10th Anniversary - You Humans Weigh In

Hi, y'all!  As the 10th Anniversary of this blog approaches, I asked for folks to send in comments about the site.  

On March 30th, 2003, I posted the first missive to The League of Melbotis blog.  I think that post was seen by upwards of three people, including me.  But soon, that number grew!  We now have maybe eight to ten readers!

Over the years we've had a wide range of folks at the site.  Many of have stuck around, most have not.  It's the way of the world.  

What I did not expect, and something I don't think bloggers with audiences in the thousands can appreciate, is that this whole blogging thing can be personal.  It's great to get web-lebrity status, but I've found a lot of joy over the years in having a small audience that I feel like I've gotten to know in comments, over social media, and, occasionally, in person.  I genuinely consider you friends, even if I don't know what you look like or what you like to eat.  

I think Jamie is still working on her post, so we may not be done.  If you other humans want to weigh in, please feel free to send something my way via email or carrier pigeon.

Stuart Ward of Kansas chimed in with:

I can’t remember when I first started reading your blog. I would guess some time in 2010. I read the first few articles because I thought the ‘Signal Watch’ title was clever, and also because I like Krypto (and all he represents, ie the slightly goofier/more colorful/more fun/Silver Agey side of Superman).

Lo Content Mode for a Few Days

Today I go to the airport and pick up a candidate for the open position of: my boss.

From Thursday afternoon until Saturday evening, I'm kind of responsible for this person.  Tomorrow I pick them up and take them to the hotel.  Then it's dinner with the Search Committee.  All day on Friday it's interviews.  Saturday, I'm "showing them Austin" with the intention of selling them on Austin.  Hoo-boy.  

I hope they like comic shops and record stores, 'cause that's what they're gonna see.

It's a weird task to be given, but we do things old skool and with the prissy formality of a Dowager Countess in Higher Ed, and especially in libraries.  Thus, I establish who I am to this person by acting as their footman for three days.  

Really, I kind of consider it to be a test of the person's street smarts to make it to the hotel on day 1, but that's just me.

The proximity to the boss and this much time with a person who doesn't know me is, I would think, a whole lotta me.  And I can barely stand being with me for more than a couple of hours, so I can only imagine how this is gonna go for this poor person.  Also, I use a lot of swears when I drive, so the idea of driving this person around all Saturday is sort of chilling.

Anyway, I kind of have to go to ground for a bit.  Y'all take care.  I'll be around as I'm able.

Your Questions Answered: What's Up With All the Blogging?

Anonymous asks:

Why do you keep blogging after all these years? What keeps you going? Do you like the attention?


Wow, tough questions from the crowd.

At the end of this month, I will mark my ten year anniversary of my first blog post.  In internet time, that's an eon.

What started me then is not why I'm doing it now, if I can even recall why I did it then.  Truthfully, the original League of Melbotis blog was more or less about having a one-to-many communication tool for myself when I'd moved to a place where I was far from people I knew, and had nobody to talk to (aside from Jamie), and pestering people with email had gone about as far as it could go.

Back then, blogging hadn't really taken the shape it has now of routine columns on single topics.  It was closer to journaling, in my opinion, but the public forum-ness of blogging meant a push and pull of having an audience that just writing for and to yourself won't ever have.

But why am I still doing it?

There are a lot of reasons.

I do believe writing continually has improved my ability to think critically.

I think.

Maybe.

Blogging routinely does mean I apply some thought to media and how that media is produced when I act as a consumer.  If reading that pondering is useful for others (ie: you), well...  I'm happy for you guys!  But I did figure out years and years ago that this works best if I do this for myself first, and if its of benefit to other people, that's a very nice thing, but it can't be my primary concern.

I write with myself as my primary audience, assuming there are other The League's out there.

And, it turns out, there are other people out there who have found a reason to return, even if their own voices are very different.  I do feel some responsibility to the great folks I've met or not met, who show up online and stick with me.  That's an honor.

In Aggieland

I'm in College Station, Texas until Friday night.  Before this gig, I had only been to College Station once before.  A family friend was a jeweler here, and this is where we got our wedding rings.  I'd driven through a lot during college while headed elsewhere, but with my UT sticker in the window of my car, I didn't want to linger too long in the gravity well of Texas A&M.

College Station is a Texas version of places like Happy Valley that exist mostly because there is a University there.  Otherwise they'd be small towns with a red light or two and maybe one cranky dog watching traffic go by like all the rest of the small towns you pass en route to College Station.

I'm here for a small, regional conference, and it seems like it should be fun.  This group doesn't do much socializing after hours, so it'll be back to hotel and work tomorrow night.  I'm always a fan of the post conference bar meet up, but I don't think that's in the cards if the last conference is any indication.

This hotel should be a nice place, an extended stay hotel with a small kitchen, about 50 square feet bigger than my efficiency in college, but without the charm I'd added to the place.  But, it's been noisy, and I can hear the upstairs folks walking around.  Not something I'm used to in a hotel, and it reminds me why I gave up on apartment living.

Anyway, I'm pretty busy, straight through the weekend, so I don't know what blogging I'll be up to.

I've been posting a lot, so, you know, go back and enjoy the previous posts you might have missed.

End of a Long, Long Week

I had a very odd week, and I'm not able to focus my chi enough to get any blogging done today or really engage in social media.

Here's to hoping you kids are having a good one.

No Post Wednesday - Mad Men S. 6

I was going to write a post for today, but I decided I didn't really care about the topic when I was pretty far along.  So, you get a fake post.

So, here's a cast shot for Mad Men Season 6 - coming April 7th - and a reminder that you will never be at  this party.

If you want a close second, we have a pretty good holiday party at my place every year.

More cast shots.

No Post Thursday - Superheroes on TV

I watched the first 2/3rds of What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? for the first time since college, and its even better than I remember.  Saving the rest for tomorrow, but, man, everyone in that movie is so good.

Anyway, we'll talk about that movie later.

And, we really need to find me a copy of Straight Jacket.

Also watched a PBS show, Pioneers of Television, that I think Randy originally sent me the link for.  Anyway, the topics was superheroes, and featured Batman, The Hulk, The Adventures of Superman, The Greatest American Hero and (sigh) Wonder Woman.


You can watch the whole thing on the PBS site, so go nuts.

Watch Superheroes on PBS. See more from Pioneers of Television.

Here, Lynda Carter has had enough of your nonsense:

Here's, like, 9.5 minutes of Diana Prince turning into Wonder Woman.  It's kind of weird.




 And, as a reminder, The Adventures of Superman is a terrific TV show.

Star Trek Wars, Jenny Olsen, and so much I missed while I was on hiatus

A lot happened while I was out.  Presidential Inaugurations.  The Sixth Gun got optioned for a TV show.  I watched a handful of pretty good movies programmed by Eddie Muller on TCM.

Anyway, while I was out I guess people online put together than Jimmy Olsen will not be Jimmy Olsen, but Jenny Olsen in the movie, Man of Steel.  I am sure five years ago that would have launched a 3000 word column from me on why it would be better if WB would respect the history and we'd all be snarky and sneer knowingly at the studio people for making some bad decisions.  But...

Yeah, I guess I don't really have the energy to get worked up about it anymore.  The studio is going to do what the studio is going to do, and it's not like they won't get my ticket on opening day.  Or that the prior five Superman movies really did anything with Jimmy as a character.  In fact, he got more to do in Supergirl than in pretty much any other film.

Not without precedent

I will always like the Silver and Bronze Age Superman comics, I think Jack Larson was great, but I think I'm kind of past thinking Superman is any one, particular thing.  I have my opinions of what works and what doesn't, but the past decade around Superman has really been about DC and WB wrestlimg with what they think Superman is or can be.

Social Media Hiatus

Meh.  I can't do this anymore.

The internet has become too much.

We're going dark until next Friday.

No Blog.
No Twitter.
No Facebook for this site.
No Tumblr.

We're gonna live like it's 2002.

Email will remain functional.

SMOKE BOMB!

Pardon us as we deal with some new technology. I bought a new device/ laptop/ tablet.

One thing that I do that drives everyone I know absolutely crazy is:  be perfectly happy with Microsoft products.

Well, sort of.  A few years back I obtained a new laptop PC with Windows 7 to replace my dying Windows Vista desktop box.  Well, the Windows 7 laptop had been acting up for a while, and I have now upgraded to a Lenovo Yoga with Windows 8.  It's a sort of tablet and PC in one running a full version of Windows 8.

"But, Mr. Blogger, why do you stick with MS devices?"  I work in MS all day long, and it generally works fine.  Except when it doesn't.  And I'd rather eat my own hat than deal with someone called a "Genius" while getting my ankles nipped at by mall rats.

Answering Your Questions - Part B

So, yeah. Questions! You asked them, I'm answering them.

Not many of you asked questions, so here goes.



Paul asks:  Nachos?

SW:  I will refer you to my upcoming monograph "Nachos!", due for print in 2014.


Randy asks: I have a deep fear that I like "Online Ryan", but not necessarily "Real Life Ryan" (as I've spent very little time with the carbon-based version.) How much alike are the two?

SW: I think what you're saying is "I probably wouldn't like you in real life", which... thanks, man. I needed that.

Answering Your Questions - Part A

I'm off to watch Skyfall with The Admiral this evening, and then I've got a thing afterward.  I think it's another night of no blog posting.

Rather than leave you with nothing, I thought I'd turn the tables.  I have a small but regular readership.  I put it to you guys to send me your questions, and I will do my best to answer them when I return to blogging.

Just post questions to the comment section, or email them to me at the contact link above, and I'll answer whatever you got.

The guidelines:

• I'll do questions of a personal nature up to a point, but be good.  Don't embarrass yourself.
• Ask the question in a complete sentence.  
• I don't read minds, so don't hint around.  Ask whatever it is you want to know.  (ex:  If you want to know what design elements I like about the movie costume for Superman, do not ask "how do you think Cavill looks in the suit?".  Ask "how do you feel about the design of the current movie suit for Superman?")
• You can submit as many questions as you want.
• I reserve the right to ignore or fail to respond to your questions.  You can take my failure to respond however you like.
• Feel free to express your own opinion as part of a question, so I know where we're starting from (ex: I think sandals and socks are a sexy combination.  How do YOU feel about this combo?)

Okay.  So.  Tell me about your mother.

Holiday Party 2012: Wrapped

If I kind of disappeared the past few days, we've been prepping for, and then having, our mostly-annual holiday party.

When we moved back to Austin from Phoenix, we decided that we wanted to have a Christmas party to catch up with friends, many of whom we see all too rarely these days.  The first party was both a great "welcome back" party, with a completely packed house, and also, as it turned out, served as one of the last parties before babies, etc...  as evidenced by the fact that I dismissed the last guest at 4:00 AM.

We've had the party almost every year since then, with, I believe, only one hiccup.  We try to have it early, before December is really in full swing and you're in competition with a thousand other parties.  We try very hard not to be jerks about it, but it's a cocktail party and while we adore your kids, this is not the house nor party for having the wee ones running about underfoot.  This is grown-up drinking time.

I'm taking the day off

Marie Windsor with Cecil the Dragon for some reason.

testing

trying to fix RSS.

And then I left for Tallahassee

In the morning I leave for Tallahassee.  My dad's brother, Unky B, is turning 70 and both of my second cousins (my dad's cousin's family is also in Tallahassee) have had children of late, and we're to attend the baptism Sunday morning before departing.

It's a mini-family reunion of a family that is not particularly stellar at expanding.  My Uncle never had children, so I've no cousins on that side, and Jason and I are also failing to carry on the family name.  Much like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, I am a seemingly successful evolutionary dead-end.

Truthfully, I am wiped out.  I have no idea how this is going to go.  Right now my gameplan is to stay upright until I am released back into my hotel room.

Then Monday I'm back at work, and Tuesday I'm off to Lubbock.  I am a little worn out.  If I can just make it to Saturday the 17th, I am slated to see SkyFall with a pack of British people led by our own SimonUK.  The Austin Brit ex-pat group loves their James Bond.

Get me to SkyFall, and all will be well.

No blogging til I return Sunday night.  I'm leaving my computer behind.

Well, so I'm back in Austin (for a bit)

I don't know how I did this to myself this fall, but my schedule somehow got filled up right up til Christmas.  Not totally full, but it sure feels like it's going to be jam-packed.

Friday I fly out for a family reunion of sorts in Florida.  I return Sunday night and then next Tuesday (the 13th) will be flying out to Lubbock, returning Thursday the 15th.  And then Thanksgiving.  And then December 1 we're having our Holiday party (you, yes YOU, are invited!).  We'll follow that with me cheerleading a wedding in mid-December, and then we're pretty much in Christmas.

Christmas, people.

Rocky Mountain Hi!

I'm in Denver from tomorrow afternoon until Monday afternoon for work. Attending and participating in a conference.

I've never been to The Mile High City, but I certainly hope to join this club they have that I keep hearing is pretty great. Everything I know about Denver can be summed up this way:

That Elway Fellow is like Football Elvis

My buddy Matt hails from Denver

It seems to be home to the grossest family of beers I can think of

This dude is really named "Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr." and went to Texas Tech University

I won't actually learn anything else about Denver as I foresee a lot of the Westin convention center, cab rides, air ports and airplanes in my future.

The Honest Truth About Why No Post and Mondo Gallery

I've already pre-loaded a number of October posts, and you'll get those for several days.

Sadly, now is one of those times that I'm terribly busy at work, and things like AWS going down don't make my job any easier.  Especially when I'm flying to Denver in a week and a half to talk about why my organization uses AWS.

So, the bottom line is that I've been super busy.  I worked Sunday night and I worked tonight when I got home.  I'll be taking tomorrow night off, but then I'll be working again on Thursday, and then on Saturday and Sunday.  Because: deadlines.

In the meantime, I'll try to provide some content, but I'm pretty busy, y'all, so bear with me for a couple of weeks.

I did make a trip during my lunch hour today to the Mondo Gallery in Austin.  They're doing a show on the theme of Universal Horror Movies, focusing on Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, Creature from The Black Lagoon and Phantom of the Opera.  As you may know, it is Universal Studio's 100th Anniversary, and, historically, their most enduring franchise includes those creature features, even if they haven't known what to do with them for quite a while.*

No Post Wednesday

I had an impromptu dinner with a pal from out of town, and then came home and started watching the very-not-Halloween-themed movie, Test Pilot.

It will surprise you to learn this movie is about a pilot who tests planes.

We have recently hung new art around the house.  We've never lived anywhere this long together, and I am on track to have lived in this house as long as I've lived anywhere, the previous record held by the house I lived in from 1984 - 1990.  Time for some changes.  Its cheaper and easier than moving.

After watching Looper last night, I realized this movie will be remade in 15-20 years with someone who is currently a child actor and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  But you can't get hung up on remakes.

Anyone who tells you that all Hollywood does these days is remakes is missing the part where all anyone has ever done is remakes.  This is from Arthurian legend to most mythologies, to Hollywood adapting books and plays during its pre-Hollywood days in New York, to the fact that A Star is Born is remade approximately every seven years when an actress decides she's found her vehicle for getting some Oscar attention.*  Remakes are a Hollywood tradition.  Truly new movies are the exception, by far.  Or, at least new movies worth slogging through.

Tomorrow night, Jason and I will delve into the cartoon movie of The Dark Knight Returns, Vol. 1.  DC Animation finally took on this massive project, and I am not exactly thrilled.  It's a work of its medium, and I'm not sure even the talented folks at DC Animation can pull this off.  But they did break it up into two movies, surely a marketing ploy as much as breaking up the last, plotless Twilight film into two parts, but at least my usual criticism of worrying about cramming too much story into 80 minutes shouldn't be a problem.

I have a lot of travel planned for work.  I will actually be in Houston, if anyone is there.

Then Lubbock(!) and then Denver.

Help me.



*I wrote this as a joke and then checked, and, yes, there's one on IMDB listed for 2013.