Man, I've got to pay more attention to time going by, I'm never going to build a stable blog audience if I keep letting weeks go by between updates.

Things that have been occupying my time since election day:

• creating TessaRawlinson.Com, editing "Bound by Vengeance," and becoming increasingly frustrated with my computer as it fails to render the beautiful cover graphic I created in sufficient time to get this book on the market before Christmas
• Watching the new administration, and the public reaction to it, closely (but not as closely as before the election - I need a break from politics!)
• picked up a redesign contract and a new site contract, plus I should have at least one more site coming behind that.
• am currently in the middle of making some changes in that vein which I am not at liberty to discuss right now.  I hate to be all cloak-and-dagger about it, but I'll make things clear in due time.
• "invented" a new web business that won't make me a millionaire but might just generate enough traffic to pay for its own hosting.  More on that later as well - its existence is kind of tied in to the last thing.  I'll say this though - I can't believe the word I picked a) isn't already a registered domain and b) isn't already a registered trademark.

Things that have passed through my mind lately:

• It's less news now than when I was having this discussion with my dad before election day, but:  hardcore liberals are going to dislike but grudgingly respect Barack Obama.  That's because just like hardcore anything elses, hardcore liberals have some unrealistic expectations of the world and government - both in general and the US government specifically.  I doubt his administration will be completely clear of negative moments and minor "-gate" scandals, but I also think he's got a clear, quality vision of where he wants to take this country, a good understanding of what it's going to take to make that happen, and a precise balance of firm committment to his principles and pragmatic compromise when necessary.  Which leads me to:
• The most important and intelligent thing ever said about the Iraq war.  I don't recall it verbatim, but Colin Powell make a remark before the beginning of the war in 2003 that it would be, or could be, or should avoid being, or something...an exercise in "Pottery Barn diplomacy" - that is to say, "you break it, you buy it."  We bought it, and we're paying for it, and anyone who thinks that a reduction of US military troop levels to zero in Iraq any time in the foreseeable future is anything but wishful thinking is...well, thinking wishfully.  Some of us were against the war before it started; others have come around.  Let's not waste our energy breaking into camps of "I told you so" and "yeah, but," and focus instead on finding a realistic and meaningful path to untangling the ball of yarn that the Bush administration has created in Mesopotamia.
• Quite possibly the most embarrassing thing I'll ever admit publicly is that I can not listen to Terry Jacks' "Seasons In The Sun" without becoming deeply melancholy, sometimes for days at a time.  The embarrassing part is that it's because of the lyrics, and not because I'm crying over how incredibly cheesy it is.  There are other songs - equally cheesy - from the 70's that I shouldn't like nearly as much as I do, but none of them that hit me quite the way that one does.  Has ever since I was old enough to understand the lyrics.  Don't know why.
• I'll get around to writing actual blog entries about them eventually, but here are some of those other songs:
  • Dan Fogelberg, "Leader Of The Band"
  • Coven, "The Legend Of Billy Jack (One Tin Soldier)"
  • Bobbie Gentry, "Ode to Billy Joe"
  • America, "A Horse With No Name"
  • Bette Midler, "The Rose"
  • Billy Joel, "She's Always A Woman"
  • Eric Carmen,"All By Myself" (and in case it needs to be actually SAID:  Celine Dion's cover sucks.)
  • Firefall, "Strange Way"
  • Henry Gross, "Shannon"
  • Harry Chapin, "Cat's In The Cradle"
  • Janis Ian, "At Seventeen"
  • Pretty much everything Jim Croce ever recorded
  • Michael Murphy (before he added the 'Martin') - "Wildfire"
  • Seals and Croft, "Summer Breeze" (Type O Negative's cover of this is either hilarious or brilliant)
  That's just a few of them, I'm sure there are hundreds more I'm forgetting.  I'm sure I'll remember them as we go along.
• Been gettin my time in on "Wrath of the Lich King" as well.  The profiles of my characters that are on this site change with the characters, so if you care about that sort of thing feel free to peek at them.  Just check the "World of Warcraft" category.  Too fun, I just wish I had more free time to spend on it.  On the other hand, "free" time is "time I don't get paid for," and I already have waaaay too much of that.
• Investing in some new technology for my business...for now that means a niftay little application suite for DotNetNuke that will be making its appearance soon.  In the near future it'll mean a much-needed computer upgrade.  Fortunately, I seem to be on the right side of the economy right now - prices are going down, and by the time I get paid on these current jobs they'll have dropped a little further.

Scenes from The Quest Home:

• I continue to work daily with my mind pointed at Kalamazoo. It's where I want to be, and I can make it there.  These three (and one or two pending) jobs have helped me nail a few things down, including transportation.  Now I just have to keep building on it, including keeping up content at this site and LowGenius.Com, and trying to find more work, as well as investing some pretty serious time and energy into the new site that I'm not talking about yet.  I'll be able to get my technology in order for another couple of years by the time I get paid on the work I'm currently doing. 
  
• Next up, raising enough cash and putting the time in to spend a few days in Kalamazoo doing business.  There are several companies up there that I have some kind of relationship with and can tap as potential customers.  Plus there are still a lot of folks from the old music scene still around, and I've got a few ideas on that point as well.  We'll see how it goes...ironic that the best possible time for me to move back home would be when back home is falling apart.  Good thing I don't need to look for an actual job in Michigan right now, I'd be out of luck. Still - housing is about 65% of what it is here right now, and those businesses who are still in business are looking for new ways to bring in customers.  That means website, and that means LowGenius.
• My goal:  To be living in Kalamazoo again by my birthday.  That will be just about exactly fifteen years since I left, and that's too damned long to go without seeing a sunset on Lake Michigan.