Archive for July, 2006

Alright, so I’m lousy at posting. Basically, I can be relied on to post three or four times a month. I might post more often. I might not.

I will try to post once a week ( at least ). I actually have tried to post a couple of times since the last time but my own uncertainty tripped me up. I’ve been reading and watching the news. The politics of the last several days has run the gammut from stupid to just plain insane.  I do not believe half of what I’ve seen and almost none of what I’ve heard. ( I do think that “King” George may have slipped a cog.  Cussing! And what in the heck was that thing with the German chancellor? Yeesh! )

Then there are the horror stories from the war. Reading them ( mostly in Time magazine ) makes me want to use this blog as an extreme anti-war soapbox.  I actually have a couple of articles all written up, but I don’t feel like I’m informed enough to publish them.  By that I actually mean that I haven’t heard one argument for the war that even sounds halfway plausible — from a layman’s point of view.  Also, in one of the articles there’s a line about “King” George and The Apocalypse — I think I might have crossed a line there. But I was very emotional.  When I can learn to keep my emotions down to a minimum I’ll post more often.

As it is, I also have about a million other things to do. I’m thinking of starting a small business. Very hush hush. Something I’ve wanted to do all my life. The Internet has given me an idea about how I can do it, with very little overhead. So, I’ve got business plans to lay out, inventory to scope out and buy and a million other little things to do. ( Including, maybe, update the rest of the site. ) You’re all very lucky to have this much of an update. Unless you don’t like it, then maybe you’re unlucky. Either way — eh, little I can do about it at the moment. So, sorry and thanks.

I’ll probably post tomorrow. I have an idea about . . . well, if I tell it now I won’t have a post for tomorrow. So, I’ll just leave off right now. Thank you, and goodnight.

Posted by teddyt on July 28, 2006 at 9:50 PM under Uncategorized.
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That’s correct boys and girls. This is my third post of the day. Can you stand it? I’m a writing machine. Cool.

I come to tell you all about the greatest thing on the ‘Net since sliced bread ( .com? — oh, gosh, please don’t let that be a real site. ) It’s a little site called www.kingdomofloathing.com . It is funny and cute and too cool for ( many ) words. It’s a game, sort of. It’s a community, sort of. It is my kind of place, definitely. You can adventure ( for awhile ) without having anything much to say to anybody ( that isn’t a computer construct — otherwise known as an NPC ). Some of it is stupid. ( Most teenagers will love that part. ) Some of it could be a bit better. ( I’m no professional, so I won’t give real thumbs down criticism of any particular part of the site, but you’ll recognize it when you see it, and heck there isn’t anyone doing anything better, so . . . even the bad bits aren’t really bad. ) All in all it is creative and smart and wonderful. I just love it to pieces.

Yes, the graphics are crude. ( Hugely cute. ) Yes, the writing is flawed. ( But they ain’t writing Shakespeare, folks. ) The ideas are neither crude nor flawed and it is chock full of ideas. ( I like to think that it’s being run by a bunch of youthfully young teenishly twenty-somethings who’d otherwise be out running wild in the streets. ) Did I mention, I love this Thing? It’s too much of everything to call it just a game or an Internet site or a community. It’s a Thing. A good Thing. A hugely wacky, desperately geeky, wonderful Thing. ( And that’s all I have to say about that. Until the next time I have something to say about it. At which point it’ll probably be gone. –Sigh– )

Posted by teddyt on July 18, 2006 at 3:15 PM under Uncategorized.
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If you need a good cry just go on over to www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/97/05972.html   . ( Keeping in mind that that was almost ten years ago and well . . . . Remind me? How old do dogs live to be?  — Honestly, I try not to think about it. — But I do. )

Which gets me to thinking about the distant relationships we build on the Internet. Not close relationships. Just distantly neighborly ones. Those of us who care at all will notice when things are missing. We might not know what happened at first, but google.com being what it is we can probably find out in about five minutes. So, if we all survive for the next several years, we’ll probably see ole Jasper go “where the good doggies go” and we have the possibility of seeing ( if we survive for the next thirty or forty years ) ole James go — where the good writers go. ( We’ll probably definately see Gnat in her wedding dress and five minutes after the birth of her first child. — “Thanks tons, Dad,” she’ll probably say and roll her eyes. )

Man. Am I depressing, today, or what? Ah, well. That’s life. ( I also read all those blogs about women and their fertility difficulties. )

I have no ego, where this is concerned. The only people I expect to give a rat’s hindquarters when and where I shuffle off this mortal coil are my child and the bill collectors. The occasional person might wander by the blog and notice I haven’t written for a while. ( Say since 2044 or so. ) But they’ll just say “Sheesh. What happened to her promise to blog once a decade?” Then they’ll meander off into that wonderful morass that is the 2050′s and the Universal Wide Web. ( I hear that new blog from the Alien Detention Center in Alpha Centauri is pretty interesting. )  — Yeah, that’s right. I’m not planning on living to 100 unless they invent a home plastic surgery machine that lets you be at least 60ish forever.

Anyway. Grab some tissue. Lock the door. And prepare to sob. Then go read last weeks Bleat ( up through today ) and cheer up. A little.

Posted by teddyt on July 18, 2006 at 2:45 PM under Uncategorized.
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Dear Whoever ( If You’re Still There ):

Sorry it’s been so long. Turns out I can’t possibly write a blog entry every day. Too many other things to do. Play with kid. Teach kid ABCs. Be horribly ill. Read stuff. Play video games. Play other games. Learn stuff. (Like XTML and RSS feed stuff so that eventually I can put a dang podcast up and bore a handful of people with my vocalized opinions and bits of theatre.)

That being said, this is an entry and it has only been about a week ( assuming I get this up today ). So, what finally got me revved up enough to write this ( very ) apologetic blah-blah-blah. Mr. James Lileks. He of the Bleat and the Diner and the Minneapolis Star Tribune ( or whatever it’s called ). I got up this morning feeling horribly sorry for myself. ( Weepingly, terrifyingly, awfully, what–is–life–worth sorry for myself, if you must know the truth. ) I actually cried for about ten minutes, while I loaded up the old Favorites list on IE. Went straight to lileks.com and the 1997 archives of The Bleat and instantly felt like a blooming idiot. 

That line ( on /04974 ) about those kids “walking through paradise, and all they can think to do is throw rocks at the birds” really got to me. Here I am. It’s summer-time. I have a cute kid. We have a mulberry tree across the field from us and all I can think is how lousy my life “used” to be before the kid and feel sorry for the things I missed in my youth. I might not have done the things I should’ve done when I was 21, but I can still do most of those things now and I can do all the things a 30-ish stay–at–home mom who wants to be a writer and a voice-over artist should and can do. I can play with my kid. I can teach her her ABCs. I can work on the podcast. I can chase the kid with the water hose. I can water the flowers. I can go pick mulberries. I can write a page ( or a sentence, or a paragraph ) for the new book. Basically, I can stop feeling sorry for myself and live my life. Truthfully, that’s what www.lileks.com/bleats  does for me. It revs me up to go on and live my life. How? Because he lives his life and isn’t ashamed or afraid to let anybody ( you know — those possible anybodies who populate the internet ) know it.

P. S. ( For all of you who really need a good cry and just a day of feeling sorry for yourself — and we all need that sometimes — don’t go to www.lileks.com. You won’t make it five minutes without cheering up and getting on with your life. )

Signed, With My Deepest Apologies,

T. D. Taylor 

Posted by teddyt on July 18, 2006 at 2:14 AM under Uncategorized.
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Hi. I’m back. Sorry for the wait. Hope ya’ll had a super Fourth. I’ve been making decisions about content on the regular site and I’ve come up with the idea of sound. ( I mean I didn’t invent sound, but I’ve decided to put some sound on my site. ) Not the usual sound stuff, either. All my own stuff. Short blurbs: like mini pod casts. ( I’m going to do a pod cast pretty soon. I just can’t get the software together to do it, yet. I’ve got three or four different audio programs and none of them are compatable with the I-Tunes stuff. Ah, well. ) Some music — all my own compositions — if I can figure out how to transfer it off of my old computer since I can’t find a good — cheap — music  ( see MIDI ) program for my current computer.

I’ve also been working on something huge. I write. ( Hahahah. Yeah, I know. Just not here. ) I write a lot. I just have trouble finding a direction. Recently, though I was reading through some back issues of Time magazine — for $15.00 every six months you get a great magazine and the opportunity to read all of their archives from 1924 on up — and (ZAP) I got a great idea for how to direct one of the main novels I’m working on. I had been trying to use the idea of encyclopedia articles as exposition, but that seemed so outdated to me. Then I started reading the back issues of the magazine and that seemed so natural and timeless. (Like Time itself. Oh, brother.) So . . . the way things are rolling along, looks like by this time next year I might have a book on the market. Whether it’s on the Best Seller list is up to y’all, my dear fans. ( Hahahah!! )

I’m also doing some personal stuff. I recently got in touch with a family member ( a close family member ) that I hadn’t seen or heard from for about 18 years. It went well. We can speak. It’s a bit awkward, but sure, how could it not be. Gonna keep in touch. I’m gonna call once a month and they basically promise to answer the phone. They live in Alaska. ( Really. Alaska. Good thing the old 10-10-220 works all the way up there. ) Probably shouldn’t talk about it here. But I will. Probably talk about it a lot as things progress. Probably do a lot of emotional gut spilling. Probably get in trouble. ( Though the actual person doesn’t own a computer. Barely owns a phone. )

O. K.. Talk about awkward. So . . . I’ll be seein’ y’all. I’ll try to put something up on the blog or the site by tonight. Still working on the podcast idea. Got some photos on flickr. Search for 1972 tags uploaded in July, 2006. The girl in the yellow dress, holding the big pink bunny. That’s me. Also 1970. The baby laying on the weird couch with blue plastic undies about two sizes too big. That’s me, too. Should upload them here. But, space is at a premium around here and I’ve got to put some sound up. Think about it.

Ah. Good-bye. More blogging in the near future. Probably not a week away.

Posted by teddyt on July 8, 2006 at 8:58 AM under Uncategorized.
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Small problem. Noticed something just now when I finally got the second post of the day up. The time date thing is . . . well, WRONG! It is not 5:45 P. M. where I am it is only 12:45 P. M. . For the life of me I can’t figure out why I never noticed this before or how to fix it. ( There’s a little thingy on the side that allows me to edit the time stamp, but shouldn’t I just be able to set it for my own time zone? I think so. ) So . . . until I get this figured out ( or get less lazy ) remember to subtract five (count ‘em five ) freakin’ hours — which will sometimes change the date, of course, so now I’ll look like I’m even further behind than I actually am. ARRRRGGGGH!

Posted by teddyt on July 2, 2006 at 5:30 PM under Uncategorized.
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My number one next door neighbor pick would be . . . James Lileks.  (See the link to his site somewhere to the left there.) Not ( only ) because he’s an upwardly mobile type whom I’m sure lives in a reasonably safe upper ( or at least very ) middle class area, and not because I would enjoy reading about myself in the paper and in the Bleat when I chase my ( nearly ) three year old Kid down the street with a huge water gun, both of us screaming at the top of our lungs — at 8:00 a.m. ( on a Saturday ), and not because I could drop off a ton of “Vote Gore/Clinton” leaflets on his front stoop ( come that imaginary future day in 2008.5 ).  No, nor because I’ve dreamed of living in Minneapolis/St. Paul since I was a teenager watching (really old) reruns of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. ( The only thing stopping me is — the six months of negative 15 and below temperatures. Six freakin’ months! )

The real reason I would love to have him as my next door neighbor is the web cam I would set up out my window to make sure he really does all the wonderful things he writes about. ( Plus, I’d love to see the Water Feature in person. I’ll bet it’s lovely. ) I’d put everything on dvd and keep hourly logs.  ( What better do I have to do? Plus, my Kid would make the perfect spy — in a couple of years. ) Probably be able to sell it on Ebay for tons of loot. Alas, those lowly temperatures prevent such ideal surroundings. Sob. Sob. Weep. ( Global warming is much too slow. )

Please do not e-mail me about the global warming thing. I’m joking. I hate global warming. I wish we could all drive ( $250,000 ) cars that run on corn oil and/or cold fusion. (Wait a cold fusion car would cost $2 million — never mind.) I’d plant a tree every fifty feet if I could. ( And in twenty years they’ll tell us that TREES cause global warming — all-be-it a different kind, perhaps). Etc. Etc. Et Liberal Democratic cetera. Thank you and farewell.

Posted by teddyt on July 2, 2006 at 5:30 PM under Uncategorized.
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Wow! Look at the time. Sorry about the wait for a fresh post, but I’ve been very, very busy the last few days. Cleaning house, running around outside with my kid, watering the garden — trying not to water the lawn ( I wish this heat would just do away with that grass, already ) — and trying not to pull my hair out over a certain personal situation. Might not seem like much, but it’s really been more than I could handle, what with the washing clothes and dishes and billion other little household things us modern housewives have to do.

For those of you looking for an update on the diet situation. There really isn’t one. Everytime I start a diet, I start a new exercise regimen, too and guess what inevitably happens, especially if the exercise regimen is any good. That’s right, folks. I haven’t lost a freaking pound in over a week. Why? Because I’m eating lots of protein and building — wait for it — MUSCLE, which as everyone knows, weighs more than fat.  I’ve probably put on about five pounds of muscle. Fortunately, I’ve lost about three inches in my middle. ( Since I started the diet last month — not in a week. I’m good, but I’m no miracle worker. ) My legs are also shaping up pretty good.  I can actually fit into the last pair of jeans I got. It ain’t great, but its a start. I’m still not small enough to take my own photo and start a photoblog ( on flickr ) but maybe in a couple weeks. (Want to try and get rid of this extra chin. I really can’t stand it when my face is this heavy.) I might go ahead and post a photo or two of me the last time I took a half decent picture. I was holding my month old baby and wearing a big smile. I won’t even tell you how many pounds less I weighed then than I do now. It’s horrific.

Anyway. It’s really hot here. How is it where you are? I’m doing fine, mostly. Dealing. Trying not to go nuts. (Ehem. BE nuts.) Hope you and yours are fine, also. The last couple of sentences are just about how I write letters. I’m horrible at writing letters. I think I might be horrible at writing posts, too. If I am pardon me. If not, thanks for being short sighted. You must like me a lot. But seriously, ( that last sentence, didn’t make a lot a sense ) I really do enjoy coming here and clearing my mind and just stabbing these little keys and relaxing. It’s wonderful that so many of you come and take a peek. I’ll see what I can do about keeping up with the daily thing and adding a tad of content to the site. (Again, hope springs eternal. Unfortunately, it’s summer. Ha ha ha. Ehem.)

Last paragraph, I promise — for now, anyway. I’ll be back tomorrow morning for sure, if not later today. I find I need to vent like this. ( It keeps my head from shooting off my neck like a rocket and exploding like a pretty fireworks display.  — Ok. That was odd. I’d take it out, but it’s so weird it’s kinda cool. Nevermind.) My mother will be here tomorrow and you know I’ll have stuff to say about her. ( Don’t worry, she doesn’t own a computer. Hates to type is one of her excuses. Feh. ) So. If I don’t get back tonight, and I actually make y’all wait another couple days (’til after the fourth) don’t be mad. I’ll be back by Wednesday, for sure. Good-bye. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good night. So long. The End.

Posted by teddyt on July 2, 2006 at 2:30 PM under Uncategorized.
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