My old movie review website is closing!

Well, an era of indecision is ending.

Eleven years ago, I started an online movie review service. For about a year and a half, I posted regular movie reviews on the web on GeoCities (free web-hosting--an essential component when no one is paying you), and sent them out in e-mails to subscribers (also free). Then I got a writing job with a magazine in Washington, and subsequently, burnout. The result of that was that since 2000, my website had been in limbo--I never officially closed it, but didn't post any new reviews either.

Yahoo!, for whatever reason, is closing down GeoCities for good. I can only fault Yahoo! for this--it was great to have free web-hosting even if it meant carrying their ads and bandwidth limitations. Corporate greed (there‘s a heavy push for us on GeoCities to move to their very expensive paid hosting--I'm not going to pay), incompetence (blogger.com, YouTube, MySpace, and a zillion other sites prove there‘s still a place for free hosting online), and shortsightedness (there are very few web services with a 15 year history--that alone would be a reason to try to keep it open) are the only explanations I can imagine.

In the meantime, I’m going to officially pull the plug. I plan to redirect the domain name here (another free writing project I don’t tend to as often as I should, but that’s another issue), and copy the content over here (marking it with the tag "ReviewsbyJohn"). That way, I’ll be able to keep the reviews online without having to maintain a new site. However, ReviewsbyJohn as a separate service is no more. I will, however, leave the reviews over there for the benefit of anyone with old links, and so they’ll still be available here, if Yahoo! reconsiders.

And I will miss the film-reel graphic--I made that myself with Windows Paint.

Here’s looking at you, kid.

A cranky wordsmith reacts to being told "no."

OK, I'm the first to admit some words are overused. From a year and a half in the computer industry in the late '90s, I still have a hatred of the word "robust"--which I still feel better describes spaghetti sauce than software.

However, I am disinclined to alter my writing because of similar opinions from Lake Superior State University. Some of their over-used words, such as "a perfect storm," "back in the day," or "give back" are over used. "Give back" is particularly grating to me--call that a side-effect of reading too much Ayn Rand.

However, some, such as "post-9/11" or "webinar" (which I don't consider overused since I've never heard it) would seem to have a proper place.

I'm left to conclude that I should ignore the expert opinions in this case. To invoke another phrase I find myself using a lot in casual conversation, sure to invoke the ire of the list-makers, it is what it is.

A note to myself...

I'm always leaving notes to myself around the house, so I thought I should leave one on my blog: blog more. Procrastination and trivial distractions make for a quiet blog. I have a couple of blogs tonight, and one more when I find a sheet of paper I need to quote from.

Cato goes unconstitutional...

Well, I now have a small problem. When I previously cited the U.S. Constitution in my blog, I linked to the Cato Institute's online version. That version disappeared sometime in the past few weeks--the links now direct to a page selling hard copies of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. There are several government websites that have it, but I'll probably go with either the Cornell University Law School or the Emory Law School online versions. Not sure yet where I'll go for the Declaration of Independence.

The fall of the infamous code

As you may have noticed, I'm no longer using the "infamous code" in my headlines. However, Blogger.com's new "Labels" feature does what I wanted to do with the code, only better. So, the code is gone from new post titles. I'll probably leave it on the old posts, if only because the permanent links depend on the title, and removing the code would change the title. (Has anyone linked to an old post? I don't believe so, but why do work that isn't necessary or really beneficial and could cause someone problems?)

I've also used more than one label for posts that cover multiple topics. In the (I hope near) future, I plan to create links on the page template to the pages for each label, to add additional relevant labels for past posts, and to redo the labels into actual labels as opposed to the codes they're replacing.

BLOG - I stand corrected.

Way back in March, based on a spring training game, oh me of little faith expressed apprehension about my team, the Mets.

While they didn't make the World Series, I would note that their 97-65 record was a tie for the best in baseball this year, and they took their fight to the ninth inning of game seven against the Cards--who ultimately won the Series in five.

In the mean time, us Mets fans can only say, "Wait 'til next year."

BLOG - Following too closely?

Alright, I'm inclined to think favorably about Dubai. Still, I think Google AdSense thinks I'm a little TOO enamored of the place--earlier tonight, the ad on this blog's main page was for "Dubai Hotels!" Come to think of it, if some generous reader out there would fund it, I'd be up for a fact-finding trip to Dubai. (And if frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their tails so often.)

I guess this means Google's context-searching more-or-less works. The Dubai Tourism Council must be blasting through the next ten years' worth of Internet ad budget this month, however.

(I've also managed to nicely muck-up my much-vaunted codes. This post could be NEWS, JOKE, or BLOG. Revisions may or may not be forthcoming.)

BLOG - Adding ads is better than being a blockhead

I've decided to add a HIST code for items about history. I'm also killing the GEN code--it's redundant with MISC. I've been making fewer changes to the dreaded code--but I'm still tinkering.

However, the real news is the addition of ads.
Before anyone calls me a hypocrite for violating my own Rule 2, I will state that I am not against advertising. I am against other people using my blog (or more accurately, my blog's comment forums) for their free advertising. In my links sidebar, I put in plugs for friends' blogs and books written by family members.
Google's AdSense program is offered by Blogger.com. The first thing I needed to do was read through the terms and conditions--a ponderous document of 4600+ words of legalese that, like so many standard agreements, could probably boil down to "we want to be able to do anything we see fit, including demanding you to behave as we like." In particular, the terms prohibit ads on "...any Web site that contains any pornographic, hate-related, violent, or illegal content..." and they reiterate the policies page where they prohibit pages with ads from displaying content including " Violence, racial intolerance, or advocate against any individual, group, or organization" or "Pornography, adult, or mature content." Taken one way, that could mean I have to be immature, and that I can't complaine about (i.e., "advocate against"), say, Bush or the Republican Party.
Still, I hope that common sense prevails. I won't be muzzled, and if they don't feel comfortable sending ads my way, the worst they can do is cancel the ads and not pay me. (OK--the worst they can do is find some way to shut down my blog. In which case, it'll just rise like a phoenix somewhere else.)
Also, I am encouraged by Google's recent stand against the government's inane, insane, and unconstitutional request for a week's worth of search records. I'm also encouraged that elements of section 10 at least seem to protect me as much as they protect them.
More importantly, I'm also forced to come to this conclusion: Samuel Johnson once said, "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." I've had an online project that was just for a hobby. That convinced me he's right. These ads are the only way I can see to get paid for this blog. What good is advocating capitalism if you can't make money doing it?

BLOG - The code didn't last a day.

I have changed the code already. A comment about the changes to DirecTV's channel line-up, comments that I suspect I'll have about the Super Bowl ads, and who-knows-what I'll have to say later on about The Science Channel's latest offering, was enough to convince me to create a TV code. Since TV can handle TV criticism, and READ can handle books, CRIT is gone, and FILM will cover the movies.

Also, I decided to replace POL with PHY--since I figured I might have broader musings on theology and philosophy beyond politics. Political thoughts will still have homes in PHY and NEWS--depending on which seems more appropriate.

Now, all I need to do is make these changes. Blogger.com seems to be offline at this moment, so I'm writing this offline. If you're reading this, however, then that has obviously changed.

BLOG - The Blog Reborn, or, Look Before You Leap

OK. It is time to rethink a couple things about the blog.

First of all--the code (or, as I imagine it will be dubbed if I don't get it perfect immediately, "the dreaded code"). The day after I posted the first entry, I realized I'd be writing posts on numerous different topics, and that they won't all appeal to the same audiences. (I know, I violated writer's Rule 1: Know your audience. Hence the opening paragraph.) I hope the code will save my readers time so they don't have to read posts that wouldn't be of interest to them.
Currently, I have seventeen different codes (ugly system already):

• BLOG - Stuff related to this blog itself
• CAT - Cute cat moments
• CRIT - Criticism (movies, books, whatever)
• FWD - Good, forwarded e-mails
• GEN - General
• JOKE - Original jokes / puns
• LANG - Language and etymology observations
• LIFE - Stuff going on in my life
• MISC - Miscellaneous
• NET - Things I found online
• NEWS - Comments on / analysis of news stories
• POEM - A poem
• POL - Political commentary
• READ - Something interesting I read
• RR - Trainwatching observations / railroad stuff
• TRAV - Travelogues / things done on the road
• TRIV - Trivia

This may not be the final list. I may (ugh!) add more codes if I see a need. I may also kill codes if I have some I rarely or never use. This is an experiment in progress.
(If you're wondering why I ignored my blog for nine months, I decided I needed this code the day after my first post--but I thought it would take about four hours to make all the changes I needed to do on the page--so I kept putting it on the back burner.)

Second, I have to impose three rules. I suppose these rules were always in effect, but three out of four comments on my first post violate the second rule, so I suppose I should say this explicitly. This is MY blog. My blog, my soapbox. I accept comments--comments can be useful. I'm not perfect--I make mistakes--comments point them out for me. Comments in and of themselves can be interesting. They may even reveal fans of mine. However,
Rule 1: Comments may not be offensive. If your comment strikes me as being needlessly vulgar, bigoted, or if it's abusive to me or another reader/commenter, it will go bye-bye. Included in this category are comments that openly advocate any philosophy I consider evil (such as communism, Nazism, militant religious fundamentalism) in a manner irrelevant to the topic at hand and/or apparently not playing Devil's advocate.
Rule 2: Comments can't be free advertising. If you want to hawk fake Viagra, your dating site, or shares of the stock CRUDQ, you aren't going to do it here.
Rule 3: If I can't understand your comment, whether it's because it's in a foreign language I don't understand or a bad imitation of English, it will go.
You, of course, have every right to express thoughts that violate these rules elsewhere--however, comments in my blog reflect on me, and I reserve the right to remove comments I don't approve of on my sole discretion. If you want to say it after I delete it, please get your own blog.

Well, I hope I haven't ticked off all my readers. On to the blogging.

BLOG - Why I'm doing this?

OK. This blog is a classic example of "everybody else is doing it, so..." However, as a writer, I can come up with a better story than that, and there is one. So, why am I starting a blog right now?

I'm a major cat person. I have five cats: Snowy, Peabrain, Chessie, Dulcinea, and Ninotchka. Al, a friend of mine in Indiana, knows this, and forwarded me an e-mail about how Pope Benedict XVI is very, very fond of cats. (That was the perfect e-mail to get my attention, because I, despite not being Catholic, have been very fascinated by all the machinations around the papal election. I don't know why. I've spent the last month picking up all sorts of trivia about the papacy, also. My favorite tidbit: when asked by someone how many people worked in the Vatican, Pope John XXIII once replied "about half." However, I digress.)

I haven't heard from Al in a while, so I e-mailed back. "Hi! How are you?" Pretty generic. I figure she's settled in to her new house by now, so she'll have time to write.

She was at work. She basically said, "I'll write more when I get home," gave me her new phone number, and referred me to her blog.

So, it was time to read the blog: http://allisonsgripes.blogspot.com/ . (BTW, if you're wondering, I'm the "friend in Florida who LOVES trains" that she mentioned in her first post.) I was amazed me how much of her personality comes through in it. It was a good quick read. (Translation: Read my friend's blog!!!)

(And, Al, you have my sympathy regarding Alarm Clock Guy! I live next door to a guy who likes to rev his motorcycle at five in the morning on Saturday! This is literally right outside my bedroom window. I also used to live in an apartment where my bedroom wall doubled as a crash barrier for skaters--I half expected one of these Tony Hawks wannabe teen twerps to crash through my window and land on my bed, but fortunately for all, that never happened. Again, I digress.)

Anyway, I noticed she said in her profile that, "I started this blog to kick-start a writing 'habit' that will make me think of some new ideas for the book," and that she's "in a constant state of writer's block on this novel I've been working on for the past nine years." That sounds like someone else I know who's a little closer to me--specifically, someone who's typing his blog right this moment at this computer.

OK, I actually wrote most of a novel--twice. Both of these aborted efforts will likely stay on my computer until after I'm dead in order to preserve my reputation as a writer. Maybe I can salvage pieces, but that's being extremely optimistic. Shakespeare had Titus Andronicus, so I'm not too worried about my first efforts stinking. We're only talking a couple of weeks' work in both cases. Now the real challenge: actually write something I would like to read. (Come to think of it, some real crud gets published/made into movies. Maybe there's hope for income from those first two efforts after all!) I've had several pieces of ideas dancing around my head for a while--a couple that I might be ready to put fingers to keyboard for very soon, but, like Al, I've let stupid stuff distract me from writing. (In my case, it's not "The Sims," but "Grand Theft Auto.")

So, I started a blog to get back into the habit of writing. Classic example of "leap before you look"--I didn't actually think to ask Al if her blog has helped her make any progress on her novel. Nor did my old movie review website (www.reviewsbyjohn.com) really solve the problem for me. Ben Franklin once defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"--but this isn't quite the same thing, and I already suspected I was crazy.

Then again, as I said earlier, I digress.