Tag Archives: metablogging

Uncategorized, writing

Return Trajectory

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8573145208_9366e8b674_oAfter an interesting weekend with a few email and website hiccups, things are coming back to normal with soloshootsfirst.  Happy to report that all web-related goodies moved over to the new host with just a few complications that weren’t that bad, all things considered.

I looked back at my Plan B post, and I am making a little bit of progress in the “look for new work” category.  Taking pictures of myself has to count for photography effort, as well.  Yet this week, I’m going to schedule another chat with one of the principals whose likeness is being portrayed in my current writing project.  The talk with Clint last fall was helpful, and it was fun just to think back on those days together.  I figure I should get at least the same out of Kelly.

Uncategorized, writing

Killer Crossover and Delayed Starts

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8559444479_d62d5c8717_oMight end up taking a few-more-than-desired days off as I’m going to move this site over to my new hosting service as well.  The change should end up being transparent, but will probably take a day or three to complete.

I’m annoyed with myself that I haven’t made any new progress with writing in the last week or so.  I have occupied my time with some other projects, but I need to be sure I’m budgeting a little space for everything that I want to accomplish.  Making an actual schedule might be a nice idea if I thought I could stick to it.  I have to chalk up cutting back significantly on TV and general Internet-dicking-around as minor victories at this point.

In more general news, I’m taking a ride to Milwaukee on Saturday.  Prepare thyself for my descent.

podcasting, Uncategorized

Sooo Meta

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Haven’t been spending a lot of time with photo and writing in the last few days, as I transitioned the podcast blog from wordpress.com over to a hosted wordpress installation.  I found a great deal on hosting with 1-click WordPress install, unlimited storage and bandwidth, unlimited domains, for $5 a month for three years.  If you want to check them out, they are the #1 recommended host on wordpress.org.
So anyway, moving BKORadio.com was a significant task, but I feel like it was a good way to test out the host and see if I would ultimately want to move my personal site there as well.  Probably won’t *right* away, but it is coming.  Moving this one should actually be easier, as it’s already a self-hosted wordpress site and essentially copying it over it what I would be doing.
I made a “banner” image for BKO Radio using my phone camera, GIMP, and Snapseed.  I like the way I was able to push the background out of focus with the various filters used, since the background in my apartment is kind of a mess.
2013-03-12 13.52.32
Uncategorized, writing

Saddles, and How to Use Them

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I wrote exactly one goddamned blog post during the entire year of 2012.  I decided that I should change that.

So here I am, but with a new purpose.  What I’m going to do here for the foreseeable future is talk as often as I care to about the processes and struggles that I’m going through to create things that I like to create — that might be writing, or pictures, or podcasts, or some other project that requires me to invent something in my brain and expose it to the world.  I thought some focus might help me to saddle up here again.  Also, I’m clearly not getting enough mileage out of those 140-character quips.

I talked to the K-Bear last week, and we thought that we could both use a little writing review/motivation, so I’m going to grab the bull (I am really loving these ranching metaphors) and be the first to toss something out there.  I have a long-standing project that I probably just haven’t had the courage to complete.  I want to write a fictionalized account of my misadventures with my best friends from middle school, and the days we spent biking across snowmobile trails, reading comic books, playing arcade and/or Super Nintendo games, throwing knives at trees, stealing Playboys, and other dumb stuff that 13 or 14 year-old boys do in the Northwoods.

It’s been tough for me to build up some momentum on this project because while the memories are very important to me, it’s hard to see a compelling narrative emerging from the stories.  My best friend, Ben, passed away in 2005, and it seems obvious that that event will come up in this story.  But how do you transition from the simple joys of youth to the heavy reality of adulthood?  Up to this point, I’ve taken time to write down things I remember, I interviewed Clint to get some of his thoughts, and not much else.  This is a project that I absolutely want to finish (at least the first complete draft) in 2013.

So, I’ll send Joe and Wordy a couple thousand words, and next week I’ll try to send them a couple thousand more.  Gotta start somewhere.

General, Uncategorized

Back to It, Then

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In the build-up to the end of my grad school career (at least for the time-being), I was asked contiuously, “what are you going to do next?” and I was simultaneously flattered that people thought I had done work good enough to continue writing, and angry that the completed goddamned thesis still didn’t seem to be enough to placate them (just kidding about that last bit).

I had initially felt like I would need some time to rest; a few weeks at least, or possibly the whole the summer, to enjoy the lack of responsibility and obligation that plagued my brain lo these many years.  It was only a week ago today that I had that defense, and already I’m feeling like I need to keep up at something in order to keep my skills sharp and my mood intact.

I looked at the blog that I used to write in quite regularly, but which in recent times has become little more than a depository of podcasts and twitter digests.  Not that there is anything wrong with either, but I remember enjoying the feeling of satisfaction when I wrote something in here on a daily basis.  I decided I would make some modifications to this system, and the change in look on the site is Part One of that process.

So, for those that are curious:

  • The Drama Jocks show will be relocated to its own site.  Josh, Joe, and I will continue to bring our fans the soft-hitting sports commentary to which they’ve grown accustomed.  It will be happening at BKOradio.com.
  • The BryGuy Show will make its presence principally known at the Facebook page.  I hope to occasionally share some items from that program at BKOradio as well.
  • If and when we witness the return of The Original Podcast featuring Kyle E. Geissler, you’ll find that one in its entirety at the new BKOradio site.
  • This webspace is returning to its blogg-o-riffic roots, and I hope to return to featuring some photography as well; realized the other day that it’s been nearly twelve months since I uploaded a photo onto this site.  Yikes.

Enjoy the rest of your day, and if you live in the upper midwest, try not to melt.  Hot as hell AND rainy today…

General, Uncategorized

Discount Post

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DSC_0220Hey, I know that this isn’t very substantial, but to me it was huge (as in, took me about 6 hours huge).

Ever since I switched themes on the blog here back in the fall, I’ve struggled with finding an effective way to display photos.  I’ve had it on my list all this while, but today, I finally tackled the problems, and I feel like I have a nicer presentation of these images than ever.  I’m hoping this will lead to me adding pictures to the website more often.

So, if you’re interested, take a look at the Galleries page, and enjoy.

General, Uncategorized

Some Housecleaning

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After we moved, there was a long period of time where all our spare moments were taken up with sorting through stuff, moving things around, putting things away, etc., and then all of a sudden it was the holiday season.  By about mid-January, I could sense that we were moving past that stuff and a little extra time would be opening up.  I’m glad, not only for the sake of my sanity, but I feel like I can start making lists of other things to worry about again.  A little quality time with this site is one of them.

I changed to a new ‘theme’ shortly before we moved out of Milwaukee, and I still like it quite a bit.  It has some limitations with a few things– the photo gallery “sub-pages” no longer display correctly, and using an image in the banner at the top is troublesome.  These are things I want to work on sooner than later.

A few other miscellaneous tidbits:

  • I’ll be getting an event created on FB in the next several hours as well, but be advised that Michelle and I are inviting all sorts of peeps we know to come out to Sun Prairie/Portage on Saturday, 2/27, for a ski weekend at Cascade, followed by a party back at the “lodge” (i.e., our residence) about 30 minutes to the south.  More details to come soon.
  • Speaking of event planning, it’s time to think about Brewers baseball (even though I hope to get *plenty* of skiing in before opening day).  I’ll add some other details about possible outing(s) to the Brewers 2010 page in the next couple days.
  • I just realized that the Mozilla project Sea Monkey just recently came out with a 2.0 release.  They say there’s a better/easier extension system with this version, so I’m going to give it a go; if I can get most of my Firefox and Thunderbird extensions to work with SM, that would be cool.

OK, I should probably return some phone calls.  Have a good weekend!

General, Uncategorized

The Purge

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When I was working at UWM, I had a lot more time available to me to write in my blog– I woke up just about as early, but I would have a good 2+ hours at home for web-surfing, blog-writing, and coffee-drinking. ((God, those mornings were nice.  Damn.))  I would also invariably have some time at work, as well. ((I was busy, but ungodly busy.))

Things have obviously changed, and I’m going to try to take some steps to get back on the horse.  I’ve been enjoying the weekly sports podcast with Josh (even if *you* haven’t :P), and I’d like to keep doing that.  I’m starting to wonder if a solo podcast (or *gasp* video) might not be a bad idea.  I’d like to solve the equipment issues I was having with the Bocko & Kyle podcast once and for all and try to get that rockin more often, too.

Still, it’s hard to create content on the Internet if you have nothing significant to say.  I could talk about some of my own things, but that’s only entertaining for so long.  You need some of your work to be commentary on the news and events of the day.  That’s why my morning webbie-time used to work out well with the blog.  These days, there’s no way I can get through all these feeds I decided I should follow.

And that is why I am going to purge my feed reader.  I mean, purge the crap out of it.  Here are a few stats on my netvibes page:

  • I have 65 feeds
  • 16 of them are for news
  • 9 for sports
  • 13 are podcasts or miscellaneous video sources
  • 10 are blogs of people I know
  • the rest are a potpourri of webtainment whose origin I can’t recall

Come with me, if you like, as I comb through and pare these down.  Ideally, I feel like I could roll with about half as many.  I think 32 feeds is more manageable.  Maybe to make it a little harder on myself, I should shoot for 25.

Starting should be easy.  I’ll say good-bye to the feeds that I never even read.  So, farewell to:

  • MythTV news – it seemed like a good idea at the time.
  • The A.V. Club Hater – I enjoyed you in print.  On the can.
  • Evernote blog – If I start using Evernote regularly, maybe we’ll meet again.
  • Portableapps.com – I can just visit your website time to time.  And I will.
  • Financial Aid podcast – I listened to you once, subscribed, and never listened again.
  • White House.gov photo gallery – you lost your luster post-inauguration
  • Reuters Top News, video.  Meh.
  • Reuters Tech, video.  Double-meh.

Next, bid adieu to the feeds that time forgot.  I loved you once, but it’s over now:

  • WordPress DB Backup Support Forum – your developer fixed you, and now all is well.
  • Pirate’s Log: The Musings of Droste – he who has ceased to muse?  At least on that blog…
  • Convergence Tangent – I can follow the tweets to new posts.
  • Amber on the Road – the road ended.
  • The Inane Rantings of a Total Hack – let us know if you ever rant again.
  • Reetsyburger’s Refuge – I would like to read it; I would.  But I’d be kidding myself.
  • Sky Blue Waters – Gone the way of the War Pigs.
  • mandolux – let’s face it; I get my wallpaper from digitalblasphemy.
  • Washington Post opinions – If there’s a good one, some one will tell me.
  • Onion Radio News – the Onion News Network is funnier, because they can say “fuck.”
  • Journal-Sentinel Sports (general) – I get all the same stuff in the team-specific feeds.
  • SI.com (general) – see above.

Some other random stuff to get rid of:

  • Feeds to things on my own site.  Like I don’t know when those things get there?
  • Ditto for my flickr stream.

That makes a huge difference.  I have a couple things I could use some help on:

  • I have an AP New tab and a Reuters News tab.  Which should I keep, if either?
  • If neither, news from where?

This helped.  Hopefully, more to come.

General, Uncategorized

Back In Full Effect & Birthday Excitement

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Joe helped me out yesterday to get the blog back online and in your faces.  By the time we finished (it did take a few hours), we were both satisfied that the solution we found to the hosting issue was the best one possible.  Everything seems to be working just swell, but let me know if you notice any problems…

Having the site back up obviously makes it a little easier to whip a post out here and there, so look for an up-tick on that in the next couple days– this morning, I can mention that we had a good time in Milwaukee on Saturday for Michelle’s and our friend Stephanie’s joint birthday parties.  Some photos to come in the next couple days when I get back to the homestead and can load them up.

Today, we are getting ready to head down to Schaumberg, IL for a visit to Ikea.  Tomorrow, we’ll be in Chicago for Michelle’s actual b-day, enjoying some tourist-y stops in the city.  Til then, enjoy the rest of your weekend!