A Blogger's Life for...me?

Ten years ago I posted to my Live Journal account for the last time. I did not delete my account, and have made comments on other people's posts but there has been no original content posted by me since then.

It was a site where there were no character limits, where people posted the minutia of their days along with some rather spectacular writing - fiction or not. There was also a lot of drama, but there's no need to rehash that now.

For the most part, linking to tweets non-withstanding, it was a place that avoided the pithiness of today's social media sites. There was a sense of permanence to Live Journal posts that does not really adhere to Facebook or Twitter, and certainly not Snapchat. Even with the drama, it did not feel as cruel as a Twitter mob.

After the Russians bought the site, the demise really happened. Some people deleted their accounts, others (like me) simply abandoned them on the bleak landscape of the internet. Many people simply left with no explanation so you do not know what happened to them. Others (like me) left a forwarding address.

This platform, while useful, does not have the interaction that LJ had, and lacks the immediacy of Facebook or Twitter. It does, however, have the permanence. I can go back and look at posts from 5-10 years ago rather easily and see the demise of my writing and reading. It's not a shock, but a sad reality as I got into the time suck of those other two sites.

Thus I remain here, stubbornly, as well. Trying to find some sense in all of it amid the quick postings of dead musicians, with few pictures and for the most part - even less substance.

All of the screens

Still working on how to best utilize social media. It’s hard to reduce the massive time suck that it has become. I have been using FB Purity to lessen a lot of the clutter and for the most part is has been a success. Doing less hate reading as well, which keeps the blood pressure down.

A couple of weeks ago there was a culling of about 15-20% of my Facebook contacts list. These are people who I never had any real interaction with, nor I with them so what’s the point? I think one person noticed and sent me a friend request, which I approved - and neither of us have acknowledged each other since. Again, what’s the point?

I have no idea how people manage thousands of contacts. Sure there’s a lot of filtering involved I get that, but when does a person with over 4,000 contacts get to actually interact with all of them? Do they treat it like a giant Rolodex from the olden days? Sure it’s great to have a lot of contacts. You never know when you can help a person and they you, and people are going to use the application differently I know. Personally, I need a bit more back and forth - and to control my social media content and not have it control me.

All this scrolling takes away the time I could be writing, reading, goofing off with my kid, talking to my wife, watching a decent movie, fixing the gate in the backyard - something else. Even this inane little blog post feels better to accomplish than clicking like. It is something that has been actively completed.

Now, to see what those four new tweets are all about.

An internet expansion

It's said that a blog is supposed to have a singular topic or focus. That does not happen here, and probably never will.

For awhile I've thought about starting a new blog, one that would be focused on something singular. Never could find a topic.

Late last year there was a series of crime that involved Crock Pots. Be they the wrong gift, used as a weapon, or just in the room when something strange happened. So I thought about it some more, and waited, and continued to wait for inspiration and then decided, in August, to start a new blog.

People do not use their Crock Pots in summer, at least little to no crime involving a Crock Pot is reported. It's not until the weather cools that the Crock Pot is brought out of storage, and it's role in infamous activities begins anew.

So I present this newish blog to the millions of other small, relatively unimportant things on the internet.

Crock Pot Crime

It will be updated as events are reported. Hope you enjoy it.

A rare double post

Posting this while it's still fresher in my head so there are two blog posts from me today. Do not worry, this is not a fall back to the olde days of Live Journal.

Last night at Writers' Block there was a Grab Bag Slam, in which poets were assigned a topic and had a week to write a poem with it and perform it in a slam.

Thirteen poets accepted the challenge and read them last night. It was a very impressive display of writing. The topics read about were Dance, Moisturizer, Yogurt, Doo-rag and many others. Colin was the last poet in the slam and ended up winning the night with a brilliant poem. His subject was Kool-Aid. I'm glad he won because there were three poets tied for second and there would have been a Tri-ku to determine the champion.

My topic was Ice and I was happy with how it went. Because it was an assignment I'm going to post it here.


Staff Refrigerator: A Lesson in Fear

Pouring down onto containers of uncertain age
are colors not found in nature

Pooling on glass shelves are liquids of unknown origin -
a waterfall of chemical composition that may or may not be toxic

There was an email sent to the entire staff of the building

Desiccated solids that could have been lunch fluid in their intent
Sump ponds with stagnant moist stuff in tupperware that
may have been a meal containing mammal bones

There is a memo on the window of the staff break room

Behind the freezer door lay chunks of permafrost ice cube trays,
or are they italian ices from ancient Rome, buried deep

There is a piece of paper on the side of the refrigerator

Puddles of who knows what cryogenically ice floe alien in origin frisbees
or U.F.O., unidentified frozen objects that may have been taken
from the locker in hangar 13 of a top secret military installation.

There is a memo taped to the front of the refrigerator door

if this object was not placed in this building in 2009 -
We’d carbon date the contents, but they did set off a geiger counter
and no one in the Technical Services department has a Haz-Mat suit

If I were to brave the stench and look inside of the refrigerator
I’d bet five dollars there is a copy of the clean up your damn mess memo
hanging from one of the shelves.
But neither I, nor the bomb squad, are looking.


So there was that poem. But I also wrote another, a bit more serious.

Terra Nova Pantoum

I am just going outside and may be some time
the last words of an Antarctic explorer
He walked to his death in 1912
Their tent now buried by an ice shelf

The last words of an Antarctic explorer
We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us
Their tent now buried by an ice shelf
A tomb hidden by a century of climate

We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us
and therefore we have no cause for complaint
A tomb hidden by a century of climate
Becomes a heroic trophy for placing the South Pole discovery to Amundsen

and therefore we have no cause for complaint
Robert Scott’s final diary entry
Becomes a heroic trophy for placing the South Pole discovery to Amundsen
They found the pole, saw a Norwegian flag, died on the journey back

Robert Scott’s final diary entry
He walked to his death in 1912
They found the pole, saw a Norwegian flag, died on the journey back
I am just going outside and may be some time


Ever since I was a kid I had an odd interest in the doomed Scott expedition. The explorers of the Arctic had to endured some incredibly hostile conditions and some did not make it back. Brave men.

Hard to slam with a pantoum though, and I was not that confident!

So that was two poems written in a week, something that does not happen to me much these days.

I have ambitions, research is being done. Comfort zones are being tested.

Circles, my head is going 'round in circles

The weather here has been spotty the last few days. Nice and sunny quickly leads to pouring rain. Caught a break in the weather and went to Columbus Commons this morning to see if my son would be interested in riding on the carousel.

I'm not sure if he's even been on one before, maybe on a school field trip to the zoo or something his mother never told me about when they went to Disney last year. He loves being spun and I would think the overall motion might be something he likes.

So I got the token for a buck and the attendant let us on. He seemed apprehensive but I brought him on and he rode on a frog. Me, I got dizzy, which is something I do when I bend down to pick something up.



He seemed a bit scared and nervous, but once the ride got going he seemed to tolerate it. When the ride stopped we got off and he walked around the carousel area. I followed, wondering if he'd go to the entrance which would mean he wanted to ride it again. He went here instead.



He took off, looking back once in awhile to see if I was there. He circled the commons then we went back to the car with no real problem.

There was a lollipop waiting for him.



Been here on blogger regularly for over four years. This was post number 1,000. Never set out to be specific here. This blog is admittingly all over the place, from poetry, to autism to travel, sports, music, film, rants and other types of mayhem. Thank you all for reading, lurking and commenting. Especially you.

Somewhere between 50 and 75

The deadline for applying for the Columbus Arts Festival has passed. If you submitted your poems, thank you. I'm fairly certain there were a record number of applicants this year.

You know what that means, right?

Competition is going to be tough. Any poet appearing on that stage is going to earn that spot. And if that poet earns it, it should be considered a big accomplishment. In the past, sometimes it may have felt like a rubber stamp to appear at the Arts Festival. That anyone and everyone who submitted and auditioned got a slot. Not so this year, not even close. This also means that the quality of poetry on The Word is Art Stage is going to be exceptional. This was a goal, and it's going to be achieved once the auditions are completed.

I had a number of applicants in mind when I started, and got a chuckle in return so I lowered my sights and the final number came in between the original and revised numbers. I'm very pleased.

Speaking of record numbers, for some reason January 2013 has had a record number of page views here. Thanks to all of you for stopping by, wherever you are.

If it's not sports, it's sometimes this

I did vow to see more movies in 2012 than in 2011. I did accomplish that, for what it's worth. Out of this list, maybe a dozen were seen in a theater. The rest were DVD, a couple on TCM, some at a friend's house and more recently, home on Netflix.

This number may be even higher next year.

1) Louder than a Bomb
2) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011)
3) True Grit (2010)
4) The Artist
5) Ghost World
6) Haywire
7) One Day
8) Crazy, Stupid, Love
9) In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger
10) Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
11) A Great Day in Harlem
12) Moneyball
13) A Separation
14) Tokyo Drifter
15) Casa de Mi Padre
16) Senna
17) I Like Killing Flies
18) Branded to Kill
19) Gate of Flesh
20) Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
21) Scott Walker: 30th Century Man
22) The Thing (1982)
23) The Runaways
24) The Last Waltz
25) Cabin in the Woods
26) Drive
27) I Was a Maie War Bride
28) The Avengers
29) Captain America: The First Avenger
30) The Woodmans
31) Fighting Words/Street Poet
32) Cafe Lumiere
33) Perfect Sense
34) Moonrise Kingdom
35) The Grey
36) Resurrect the Dead: the Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
37) Gran Torino
38) The Amazing Spider-Man
39) The Muppets
40) The People Vs. George Lucas
41) Quai des Orfèvres
42) Super 8
43) The Dark Knight Rises
44) The Power of Kangwon Province
45) The Adventures of Tin Tin
46) Expendables 2
47) Certified Copy
48) On the Town
49) Gun Crazy
50) The Descendants
51) Mickey
52) Murder, My Sweet
53) Kiss Me Deadly
54) Into the Abyss
55) Gremlins
56) Wreck it Ralph
57) Tommy
58) Casino Royale
59) Skyfall
60) El Bulli: Cooking in Progress
61) Hello Down There
62) Where are my Children?
63) The Card
64) Your Sister's Sister
65) Like Crazy
66) That Sinking Feeling
67) Django Unchained

So ends another year of blogging. Fewer posts. Fewer comments. Thank you all for reading, even you, especially you.

Change of the wall calendar

Here's how it ends, with the Marx Brothers on TCM. You might make #54 Monkey Business unless I decide to watch the Blue Jackets.

The death pools have been posted to.

1) Brassed Off
2) Big Fan
3) Exit Through the Gift Shop
4) Triplets of Belleville
5) Five Easy Pieces
6) The Expendables
7) A Town Called Panic
8) House of Flying Daggers
9) Sunrise
10) Who is Harry Nilsson?
11) The Secret of Kells
12) Local Hero
13) Sherlock Holmes (2009)
14) Murder by Death
15) A Mother's Courage
16) Poetry
17) The Kids are Alright (2010)
18) The Town
19) Raging Bull
20) Bottle Rocket
21) Morning Glory
22) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
23) Cave of Forgotten Dreams
24) Winter's Bone
25) Wallace & Gromit - A Matter of Loaf and Death
26) The Fighter
27) Beauty and the Beast (1991)
28) Partir
29) Romance and Cigarettes
30) Tristram Shandy a Cock & Bull Story
31) Airplane
32) Steamboat Bill Jr.
33) The King's Speech
34) Love and Other Drugs
35) Midnight in Paris
36) Blue Valentine
37) Empire Records
38) The Guard
39) Keyhole
40) Killer Elite
41) The Natural
42) Pearl Jam 20
43) Catfish
44) Passport to Pimlico
45) Whisky Galore
46) This is Spinal Tap
47) Mad Max
48) 24 Hour Party People
49) Hugo
50) Office Space
51) George Harrison: Living in the Material World
52) War Horse
53) Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten



Rest up!

Fewer posts this year than last. Readership is up, and I thank all of you for stopping by.

You Love to Surf and it Shows

Readership here is up. November is the fourth highest number of views since I started here back in 2009. Men in Morphsuits has plenty do do with that, it's the fourth most read post here and it's not even a month old. I'm pretty sure the shout out at Buckeyes are Deadly Nuts helped with the clicks, as did posting a link to the Green Men group on Facebook.

I was very amused to see the term "white women poetry slam" as a traffic source.



November is ending, look for the year end CD in a few weeks. The usual holiday angst will turn up soon enough, and then 2012 will arrive.

Thank you all for stopping by this part of the internet. I know you have a lot of choices when it comes to internet entertainment and I appreciate all of you who make a point of stopping by The Mystery Spot.

From my subconscious to you

Woke up at 4:30am, somehow remembering these ditties.

We were in the Short North, my wife was in one of the restaurant and a pan handler asked me for money for the bus. A dollar I think I knew this person already had a bus pass, and I did not have a dollar anyway, so I said no. Said person then went inside and asked my wife for a dollar, and she, being the soft touch kindest person in the universe, gave the person the money.



In another Kafe Kerouac was now some sort of wine bar/bistro. There were higher tables and at one of them we joined another person, who I think was a blogger, who had a bottle of wine and was drinking it by herself. I asked her what it was. She told me it was a carignan then proceed to pour me a glass while she spoke in French.

To Migrate?

After years of waiting and rumor, Yuengling Beer is finally going to be distributed in Ohio starting next month. I say Huzzah to this! My introduction to it came years ago at my sister's college graduation in Williamsport, Pennsylvania at a small neighborhood bar she took us to. We had it on tap, while it is far from the best beer I've had it is quite flavorful, and the price point is excellent.

I'm a bit disappointed that the Lord Chesterfield Ale is not going to be sold here, probably because they do not make enough of it, there will be plenty of lager happily consumed. Never been a fan of their, or any, black and tan.



While at Kafe Kerouac the other night I noticed they had some Columbus Brewing Company's Festbier in the cooler. Made a note to have some before the night was out. Gina came into the room with one, sat next to my wife and told her to tell me the beer was excellent. Now when Gina says a potent potable is good, it's good. Went and got one before finishing my Italian Soda, and ended up having two bottles. It's impressive. Good amount of malt, appropriate for the style and enough snappy hop flavor to make it interesting. Well made. Hope to find some in the stores because I prefer it to the Oktoberfest by Great Lakes this year.

Thinking of moving this place over to Wordpress. Kicking the tires over there, not time to check out how easy it is to use, yet. Something I'm going to ponder for a few weeks before making a decision.

Shit Gaze as Poetry

My son has been using the iPod Touch. When I take it out all of a sudden I'm his best friend. He finds movie trailers and keeps playing the one for Rango, which is alright and Jackass 3, which make me wonder. He also gets into the music and finds his favorites by KT Tunstall. This weekend he's been listening to Here Comes the Sun and has found a song by the Acid House Kings that he likes as well as Airport, by The Motors. He does not like My Morning Jacket.



We were also in the yard in the afternoon, where he took a soccer ball and threw it against the fence, then the garage, then the fence on the other side of the yard. No, I never did anything like that ;)

Had an opportunity to meet up with a fellow blogger yesterday. He came down from Fredonia and we went to the Columbus Crew match. Good to talk about Fredonia then (as he was not there when I was) and now and some other conversation. The Crew were victorious!

The National Poetry Slam finals were held last night. Congratulations to team Nuba form Denver as they won the title. Writing Wrongs, from Columbus came in fourth. The Nuyorican team from NYC finished second and Team Providence third. From all reports is was a great bout with inspiring poems all around. Congratulations to Simone Beaubien and her staff for putting together a great event whose sole 'problem' was the bouts being sold out, with overflow crowds. What happened that was out of the organizers control was a fire in a venue, and when the venue was moved a poet had a seizure on stage. No one was injured, all is well today.

Have a few poems that are more than half finished that should be completed by the time we leave for Scotland. Some meaner stuff than usual. Some of it necessary, some of it deliberately spiteful. I'm a bad man.

Is it really a +

There is this blog you are reading, too much activity on Facebook, have all but abandoned Live Journal, used to have Friendster, Orkut, Google Buzz and deleted myspace. What do I need Google+ for?

I am on it. In three days all the people in my circles are on Facebook, except for one.

It's said that Facebook has become too noisy, and those who say that are correct. But the noise you create is your own. If you have a lot of active friends, you are going to have to scroll through a lot of posts.

I agree the filtering feature on Google+ is useful and easier to use that whatever configuration facebook allows this week. But if you transfer all those people that were on Facebook to Google+, aren't you going to have to wade though the same amount of posts?

Sure, again, you can filter, but if you have hundreds of people in your circles it's going to take the same amount of time to wade though the youtube posts, talk of meals just eaten and other minutia just to get through what you want to read. I can see Google+ being used by people to get it right after adding too many people on Facebook.

And when Google+ adds their version of Farmville, Mafia Wars and Groups, what is the real difference going to be? Will it be enough to abandon Facebook, or take up even more of your time online?



I'm not going to sit this one out, but hang out in the balcony, waiting for what is going to come along after Google+

This has to be asked

That's for those of you who have found this blog by using Sophia Loren as your keywords.

For those of you using "mystery spot pregnancy" or "ozzie and harriet spanking" I have one word for you.

Really?

More Administrative Things

I look at the stats that bring people here from time to time. To see who is reading, from where and for how long. Someone in Australia gave a good once over to this blog, as did someone from Lockport, New York. I do not know anyone in Vermont, but thanks for reading.

I'm very confused about the search keywords concering "(Columbus Poet) sexy pics" but thanks for coming, I think. A picture of Sophia Loren has also been bringing people in. Here's another.



Weiner mobile still brings them in and "I Do the Chet" is a popular magnet.

Wherever you come from and however you get here thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed your stay. Do come back soon, and please leave a comment.

Ah, scratch my back baby

Day 18 - A song that you wish you heard on the radio.

Geez, where to do you want me to start?

I've written about her extensively here, my answer remains Maria McKee.

Eighteen years later this song still has more energy than 90% of the pablum on the airwaves today.

Endure the ad, you will be rewarded by a killer cover.

Various Administrative Things

I do check the stats for this blog to see how many hits it gets, what people are reading, how they're getting here and where they're from.

I joined Networked Blogs via Facebook and that has had some good results. So if you're coming from Facebook, hello.

A few others have joined from unknown and known reasons, hello to you also.

The U.S., Canada and the U.K. are the top three countries that read this.

Ohio, New York, Illinois, California and Minnesota are the top five states, in that order.

The search keywords people use and somehow wind up here can be amusing.

"Weiner Mobile" is something that gets people here. The post about it remains one of the most popular pages.

"The Blog of Mystery" is another search.

"Make Me Dance I Want to Surrender" another.

Two of the oddest ones are "John DeBella 1981 WLIR" a blast from the past! And "Esther Craw, Ohio State"

Bless her.

As always, thank you for stopping by and feel free to comment.

Last night was a first for my Scottish Wife and something I had not done for a long time.



She mentioned to me she had never had Jiffy Pop. I guess it was a part of America she wanted to experience. Do the Scots have it over there?

So I bought one and cooked it up last night. First off: Electric stove and Jiffy Pop does not mesh well. We ended up with a lot of burnt popcorn despite the constant shaking and motion. The house still smells like it was on fire and it was not because we watched The Expendables.

Four on the Fourth

Today is the fourth anniversary at my job. I still feel like the new guy, and very lucky to be here. Part of it was the temporary work space we were all in while the library was being renovated. I think a lot of people felt like they were in flux.

Things are starting to settle in the new digs, there's a large window to my right.



Seriously it's a great place to work, almost perfect once the vending machines are installed.

The other night, at open mic, the subject of hating your job in your blog came up. My name was not mentioned until later. People have short memories. It's been four years but I had some memorable postings of job hate. Not anymore. Not since leaving a very toxic place. There have been few, if any, days I have not wanted to come into work in the last four years.

My colleagues are great and I like what I do. Again, I'm very lucky.

A Year of Discoveries

One of my favorite apps on the iPod Touch is Tunein Radio. It's a very impressive app that I'm having a lot of fun with and have not even scratched the surface of the stations available.

My stereo system has a dock and charger for an iPod and I tried plugging it in after I bought the iPod, with no success. Finally realized that the back cover had to be removed for the unit to function properly, and it's plugged into the stereo right now, BBC Radio 6 is on. Beautiful.

I've found a couple of stations from the New York City area, one of them being WINS. It's an all news station that is lacking in the Columbus market. For decades they have been delivering the news 24/7. Their slogan remains, "Give us 22 minutes, and we'll give you the world."

When I was growing up on Long Island WLNG could only be tuned in if the wind was right. They're located on the east end and from where I lived, the signal was rarely strong enough for good reception. I love this station's approach. They keep the ads local, there is a sincere personality to the on air talent, and the music is oldies. Their oldies format runs deep to, not just the top five singles, but they go a bit more obscure - and I like that. Plus, the DJ's voices are processed with a bit of reverb. It's a fun station.

Yesterday I somehow lucked into listening to a soccer match live on Radio Merseyside. Most of the BBC stations live soccer matches are blocked over here for copyright reasons, but Everton/Stoke I was able to experience live, and despite the Everton loss it was a thrill to hear as it happened.

This morning I tried to find a link to the Old Firm match, but was unsuccessful. Managed to find a decent video link on the laptop. I cannot be stopped when the urge to see a match exists. Celtic won 2-0 and all was right in the world.

Goofing around a bit later I managed to track down the audio from the second half of the Chelsea/Aston Villa match. Very exciting as the lead went back and forth and Villa tied it, seconds after Chelsea thought they earned the victory.

This season I've been listening to a lot of the Bills losses on the laptop but I listened to 97 Rock's feed as the Jets kicked their asses in today. Looks like the Bills will have a top five draft pick.

This iPod touch is a fancy piece of technology. Bought a cassette adapter so it can be used in the car and a cigarette lighter adapter so we can charge the battery in the car. A lot of wires but to put a new stereo in the Subaru would involve demolition, filing of edges and would lost much more than the twenty five bucks just spent.

Trying to get my writing discipline back. Too many distractions that are my fault are keeping me away from how I want to get it done. Plus, my son has been bouncing off the walls all year. Thank God school starts back tomorrow. Little sleep has made me a grumpy dragon.

I've only been following stats for this blog since April, but thanks for the 2,863 visits. I know I'm not The Dooce, but I do what I can.

Top Ten Tuesday

Google Analytics is a site I check from time to time to see how many people are reading this, and where they are reading from. It does not track individual users, but what sites they use to access this one.

I get a wide variety of hits worldwide, but wonder how much of them are from spambots. Sweden reads me? Cologne, Germany?

In the U.S., here are the top ten states.

1) Ohio. No surprise here.
2) California. I do have friends out there.
3) Florida. Big population, but I do not think I know many people from the Sunshine State. Thanks for reading.
4) New York. My home state.
5) Virginia. See Florida. Who are you Virginians?
6) Minnesota. Really? This is probably the biggest reveal.
7) Washington. I'm fascinated. Thanks for checking in.
8) Utah. You'd think this was a surprise, but there are a couple of blogs I read from this state and the reading must be reciprocated. Thanks.
9) District of Columbia. Thanks for reading my blog Mr. President!
10) Arizona. I think I know a few people there.

I can go deeper, which city or town reads me most. A shout out to Brentwood, Ca.!

Readership has been slowly increasing the past few months. Comments are always appreciated but thank you for reading this piece of the internet.