Twitter Killed My Blog

Hi. Remember me? I am sorry that I have not been around a lot (actually if you are paying attention you can see that I have not been around for over a year).

It's not you...it's me - actually it was Twitter.

I am not sure exactly sure how it happened. I mean we were just having casual conversations (of 140 characters or less) and suddenly I was ignoring posting things on the blog.

I want to tell you, I am a changed man. I mean I still fall down a lot, bump into walls, have random thoughts that usually escape without monitoring, but deep down I have changed. I want to pay greater attention to my blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

So this is what I am going to do - I am going to shut down 'Upside of Down' on blogspot and create a new environment.

I need a fresh start - a new blog, a new location, but all the witty banter about God, wife, family, friends, and a lot of randomness will still be there.

I hope you will be too...

I will post one last blog post on blogspot in the next few weeks telling the time / location.

Will you follow me there? I promise to be better at posting (not necessarily content, but definitely frequency)!

NoiseTrade Widget

Email in Inbox this morning:

It was through the support and success you gave the Mockingbird experiment that inspired Derek, with the help of a few friends, to start NoiseTrade. Now any artist can freely distribute their music online, via NoiseTrade's remarkable and embeddable widget, offering fans the choice to tell 3 friends or to pay any amount in exchange for an immediate download.

Derek concludes, "If artists and fans realized how they could help each other and started making direct connections, without a middleman, the whole industry would change overnight. It would start a revolution."

Rather than over-charging for music, we want to let you choose your price or will give you the record for free in exchange for a little help. NoiseTrade believes it's time to stop applying the old rules to a new world. If we can work together, an environment is created for the long-term benefit of both fans and artists.

Thank you for your continued support of Derek and for participating in this grand experiment.

Check out NoiseTrade today!

No warning

I have decided that I have reached the end of the Internet and will be taking a blogging hiatus...no good or bad reason. I'm just going to take a break for a while.

What can I use the 'extra' time for?

Water shortage empties pocketbooks

Govenor Sonny Purdue put mandatory water restrictions on all homes throughout the state of Georgia this last year. The citizens of Georgia followed the regulations - stopped watering their yards and washing cars, shared shower and bath times, changed out normal toilets for low flow toilets, and turned the water off when brushing their teeth.

What was the result?

We conserved too much water according the city of Atlanta Water Board! What does that mean? It means that the city didn't make enough money off of the water usage and as a result they are raising the water and sewage rates!

Thanks Major Shirley Franklin...

Sleepless flights

The last couple times we flew with Morgan to Denver to see the grandparents, we planned the flight to coinside with nap/bed time. What better way to spend 2.5-3 hours on a flight than with a sleeping 2 year old? That time provides a time for Jen and I to re-energize our souls by reading, talking, writing, watching television or a movie (Frontier Airlines), or napping.

Things did not quite work out that way this time!

This was the first time that we have flown since Matthew was born - I am thankful that airlines still are not charging for infants (2 years or younger) that sit in an adults lap. We headed to the airport on Friday night bound for Denver. We followed our usual MO - late flight so that Morgan (and now Matthew) would sleep.

Not so much

Morgan talked, laughed, screamed, hit, swung, and kicked (I want to say I'm sorry to the people that sat in front of us on both flights) the entire flight! As soon as the wheels went up, the little 2 year old devil horns sprouted from her head. It was totally weird.

There were many 'conversations' between Morgan and myself in the bathroom about how to behave and to listen to what Mommy and Daddy say. Nothing worked. We just grinned and beared it until we began our decent to 15,000 feet - at which time Morgan took a power nap for maybe 20 minutes to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the grandparents!

The flight home was pretty much a carbon copy of the flight out. I have come to the conclusion that we will not be flying out with Morgan anytime soon - so if you live out of driving range (5 hours) then you will need to fly to us!

Overdue Posts

These last couple weeks have been extremely busy - maybe not physically, but mentally I have been extremely drained! Between work changes, traveling across country, exploding laundry detergent bottles, and Matthew going to school, Jen and I have not really had a moment to catch our breath.

So between tonight and this weekend, I plan on catching up on my blog posts. So the next posts will go out all in one night (maybe tonight?) or over the next few days. My goal is by Sunday to be caught up with 'past' posts and return to the usual inconsistent schedule.

Sound good?

Under Construction

Excuse the changes that are making my blog extremely long (format-wise) and the redundancy. I'm trying to figure out all the add-ins and such. I'm still thinking a out moving to a new blog host...

Tired

The once daily or twice daily blog posts dwindled to weekly posts. The weekly posts have dwindled even further to monthly posts. There is really no excuse, talking to some buddies lately I think I can be diagnosed with 'blogger's block'. There is a lot going on in my life, but nothing sticking to be 'blog-worthy' or really 'blog-ready'.

I sit down in front of blogger and nothing but random unconnected thoughts spew out. Maybe I need a change of scenery to write more?

I am sitting on the Light Rail from Littleton, CO to downtown Denver and can come up with different things to write about - again mostly random thoughts, but at least there is some sort of inter-relatedness (although I'm not real sure that is even possible). I am highly entertained by the conversations of those sitting around me and the different people getting on and off the train at each station (homeless, teenagers, business man, etc).

Maybe I should spend the day on the train and just post the smells, sights, and sounds of the 'daily commute' of Denver?

Hotter than the 12th level of Hell already

In the mail yesterday I received my 'Certificate of Completion' from the nightmare of a marathon in October (a.k.a. 'Hotter Than Hell Fun Run'). Looking over the certificate, it states that I was a 'Participant of the 2007 Chicago Marathon'. Participant? How about "pissed off runner that trained for almost 2 years for a race that I was told I couldn't finish because of the Race Director's inability to get his head out of his arse"? I'm pretty sure that wasn't put on the certificate because the title was too long. They could have put "Survivor" and that would have been just as good.

I digress.

The reason for this post is not to rant and rave (any more than necessary), but to announce (ha! like anyone really cares) that I have figured out my training schedule for this year. It is simple - don't run outside in the heat! So, I will continue to exercise, but it will be 90% completed in-doors either on a treadmill (crap), elliptical (ugh), or a bike (ouch), plus some weights to get my 'swell' on!

Now I just need to find a race in the Fall and everything will be set!