Okay, so
it’s been a while since I’ve last talked to everyone (July 23rd, if Hotmail
isn’t mistaken.) And since Microsoft (TM evil empire) took down Listbot
as a free service, this is going out to pretty much everyone in my address
book… which is leaving a good many people saying, “What
the hell is this crap!?!”
to themselves. Basically, this is a mass email I send out to the “Friends
of Ian”
every 2 – 3 months, advising everyone of how I’m doing. (It’s much easier
then doing it for everyone individually – which I still do, btw. This is
just general info and such.) If, for any reason you do not wish to receive
this in the future, just email me at scarred2112@hotmail.com,
(or the same if you'd like to be added) and I’ll remove you from the list.
I also promise to not take it personally.
To quickly run down what’s been happening the last few months; In August
Stephanie and I went back to New York for a quick vacation before starting the
fall semester. Unfortunately, the recording project I had planned didn’t
work out due to conflicting schedules and simple lack of time. Have no
fears, though – I’m continuing to refine and write material, and if all goes
well, we’ll be able to give it another go this winter. School is going
well with both of us. This semester I’m taking Political Development,
The Politics of Sustainability, Sociology of Inequality and Class, and French 1.
I’m enjoying everything except French… merde. ;) I’m also getting
more involved in campus activities this semester, having “adapted” to life
in Kentucky. I’m a active member of “Progress,” the “leftist”
student organization (Which isn’t very leftist, trust me – we’re not on
the level of burning draft cards yet. We worry about putting up too many
flyers. ;)) I’ve also become active in “T-Unity,” Transy’s
Gay/Bi/Transgender support organization. Standard
disclaimer –
No, I haven’t reevaluated/changed my sexual orientation. I simply
support the choice of people to live their lives how they see fit without fear
of discrimination or violence. We’re finalizing our entry into the
Transy Haunted House – we’re doing the dinner scene from “Rocky Horror,”
and trust me – it’s going to rock hardcore. Other then that, it’s
same old same old.
If you haven’t taken a look at my site, I suggest you do… right
now!! (Sorry,
you're already here at this point)
Okay, now that
we’re all back… ;)
Just to quickly run down some of the changes I’ve put in place since… well,
forever.
1) If it’s been a really long time (like last spring long) since
you’ve been there, I went and redid pretty much the “whole damn site” (all
the visuals and a good deal of the content.) This was mostly to alleviate
my boredom at the time, and to throw out some embarrassing design elements to
boot. IMHO, it’s now something I’m “reasonably” proud to associate
my name with (I will learn FrontPage at one point,) and a tad more
“professional” then your usual Geoshities site. It’s been an ongoing
“tweaking” process, but I’ve finally settled down for the time being.
Here’s what’s different;
2) I’ve reformatted the Picture
Gallery page
with direct links to most of the jpgs instead of having individual pages for
every single friend, incident, etc. I did this to save space on my
account, and boy, it did – about 3 megs worth. It also ties in with the
next change…
3) I’ve gone and deleted the “Friends, Drunks, and Jamming Buddies”
page from my site. This was for several reasons. The changing of the
Picture
Gallery
format broke all the links to the photos on the FDJB page, and to relink
everything would have been a major pain-in-the-ass. It was also severely
out of date, and updating it would have been yet more work that could be spent
in better endeavors. Most of all, however, is the fact I don’t really
need to justify/validate my friendship with anyone, and that I don’t believe
my friends need their egos inflated by a two line blurb on a fourth-rate
website. ;) So I’ll say, “I like you,” you’ll say “I like you
too, Ian” and we’ll leave it at that. J
4) I’ve reworked the Current
News/index
page to be friendlier with different browser settings and monitor resolutions.
Various dead links have been cleaned, and new ones added. Everything
should also be centered (Don’t even ask how long something that supposedly
simple took in realtime. :P*) – and yes, I’ll have musical samples up very
soon! I’m waiting for some new CD’s, as a few were damaged on the move
down here. Give me 2/3 weeks on that before the lynching starts.
Just so you know that I do care for you, and am not deleting pages willy-nilly,
I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce a BRAND
SPANKIN’ NEW
addition to the page. Most of you “old-timers” remember the “Musings
of a Jaded Personality”,
my ‘lil web diary of sorts. For a time it was fun and served its purpose
in venting my thoughts/views, but gradually both the format (“What did I do
today…”) and the timeframe (“Geez, must I do this every
day?”) grew stale, and I abandoned it in the early summer of ’00.
Over the last few
months, however, I’ve felt the desire to communicate (in some way,) the
feelings/viewpoints/verbal diarrhea that pop into my head on a varied basis.
You know, creative output that papers on the political development of South
Africa and the comparisons between the South Central ’91 and Cincinnati ’01
riots (both of which I’m writing this semester,) don’t give me the chance to
express. It took me some time to reconceptualize the idea from a standard
“Diary” format, but I’d like to give you…
“Visual
Verbalizations”!
(Get it? It’s “visual”
because you’re reading it on your screen, but it’s “verbal”
because I’m writing it... hell, I think it makes sense… )
In some ways it is a replacement for “Musings”
but I prefer to think of it as an expansion on the limitations of the former
format (Hey, alliteration!) I’ll be all over the place on this one –
short fiction, political commentary, academic writings, the aforementioned
verbal diarrhea. I’ve already posted the
first a few days ago – "An
Open Letter to Bryan Beller”.
It’s an email I wrote to a bassist
I admire expressing said admiration, and a true-to-life story that grew from
such. It’s fairly out there, but an interesting read. Check it
out, and let me know what you think. I’m also working on two
essay/fiction ideas I’d like to have done in the near future, so check back on
a semi-regular basis. Or I’ll email when new ones are up.
Whatever.
At this time I’d also like to offer my sincere congratulations to my good
friend Dave, who on October 15th announced his engagement to his
longtime love Melissa. For most of you who don’t know our
connection, Dave was the creator and Webmaster of Mike
Portnoy.com,
the website of Dream
Theater
drummer Mike Portnoy. It is on this website that, two years ago, Stephanie
and I met and fell in love. It is for this reason that I owe Dave more
then I can ever explain. Once again, congratulations Dave and Melissa!
Well, that’s it for this edition. As always, I hope everyone is doing
well, and I hope to hear/see you as soon as possible.
Carpe Diem,
~Ian
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