Fish On The Glass

So I haven’t touched this blog, in terms of actually trying to work out the problems, for about two weeks. I haven’t forgotten about it, I’ve just been really busy. I’m hoping that by posting my goals here, I’ll shame myself into doing them–in a timely manner. I’ve found that I’ll do pretty much everything, but it’s the timely manner thing that trips me up every time.

One day at a time, as they say. While I finally figured out why the titles of my posts never showed up (an easy fix, don’t use the “Aside” option in WP), I have yet to figure out why (or fix) the fact the permalinks don’t actually work. That’s goal Nummer Eins. Number two is to start building content. While I hate using a generic theme, I haven’t yet managed to carve out enough time to properly dedicate some good long hours to learning how to code. If I’m going to do it, I want to do it right. Besides, content’s more important in the long run. Or so I tell myself! That being said, I should probably learn how to properly truncate my posts. Maybe that’ll be Numeros Tres.

The good news is I’ve been able to read lately, and while I haven’t challenged myself with any capital-L Literature, I’ve been gorging myself on some really engrossing fantasy and sci-fi. I recently ate up the Hunger Games trilogy (in anticipation of the the upcoming movie). I was surprised how quickly I became entrenched in the story, since I’m not big on dystopic fiction. I also finished the Night Angel trilogy and attempted to devour Brent Week’s new novel, Black Prism, but my week turned out to be busier than I’d intended and I had to return the book to the library. I am not yet finished with George R. R. Martin‘s Dance with Dragons, which is shocking, I know, since I’ve had it for over a month. I was attempting to read and return all the books I’d borrowed. It doesn’t help that I’ve not yet swallowed the hellacious taste Feast for Crows left in my mouth. Even the fact I’m finally getting to hear from characters I love hasn’t helped the process. I’ve got one more book left in my “Other People’s Books” pile, then I’m sallying forth into DwD full-time.

I’ve also been writing, for the first time in months, but this post is long enough. That’ll be a topic for another day.

“All major theme parks have had delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked!” – John Hammond

“But John, if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.” – Dr. Ian Malcolm

It’s obviously been a not-so-grand opening here for FotG. (Though you’ll be happy to note that the pictures from my default WordPress theme won’t eat the visitors.) I have such great plans for it, but despite the lull in my employment currently, I’ve been struggling to get some real life things done and accomplished. But I’m not giving up! I’m determined to see this through, even if I’m not exactly sure where I’m going with it.

Okay: nerd alert.  One of my favorite bands, of all time, is Hanson. Yes, “MMMBop” Hanson. Now, while I won’t subject you to my entire, “They’ve had fourteen years to move beyond ‘MMMBop,’ have a listen” spiel, I will say exactly that.

Despite the “one hit wonder” label so normally afixed to Hanson, fourteen years later, they’re not only still releasing new albums and touring, but professionally, they founded their own studio, and are socially active, and have a nifty songwriting camp to boot.  Personally, they’re all married and busying raising their own broods. They’re not crack-addled, washed-up, has-been kid stars; they’re (relatively) normal people who just happen to make fantastic music… if you give them half a chance.

A couple months ago, I got a text from a friend who’d been out hiking with her much younger brother, with a picture of a car window with a huge “I LOVE HANSON” sticker. At the bottom she mentioned that her brother had never even heard of Hanson, not even “MMMBop” rang any bells.

As a woman who spent her teen years singing every word to every song, who has seen 10+ concerts in 3+ states, who still subscribes to the online fanclub (only for the presale tickets, or that’s what I tell myself), I had a melodramatic moment of disbelief. Having spent the last 14 years–over half my life–as a fan of Hanson, my own Beatles–it was hard imaging never having heard of them. It’d be like marching up to any woman in the fifties and asking who that Elvis fellow was.

My solution was swift: I condensed 250+ songs (including but not limited to 6 studio albums, 5 full live/acoustic/etc albums) into a special two-disc “Hanson 101″ disc as educational materials. That’s over sixteen hours and almost two gigs of music into two teeny discs.

Tonight, he finally got back to me. While I don’t think he’ll be coming to any Hanson concerts with me any time soon, he at least has a cultural reference point, and, best of all, it’s not limited to “MMMBop.”

Sometimes when I make to do lists, goal objectives, outlines and such, I feel like Jay and Silent Bob in Mallrats: clueless, ignorant but confident whilst I clutch my poorly drawn blueprints. At the beginning of this year, I made a list of things I had to achieve. A truncated version of that list is as follows:

1. Reinstate my online presence (by creating and awesomely pimping out a blog/portfolio that would amaze and astonish any potential employers). Two subheadings under this were to update my HTML skillz to mad PHP/CSS skillz.
2. Buy a car before I turned 26.
3. Write dangerously (via a complicated, month-by-month series of writing challenges, none of which have happened).
4. Get a new job (one where preferably I can not only pay my bills but also save money, what a concept!)

The list went on, but was full of self-indulgent line items that are not of interest to anyone outside of myself. When I went back to it just a few weeks back, I was taken aback by the progress and lack of progress. Obviously, number one had only happened in a limited capacity (and while I managed to install WP, there’s no content, structure or even whisper of design, so I’m not sure how far the current efforts count), and others, the ones I thought impossible have happened.

Bottomline? I haven’t found my blogging niche. I haven’t found my life niche. There are so many areas in my life upon which I crave improvement, and this blog is a microcosm of this desire to change for the better. We’ll see how this plays out, yeah?