Soon, soon I shall be free of the beast.  For well over a decade now I’ve been plagued by a demon I could not escape.  There was no respite–even the breaks between vicious bouts were but reminders of how badly I needed to be free.

And soon I shall have my chance.

Are they good books?  Yes.  Are they great books?  I don’t know — I just know that I must finish this, and that this year that may actually be possible.

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I don’t know how many times I’ve almost killed off this blog.  I’m not a good blogger.  I can accept that, that’s what RSS readers are for.  I don’t expect anybody to actually come back here and expect anything new.  I do want to make sure folks that stop by here know to check out Jordan&Jaime.  We’re blogging more family stuff over there, and right now, that’s pretty much the only thing going on in my life, so I’ll probably be posting there more.

I do end up posting a fair bit on twitter as well. If you happen to be on there, feel free to look me up. I tend to only authorize folks I at least somewhat know though, so at least take the trouble to send me an email first if you don’t know me already.

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The thing about Internet memes is that they are apparently viral. Infectious, even. I’m therefore informed that it is my sworn duty to take part. Either that, or help eradicate the plague with some sort of topical cream, but I wouldn’t even know where to apply that so this will have to do. If nothing else, it helps to have a little motivation to post (which will last all of about 6 days).

Let’s see, in case you don’t read any other blogs (Hi, Mom! Wait, do you even read my blog, Mom? Mom? *sigh*), here’s the rules for this silly thing:

Rules:

1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

To satisfy the first, thanks Jeremiah for the excuse to post again, even if it’s for such a trivial reason. Also, you will note that I’m merely using this seven facts thing to save from actually having to write a real blog post with updated information.

Seven facts:

1. Someone once pointed out to me that I consistently misspelled the word “weird”, as “wierd”. He suggested it was likely due to my last name, “wiens”. I’ll never be able to write the word weird without thinking about that comment. And I don’t think I’ve misspelled it since. Thanks, Joe!
2. I surf with vimperator. I know, I know. I’m a masochist.
3. My third grade girlfriend broke up with me over the phone. The reason for the dump? I was too focused on my budding career as a magician for her. Neither she, nor any worthwhile magic tricks remain from that time.
4. I live within a half a mile from the beach, and yet went less than a half-dozen times last year. And of those times, only went in the water maybe three-times.
5. My wife bought me a leather man-bag for my birthday this year. Like a purse, but for men. She was embarrassed with how much gizmos and junk I filled my pockets with. Of course, “leather man-bag” sounds kinda weird, maybe I should rephrase that.
6. The last published article I wrote was from early last year. As guilty as I feel for letting magazine email pile up, it sure feels great to have free time again. And now I only feel guilty for not answering email, not for not submitting articles until weeks (or months!) after their original due date.
7. Warning: This last fact is not a happy one. Last week my wife and I were told by our doctor that the baby in her womb (our second — a boy) suffers from an open neural tube defect, AKA: spina bifida. We’re still reeling with that, but there you have it. Not a happy fact, but certainly an important one.

Seven people:

1. John Sawyer and Ben Preston - Because those punks are both enjoying Sundance right now and deserve some misery for all that fun they’re having.
2. John Biesnecker - Because I don’t get to chat nearly often enough and this will have to serve as a cruel, cruel apology for that. Also, it’s worth mentioning that he’s the only person I know who’s gone through more websites than years he’s been alive. I stopped counting just before the second dozen domains, urls, etc.
3. My sister - Because she just had a cute baby-girl and I fully expect there’s no way she’ll be able to respond to this, thus helping it die sooner rather than later.
4. Brett - Because I have never met him, know him for no other reason than I’ve been reading his blog forever, and would like to see what he says.
5. Mark V - Because he’s traveling and will also hopefully break the trend.
6. No one else — I just realized the fastest way to break the trend is to stop naming people!

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Ok, I admit, it was too tempting to resist.  Just as I’m addicted to jpens imports, I’m likewise hooked on little black notebooks of all sorts, so I just had to enter the contest.  Check it out if you’re similarly cursed!

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I never would have guessed thirteen years ago when I started working on my high school newspaper that I’d actually end up doing something vaguely similar.  Being an actual press person just seemed silly.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved the experience, the people I got to work with, and it was a heck of a lot more interesting than most everything else in high school, I just didn’t equate that with anything I’d actually do for a living.

While my livelihood has never really depended on the articles I’ve written as that work has all been on the side, the work has changed a lot of things about my life.  My current job is at least partially a result of going to RSA for the mags, I’ve been able to meet some amazing people in the industry, and in general I’ve learned a lot about technologies I might not have otherwise had an excuse to experiment with.  Also, I’ve learned just how often I write run-on sentences.  It’s my blog, I’m allowed to be sloppy here.

Anyway, here’s to Deborah Jepson my journalism teacher for giving me a good start on a road I never even expected to travel.

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