Nolan and I carved punkins this evening, on the kitchen floor, the same way we have for the last ten years.
I was particularly impressed with Nolan’s creativity . . . even though put a pretty fine point on the generation gap.
nearing the rubicon
I‘m at a crossroads right now, with regard to my blog: I sort of feel like I’m living in a hotel here in exile, and I’m doing whatever I can
to help the hotel feel more like home while my real house is rebuilt, but the longer I stay here,
and the more I try to make it feel home, the more likely it is that it will
become home. I even tried to import the old WWdN entries to this blog, but (big surprise) the import failed. I wonder if I am doomed to have my archives in a useless textfile on my machine in my office until I eventually just suck it up and pay someone to fix the stupid fucking thing.
If I sound frustrated, it’s because I am.
I spent several hours the other day working on WWdN. With absolutely no progress to show for it when I was done, I was so pissed I slammed some drawers, kicked some things, and realized that I don’t give a flying fuck about the technology any more. I just want to write. Yes, it’s nice to have the "I did it myself" merit badge, but trying to do it all myself is eating up time I would rather spend on other things, and is rapidly sucking the life (and enthusiasm) out of me. When I started with blogger and geocities way back a thousand years ago, I loved that the technology made it easy for me to scrape things out of my brain and moosh them up on The Internets. Then I got into the technology and had a good time scooping my brains out, and manipulating the technology to make the stuff I scooped out look a little better. But now, I just want it to work. It’s the writing that I care about, and time I spend waste dealing with technical bullshit is time that I can’t spend creating things that matter.
Yes, Virginia, I am starting to hate computers.
So I’m working with a friend of mine to completely rebuild WWdN from the ground up. We’re still puzzling out the final design, but it’s going to be very cool (and very different from the current layout) when it’s done. I’m conflicted about sticking with TypePad (and domain mapping) or banging on MT 3.2 until it has the same functionality as TypePad. Right now, I’m leaning toward domain mapping, even though TypePad is having what appears to be the worst technical difficulties in its history (Six Apart has assured TypePad users that these problems are about to go away. I see no reason to doubt that, but it’s still annoying in the mean time, and is the best argument so far to stay with my own installation at WWdN.)
I don’t know what I’ll ultimately end up doing, but it’s clear that I’ll be in exile for much longer than I originally anticipated.
I’ve changed the feedburner feed to reflect the WWd:iX xml file, rather than the WWdN xml file. If you’re subscribed through feedburner, WWdN:In Exile should start showing up in your RSS reader pretty soon, and we’ll all feel . . . at home.
happy halloween!
It’s 82 degrees and gorgeous today, here in sunny Pasadena. When the little ghouls come trick-or-treating tonight, it should be nice and balmy.
I was going to go as a zombie, but in honor of the beautiful day, I’ve decided to go as a Palm Tree.
And after you see that link, you’ll probably understand why the last place in the world I want to be today is inside. One of the benefits of being self-employed is that I can take the afternoon off to walk my dogs and have a cigar on the patio while I catch up with some podcasts, so that’s where I’ll be if anyone is looking for me.
REVIEW: Dawn of the Dead documentaries
My call for the movie today isn’t until 4:30, so I watched the documentary disc of Dawn of the Dead: The Ultimate Edition. Here’s my quick review:
There are four features on this disc, but the two documentaries, "The Dead Will Walk" and "Document of the Dead" make it required viewing for any serious fan of DotD. The contrast between the two is remarkable, and the result is much greater than the sum of the individual parts.
"The Dead Will Walk" is the obligatory look back at the making of the film, complete with cast and crew interviews, and original behind the scenes footage from the production. It’s an enjoyable retrospective, and it’s nice to see people look back fondly on this great film.
"Document of the Dead" is a documentary made during the prodction of DotD, and has a decidedly different point of view. Interviews on the set and a narrative examination of Romero’s style are woven together to give us a much more in-depth look at the making of this landmark film, which was clearly not an easy production and struggled to find distribution. "Document of the Dead" was made long before Romero was the unquestioned master of the genre, and after watching him discuss his philosopy on filmmaking, it’s easy to see how he earned the title.
UPDATE: I’m out of the ACME show the next two weeks
Sigh. This is always a risk when the cast is made up of working actors, but it still sucks.
The schedule for the movie can not be changed, so I had to take myself out of the ACME shows for the next two weeks. This means that you one and only for reals chance to see me in the show will be on November 19th, our closing night.
I’m really sorry, and feel terrible for the cast, the theatre, and especially the WWdN:iX readers who were planning on coming out to see the show. I hope everyone understands.
