All the plumbers in the house, pull your pants up

Ok, so Sarah Palin was on SNL last night. The opening bit was weak (I thought Alec Baldwin dissing her to her face was pretty funny), but the rest pretty much sucked. On the other hand, Amy Pohler's rap was hilarious -- check it out:

McCain got spirit
McCain got style
But don't let him creep you out
When he try to smile
'Cause that smile be creepy...

Bring in the haha

OK, so this will entertain and amaze you for minutes... but it is pretty clever.

Palin as president

Click around and enjoy!

Crazy busy ahead

It's a good time at the Casa Kirby/Campbell these days. An incredibly busy time, but certainly a good one. The Redheaded Hippie Chick and I are experiencing one of those rare but wonderful periods of incredible productivity, creative and otherwise.

Jean's yoga instructor training is in full swing, and I believe it is an enjoyable challenge for her. I'm proud of the way she has gone full-bore into this; I wish I had that kind of discipline. I'm writing more these days; ideas for episodes are coming more quickly now (and there are some good episodes coming up soon), and that creative energy is spilling over into other areas. We've also got quite a few projects going on around the house, including the refashioning of the amphibian terrarium into a combination living space for both the rabbit and the reptiles (living in separate areas, of course).

Obviously, life is about to get crazy busy. And I think I like it that way.

Lucky episode 13

With a little luck (and a good deal of work), Episode 13 was posted this evening.

I actually wrote most of this episode more than a year ago, back in August of 2007. I thought it would be a neat idea to take a look at "the morning after", as it were. What would you be thinking the morning after you got super powers? And thank goodness it came when it did. With me being sick all week, coming up with an episode from scratch would have been darn near impossible.

So, it's not too late on Sunday night, the episode is written and posted, and I can get a decent night's sleep. Woot!

What a week (sniff, sniff)

Okay, forget about viral videos. This has been a week for viral infections.

To put it mildly, I've been sick as a dog since Tuesday. Fever, chills, body aches -- the whole kit and kaboodle. Sick enough that I not only: (a) called in for three shifts this week (that never happens); but also (b) WENT TO THE DOCTOR (that really never, ever happens).

Unfortunately, the fine medical establishment determined that my illness was, in fact, viral in origin, and hence, nothing could be done except to treat the symptoms and wait for the virus to run its course. So I've been downing ibuprofen and decongestant like a madman and generally feeling like crap because of both the illness and the meds.

Thankfully, things seem to be getting better this morning. It's about time.

Updating continues

Slowly but surely, things are moving along with the updates to Committed. As you might have noticed, I've started using Scribd to post new episodes. Part of that is for readability issues, and part of that deals with the reality of putting up one new page per week instead of five. Personally, I think the change is great.

Last night, I got several older episodes changed over to the new format, and the remainder will be coming soon (Episodes 1-3 are all that remain -- woot!)

Keep reading and I'll keep writing!

Changes a-comin'

Be on the lookout for a new feature on arkirby.com sometime in the next couple of weeks!

First of all, there will be a new Feedback section on the site. This will allow visitors to post comments about anything and everything on the site. I'm still trying to decide whether the section will be moderated. My gut tells me to just let it ride and allow people to post whatever they want. I know allowing unmoderated posts leaves me open to a thoughtless, crappy posts, but there are a lot of thoughtless, crappy people out there.

Second, work continues on some different content. Today we'll be shooting the remaining footage of the comedy piece we're working on. Hopefully, it will be edited and posted to the site by the end of next week.

Of course, new episodes of Committed will be going up next week, and the story is about to get blissfully weird. I don't want to give much away, but I can say that the next episode will be channeling the spirit of Paul Lynde.

More later!

Crisis of confidence

Six episodes down, about thirty more to go.

The six episodes of Committed posted, if you can trust the Open Office word count function, represent about 12,000 words so far. And if I keep going with the same format, there's about 60,000 words left to go. Counting my notes, outlines, and ideas, I've got probably a tenth of that already written.

I don't know how many people know this, but a lot of this novel is being written on the fly. An odd concept, perhaps, but one that works for me. I've been saying I was going to write a novel for some twenty years now. Apparently it takes having a weekly deadline for me to actually get it done.

I have to be honest here. The numbers to this point (if you can believe Google Analytics, and you better, because everyone else does) are, to be sure, disappointing. Very few people are reading Committed right now. Hell, I can't even get my daughter (who reads anything and everything she can get her hands on) to look at it.

I think there are a number of reasons for this. The first is marketing. I've done very little apart from emailing all my friends and asking them to read what I wrote. Another may be the concept itself. Is an online novel is just an online novelty? A third could be the actual writing itself. The first six episodes have been mainly expository, dealing with character development and setting.

But instead of getting depressed, I keep writing. I've got some ideas about marketing the piece, and there very well may be an A.R. Kirby myspace page in the near future. And the story is about to get seriously strange, and (I hope) funny. And if I write it and promote it, they will come.

I've waited twenty years to do this. I'm not going to let Google Analytics stop me now.

New comedy project in the works

For the most part, I like writing. But sometimes I need to stretch out a little bit and try something different. This week, I'm doing exactly that.

A good friend of mine, Lou Willie (of voice talent fame on radios throughout the southeast), is working with me on a short comedy video. I wrote it, he's producing and editing it, and we did out first shooting yesterday. I'm not at liberty to give many details about the project, other than it is an ad parody with some subtle social subtext. Or, more likely considering who's working on it, not-so-subtle social criticism. My portion of the project is being done under the Kitchen Sink Creative Group banner, and when it is complete, the video will be posted to a number of sites, including kitchensinkcreativegroup.com, arkirby.com, YouTube, and Funny or Die.

The shoot yesterday went very well. We got most of the principal shooting completed, with one more scene to go. With any luck, we'll have this wrapped and ready for posting on the innerwebs within the next two weeks. An official announcement will be made (and an e-mail sent to the the arkirby.com subscribers) when the project is posted.

Get ready for some haha!

Time for a change?

Sunday nights at my house are starting to get very, very long.

Because I post new episodes of Committed on Monday mornings, I spend a lot of time on Sundays getting the site ready for the new episodes. This involves several steps: breaking down the episodes into separate pages (I try to get them to between 500-600 words per page); building the new pages for the episode; updating the site navigation for the pages (I cannot adequately describe how much I hate that part); updating the home page to showcase the new episode; and preparing an e-mail announcing the new episode to send to the mailing list on Monday morning. Of course, this doesn't include last-minute additions or edits to the content itself. I'm notorious for changing things at the last minute.

I'm not a programmer, so there is a fair bit of trial and error involved on my part. Thankfully, we're using DotNetNuke as our content management system, which makes it pretty easy for a non-tech like me to put in new content. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about coding and such to make it very simple. I spend more time copying and pasting source code for the page navigation than I do anything else, which is quite a chore for me. As Committed grows (and it's growing -- I can't believe next Monday will see the posting of the fifth episode), this chore grows as well, and by the time I get to 20 episodes, it may be too much for me to handle.

When you also consider that the Redheaded Hippe Chick and I are also working full-time at other jobs, trying to get her daughter ready for college, and preparing our house to go on the market, it is easy to see that I might want to find some time-saving solutions for Committed updates.

As such, I'm investigating the possibility of integrating WordPress into the site. Over the next couple of weeks, you may see some design changes, but I hope they won't be too glaring.

We shall see.

Because they don't have them at Publix

I was driving downtown and had to stop when I saw this at a convenience store. And where else but a convenience store to get the freshest, juiciest pig lips?

(I threw up in my mouth a little thinking about pig lips being juicy. Feh.)

Dang it, Al... quit taking my ideas!

I've been struggling the past couple of weeks over an essay on renewable energy I am trying to write. In a nutshell, I think the Birmingham metro region could make an opportunity out of the current energy crisis by becoming a leader in renewable energy use and technology.

Al Gore beat me to it.

I'm still going to write the article, but I highly recommend you read his speech.

He may be a policy wonk, but he has some good ideas. And we've got to do something, and soon.

And then there was a novel

And then there was a novel.

Or at least the first bit of one. And it's up, online, for anybody to read.

Can I get an amen?

I'm pleased with the results so far. It's a good looking site, it has good content, and I am hopeful of the reception Committed will receive. Only time will tell.

Jean and I spent most of the weekend tweaking arkirby.com even more, testing all the links, and getting Episode 1 ready for upload. A good time was had by all, and I can't thank Jean enough for all the work she has put in for this project. She's been my inspiration all along, and I could not have done any of this without her.

In any case, Episode 1 is up! Go read!

Keeps getting better

It just keeps getting better, I think.

Although there is a seemingly never-ending list of things to be done regarding the arkirby.com site (not to mention Committed), it just keeps getting better. We're tweaking bits and pieces here and there on an almost daily basis in an attempt to make the site visually exciting and incredibly user-friendly. And I think it's working.

But even the most attractive, easy-to-use site in the world is nothing without content. If there's nothing here for you to read, why bother visiting? So we're also working hard to make sure there is content that is interesting and fun. In addition to the Monday launch of Committed, I'll also be posting some new essays in the very near future. Likely something about animals. You write what you know.

So, this weekend will be big as we're finishing up details for Epiosode One, as well as doing some fine-tuning. It should be fun. Can't wait until Monday!

A week and counting

So here we are, one week to go from the launch of Committed. It's a heady time at arkirby.com!

We're just about set from this end. The copy is in the process of being editied, we're setting up the proper pages, and we're looking for some sort of benefit to give to the loyal readers who register for the site (perhaps a downloadable PDF of each chapter after it is posted?).

In any case, we've done a lot of work on the site, and there's more to come. I personally can't wait for the Committed launch. I hope you are as excited about this project as I am.

More to come!

Wow - It's really here!

Wow... I'm finding it hard to believe it's really July 1 already, and there's a website with my name on it that's actually available to the public.

What you are viewing is the result of almost two years' worth of planning and dreaming, as well as a couple of weeks' worth of blood, sweat and tears to make it actually look like something worthwhile on the web. Jean and I have been talking since August of '06 about the book I was going to write; we've been talking since January about how I was going to get it published. And arkirby.com is the result.

We are both very excited about what's about to happen on this site, as well as the site itself. Jean did a great job with the nuts and bolts of getting the site together, and I can't thank her enough for all the work she's done. Even though we've both put a lot into this, there's much more to do. July 14 is now less than two weeks away, and that means the official launch of Committed!

Read and enjoy!