August 30, 2012

• Upcoming Projects on WhenWordsCollide

  

  I promised myself I'd really be "active" this time out on Xanga. However, my last post from nearly a week ago was a "wayback post" and I haven't found the time to finish any of the "projects" on which I've been working. Since the end of July, I have eight blogposts in various states of completeness posted privately, in hopes of finishing them soon and presenting them.

  Here I am, broke as usual, but with lots of plans, lots of ideas, and lots of budgeting, both of time and money, to try to come to terms with my financial and creative reality. Each time I think I'm "up to date", I find I'm really woefully behind. The "real world" of my career (about which I seldom, if ever, write about on the internet) has been pretty difficult for about two years now, at a time when I should be kicking back and simply waiting to retire! My health is fine, but my creative juices are being stifled. I think I jumped the hurdles causing my puter crashes recently by getting a new video card. In a week, the deadline will have passed to be able to buy the discounted Vegas video editing upgrade I want. In a little less than a month, the subscription renewal for www.allthingsmike.com will come up, and I don't know where I'll get the money. Last night I cashed in $25.00 worth of pennies at a Coinstar machine so I could get some paper towels and other household goods!

  My Webshots Gallery, on which I'm listed as #6 of 16,000 users posting photos of California, has just degraded my subscription from "premium" (I have over 8000 of my photos online in almost 100 themed folders!) to standard. (They're really cagey, too. As soon as I upgrade the subscription again, all my photos will miraculously appear online.)

  I don't have to worry about Xanga. I'm a "Lifer". My archives, which go back to 2004, are all intact here. In fact, I'm continually going back and reformatting or fixing broken image insertions or links on entries which I am probably the only viewer.

   

   I would like to get more active here on good ol' Xanga, but but I find I'm not really even dropping by the website if I don't have an 'active' new entry. (Then I always seem to be complaining about the lack of exposure. Nutz to me!)

  I've written often that I consider myself a content provider. I'm not here (or anywhere on else on the internet, including the dreaded Facebook.) to socialize, or to weigh in with my opinions. I don't really care what people think of my political or ethical views. I've written dozens of essays already and my blog is pretty well indexed. My Xanga history is filled with attempts to become a "Xangalebrity". Each time I "engineer" a "Top Blog" it usually gets there pretty quick. It usually involves Xanga in some way. (I still can't believe I successfully answered, in my own inimitable style, each of the 320 something comments I received on "The Xangapedia". But that was in 2008.)

  A lot of Xangans seem to post entries these days which ask others what the subjects of their blog entries should be. Since the demise of the "participatory blogrings, or groups" (like my own Internet Island 2005-2008) there doesn't seem to really be many "prompts" sites left. Granted, there are a few. In the spirit of interaction, I'm going to list my upcoming projects. I would find it beneficial to see what the consensus is for which entries some people might want to see/read/experience first.

  1. In Jan 2010 I posted "My Media Crushes" This was going to be the first of two entries. I've dusted it off, am in the process of upgrading the graphics, and finally bringing this ambitious project up to date. It's not just a list of celebrities I've fallen in love with over the past three or four decades. I supply links to their work and tell you why they infatuate me.

  2. " Cybersiblings: A BlogStory." Although my poetry and memoirs are usually what first comes to mind, I am a writer of short stories as well. When I posted "The Copper Locket" in March 2011 I called it a "blogstory" (short for blogs). The plot for Cybersiblings has been caroming around in my head for at least three or four years. I didn't start writing till recently when the title hit me. Suffice it to say this is more a modern horror story than an uplifting or heartwarming piece.

  3. Another episode of Xanxiety. The Xangxiety cartoon strip is always a hit. I'm about three frames in. This episode is going to be a bit more elaborate than the last one.

  4. An Internet Island Topic Post. I've got a couple of topic/questions I'd like to ask of fellow Xangans. It's been about a year since the last topic was posted.

  5. Anatomy of a Profile Pic. It was way back in 2007 when I first presented one of these "how I do it" tutorials using my "Groucho" profile pic. I have an entry prepared showing how I made the one I'm using now, but I'm not satisfied with this one, and am in the midst of creating a whole series of profiles dedicated to early silent comedians. First up is me as Buster Keaton.

  6. The infamous Dance Video performed to Lady Gaga . Or "Creative Much 3". In October 2009, a few months after I got out of the hospital with my shiny new prosthesis, (and of course after I properly healed from the hip revision operation), I presented "Creative Much".  in which I strutted my stuff to my own rendition of the song Iko Iko. I promised back then that I was planning an ambitious dance project scored to a mashup of Lady Gaga music. The mashup was completed, and I have several 'test footage' reels, but I was waiting till I lost some weight, got a nice tan, and brawned up a bit prior to shaving my head completely, donning shorts and dancing shoes, and completing the video. I've lost the weight, and I'm in pretty good shape. (Possibly the reason I had to have my hip replaced prematurely was because I always ended my dance moves with a complete "splitz".)

  Made some more test shots last weekend, but it got too hot. (the weather, not the dance) I keep finding ways to put this off. I really should just position the tripod, put on some music and get to it. (I love her, but Gaga seems so 2009. I'm shaking my booty to Rihanna more often than not these days.)

  7. Cloudscaping Too, A MikeVideo Internet Movie. Cloudscaping (2008) is still, I believe, one of my more creative vids. I've taken dozens of great cloudscape photos since then, and my "comeback" MikeVideo is going to be a High Def reimagining of the material, with new cloudscapes.

  So many projects. Which ones should I concentrate on?

  As I'm always saying, "I don't blog like most folks."

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   I posted this "widget" on the blog early in August. I'll repost it here in an entry. What I wrote on 8/3 (reprinted below) still applies. I'm not to the point of begging my readers to support my websites (yet).

   Last week I was discussing my financial burden with our controller at work. I mentioned that I didn't think when my website subscription came due in about a month, I probably would not be able to afford it, and would probably have to shut it down (It wouldn't disappear, now mind you. I have the whole thing stored on two different hard drives.) I told her I'd created a Paypal widget to install on my blog but I was too chicken to ask for funds. But then I figured, you know, since I've been asked repeatedly over the years, why aren't you published? My answer is always that I am, right here on allthingsmike and the blog. Ad free to the reader, as long as it's paid for. Well, I don't want to go through the hurdles of self publication on the internet. I already have thousands of high quality essays, short stories, novels, and all my poems chronologically arranged for my readers. If anyone reading this has "read me like a book" throughout the last 13 years (!) and you'd like to contribute, then thank you so much. I'll take anything I can get to keep the website alive. I wont' beg. I'll leave it up to my readership. But please, no apologies. No expectations. No worries. I cross all my bridges when I come up to them, not before, when the outcome is uncertain. Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool 8/3/12

  Posted: August 29, 2012 10:39 AM
  

  • 6:13 pm
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