Long week gets longer

It's been a long week, and it's getting longer

It's Friday afternoon and I am still working on Episode 26. Outside projects have taken up a lot of time during the past two weeks, and I am fairly well behind in my writing.
Last week, it was working on the video for the Australia job that took all the time. This week, it's the March edition of Magic City Blues News. But the newsletter is put to bed, and I'm should have the new episode sometime on Saturday. I'll be sending out an e-mail announcing the posting.

At long last, updates to arkirby.com

It took a few more months that expected (mainly because I never made the time to do it), but arkirby.com is now updated!

I am many things -- writer, husband, bartender, father, etc. -- but one thing I am not is an experienced webmaster. As such, little things I do to my site often have unexpected consequences. For example, several weeks ago I quite unintentionally deleted all the navigation from my site. Oops. But as of yesterday, that particular issue has been resolved. Other changes include:

• All episodes of Committed are now in Scribd format
• Easier-than-ever episode navigation

In addition to these updates, in the next couple of weeks I'll also be making changes to all the Scribd pages so they are uniform, and it looks like I'll be adding a "videos" section to the site as well.

"Committed" makes Scribd's Hot List

So somebody actually is reading the thing...

As of February 21, Episode 9 of Committed, "Tal and Liv Make a New Friend" made the Scribd Hot List! In this episode, our heroes meet Gnorr, the alien who gives them their powers.

According to Scribd's website, the Hot List "is comprised of documents that have received a considerable views, likes, comments, and favorites in a short period of time."

So exactly what is Scribd? For me, Scribd is to documents as Flickr is to photos. They put it more eloquently: "Scribd is the place where you publish, discover and discuss original writings and documents. More than 50 million people each month are finding or sharing fun, functional or fantastical writings and documents on Scribd.com and tens of thousands of other websites that have embedded Scribd's document reader... We built a technology that's broken all barriers to traditional publishing and in the process also built one of the largest readerships in the world."

I use them because their iPaper app lets me embed PDFs into the web pages on my site, which keeps me from having to create more than one page for each episode. Finding Scribd a few months ago was a godsend for my sanity.

So, thanks, Scribd!

And then there was a post...

OK, so it's been months and months without a post. My attention to the blog has been lagging, to be certain. With luck, and a bit more focus on my part, that will be changing. However, it's not like I've been slacking on other fronts.

One of the things that has been taking up a great deal of my time as of late has been the search for a new (paying) job. While I enjoy slinging drinks at the Pork Palace, it is time for me to move on and find something that is actually in my field. Of course, now is not the best time in the world to be hunting a job, what with the economy in the toilet, but I'm doing what I can.

One position that particularly intrigued me was the job of Island Caretaker posted by Tourism Queensland in Australia. It sounds like a pretty sweet gig: six months on an island paradise, blogging weekly and promoting all that the islands of the Great Barrier Reef have to offer. So, Jean and I made a video and applied. I hope this one comes through!

Another item of business deals with the Magic City Blues Society. Several months ago, Jean and I took over the responsibility of putting together the monthly newsletter for the organization. It's been a lot of fun, and I've learned a lot about Blues music as a result, but it does take a good deal of time.

Of course, the main focus has been Committed. The book is coming along well -- I'm up to Episode 25, which means the book is somewhere around four-fifths completed. I've been having a lot of fun with the writing lately, especially Ralph's history. Making up a story for a 2,000-year-old Anasazi is more entertaining than you might think. I also especially like the bits with Christian and the MME Bathroom Buddy.

And there you have it -- many of the items which have been filling my days of late and keeping me from posting any kind of timely information on this blog. I'll keep on plugging away, and hopefully be posting more information soon!