A Warning

I don't think I'll be talking about my late Dad much. I'm not trying to just move on, or whatever, I just don't really want to write about it, or I feel like I lack the eloquence to do it. So when you see new posts that make it seem like I'm just fine, it's not because I'm over it, it's just that I don't want to write about him. It still haunts me, but I knew it would. So I'm just warning you. Besides, my uncle is doing a much better job of writing about Gary than I ever could have done... (Switch2planb.com)

Fine, I'm Not Quitting

Happy now?

I can't leave this blog. I was looking back over some of my older material, and I remembered one of the concepts of this blog. I wasn't out to write big, long, articulate essays, just small muses on life or stories about my day. Or whatever. So how can I not have time for this blog?

I do have time. And to an extent I've made some time for this. I recently obtained my driver's license (yes all of you, beware) so I can stay after school later than usual - about an hour. I've been using most of this time to type up Mondays, but the book is almost done. I only have one chapter left to type. So I'll start using this time slot to write my posts.

Aside from almost finishing Mondays, I have been working on the Cover Concert for the BK Band. I've already arranged five of the thirteen songs. In contrast, the actual director is working on finishing his first. But he's busy anyhow, I can't hold it against him. I'm working on getting some singers and some lights. It will be a real show. Plan on coming. Projected Date: February 28th.

I bought my brother his bike, and showed it to him. It was about two hundred dollars, and it seems to be a fairly nice bike. We haven't assembled it yet... It looks like the semester of being on lunch crew for second lunch have finally paid off. Andy (little brother) is grateful.

In other news, the new class schedule is interesting. At some point I will discuss the new schedule and the various classes in some depth.

Thanks, if you came back.
Thanks, if you read this at all.

Back to School...

Yeah, I'm back to school. I'm kind of busy and don't have much to write about as of yet, but I'd just like everybody to know that I am no longer using therandomnessoflife.com as a URL. To get to my blog, you'll have to use alcatraz014.blogspot.com like we used to. I will hopefully be registering therandomnessoflife.net sometime soon, so this is merely temporary. The reason is so that I can finally get my blog unblocked at school. Thanks for being patient.

Back to Same Old Nothing

Well, as some of you may or may not realize, the main reason I haven't been posting as often this month has been largely due to the play. It's a bigger commitment than I realized when I joined up. Not to say anything against it of course. It was really fun, and I had a great time doing it, but it was still some work getting it all done and memorized and everything. For all of our hard work though, we did get both an article in the paper and some free food. In the end, alot of people came out and saw the play, and it was fun to do. So I'm quite content with it.

Wil I do it again? Probably.

At any rate, things come down to this. I find myself yet again with a considerable amount of spare time. And of course, I still don't seem to want to do any homework ahead of time. So where do I go? To The Internet! And it always gets me thinking after a night of surfing how incredible the technology is that we have. When you think about the processes that take place behind a TV or computer screen, there are incredibly complex and unbelievably fast things happening behind it to make the images and videos that appear to us. It's all taken for granted.

But not to say that technology is perfect. Here's just one of the biggest problems I've run into, although I admit it's specific to blogging. Here's the problem. If you've got time to blog, it often means you don't have too much to blog about. And that's exactly what's happened to me.

Well I'll have to get over it and start putting my days back into words. I've nigh forgotten how to give a good summary of a chosen day with all of my recent posts. You'll have to forgive me. I am going to try to put a little bit more work into this blog in May, and I'm sure with finals and Student Council Campaigning, I should at least have something to write about. So keep reading folks. Sorry if this month wasn't as prolific or high quality as the ones before. I've been busy, but now I'm back on track. Back to same old nothing.

Back from McCall

In celebration of the end of radiation, our family and Troy went up to our cabin in McCall this weekend. It was a short trip but Troy, Andy, and I all got to get one last day of skiing in at Tamarack. I'll probably give you some pictures and videos of that at some point.

At any rate, Dad seems to be doing pretty well. He's still not quite himself, but I can't expect that so soon after finishing radiation. He's still taking plenty of medications to help him. But my point is, he is recoverng, however slowly. That's all I can wish for.

This week will be somewhat busy. I have a BK band concert and tour in the middle of the week as well as a shadow on Wednesday. I'll make sure I'll get some footage from the concert for all of you. Hopefully I'll come up with something to write about too. Because I'm stuck. Ah well.

Such is the life of a blogger.

A New Approach

There's an old saying that's part of the skiier's code, and it say "respect gets respect." And gradually I've learned how true that is and how well it applies to blogging (yes, it's another entry about blogging...).

The thing is, blogging's like a community. And someone who's never seen out in public probably won't be go winning awards or recognitions. No, I've seen that some of the most successful ones (in terms of views and links and such) have been those that were active citizens in that commmunity. The guys that scrolled through "next blog" on the toolbar half a dozen times and finally found an admirable website, left a comment, and then kept looking for more - they seem to be doing the best (of course this doesn't guarantee anything if the blog's no good, but works for the most part with good writers). And you know why?

Whenever a comment is left on a post, you can bet a fortune that the author of the post's gonna take a look at the profile that left it. You want to know who was complementing you (or bashing you), right? And if the author likes what he sees in terms of the commenter's blog, then chances are he'll leave his own comment. And if these two really like each other's stuff, than voila! Links ahoy!

Now this is not to take the emphasis off the work and talent that goes into writing posts, but rather to encourage people to read and comment on other blogs to spur the growth of their own. Because one would have to be a downright Dickens to just get famous on the Internet without friends and without links. Which I'm not. And since Google doesn't actually recognize me when I search my blog, I'm just gonna have to find some friends and make some links. An author's got to read, after all.

Up The Ante

Because that's just what my uncle Brian did recently. He upped the ante.

While some of you may not know this, Brian of Switch 2 Plan B is quite a blogger and is part of a very active blogging communities. Yesterday he did a post titled "Avuncular" and comically referenced both me and my cousin Calvin. And already I see that Calvin's blog has gotten comments from Brian's friends. Comments = views + feedback. I.E. Good.

To be honest, this panics me a little bit. First impressions are really important for repeat visits, and quite frankly most of the stuff I've been writing recently seem more like filler than anything else. I don't like writing filler, but some days I can write well and others I can't think of anything.

All I can say is that I better step it up. And for any new visitors, make sure you take a look past the first two or three posts. You'll find there's more to me than meets the eye.

The Different Types of Blogs

You know, I've been thinking about the nature of my blog, and the nature of other blogs, and how mine fits into it. Or how I fit as a blogger. I've arrived at a few conclusions - mainly that there are essentially three different types of blogs.

Type 1 - Completed.

These are the blogs that you occasionally see and try to go back to, but find nothing new. This means that the blogger has probably moved on and left it to die. These are like novels, and if you look closely, you can find some really good gems. Of course, none of these classifications ensures quality, but I've found that these can be quite good. Take The Musings And General Ponderings of Master Seth. This was really a great blog because of it's content, and it remains so. Seth wrote in this sort of Homeric style and had interesting things to write about. But he won't be updating it anytime soon, I think. But it's a great collection of stories, still.

Type 2 - Semi-Regular

These are the blogs that are updated less than twelve or so times a month. Usually, these ensure better quality, seeing as the author is given more time to write better posts. The best example of this blog would be Switch 2 Plan B. I personally know the author, and he is a great speaker and writer as far as I know him. Like I said, these can be very good quality due to time over post distribution, and there definitely a lot of great blogs in this category.

Type 3 - Regular

This is the sort of blog that are updated more than twelve or so times a month. These can be good, and if nothing else, a steady stream of new material usually flows from the author. The perfect example, I think, would be none other than yours truly, Alcatraz014. My frequency's gone down, but my quality, I think has probably gone up (or at least according to the poll I put up). You have to be careful with these ones though. They can be more filler than good stuff, and you may find yourself looking for stories and finding Youtube videos (I'm guilty of that a few times).

There's one other distinction that you can make in blogs, and that is it's audience. If you ever take a look at the Blogs of Note on blogspot, you'll probably notice that most of them seem to have an exclusive audience. Christians, horse owners, artists, musicians, and medical workers (I've even seen a Santa blog) seem to be very common niches. I think my audience may pertain mostly to high school students such as myself, but I think that most people could read of my adventures and not be bored to tears or have no idea what I'm talking about. But then again, I'm not even sure I have an audience. It should be noted that I have more than one blog, but they're all Type 1 except my Mobile blog. Which doesn't count.

Seth & Ricky

Well you know what they say. Monkey see, monkey do.

It's good to know that I have fellow bloggers looking at my blog. Seth started his blog a couple of days ago, and I already enjoy his zany adventures. And I got a comment yesterday on one of my posts from Ricky, his good friend. Well, it's going to be entertaining to hear about Seth's and Ricky's crazy adventures from two points of view.

What's funny about this whole thing is that I pretty much started that whole thing. I didn't realize that a month in, people would take a look at my blog and then start their own. That's what happens, and that's how we end up with good blogs. I started blogging after seeing Switch 2 Plan B. Seth started blogging after seeing Alcatraz014. And Ricky started blogging after seeing The Musings and General Ponderings of Master Seth. I just feel great to know that my blog led to others. I hope that Seth and Ricky don't disappoint.

My first final is Friday in Speech class. I'll keep you posted. No pun intended.


“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”-Charles Caleb Colton

Dan

Well I got a comment, somewhat ironically, on my previous post, "A Difference". It was like the answer to my hopes for this blog. I thought it would take a while for me to get to the point where people I don't know are compelled to post comments upon my blog. But I made it, and only a month and a half in.

Of course, I got to share the love here. It's the unwritten rules of blogging-you get commented by someone with a blog, you mention them. Of course I plan to. The guy's name is Dan, and he runs a blog called Dan's Toy Museum (he's a toy fanatic.) I took a look at it myself and it was quite entertaing-definitely worth a look. I've got the link on the side bar right next to Switch 2 Plan B. And I just got to give him some props for keeping the blog up for so long. He started his blog two years ago and has been posting since. Thanks and Kudos Dan.

In other news of my blog, I'm glad to know now that if you look up alcatraz014, you will find my blog, sitting there proudly up on the Google page, sitting right next to my Oddlabs account. Try it. And for all those who do read, spread it around; I can always use more readers.

Finals are drawing ever nearer...


"Fame is the thirst of youth.”-Lord Byron quotes

A difference

-Barilan's map of the Internet-

I keep wondering whether or not anybody really reads this blog. I can't really count family and friends, but I'm wondering if someone would look at my blog and say to themselves, This guy is good. I'd like to read about him and his life daily. I'm worried that the answer is no.

I've had two comments so far, and one of them was by my older brother while the other was from a classmate, so I can't really count them. That kind of goes for a lot of things. When you're skilled at something, you're only really skilled if you actually have people you don't know that think that. Of course my friends will tell me I'm good at something, but I need a really neutral point of view to assess myself accurately.

I guess I shouldn't worry about it too much. Such is the nature of blogging after all. My uncle blogs, and his link is up on my side menu. He says alot of really good stuff on the matter, and I would suggest you take a glimpse at his page to get a picture of an expertly crafted blog.

But I'm not going for expert writing. I don't know waht I'm going for. But I do know that I want people reading, for better or for worse. Andl I know is that you don't get a huge successful blog overnight. So I write daily, and hope that people read as such. But I rather doubt it. But who knows? Anything can happen on the World Wide Web.

"A person sits alone at his computer and presses “publish,” while across the country, a restless reader closes out a window and moves on to another blog…" - Switch 2 Plan B (Brian Cieslak)

Lackluster

No matter what it is, everything eventually loses it's luster. Be it an activity, a sport, even a relationship, eventually, the initial excitement wears off. Then is when the real commitment is found. Because while it may still be fun, it takes work now. Just like writing for this blog.

I'll admit that doing this is fun and even entertaining at times, but now it does require work. Of course what doesn't? I've taken up alot of seemingly irrelevant and pointless commitments this year-wearing my bracelet 24/7 or carrying two backpacks constatntly around school. Or this blog. But I keep on doing those things, because they really don't require a lot of work. But blogging does.

I think the reason I've been able to keep this up is because I started it purely by choice. It's not like school where you have to do it either way. This takes work, but it's free work in a way. It's working toward my own goals and not those set for me by others.

Of course, everything loses it's 'spark' eventually. Relationships, school, music, sports, you name it. And once the spark is gone, that's where the real commitment to whatever it is comes out. Sure I can improvise pretty well on the piano, but it takes commitment to learn a Chopin sonata. Sure I can play hockey, but it takes commitment to go to stick time and work on my stick handling.

Key word there-work. There's no real commitment unless there's work involved. Just like there's no real gift unless there's some sacrifice involved. But we can always look back to the spark and look forward to see improvement, and that's how we keep going.

“There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.” - Anon.