Blowing Off The Cobwebs....

OK.. so the dryspell of which I spoke in my last blog entry.. ummm... March 25, 2007.. lasted for about 19 months!! I'm suddenly psyched to get back into the blogging thing, and give it another go!

I hope that I won't run out of ideas... thanx for checking back, and sticking around! As with all pictures in my blogs, click on the pics to enlarge. This blog entry contains pictures I've taken of spider webs. The large intro pic was, of course, taken during summer. And the 3 smaller pics are spider webs taken during the winter months, after a fresh snow. It's amazing how much weight those things can carry... If you enlarge the pic farthest to the left, you will see a captured red ant, still dangling from the web's deadly ensnares!! He no doubt made a tastey winter morsal for some resourceful spider!
~Awesomely Plain :-)

(Note to self: As of this date, exactly 2800 visitors).

Happy Birthday...

Today marks the 1 Year Anniversary of this blog....

Having started out with alot of ideas, and alot of really good posts, this blog reached it's 1 year birthday with silence...

Even tho I've had a dry-streak for inspiration as of late, I'm sure I'll again hit a creative streak, and begin posting relatively often, soon.

I couldn't let this anniversary pass, without a HUGE thank you to the person who gave me the motivation to get Awesomely Plain off of the ground... the very first of this past year's 1783 visitors, and the only person who even knew of this blog for the first few posts...

In fact, the entire 2nd blog, of March 27, 2006 ("Blogs. Sitcoms. And Life...") was inspired by this person, and a conversation we had: "...Being partially happy isn't really being happy at all, is it?". Check it out.. it's one of my better postings!

For that awesomely-un-plain person, you can have the honors of blowing out the candle, and taking the first piece of cake... thanx for helping me get this thing going, and for all of your support & encouragement when I first started out with this experiment. I wouldn't have written any of the 57 posts of my first year if you hadn't encouraged me to just do it!

And to all of my readers... THANK YOU! And, here's hoping that my dry-spell for inspiration ends soon!

The Milestone...

Well, it took 205 days, 12 hrs, and 37 minutes, but the little blog visit counter at the bottom of the page finally reached 1,000 visitors at 11:15 a.m., on October 17, 2006.

Thank you to those several of you who seem to visit regularly, and for your comments and guidance. I've enjoyed reading several of your blogs as well.

I realize that blogs get more visitors, if they have something to read when they get there.

When I first started this blog, I didn't even let anyone know that I started it, except for one person. It took me a few entries before I let anyone else know that I had started this blog. In the beginning, I relied mostly on Clip Art to embellish my blogs. I quickly found that to be cumbersome -- first, finding the appropriate clip art image, & then cutting and pasting the art to the blog.

As time went by, I tried to only blog when I had my own pictures to post, instead of clip art. The positive side of this 'all my own photos' idea was that everything in my blogs were original, and unique. The downside of it was that when I had no new pictures to post, my blog entries became few and far between.

This month, with my daily vacation postings (see archives, October 8 thru October 17, 2006), visits to the site increased dramatically. I took a TON of pics on vacation, with an eye on using some of them later on, when other new picture ideas/ blogs start to run scarce.

So, faithful readers, and new arrivals to Awesomely Plain, thank you for continuing to visit my blog. I hope to try to keep it interesting, and unique, so that when you visit, you will find something worth your time.

As always, enjoy the archives -- alot of good entries, even from the start, if I say so myself. Some gems are in those first several postings, starting in March of this year. The pics in this blog are 'blasts from the past' -- each one corresponding w a previous blog entry that I especially am proud of! Click on the pics in this blog posting, and you will be taken to the blog entry to which the picture corresponds. Enjoy these nuggets from past blogs!

Here's to the next 1,000 visits... CHEERS!

Blogs. Sitcoms. And Life...

Blog #2. I'm finding out that writing a blog is a bit like writing a sitcom. You always need something fresh, and you don't want it to become predictable -- otherwise, the audience will just click-over to something else. So, I guess that this would be my 2nd Episode. No word, yet, on the ratings from episode one, since it hasn't officially 'aired'. Yes, even as I'm writing this second installment, I've only told one other person about this blog's existance. I guess that a blog is just a waste of bandwidth, unless other people know that it's even there. So, I'd better let the 'Blog Genie' out of the bottle, sometime soon...

**Deep breath**

Hmmm... MY life as a sitcom. Now there's a scary thought. I'm not sure that even I'd want to watch all of that! I'd rather just TiVo it, so I could skip past the really awful parts, and replay over & over just the parts where I actually lived-up to my billing.

Who'd be in my 'sitcom life'?

I'd be in it, of course. Afterall, I'm the guy with the big, gold star on his dressing room door, right? (I really must remember to re-negotiate my salary, tho!). Who else would be in it? Sitcoms usually have a neighbor figure, who is either really kewl, or a constant nemesis. I'm pretty lucky in that respect -- I have the best neighbor! We get along great -- no conflicts, or complaints at all. One potential problem, tho -- the woman is a VERY good cook! I mean, she can cook anything! There are times when I come into my door, and am immediately greeted by the aroma of whatever tastey creation she is whipping up! More than once, I've been sent headlong, into a triple pike, with a half-twist, toward the vents on the floor, just to catch a deep wiff of whatever she's cooking.

These rug burns on my nose are getting harder and harder to explain away...

Even so, I think it would be kewl to have a neighbor like Cosmo Kramer, who would always be doing the 'pop-in'. I can just picture him sliding thru my doorway, with that wild hair of his, & doing those crazy hand and face gestures, exclaiming to me: "Ohhhhh, yeh! I'm stresssssssssssed!"

TV is definitely a subject that I can blog about. Especially the commercials. I really luv those Geico commercials, with the cavemen in the white suits, out to dinner with the Geico pitch-man: "I'll have the roast duck, with the mango salsa." OMG! Cracks me up, everytime!! I also dig those mock, hip-hop commercials from Volkswagon, with the verrrry German dude, wearing the Puff Daddy-esque white suit, 'un-pimping da autoz'.

(Again with the white suits? What's up with that!?!)

More than once have I caught myself walking around the place, doing that VW logo thing with my fingers, undt tawking to myzelf wit dat jerrrrman ahkzent -- "Vee dub in da howze, y'alllll!"

Gawd, I need to get a life!

I guess that the quality of a really good life, is alot like the quality of a really good sitcom. Everything has to work together in order for it to be a success. The Actors. The Writers. The Director. The Producer. The Time Slot. There's not much that any of us can do about our time slot -- we are all firmly set in the current version of Now. Personally, I kinda like being alive at this time in history -- it's becoming harder and harder for me to even remember a time without microwave ovens, the internet, or fast food.

As for The Producer -- that would have to be The Big Guy Upstairs. Quality Producer, there. In fact, He's Top Notch, all the way. So, no problems there. And, as The Producer, he has a hand (but only a hand) in the Directing, writing, and other characters whom we run into, week by week. We are all the Co-Directors & Co-Writers of the sitcom of our lives. It's that whole 'Free Will' thing, don'tcha know? Whether we choose to be the star in the sitcom of our life -- or some anonymous Extra -- is really up to us.

For the character of Ourself to be happy, depends pretty much on if we choose to live out a life for ourselves that will make us happy.

If we only put forth a partial effort into each scene & reading, then no one is gonna be much interested in caring what happens to us, week by week. And, more importantly, WE won't be very happy with what we end up creating. Partial efforts might bring partial happiness. But, being partially happy isn't really being happy at all, is it?

No.

If we are really lucky, we'll all be able to look back on a long, successful run, & take satisfaction in what we did, week by week, and the overall quality of it. And, even after we've been taken 'off the air', there'd be no need for sadness. Everyone knows that the real rewards of a successful sitcom come after the show is over, and the repeats have made it into Perpetual Syndication.

Live long & prosper, indeed!

Jam Master J...

OK - so this is my exceedingly exciting life, condensed every so often into digital nonsense. I doubt if you will find the answers to any of Life's Questions in this blog -- but hey, who knows... sometimes I even surprise myself in the wisdom that I stumble across, quite by accident.

For instance, I've learned to actually read the labels of the groceries I buy. Yes, you are reading the musings of someone who used to shop by color. Oh, OK... I still do, from time to time. Like a freakin bumblebee in search of flowers to polinate, I'd literally buzz up n down the aisles of the grocery store, oblivious to most names and brands, only stopping to land on items that my insect brain was pre-programmed to recognize.

Back when I was a color-coded shopper, I'd buy jam or jelly. Almost always Grape. (Oooo, transparent plastic purple jars... gotta land on that one... looks like a pod of lilacs... buzzz... buzzzzzz). One day, a brilliant question popped into my head: Just what is the difference between jelly and jam???

I went to the fridge, and discovered I had one of the two purple concoctions, and made a mental note to buy the other type on the next go 'round of shopping. Of course, not really paying attention to the writing on the label, I diligently went out the next time I was buying groceries, and dutifully bought that lovely purple object, next to those other lovely purple objects. I got home, and finally reading the labels, discovered I was now the proud owner of two jars of the exact same lovely purple objects.

So, now I had to eat my way thru another jar of the oh so sweet purple stuff, before I ventured again from the hive in my quest for the opposite flavor of the royal nectar. And when I finally did, a few months later...

... yes, I had again purchased the same freakin flavor!! Eventually, I did buy the opposite flavor (probably by accident), and at last had an almost empty jar of Purple Substance 1, and a whole new jar of Purple Substance 2. Yea, me!! Wooo-hooo! Granted, it's not quite Lance Armstrong winning the Tour de France seven times in a row. High five, Lance!

Anyhoo, I remembered doing the experiment to find out the difference between jelly and jam, but I didn't remember the results. So, last week, I went out and bought a jar of Grape Jelly (on the first try! Label reading RULES!) to go with my partially consumed jar of Grape Jam. I again conducted the great taste-off. And the results...

Grape Jelly is sweet, purple, and smooth, but with little bits of crunchy thingys in it (seeds?). Grape Jam is sweet, purple, and smoother, but w/o the little bits of the mysterious crunchy thingys in it (bee stingers???).

Hmmm... maybe I was wrong... maybe you will learn the answers to Life's Questions in this blog...