Enough whining already!

When my eldest daughter was but a tot, she had a horrible habit of whining incessantly when things did not go her way (as they so often do when you are four years old). I would tell her "no" for something -- a toy, a snack, whatnot -- and then she would begin. Pleading, whining, sometimes even tears.

My standard response to this behavior was to say, "I can't hear you when you whine," and then I would go about my business until she stopped whining and settled down. Only then would I address whatever it was she wanted.

What brings this to mind is the latest attempt by conservatives in general (and Republicans in particular) to bring some sort of attention their way.

The current (and now hopefully almost over) dust-up over David Letterman telling a joke about Sarah Palin's daughter is the most recent attempt for the right to get some media coverage. Unfortunately for them, it is getting about as much response as my daughter's whines. A scheduled demonstration yesterday brought out approximately 15 people -- fifteen! -- to rail against Letterman and CBS. The demonstrators were outnumbered by media, and were often out-shouted by a few vocal counter-demonstrators.

I can understand their frustration -- even Obama swatting a fly gets coverage these days, and I suppose it seems quite unfair to those on the right. But I believe there is a larger issue that conservatives just don't get -- the public, more and more, understands that there are significant problems to be addressed, that the status quo doesn't work, and we need people who are trying to create solutions.

The right isn't doing that. Conservatives seem only to want to pander to the electorate (such as bringing in Palin as a VP candidate to try to win over Hillary supporters), show token evidence of inclusion (making Michael Steele chairman of the Republican party -- "hey, we've got a black guy too!"), or distract people from the real issues of the day (Letterman and most of the Clinton years).

I think people are tired of it. At least I hope they are.

Back to my daughter: Sometimes, the whining wouldn't stop. Those times I would just mostly ignore her. But on occasion, if she was being particularly bad about it, the whining session would end abruptly with a smack on the butt.

One would think that with the smacking the Republicans got in November that they would stop whining, too.

After what seems like forever, a new episode!

It only took a month (ha!) but I finally posted a new episode of Committed on my site. I'm pretty pleased with this one, especially the back-and-forth between Tal and Toby. I think the bit about the neighbors is pretty good, too.

In any case, stop reading this right now and get over to arkirby.com to read the new episode!

The best laid planssometimes work out okay anyway

What a weekend it was to be. Last week, I got almost caught up with the yardwork. This weekend, Jean and I planned to spend the morning on Saturday sprucing up the outside of our home, trimming, weeding, planting, and all sorts of good stuff. Then we would go to the Blues Society's Junkyard Juke for an afternoon of blues and beer outdoors. We would get up on Sunday and hit the yard again.

Then the rains came. And came. And came some more. The rain on Saturday morning was ridiculous at our house. A small river ran down the side of Oxmoor Road, and we weren't getting out of the house, much less working in the yard -- unless we started some new extreme aquaculture project.

Then Jean came up with the idea of rearranging the house. I sighed. This is a fairly regular project at our house; so much so that we even wrote a line about it in our wedding vows. But, as I swore in those vows, I smiled and got to work without a complaint.

But there was something different about our rearranging this time. It seemed more purposeful somehow. And as we worked, things kept getting better and better.

The rain finally stopped, and we headed out for the Junkyard Juke. We drove around Avondale for a while trying to find it, and finally stopped and got out of the car. There was no Juke to be found. We wandered around for a few minutes, called a friend to check the MCBS website to find the new location (He never called back. I guess Halo is more important. Bastard.), and got back into the car.

We eventually gave up on finding the event and headed back home, with a stop for falafel on the way. We ended up having our own little music festival on the deck the rest of the night.

It rained again Sunday, and we resumed our rearranging. Things fell into place quickly, and by four o'clock, we were finished with our bedroom, a second bedroom, our office alcove, and the living room.

As we sat last night in our bedroom, it was almost like being someplace new. The room had an entirely new atmosphere. And even though we'd purchased nothing -- we simply moved furniture from one room to a different one -- the space engendered a feeling of indulgence. As we said to each other last night, it was DELUXE.

If it's this good now, I'm really interested in seeing how things will be once we get the painting and so forth done.

Long story short, I did nothing I planned to do this weekend. And for once, that was a very good thing.

Knee-jerk reaction is spot-on

When I read yesterday in USA TODAY that Sammy Hagar had teamed up with Joe Satriani, Chad Smith and Michael Anthony to create a new "supergroup" (their words, not mine) named Chickenfoot, my first reaction was "Why?", quickly followed by "Good Lord, what a horrible idea."

The reaction was not just a response to what might possibly be the worst band name of all time. It's just that I don't think these guys have anything new to offer. And a quick listen (all I could handle was a quick listen) proved my knee-jerk reaction to be spot-on.

Satriani is a great guitarist, and I'd have to say he is the one true "star" of the group, even though the other members are likely better known by the public in general. But other than Satriani, it's a B-list group. Michael Anthony langushed in the shadow of David Lee Roth and the brothers Van Halen. Hagar was a decent solo artist, but he could never get Van Halen back to their Roth-era heights during his tenure as lead man for the group. Chad Smith also is a long-term replacement, following founding member Jack Irons as drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

So what you have is a bunch of under-the-radar old guys trying to ... well, I'm not sure what they're trying to do. I think the guys in this band, and the music listening public in general would be better served if Sammy and the gang went back to Cabo San Lucas and played weekends at Sammy's bar.

Life inhibits art, at least for a while

So, another long silence has come and thankfully gone. It's been almost two months since I've posted, and nearly that long since I've put up an episode of Committed. Life, as they say, has gotten in the way and instead of imitating art, it has been inhibiting it.

What it boils down to is that there has just been too much to do during the past several months, including major repairs to our deck (done by yours truly), continued work to restore an older Mercedes-Benz (also done by yours truly), the completion of Jean's yoga instructor training (I didn't do that, but I was very involved and it definitely affected me), and, of course the coming of the pleasant days of late spring which are plenty enough reason in and of themselves to blow off some work and enjoy the weather before true Alabama summer arrives.

Things have slowed down a bit, and I'm working over the next couple of weeks to bring writing to the fore. I'll be doing this by actually making myself stick to a schedule. I'm tired of waiting for the muse to strike, so I'll force the issue.

Not dead, at least not yet

I love Mark Twain. Particularly this quote: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

On the same line, I'm not dead. Neither is Committed, although it might seem so. I know it's been almost a month since I a) put up an new episode or b) posted on this blog. Life has gotten in the way of writing. There's been a death in the family, the loss of a pet, a blown engine on a car, taxes... I could go on and on. But I won't. Let it suffice to say that I am still working on Epsiodes 29 and 30 (they're going to be good ones, too) and there's much more to come!

Newspapers: A dying breed?

Interesting program on NPR today, especially for a former journalist as myself...
Today's "Talk of the Nation" focused on the state of journalism in America, with a focus on the closings of the Rocky Mountain Daily News in Denver and the Post-Intelligencer in Seattle.
Both papers ceased print operations within the past two weeks. When you combine the closings of these two papers with the statement from the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism that the outlook for journalism in the United States is "bleak", one has to wonder:
Are we seeing the extinction of a business model here?
With the internet and cable responsible for many news options available to the public, can newspapers survive?
Call me an idealist, but I certainly hope so. More on this later.

Episode 27 is now up

It's been a long week, but a good one, culminating with the posting of Episode 27, "The Bachelor Pad of Doom."

For the first time in a long time, there have now been two episodes posted on consecutive Fridays. Woot!

I like this episode. I think it gives a little more insight into Christian. And there are some sexy parts with The Professor as well.

Now on to Episode 28!

At least I'm not the only one

So I'm not the only person in the area who thinks Davis Cup tennis and transit funding are related.

In this article from al.com, John Archibald also links the two. If we can do such a great job on a small thing like a tennis tournament, why can't we do it with the big stuff?

Ah, questions that deserve answers.

Better late than never, right?

So I lied on my last post.

Not only did I not get Episode 26 posted until 10 days later than I said I would, I didn't get an e-mail out until a full 10 days afterward.

But it wasn't time spent in vain, and it wasn't an outright lie. I thought at the time that I would have an episode out the next day. But as I revisited it, the piece changed direction on me, and it turned out to be a bear to write. My original idea was nothing like the final product. But I think the changes from the original to the finished episode were much for the better. The writing is some of my favorite in the book so far.

In addition to Episode 26, I also put up a new piece dealing with international tennis and federal transportation funds. There's a combination for you.

I hope to knock out Episode 27 early this week and have it up by Thursday. If it happens, it will be a first for the site. To date, I've never posted an episode early.

I'm pleased with the changes to the layout and navigation, although I think there are still a few minor points to hammer out. I think Jean will be looking at that this weekend.

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!

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!