... leaving things behind like a house and pets and family and well, a lot of stuff!  But Julia's life-changing years and joie de vivre in Paris, certainly got the daydreaming juices flowing, so much so that we are currently plotting a return to Europe.

So, a final return to the actual movie... quite fun, no-brainer of the movie, only further enhanced by a supporting cast including Chris Messina (who I mooned about - and shared his "moon" - last summer during the film's theatrical release) as Julie's husband Eric... Mary Lynn Rajskub, best known as 24's resident curmudgeon Chloe... the always fine Stanley Tucci as Julia's hubby... and even Glee's own Sue Sylvester, Jane Lynch in a small role as Julia's sister.

Quiet = Not Good

Just wanted to do a quick post to officially say that it has been good to get back to blogging.  I hesitated to do this kind of post until it I was sure it was going to stick, but the decision to give W&C a new look was the sign I was subconsciously looking for... again, other than being tired of the old look, there was no premeditation re: overhaul until I did it!  

I took a look back at the last half of 2009 and there were only handful of entries beyond the reading/book posts, and even those weren't really what I would call good ones.  So, in coming back, I did make a conscious decision to not have the pressures (all self-inflicted, mind you) of posting daily or using some hazy measuring stick that they had to be substantive... just getting back to its original intention, being a place to say things, when (and if!) I have something to say/show/share!

Chattiness is a fairly good sign that I am happy/content.  And while this blog is half-named 'whine,' even when I am whining, things haven't totally devolved to a true/real low.  It is when I shut down/stay quiet for an extended period that thing are probably not okay.  Last year, there were a lot of challenges (mostly in the job and mid-life crisis-y department) and I know I was not a pleasant person to be around, in-person or not.  While I was long overdue for a blogging sabbatical having done it pretty darn consistently since September 2003, part of it was this mental shutdown with the re-boot took a few months with my increasing older operating system...   

... things started to turn around in the fall, with the Hawaiian vacation certainly helping out a lot.  But wanting to chat again... and beyond 140 characters... is something to feel good about and a true sign of being back online, in this case both literally and figuratively.  Anyone who knows me, knows that while 140 characters is sufficient for a good punchline every now and then and satisfies and urge, it is much too limiting for me.  This was always where I let things most hang loose, the place I am most myself.  Chatty and rambling... 

New Look For 2010

I am not sure what got into me, I didn't wake up this morning with even the twinkle that I was going to give Whine & Cheese a new look, but that's what happened! 

The previous "look" had long over-stayed its welcome and even though the schmancy rotating/random banner was fun, it was showing signs of aging... with shows and/or people that I am not so super-enthusiastic about anymore.  Also, the layout was a custom/advanced template which took a lot of work to get right (and a lot of work/thought to modify), so that's another reason it stuck around so long.

But with a renewed energy to blog again in 2010, it seemed appropriate to give my blog a new look.  This is a standard TypePad template (Vicksburg) with a few CSS tweaks to stuff like font, colors, column width, etc..  It was done in a very trial-and-error method, but after a few (or more!) frazzled nerves, I am satisfied with this much more simplified, sleaker, cleaner, less cluttered look.

I would love to get some feedback, particularly if something is missing or not working right or say if the colors and/or font or font size are difficult to read... or if it doesn't fit on your monitor as I widened things up since I am guessing most of us have the more rectangular flat screens these days.

Thanks A Million!

Well, I've been blogging for a little over 6 years (September 2003!) and while things have slowed down a bit of late, I finally hit a major milestone at 2:27 am this morning... my 1 millionth visitor!

The details of the 1 millionth visitor are below, but he/she arrived here searching for a picture of a wardrobe malfunction on Dancing With the Stars!  Ah, how the warms my heart!   While I am sure you have learned more than you ever wanted to know about me on Whine & Cheese, when it comes down to it I view this more as a pop culture blog and 90% of these visitors have stumbled (more often thank not in vain) onto here looking for stuff like that wardrobe malfunction or a shirtless Bradley Cooper or Rafael Nadal's butt...  

But I am more thankful for those who have stayed for this journey and even more so the friends that I have made via this blog, even if we have yet (or ever will) meet face-to-face.  Here's to the next million, though I fear it'll take more than 6 years to get there!

Here's the proof/details of W&C's 1 millionth visitor:

Master Of My Domain

Good news, bad news.... whineandcheese.net will be around for another 5 years!!  

(A hat tip to Jeff, who used that same title when he recently created his new domain... but c'mon that title is too good to pass up!)

Back at the end of April, I received notice that it was time to renew my domain as it was set to expire in early July... it was quite the eye-opener, as it is hard to believe that this incarnation of my blog w/ it's own fancy URL had been around for 5 years already... only my oldest followers would probably even remember my first venture into the blogosphere... Blog Over Troubled Water... not sure what I was thinking with that name...

That said, I just got around to renewing the domain... yesterday.  Now not that I never seriously considered packing up shop, but the dragging of feet is probably says something.  It wasn't until I heard a local newscaster had lost her domain because it was swooped up when she forget to renew it, that I thought I'd better act quickly... not that I think I am at the fame level of a local news anchor, but apparently there is some way these "squatters" can know when domains expire and take action... and I certainly didn't want that to happen. 

I know things haven't been at their usual activity level, but I guess that's to be expected.  In a few months, I will mark my 6th year of blogging... and I have wondered if there really is anything new to say after 6 years... and as I have documented here a few (many!) times of late, I am in a sort of mid-life "sorting things out" phase that seems to be a more internal process than something that I think is appropriate to be laying out here.... even if I wisely titled part of this blog "Whine" ...  I know there is limited tolerance to reading about it and there is certainly diminishing returns in writing or wallowing in it for too long as well.  

I won't make any promises about what the next fives years will be like (btw, just made more sense to renew for the 5 at a lower cost p/year)... but it will probably be at a slower pace.  I still love sharing my love of books and still had fun doing American Idol posts (vs. other reality shows that have started to wane... 5 years ago I would think it was unimaginable that I would voluntarily not be watching Survivor and Big Brother!)... and there is still the legal eye-candy from time to time. 

And thanks to the friends that I have made over these past years, I don't know if it's sad ... and don't know how to not make it sound creepy/stalker-ish... but consider some of my best friends these days people I have never met face-to-face... but I guess that is the world we're living in!

Ok... we'll re-visit this post in 2014... unless blogs or Tweets or Facebook status are being directly downloaded into one's brain by then without all this unncessary typing!

I'm Here

I think it was just this past Friday that Todd mentioned to me that he was a bit concerned about the lack of activity here at W&C...so figured it was time for a post not related to a book or American Idol...  and don't worry (or cheer) this is NOT a "I'm closing up shop" post.

A little while back I gave myself permission that if I didn't feel compelled to write something that I shouldn't.  I never wanted this blog  to become a chore, but I'll admit that I did start to feel pressure after maintaining a pretty much "every weekday" schedule for many, many years.  I've been doing this since September 2003... an incredible stretch for someone who will be the first to admit his tendency to not stick to things ... tell it to the gym membership, the baseball card collection, walking the dog, etc

This has been an incredible outlet for me.  Working alone (and 97% of the time having no human interaction - in-person or phone - the latter btw being totally okay with me), this is my watercooler and pretty my connection to the world Monday thru Friday, 12 hours a day.

So why the W&C hiatus? 

Well, I am in the midst of working some stuff out... most of it on the work-related doorstep... and while it wasn't a conscious one (and in retrospect), it appears that I made the decision not to primarily deal with it here.  I'm chalking it up to a minor mid-life crisis and fueled on by the economic downturn... exposing some raw nerves or having me pick at some long-formed scabs re: work/career.  It's been building for awhile, but much more easily ignored or not dealt with when the projects and $$$ were rolling in carefree manner... and while things could be a whole lot worse (thank goodness we have so little/no overhead) it's still leading me to re-evaluate and struggle figuring a way to deal with (or more accurately, accept) the new realities on the ground... and/or how things may be from now on (or for the foreseeable future).  Top it with a whole weight gain thing... which is/was something I never had to worry about... has only added a visible/ physical /tangible dimension to it all... and well, I haven't been the most pleasant person to be around of late!

And that is a bit troubling, because I view myself as fun and pleasant (and hold out hope that others view me the same, which I think they do) and I've just let other things hijack that... now it's not all shadows and darkness, there are still genuine and lots of fun and frothy thoughts and things going on (as my FB and Twitter stuff suggests - I hope!), but for now this long form I think would just allow me to wallow too much... and while part of the blog title is "whine"... wallow is a quite a different animal that lacks is not a particular productive activity for oneself nor much entertainment value to others (I know this my blog, but I wouldn't be honest to say that it has an audience - regular or random). 

Anyhow, I'm working things out... and do honestly believe I'm on my way up/out... I think this post is actually proof of that... but still a work in progress...

I'll Give You A Topic

I'm still here... just have had a rare spurt of work this week, so I definitely not used to that!  Not that I think the future prospects of my personal work situation has improved any this week, but it's nice to have the delusion that things seem to be okay... if only it's temporary.

Another reason I haven't been on here is that I got an interesting comment to this blog on Sunday night.  While I haven't lost any sleep over it, it was still a bit disconcerting.  My knee jerk reaction was to delete it (which I did), but on second thought I should have just kept it in.  And while I don't want to encourage negative commenting by giving it attention, I am still go ahead and post that comment here and now.

This comment was on this shirtless-related post from late last week:

Dude, aren't you, like, in your 40s or something? If you were a straight guy posting semi-naked pictures at your age of hot young chicks, you'd be looked at as scary and pathetic and a borderline menace. Just because you're all about the sex every minute of every day doesn't mean you can't finally shut up about it and grow up a bit.

Discuss!  :-)

For myself, I really don't know where to start addressing the criticism.  One thing I can say with a good deal of confidence is that this person hasn't visited the blogs of many gay men (many who are of my advanced age - gasp! - and even older!), because I certainly think I am on the lighter side when it comes to posting "semi-naked pictures" (though admittedly I got through streaks/phases)... and to think I have struggled even with the idea posting pictures that even may feature a bare derriere (I can think of 4 of 1700+ posts that went that far!  And a quick check shows a whopping 6.1% of all my posts have an "eye candy" tag on them)... and for sure, the only dangling participles you'll see on this blog are of the grammatical error variety... which, again, I think is pretty darn gosh puritanical vs. other gay blogs.

And beside this is all about fun... providing a distraction for both myself and my readers, and I don't think there is, or should be, any age limits/restrictions on that!  In fact, that particular post that caused this furor was only my response to search hits that were causing folks to visit my blog in the first place... so, if anything, I was just providing a service... giving people what they were asking for...  ha!

Anyhow that's it... again, I am taking full advantage of a blog that has 'whine' in the title... a chance to whine/vent... get my thought out to the universe... let it go! 

UPDATE:  Thanks for the comments, I'd be fibbing if I didn't say part of my motivation (subconscious, then after some thought, quite conscious) was to get a bit of support/positive reinforcement!  I am definitely one of those folks who can hear 50 nice things, but the 1 negative thing will send the self-esteem into the gutter.  Anyhow, I did do a bit of snooping and the comment came from the Washington DC area... and did not come via a search engine, nor did they stay very long... so a bit strange, but oh well!

25 Random Things About Me

There is this a meme going around Facebook where folks are sharing 25 Random things about them.  For those of us who have been around for awhile, a few years back the thing to do was a "100 Things About Me" post... I think this was even before the word "meme" was invented.  Anyhow, I was finally tagged yesterday on it... so in a not terribly inspired move, I went back to my 100 Things post (which I posted right here on this blog on January 1st, 2004!) and pulled out my 25 "best of" ... actually combining some of the 100, since I didn't have to "stretch" it as much.

So for those of you who have been around here for a looooong time, here's a reminder... and for those of you who are newer, here's perhaps a few things you may not know about me!

1. I moved to Arizona in 1990 and age 22. It still surprises me. Not a whole heck of my family budged very far from NJ (likely dating back to arriving at Ellis Island) and it's not generally part of my nature to do such "big" things.

2. The reason I moved to Arizona was to go to Arizona State University for an MBA. Basically I made the decision to attend ASU based on how much I loved AZ (and the weather) while visiting relatives.

3. I am self-employed (9 year anniversary in May) and work out my home. None of my post-ASU jobs ever utilized that MBA degree.

4. Despite incessant begging, I was never allowed to have a pet growing up as a kid. This led to "making up for lost time" when I moved to AZ. In the past 18 years, 6 cats and 3 dogs have been a part of day-to-day life. As of this writing, the count stands at 2 cats and 1 dog.

5. Despite repeatedly watching dog training shows, I remain the "good cop" when it comes to my pets - with their comfort more often than not taking priority over my own.

6. I hated being dragged to my brother's Little League baseball games so much, that I would often (gladly) be sent off to my grandparents for a couple of weeks over the summer. Oddly enough, one of the highlights of my life was attending all 4 home games, and particularly the Game 7 9th inning win for the AZ Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series.

7. Prior to college, I had never had any topping on a pizza other than sauce and cheese. These days, I'll eat pretty much whatever you can put on a piece of baked bread.

8. My favorite food genre is Mexican... something that I had never experienced until I moved to Arizona (which is retrospect is probably a good thing)

9. I talk to my Mom on the phone at least once a week and, at max, to my Dad perhaps 4 times of the year. We get along fine, just not that big of a talker.

10. With the exception of my Mom, I hate talking on the phone -- or would go as far to say I am phobic about making phone calls, even it's calling up to order pizza.

11. In the 5th grade I was hit by a car while riding a bicycle. I did not sustain any major injuries, other than some bumps and bruises... and remains (knock on wood) the only time I've been in an ambulance and to a hospital (as the "patient").

12. I was a writer/photographer for several years for an online tennis magazine, back when the Internet/Web was a new thing. It was a fantasy come true combining all my true loves (tennis, writing, photography), but after several years of doing it I realized I wasn't "good enough" to do any of it as a job.

13. My childhood dentist did not use Novocaine for fillings (the only time it was used was for a tooth extraction). This lead to a fear of dentists (I remember running out of his chair and out the front door of the office one time), until about a decade ago when I got a lot of work done and now go to the dentist 3x/year for cleanings.

14. The week after I moved to Phoenix, the all-time high temperature of 122 degrees was hit. While that was truly crazy, I still stand my belief that a "dry heat" makes a huge difference.

15. I don't like public restrooms... and I'll just leave it at that.

16. I have needed corrective vision since the 4th Grade... did not get contact lenses until I was a sophomore in college... and these days, wear lenses that I swap out on a monthly basis. I'm not sure I will ever feel comfortable enough to have elective eye surgery (aka LASIK)

17. As of this writing, I have seen 68 *different* musicals. This is largely thanks to having season tickets to the Broadway Across America series. I have become a theater snob of sorts and found that most of the shows really aren't very good.

18. 5 years I had never been a to a foreign country other than Canada (which hardly counts). That count is now up to 5: French Polynesia, England, France, Netherlands, and China. The latter 4 all coming within a 6-month time span in 2008, a year I traveled about 25,000 miles and one that is likely never to be repeated.

19. My recall of 1980s trivia/music is often better than where I put my car keys and other more recent activities.

20. I don't like celery, mushrooms, or olives - but can deal with any of they are either well-cooked, in small pieces, or hidden in a dish (though I don't mind knowing that they're in there).

21. I could not imagine life without TiVo and pretty much refuse to watch "live" television these days... and can be compulsive in trying to figure out how much a show needs to be time-shifted to finish at the same time as the "live" broadcast.

22. A couple of years out of grad school, I found myself with over $30K worth of student loan / credit card debt. Once I made the effort, it took me about 7 years to get out of it and these days I rarely even allow myself to carryover a credit card balance.

23. My first concert was Hall & Oates (I believe 'til Tuesday opened for them) and camped out overnight (only once!) for tickets to Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA' tour (circa 1985).

24. My (undergrad) college graduation ceremony lasted 10 minutes thanks to a torrential downpour. Kinda felt a bit robbed, but had got another chance at a real one at ASU about 6 years later... and despite gorgeous weather, the ASU one was indoors.

25. I love to cook - as long as it for someone other than myself!

This & That

You may (or not?!) have noticed there wasn't a blog entry yesterday.  I said awhile back that I wasn't going to push/force writing here, but I have to say it still feels a bit weird to let the day go by without writing at least a little something out.  That said, just a little this and that stream of consciousness today...

But alas, even if there is no entry here you can usually see a twitter or two (or three or four) in the upper left hand corner or elsewhere (like... ummm... Twitter perhaps?!).  I have to admit that status updates are cannibalizing my blog entries (as I suspect they have for many, many others).   I guess some things can (or should) be said in 140 characters or less... or else it's just blogging for the lazy... "I would have written more, but gosh darnit... out of characters!"   I don't know if this is a good thing or bad thing.  A big part of me thinks it is just adding/increasing the attention-deficit of our nation, but it is still a nice little outlet.

***********************************************************

The Twilight craze is fully underway, with the movie primed for a midnight opening tonight.  Just in case, you have been living under a rock, the Twilight series (written by local - and Mormon! - author Stephenie Meyer) is the latest publishing phenomenon (quickly filling the Harry Potter vacuum) about a high school girl and her first love, who just happens to be a 180-year old vampire (though if the movie version is accurate, can pass for Zac Efron's cousin).  I will admit - out of curiosity and this odd attraction to the vampire genre - to reading the first novel,  even though if today's newspaper is to be be believed I am in a minority since this is only something for daughters and their moms. 

As you may recall, I wasn't terribly impressed with the book... and re-iterated to Todd this morning that I wish, given all the hysteria, that it was a better written book.  Alas, he reminded me to stop being a snob.. and again, I will say that whatever gets people, especially young folk, reading is a very good thing.  I pretty much had the same reaction to Harry Potter... reading the first book and pretty much wondering what all the fuss was about (and you can see how my opinion affected future sales in that series!).   That said, I may give the 2nd book in the series a try ... and once we finish watching True Blood, the first book in Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire series as well... like I said, I'm a sucker (ha!) for vampires!

***********************************************************

It's been interesting watching all this post-election/cabinet post stuff with Obama.  In particular, I have been amused by all the criticism about stuff like Joe Lieberman keeping his chairmanships in the Senate or the consideration of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.  Given what we already know about Obama and now having finished reading The Audacity of Hope, these kind of things are soooooo Obama.  As you may recall, I didn't get on the Obama train to fairly late... all that hope, change, "red state - blue state, no the United States" stuff didn't penetrate into my cynical bones.  But once I let that go... drank the kool-aid (I'll give you that)... you either have to be stratospherically cynical that Obama has been planning all this each and every day for the last decade or more... or else come around to thinking this guy is incredibly sincere and really believes/intends to govern in a post-partisan environment. 

I have found the whole Clinton/Secretary of State thing pretty interesting.  I expected there would be some kind of offer... again, this is typical Obama (though this "team of rivals" knee-jerks are getting out of hand), but I didn't expect interest on Clinton's part... and apparently she does, otherwise I don't think it would be buzzing for these many days.  Now, if she would have been the very first female SoS, I think she would have jumped at it... but it's pretty amazing to think - and just in the past two administrations - that she would be the third woman (and continue the decade+ trend of a non-white man) to fill the post.  But given how long this has dragged on, I suspect she will head the State Department.

And likely by the time this entry gets posted, we will have lost our Democratic Governor here in Arizona as it appears that Janet Napolitano will be the Secretary-Elect of Homeland Security.  Napolitano was also rumored to be under consideration for Attorney General, but that fell through earlier this week. 

While I have no real basis/logic for this thought, I kinda sorta would have been okay letting Janet go for the AG slot... but Homeland Security, well... just seems like a disaster waiting to happen... literally!   But the more troubling aspect is that her departure would leave AZ totally Republican run... with the current Secretary of State Jan Brewer moving to the top spot (the third woman to do so in AZ's recent/20-ish year history - though this time at least with the governor not leaving in disgrace)... so while I am happy for Napolitano, it still leaves me a little sad that our little (but important!) bit of "blue" is leaving our red state.

Splitting My Time

The online world can certainly stretch one thin.   

While getting my work done during the day -- though I am sure that may come as a surprise to some of my online friends -- there seems to be a lot of flipping around.  Of course, there's this blog -- which has become the old warhorse of sorts -- but otherwise it's Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, and Flickr that are competing for my attention... or at times, trying to breakdown my very breakdown-able self-discipline.  (Sidenote: there is a whole discussion whether all this is leading to the death of blogging, but that's best saved for another post.)

While it certainly can (and occasionally does!) get all out of hand, for the most part I manage to keep a pretty good balance.  The ping.fm site/service allows me to post my little status updates to all three (or any combination) of the "social" networks (Twitter, Facebook, and Plurk)... and all these things have really helped to keep me sane (though admittedly driven me crazy on occasion!) as it fills the vacuum of lack of human interaction that results from working from home.

Each site has my own sub-group of people, but pity the poor folks that have to deal with me on all fronts -- though I think that may be just Jeff (that made me think of "Just Jack!" from Will & Grace) -- though Jen gets a healthy dose of "Ed overload" as well!  But it has been fun and these days there seems to be a sudden Facebook resurgence with a lot of a game playing (particularly word games, which I love), group joing (joining!  Thanks Jeff for noticing and having fun with my Freudian typo!), and general sharing. 

With my rejuvenated return to photography, have been doing a lot more stuff on Flickr as well... joining and submitting my photos to different groups. Flickr is my one online activity that I share with my family... thus it is the one place where I find myself doing some self-censorship... not that I am shooting racy stuff, but let's just say something like the photo of the Cockring bar in Amsterdam was something that didn't make an appearance on my Flickr.

In general, I have just been taking more pictures... slowly but surely, I would like my Flickr to be a bit more than just vacation pictures.  In further proof that I am the oddball of my family (who don't read for pleasure or eat spicy food or like to travel, etc. etc.), I was amused when my Mom asked "Why did you take a picture of that?" upon stumbling on to a few photos I took of our local TGIFridays restaurant that recently burned down to the ground.  So I just warned her that I was further exploring this photography hobby and to expect more experimenting and "slice of life" stuff.  Not sure she got it, but such is life!

So that's what I am splitting some of my time with these days... whether some of these things will ultimately fall to the wayside, we shall see... so if I am not here at W&C, I am there (or there or there) doing something else... and for right now I am enjoying each of them!