A year and some time ago, Scott-O-Rama took a sabbatical from blogging and planned a comeback. He even set up a spiffy blog template a few months ago to return in style. Ironically, his most significant post after makeover was one to say goodbye. He even took it a step further and got rid of much of his social networking accounts such as Twitter and Flickr.

Both blogs had large readerships and were heavily blogrolled. Both felt blogging became more of a chore than something they wanted to do after a while, so they called it quits at some point. They were big trees in their niche of the blogosphere forest and we heard them fall.

But what about the smaller trees? Does anyone notice when they’re gone?

I’ve wondered about Danny’s blog. I became friends with him on the blogosphere in late 2007, and he posted regularly. However, he stopped posting around Oct. 3rd of last year. However, he’s gone for the shiny things of Facebook, as I’ve seen him actively comment and play those silly games ever since.

My contrary friend Murphy’s had a couple of blog lives. “Murphy Speaks” went on for a few years before he shut it down early last year. He recently hit me up with Priority 1 Transport, which chronicled a new phase of his life with a different job. Like Danny’s, Murphy’s blog cut off on early October.

Then there the millions of blogs that start up and stop. Some last a while until burnout while others start up briefly, but real life, a lack of commitment, or both get in the way. Blog death, unfortunately, is quite normal. It might be even more so in the age of Facebook.

As for the people who are still blogging, especially my blogging community, here’s to persevering.

To celebrate Bu$h’s leaving, I’m going to put together a playlist with some music that gives the musical equivalent of hitting him with on the ass with the door on his way out. An appropriate choice to be included on the playlist is the Dixie Chicks, who took too much flack for saying that they were ashamed to be from the same state as the President. Let that be your high-heeled, Texan boot kick out the door, Mr. President.

A definitely appropriate selection would be “Mouth” by Bush, because “nothing hurts like yout mouth,” Mr. President. Hearing him clumsily handle the English language was quite painful. The question is, can the trauma from eight years of bad speech be undone?

I’m still trying to figure out what else to play that day, so I’m glad to get some suggestions.

As for President-Elect Obama, I’m going to include that infamous song by Rick Astley because he pulled the ultimate Rickroll with his selection for who would do opening prayer.

I’ve been interacting with Chris, Brian, and Fredo through the blogosphere for the past two years, which has also taken to Twitterville (for Brian and Fredo) and Facebook. I’ve met all three of these guys in person in a one year period, and I look forward to more blog correspondence in the future.

With Joshua Minton, I found a friend who was putting forth his BFA creative writing afterlife on his blog. He put his fiction, poetry, rants, and articles out there. Actually, it was one of his articles on Every Writer’s Resource that got me in touch with him. While there isn’t a high level of blog banter and interaction going on between us, I read his Online Pulpit regularly and I have the upmost respect for him.

There are a couple of other bloggers I’ve met in that period, but those mentioned above have been a more significant part of my experience with ShindoTV and the blogosphere.

In the latter part of 2008, I started attending the local blog and Twitter meetups. On the surface, they were parties with lots of alcohol, but I’ve been making some new friends and some online contacts. One such friend is Melodie, who has shown up in some posts as a recurring character, and Rich, aka richandcreamy, who has been commenting on my blog lately. Along with developing some real time friendships, I hope to develop some good blog friendships amongs some of the local bloggers as well this year.

I’ve come across some interesting blogs out there as random people out there started following me on Twitter. Scott Campbell is a writer out in New York City with a quirky blog name, ThePete, which provides a lot of pointed commentary and discusses various projects. Another’s a more anonymous blogger, One Mean MFA, who’s currently working on the graduate creative writing degree and posts on teaching and the writing life. I’m following both of them for sure.

Then there are people I meet briefly and they move to other towns. Tamika’s one such person and I’ve gotten to know her a bit more through all the Facebook witticisms and her blog. We’ll hang out a bit whether she visits San Diego in the future or if I head out to visit Dallas. I look forward to chatting it up in real time again, but I’m tuning in to the Gran Diva in the mean time.

I may come across some cool people to add to this community this year. Also, I hope that those I met also continue to enhance my blogging experience and I theirs. As for me, no flight plan, no problem. Here’s to seeing where this blog takes me in 2009.

I can’t say no to you even though I tried. It was not for your sake or anyone else’s or to appear sane, so all I ask of you is to never let me down. After the walk in the Gaslamp, where I saw the new Borders building under construction, I can see you there on opening day when you cut the ribbon and you, as the celebrity, officially open the store.

I wonder if you’ve ever been to the Gaslamp District? Probably not, because that’s where all the pornos and the hookers use to be, and you’re too classy for that. It’s very clean and beautiful now. I can imagine you in your Gold Mercedes driving down 5th Avenue. Unfortunately, there isn’t a Prada or a Chanel boutique so Nordstrom’s, the couture section, may be the only place you can go to shop. But you don’t have to go there. You can mix and match and you do that better than your friend Sarah Jessica Parker.

These lips are for you and all is forgiven, my darling. I’m sorry for all the rude things I’ve said on the phone the other day.

©2001-2009 shindotv

• In “Benny’s Narratives,” we’re introduced to our narrator and the Gold Lady. The beginning is also the darkest part as Benny experiences sexual abuse at the hands of his psychiatrist at the mental hospital and must deal with the aftemath in the end.
• Benny then tells of a revenge scenario where the Gold Lady drives down to San Diego and beats up Dr. Marcus on Benny’s behalf. Is the incident true or is it simply a figment of Benny’s imagination?
• Benny goes on a trip with his brother to Los Angeles in “Under The Metropolitan Sun” and he fails to find the Gold Lady. There are no images of her presented here, but Benny writes a few things about the mythos of the Gold Lady.
• The Gold Lady is the target of Benny’s anger as he’s disappointed he could not find her in “Dear Papparazo.” However, that gives way to a deeply rooted anger Benny feels towards his parents for imprisoning him in the mental hospital for being gay.

This section to be presented at the start of 2009 is “From the Lipstick That’s used,” starting with Feuille 23. Benny’s feeling towards the Gold Lady once again turns towards love and hope, but his art also takes a turn as he draws and writes in color. There are a few other developments image and narrative-wise, but no spoilers here.

There are some I can’t embed a header image into, but I want the Helvetica aesthetic. I’ve downloaded a few templates and tried them out on Saturday. Here are the screenshots.

I like the Neutica template a lot. First of all, it has the Helvetica font and it’s used artfully. The homepage layout has a wonderful order to chaos feel to it, words and texts arranged into something very attrractive. The default background color is yellow, but it’s easily switched to white. Photos used in blog entries are condensed into small squares and the entries are cut short into a click to read more form. An attractive feature is the are sidebars on the posts that display author’s name, date posted, category, and comments.

However, the info boxes were a dealbreaker for me. When I clicked to view the individual posts, those info boxes were still on the side of the entry. Unlike the homepage view, the individual post’s view does not truncate the photo. especially if they happen to line up with the boxes. Instead, the boxes run right over the photos, embedded videos, or any other image 500 pixels wide. This was definitely unacceptable to me. A shame, because I really wanted this to work.

Ever since I migrated my blog to Wordpress, I’ve contemplated using the Andreas template. It’s severely clean in design, very Scandinavian. Unlike Neutica, the font isn’t Helvetica, but that’s nothing that can’t be tweaked. It has two sidebars that can be customized and the header can take about any image. It’s very well constructed and my blog posts don’t look strange when I look at them individually.

When I applied the Andreas to my blog, I felt, to use something overused on Project Runway, underwhelmed. I was hoping to go retro (reverting to a decade-old website design of mine), but it felt blah.

Now the Upstart Blogger Minim’s even more severe than the Andreas in its minimalism. However, it has a certain charm with declarative headlines for post titles and even a space for the signature image in the upper right hand corner. What’s even better is that this template is extremely low fuss. No funky conflicts with images, and the presentation has a visually pleasing newspaper format.

My one issue with the Upstart Blogger Minim is that the blog’s title isn’t very prominent, especially in contrast the headlines that give the template its charm. I’ll have to think about this whether I could live with this feature or not, but I haven’t ruled it out yet.

Overall, I’ve still have some looking around to do. If you know of any templates that fit what I’m looking for, please send the links my way.

For this year, I plan to keep on going with the blog. I’ve had my blog-ennui already. Plus, everyone (including yours truly) is hooked on Facebook, and I’m waiting for that moment where they get super-douchey and yank the carpet out from under the biggest Internet party ever. It may never happen, but one should always be prepared for the aftermath. For me, that’s keeping my lovely crayon-adorned channel (or whatever appearance I adopt) because my words are mine here.

That said, here are some of my goals this year for ShindoTV:

• continue the serializing of Resplendnence. I’ve put out a good portion of the story already. There will be new installments starting Monday, January 5, and it will continue the Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule.
• Sometime down the road, putting up some original fiction (apart from Resplendence).
• write and post some interesting posts. Rants and some humorous posts are always fun, but definitely some essays. I’d also like to get back into providing evidence that I watch too much tv (my recaps/reviews). A post series I’d like to do is where I go through my book inventory, read (or re-read) them and then do my reviews.
• revive the podcast. I have a camcorder and some audio recording equipment, so why not? I can do v-logs and other things, such as reading of stories.
• Expanding the online community and meeting new people as part of the online community. Also, there are the friends I’ve had a correspondence with over the past two years. I’ve had a chance to meet several of them and I hope to meet them again in the future.

Those are the things I’d like to accomplish for 2009 blog-wise. Friends, I wish you the best on yours.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s entry, I want to stop procrastinating. It is my goal for this year, even if I might not cut out all of my bad habits. The idea is to start.

One manifestation of living on Procrastination Street is writer’s block. It is easy to put off writing because the rewards aren’t so immediate. Twittering my time away or posting witticisms on Facebook get more response, but those sentences are sent out on the quick and don’t take much process to make it into a story or a poem that expresses an idea.

I have an MFA, dammit, but I knew a hundred or so people in my program and we were all crammed in the same workshops trying to get attention and feedback, and even praise. Unfortunately, it’s a horribly expensive way to get a writing audience and I’m still paying for it. Another drawback is that some participants can be downright stupid. It’s even worse when it’s framed with smart, intellectual phrasing. All I wanted was the writer’s equivalent of an art studio, but I’ve learned that I couldn’t find it in the classroom or through all the alcohol soaked events I had with my fellow MFA program friends. I even found that a certain professor who should have been my mentor in the program turned out to one of my biggest detriments to my MFA career. Yes, I have written about him too. Thank God I was able to walk away from that and find someone who was a help to me.

Even with the helpful professor, I found I still had to deal with myself and my writing habits. He helped me find poets  and writers to read for my benefit and I took used unstructured spare time to get into the zone. Some semesters I was blessed with plenty of time on my hands, while the last couple of semesters where I worked as a TA were taxing. When it was just a few classes and a nonsense job a few hours a week, I could find the time to creatively zone it. With being with students, I found the experience emotionally draining and I could not get lost in unstructured writing or art time as I would like. Instead, I felt like I was hung over after teaching and that I needed to recover.

Even after a couple of years teaching post-MFA, the energy issue hasn’t gone away. I still feel spent after a class session with students and I have to pull myself together to meet my obligations. After the classes, I feel ruined and I don’t even want to touch a book or to string words together into a coherent story. I don’t completely hate teaching, but there clearly is a personal cost to me. A benefit is certainly unconventional hours—I’m not penned up in a cubicle all day pretending to work while doing Facebook and having my three square meals of I Can Has Cheezburger. The issue, however, is balance.

Ideally, before or after I’ve prepped and graded work and have done the lecture, I could do those things I need as a writer such as write, of course, and read to feed my writing. Even with the constant practice of writing, some rewards, such as publication or adoration, are not guaranteed.

Unfortunately, some rewards are more immediate. Tuning the world out, giving myself over to sloth and watching tons of movies on Netflix Instant Viewing are some quick returns, but I ultimately accomplish very little in the end. And, I just hate myself even more.

I may often desire a “room of my own” or some ideal writing environment. When I lived in Downtown, I had a great room, one with a view. Forster allusion aside, that is an apt description of the place. Living there, all kinds of thing happened to distract me, so having the room wasn’t always the answer. I had some people who stayed with me for a while and overstayed their welcome, but the solution is simple: KICK THEM OUT. However, in that room, all by myself, I could fritter away my time watching too much TV or doing nothing and that was the bigger challenge. It’s something I still face post-Downtown apartment.

Essentially, I need to just sit down and take time to write my stories. That’s what I’m doing right now in the middle of the night with this post. The TV’s not on, Netflix Instant Viewing is not running, and my Twitter Profile/Facebook statuses are silent. If I’m going to sit on my ass, I might as well make it productive. I may not get a perfect draft the first time, but writing’s never been about instant gratification. If I have that great story idea in my head, it’ll take some work for it to translate on paper.

Trying to run to cafés may not always be the best way to go about trying to get writing done. The idea is to be able to write anywhere, anytime, especially where you live. Also, there aren’t always perfect times to write. Just do it. That’s how I’m going to proceed with it.

With that said, I think 2009 is going to be a good writing year for me.

Scott and I claimed two tables at the Adams Avenue Twiggs and had a computer tête-à-tête. This works more for social coffee/internetting versus actually getting anything done.

Coffee and bagel - nice way to start the new year’s, though not to be done every day. They’re handy props to have near a pen and notebook, or even a laptop for writing, but not always good for writing.

It’s a new year, and hopefully a fresh start (of sorts). I’ve got my health, I’ve got work, but no telling how long either’s going to last with the economic downturn carried over from last year. However, that’s as much pessimism I’ll commit to text.

This year, I would like to deal with procrastination, which is the core of many new year’s resolutions. I could name all my goals, but it all boils down to this issue. I’ve always put things off, and it’s a miracle that I’ve even finished high school, especially in my senior year. When I was in college, activities such as cramming for exams and last-minute term papers were such time honored traditions that I kind of felt normal. In graduate school, I found that such behavior almost killed me.

When I was in my first year of the MFA program, I took an incomplete in a lit seminar on the condition I’d eventually turn in my paper. Of course, one has a year to fulfill the incomplete, so this essay I was supposed to write was a monkey on my back. I thought about it every day and I kept putting it off until I absolutely had to write it and turn it in, which was in the last few days it was due. Needless to say, I would not ever do it again.

But, I do stuff like that paper all the time in my life. I let clutter pile up until it’s unbearable, I put off grading papers or making lesson plans until the last possible hour, I intended to go to the gym and not gone, and I keep meaning to get myself into a writing routine. I then hate myself for not following through on these things.

So, I think you get an idea of what I want to get done. However, dealing with procrastination is the start of breaking a multitude of bad habits, even if they don’t all go away in 2009.

With that said, “Happy New Year’s.” I hope you find a fresh start this year as well.

To hold us over until Battlestar Galactica 4.5 this January, Sci Fi Channel is running a 10 webisode series entitled “The Face of the Enemy,” where Felix Gaeta is in the middle of a mystery of people dying aboard the Raptor after being lost in a jump miscalculation. To further complicate the story are some friendly Number 8’s.

Regarding a personal mystery about Gaeta, consider it solved in Webisode 1.

As for BSG 4.5, here’s a sneak peak of an upcoming broadcast episode, where Adama is not happy after Tigh came out as a Cylon.

Stay tuned. BSG 4.5 starts on January 16, 2008.