New Blog

I have a new blog. It's here. Thanks for the memories.

This is the end.

As the decade draws to an end, I have decided to complete this blog's run as well. 640 or so posts is a lot of material. I think I've said enough at this URL.

No, I am not cowering to my detractors. Though they have criticized the content and premise of my blog with little or no original thought of their own, they are not the sole reason to end living in misery. I have probably posted longer than I intended just to spite them.

I will continue to blog elsewhere. Right now I am deciding which of my blogs are worth keeping and which should be digitally burned forever. Plus, I have an idea for a new blog that is more thoughtful and universal in it's message. A link will be posted here in a few days once it's up and running.

Thank you for reading, commenting, and participating in this little experiment. It's been fun. I love you all.

Leave any good byes, pleasant memories, or good riddance in the comments. I probably won't respond, but I'll read every one.

Peace.

Bad comoprozac

I have been a bad blogger. There are maybe eight (now nine) living in misery posts this month. This doesn't even mention my long-neglected blogs covering Pavement, beer, Lucia, etc. There just hasn't been time nor motivation.

I don't feel bad about this. Blogging doesn't pay the bills. It doesn't help me get closer to R or Lu. It's not getting yard work done. It just isn't that important.

That said, December will be different. I already have posts for almost the entire first week done. Some of them are not even my posts. There will be guest bloggers here in Misery. In fact, if you are reading this now, you may already owe me a post.

It is almost the end of the year, so lists need to be made. As David Cross once said (or didn't), Americans are the number one exporters of lists. I am about to prove that assertion to be true.

Not only is this the end of the year, it's the end of a decade. There should be lots of looking back over the last ten years. As of now, I've only really had time for music, but we'll see if I can slip something extra here and there.

So, bear with me as I shake off the cobwebs to give you a listapalooza in the coming month.

Busy Fatherhood, etc.

With fatherhood, work, H1N1 (so I think), and now family visiting, I have had no time to blog.

If you need to get that comoprozac fix, wander on over to Ill Composition for a discussion on "Dad Rock" whatever that is. We - meaning a bunch of dads (soon-to-be, present, and holders of yet-unused sperm) - discuss our visions of Dad Rock and how our relationships with our fathers and offspring relate to musical tastes and whatnot. The first post is a little long and wordy as it simply introduces all the participants to the masses. But I seem to remember some interesting commentary happened during this email conversation.

I will blog again. December is already filling up as I have many lists to share, many not my own. Stay tuned for that one.

I have some records that need listening and maybe even reviewing. I expect The Flaming Lips record will be good. I'm torn on the new Built to Spill effort and don't get Sufjan Stevens new release. There are a couple of other records in my possession and on the way that deserve some attention, but you may have to wait for the aforementioned lists to get my true impressions.

There's nothing else to say at this point until I get some stuff done.

Random Musings

It's been nearly a week since I last posted. It's not like I have nothing to say, because I do. It's just that work, school, and family have a way of pushing the blogging aside.

• Apart from the blogs I mentioned two weeks ago, another Bathysphere alum has entered my Google Reader radar. Kiernan Maletsky gives a full rundown of his daily listening habits along with some insight as to what may have led him to such choices. Read All Day Long.
• Speaking of my shout-outs to the local blogosphere, Pete Bland returned the favor via Twitter and Facebook.
• I listened to Wilco (The Album) this week and think they are returning to my good graces; Modest Mouse's new EP made me revisit This Is a Long Drive...; the selection of the opening track for the Monsters of Folk debut is confusing to me; and I got a lot of responses to a Tweet/Facebook status update concerning Nebraska.
• I don't really know what all the hub-bub is over the new Facebook interface. Just jump around between the news feed and the status updates. It's not that hard.
• Geocities closed its "doors" this week. I thought they did that years ago.
• Kids at Paxton-Keeley have been snorting Smarties. Really. I blame hipsters.
• Although I don't really report on the beering at this particular blog anymore, I did brew my third batch this past weekend (yet another reason I'm not blogging). It's a barley wine with bourbon-soaked wood chips for a little oak and vanilla flavoring. It should be good and potent.
• College football rolls on. I will not write about my team until they redeem themselves. Of course, at least they aren't 0-3 in their conference after getting shellacked on their homecoming night. Oh, and I'm predicting everywhere that Iowa will win the national championship. Write it down.
• I spent my first two nights alone with Lucia. We both survived.
• Not only am I not blogging, but I have not been able to attend many happy hours at the 'Tag in recent weeks (and won't make this week's either). Still, you should go and have a Lion Stout for me.
• There was other stuff, but I've already forgotten. I promise to do better.
  

Re-Views of the News

Every Wednesday evening in our home, we listen to a local radio show called Views of the News. There are several reasons for this. First, we are nerds, especially when it comes to the news and media. Second, the #1 journalism school in the country resides here. It would be foolish not to tap that resource once in a while for some insight into the news media. Third, it's on after Marketplace and therefore isn't bad, classical music.

Normally, I find Views to be a nice diversion from daily life, sort of a throwback to radio talk shows (sans irate callers) of yesteryear. The topics are timely but benign for the most part. However, tonight's show sort of rubbed me the wrong way.

Before I go on, it should be noted that I in no way am attacking the hosts, producers, or KBIA. We all work for the same employer and that would be against certain policies. What I am doing is respectfully disagreeing. Moving on to the topics...

The first topic was the #balloonboy story of Falcon Heene and his fictitious balloon ride through Colorado airspace. The story was one of those classic cable news fiascoes where all news around the world stops as the newscast is hijacked by [enter random, extraordinary event that has no consequence for the rest of us and really just appeals to the voyeur inside all of us here]. I followed it on Twitter, trying to concentrate on my work but not succeeding (extending my day unfortunately).

The View's take - aside from simultaneously blaming the media and audience for indulging in such voyeuristic garbage - was that the key difference between the online media and traditional media (read "newspapers, radio, and TV") was that traditional journos think it most important to check all the facts first before reporting while the online media just get the story out there and check facts later.

They're wrong.

I blog and Tweet from time to time. While I am in no way a reliable source of information, I do understand the thinking and motivation of the citizen journalist and online media. The idea is simple, really. Put it out there. Someone in your network will repost or comment. Someone else will Google it or look it up through other means. The facts will pour in. The errors will be corrected. Through collaboration and audience participation, the narrative will be pieced together. We no longer live in a time where we wait for the evening news or morning newspaper to get the story. We watch it and participate in it as it unfolds.

The second story didn't allow me to come down from the outrage over the first misinterpretation.

Earlier this week, the fabulously infamous Yes Men pulled another great hoax on the United States Chamber of Commerce. It seems that the merry pranksters posed as Chamber spokesmen and declared that the Chamber was reversing its stance on climate control legislation. (The actual Chamber was and is against such regulations.) Of course, the Yes Men were exposed but not before they exposed the chamber for its idiotic stance. (Now you know where I stand on the political spectrum.)

Once again, the View had it wrong.

The three, wise professors thought it a travesty that these Yes Men continue to pull hoax after hoax on poor corporations and the federations that represent them. Their claim is that these deceptions do nothing to solve national and global problems. In fact, it's claimed that the Yes Men actually harm those they want to stand up for and turn public sympathy to the bad guys/multi-national corporations.

Brought into the conversation was the screening of The Yes Men Fix the World at last year's True/False festival. At least one of the View's hosts was in attendance for that showing of the film and he was appalled at the reaction of the audience who cheered for the Yes Men as they lied to and manipulated the media, corporations, and various other power brokers into falling for their entertaining pranks.

I was there too, but I had a different take as I do about this past joke played on the Chamber. What the Yes Men do is important, inspirational, and effective. It's important because it exposes wrongs committed by those in power against the powerless to an enormous audience. The film and this week's stunt inspire people by showing them that we don't have to take what corporations or the traditional media are shoving down our throats. And yes, it is effective. People are duped, even the victims. However, I seem to remember the victims of the tragedy in Bhopal and those left homeless in New Orleans due to the the re-purposing of their homes appreciated the Yes Men's work in standing up for them while exposing the truth about their situations. These people usually figured it was a hoax from the beginning, but they understood what the Yes Men were out to accomplish. Again, truths were revealed through their work of deception.

That brings me to an interesting topic in the worlds of both traditional journalism and community/citizen/guerilla journalism: truth.

There is no one, essential truth. Because a journalist checks all the facts and asks all the questions she can think of doesn't mean she'll only report the truth. That is one version of the truth, no matter how thorough or ethical a journalist may be. The truth is not as simple as right or wrong. In every story, there are many truths. Each blog, newspaper article, Tweet, evening news report, vlog, etc. holds some truth. Traditional journalism does not control the market on truth. Sure, they have the training and resources to gather most of the truth, but they can never have it all.

The one part of the program I agreed with came from former host and current guest Rod Gelatt. Now, as the amateur that I am, I will attempt to paraphrase Dr. Gelatt's sentiment. He talked about how journalism and the media will change, so the students should be prepared to change their view of what it is they are training to do or plan to do in the future.

This is something the media is not doing: adjusting to change. Newspapers are dying because they were unwilling to change how they delivered information when they had a chance. Now, the New York Times is laying off its reporters. Radio and TV are jokes. Radio is becoming so homogenized that we might as well only have a handful of stations for the entire nation. And TV is all about ratings and being sensational. To counter any argument about TV journalism, all I have to do is point at Fox "News."

The media's future is online. The future is talking with communities, not about them or at them. The future in media is in collaboration. There is no more banking system where the newspapers, TV networks, and radio stations hold all the capital to divvy out to the masses as they see fit. There are many more truths out there than traditional media is willing to accept at this point in time.

At this point, I could get more revolutionary, but that would get away from my original intent just to review a radio program. I just wanted participate in the conversation instead of passively accepting the stories and opinions shared on KBIA's Views of the News. So, there you have it.

Views of the News can be heard every Wednesday evening after Marketplace on 91.3 KBIA here in COMO.

600

It's hard to believe that I have written (actually published) 600 posts on this blog. Sure, several posts were videos or just images, but that's writing too, isn't it? R has a PhD in rhetoric and composition and she'd agree with me.

I have published 600 posts in just over three years of blogging. That's about 200 a year, 3.8 posts a week. It's not the most prolific blog ever, but it's something.

Of course, I've written another 100-150 posts elsewhere, but this here is my baby. This is the blog I always turn to. This was the blog that started it all.

I wouldn't have come anywhere near 600 had it not been for my readers. You all show up in the comments or tell me what you think in person about what I write here. That keeps me going. Thank you.

The most impressive part is that R hasn't left me after 600 blog posts.

Thank you all and here's to another 600 posts in misery.

Three Local Blogs You Should Read

I've mentioned some of these folks before, but it's worth mentioning again. COMO has a surprisingly high number of good bloggers. Of course, I mostly pay attention to the music blogs. Three blogs are so good that you should read them before you read this blog when in-search of the music 411.

Cool Dry Place
Although I don't consider this a blog in the truest sense (newspaper-affiliated), I do read Pete Bland's take on all things entertaining. In particular, Pete does an excellent job reporting the most ignored stories in the music scene here or the music insider's perspective. I don't always agree with his tastes, but I appreciate his insight and the use of an actual journalist degree in the blogosphere. Also, Pete does a nice job of keeping up with COMO TV tie-ins and films hitting the 'Tag that may have slipped under the radar. All that and he has the best collection of Western shirts this side of Kansas City.

A Ravenous Horde
I mentioned this blog in a recent post, but figured I give it more props here. Blogger Tina contacted me to let me know lim was now listed on her blogroll. Since that time, I've had a chance to check the blog out and am thoroughly impressed. It's everything I once wanted this blog to be but could never get together. There's a shit-ton of music info there, plus some nice coverage of the upcoming Citizen Jane film fest. It's all there. I just wish I had thought of it first.

Colossal Youth
From the ashes of the mid-MO rock blog Bathysphere, Colossal Youth has risen to provide us with more music geek porn to fill the void. The strengths of the Bath (rock show photography, underground rock immediacy, music-coverage-beyond-borders, etc.) are all here thanks to the efforts of former Bath-contributor Carrie. I'm glad she's carrying the flame as I need these kids to keep me young. In particular, check out the pics from Boomslang.

What are your favorite local blogs? What did I miss?

What did I miss?

No, I did not quit this blog.

A company that will be referred to as "Schmediacom" decided that people who work from home don't need Internet service that badly and cut off our service without notice. We called, waited several hours on the phone, and begged them to return the Internets to our home. Schmediacom politely and somewhat sincerely promised to fix the problem in a week.

That seemed like a long to time to us.

So, we switched carriers and waited even longer for them to figure out that our wires were crossed in several places. Long story short, we now have Internet service. The blog will live again.

A bunch of stuff happened that was probably post-worthy. So, I'll catch you up and promise never to sign on with Schmediacom again so that you can get your fix of lim uninterrupted. Here is a list of postable moments from the last week+ in bullet-point format.

• Lucia's birthday party/our survival open house was a huge success. We sipped on a mini-keg of Schlafly Dry-Hopped APA among other things. Lu received a bunch of loot that was both unexpected and greatly appreciated.
• Ohio State lost their big game to USC that same evening. After nearly breaking down and sobbing uncontrollably, I put the loss in perspective. This Buckeye team is still a year away from being a true contender and the defense played an outstanding game. OSU will probably win out while USC might not even win their conference. It will all come out in the wash.
• My brother and I went on a beer field trip last Sunday with the Columbia Beer Enthusiasts. We toured and sampled beer at O'Fallon and Mattingly breweries, had beer brunch at the Stable (where we also caught the good half of the Browns game), sampled more beer at Four Square and Schlafly's Tap House, and purchased some beer in Illinois. The best part was the beer. The worst part was squeezing fifteen adults in a 15-passenger van.
• The Walkmen announced a stop in COMO. I already have the ticket. It should be a fun evening in early October.
• We lost Internet service for over a week.
• People sort of show for our weekly happy hour at the 'Tag. Either way, with the regulars and that free APA cask night a few weeks back, the place is hopping every Friday.
• There is still not an acceptable solution to our health care crisis.
  
• I'm sure I've forgotten something.

I know there was other stuff to blog, but I've since forgotten. I hope to pick up the pace again and earn your RSS time. Stay tuned...

The Month of Lucia

Eleven months ago, I became a dad. It's been quite a ride so far, but it's just beginning.

In honor of Lucia's first year, I will post something (a picture, a vignette, a memory, something) related to Lucia daily. Stay tuned...

living in misery, episode 2: It's Shtupid

living in misery, episode 1

Blogging's Hard

It's been hard to get a post published here. I've been busy and next week I'll be on vacation. Sorry if you keep checking in to see if I've reviewed that Sonic Youth album I've yet to finish listening. There just hasn't been the time or motivation to blog lately.

I've updated my professional development blog Mr. E., but most of you don't care about that. I've also been somewhat regular with my new beer blog Bottles & Cans. So, keep coming back or check in with those other blogs. I promise that I'll blog here again.

Besides, I hear blogging is dead.

Hiatus

I'm considering going on hiatus indefinitely. This means that I may take more than the week I just took between posts to put something on this blog. I've got some ideas for the direction of lim, but I'm still working those out.

In the meantime, look for some additional pages and changes to the links along the right. I'm pretty happy with the new design, so that will probably stay the same. I plan to change some of the blogrolls to match my content better. Also, I've talked about starting an lim store in the past. That will happen this summer. I won't make any money from it, but it could be a cool diversion once in a while.

I'm mostly looking at the theme of my content. I've never liked that I am all over the place, aside for my grumblings about this place. There are a ton of things over the past two weeks that I haven't bothered to report, but the posts could have been a great vehicle for some of my new ideas. Just stay tuned...

What I'm Not Doing

I was always told that my life would stop after having kids. Well, that's an exaggeration. As anyone who reads this blog would know, I find plenty of ways to get out of the house. However, things have certainly slowed around this house.

A key difference between this year and last year is in my record buying. I used to stop at the local shops every Tuesday to see what releases came in. Those that didn't make it to COMO were purchased online or even at the shows. Now, I do almost all my record buying online. I'm not sure if I went vinyl because I could get everything on vinyl online or I went online because that's the only place to get vinyl in COMO. It doesn't matter. I've realized that this hobby has no time in my current life, so to Insound I go with my dollars.

Speaking of music...One thing I'm definitely not doing is going to shows. Sure, I've seen some good shows since Lucia's birth, but the number of shows I've missed is enormous. I bet I've missed 75-80% of the shows I wanted to attend. In the past, I might miss 10%. A perfect example are all the Tops shows I missed. Those kids have supported this blog and kept me in the loop for nearly two years, but I never made it out to see them play.

Another example of a show I've missed is tonight's Willie Nelson concert on Ninth Street. I'm not saying I'm a big Willie fan, but I would have walked up to tonight's show if there wasn't some baby who needed to be put to bed.


















Despite sneaking out twice in the last seven days for some beer geek revelry, I've missed a ton of tastings and other events with the Columbia Beer Enthusiasts. Last week, I shared some beers with fellow enthusiasts as we planned out the summer events. Then, Monday was the night to share your favorite brewery. Almost no one actually followed the theme. We did enjoy several good homebrews, including my own. At one point, there was even a little side trip to the new brewery downtown. Looks like it's two months away to me. These two nights out just reminded me of what I'm missing.

Then there's this blog. I have had no time to post. You wouldn't believe the number of posts I've started that never see publication. I don't have all those free hours in the late evenings or early mornings just to blog anymore. I have to be in bed by 10:30/11 with the expectation that I have to wake around 5 AM. Then, the morning comes and I have to help with diapers and packing for the nanny and such. The blog just won't fit.

So, I complain a lot about the time I don't have to record shop, go to shows, hang out with beer nerds, and write blog posts.The complaining never stops. I mean, that's what this whole blog is about, right?

Then, I think of this.

I guess I am doing something. I'm probably doing more than a lot of new dads. And does it really matter?

I Need Your Help

You may have noticed the blog's new look. I had been contemplating a change for some time. Then, last night, I played around with some new ideas and here we are. But the process is not done. I need your help.

First, what do you think of the new scheme and banner? How badly do you miss the old look? What would you do differently with the new look? Every idea will be considered.

Second, I need some help with my blogrolls. Is your blog on my roll? If not, let me know and I'll add it. There's a good chance I read your blog but have been to lazy to add it to the blogroll. Also, if your blog is there but shouldn't be, tell me.

Third, any input as far as the blog's aesthetic would be appreciated. I have no design background, but I know that I like simple and wanted to keep some of the colors from the old layout.

I look forward to your suggestions.

Recycling

While taking a break from work this afternoon, I stumbled across this post in my Google Reader (which is the most environmental way to read your newspaper). It's a good idea to recycle once in a while even if it's recycling ideas. Plus, by spending less time on the computer, I'm saving energy. Happy Earth Day, all. (H/T Laruen)

Hipster Christian, You're Not the Only One
In Retrospect: Exile in Guyville
Lucia's Birthing Story
Crushes
Daddy in Misery
Why Pavement?

500

I was going to post something about teabagging today, but that didn't seem appropriate for a 500th post. Maybe I'll make fun of the political right later. Anyway, this is my 500th post. It's been a long, wild ride. Thanks for stopping by once in a while.

Be on the lookout for more music posts, beer reviews, political rants, and cute Lucia pics. Who knows, I may even update one of my other blogs. Later.

Some Thoughts About 'living in misery'

When I started this blog, I wanted some way to deal with my (self-diagnosed) depression. I felt that much of my unhappiness was due to my circumstances, including living here. The blog was a place for me to get all of that off my chest.

After a few posts, I realized that it wasn't enough to just write. I wanted someone to read what I was writing and to even comment once in a while. So, I started reading other blogs, leaving comments, and telling anyone I could about lim.

At first, just a few friends would read and comment, but they would mostly talk to me about what I had written over beers or at work. A lot of conversations were started with something I posted. The conversation was what I wanted. And my friends took what I had to say seriously. I mean, they are my friends. Shouldn't they take what I say seriously?

Then, something happened. People I didn't even know began reading the blog and leaving comments. I became real-life friends with some. Others are my friends on Facebook or Twitter; the only thing separating us are actual miles. The conversation grew to include perspectives outside my physical social circle.

Like my friends, these new readers started to pay attention to the content on lim. I don't mean to say that I was replacing the New York Times or even The Columbia Tribune, but people I didn't even know were now reading and discussing my blog.

Of course, along with the fans and followers came the critics, but even they somehow saw me as some sort of authority that needed to be corrected.

Through all of this - nearly 500 posts of it - my readership has grown and so has the interest in what I have to say. That's what gets me. People are actually interested in what I have to say and they often want to be part of that conversation without even knowing me. Somehow I have been given a certain amount of authority just because I'm willing to post my thoughts online, on a public forum.

I want to thank my readers for participating in the conversation. Thank you for keeping me in check when I'm wrong. Thank you for reading even though I'm talking about something you don't care about just to see if I mention something in which you are interested. Thank you for mentioning me to your friends. Thank you for keeping me on your blogroll. Thank you for the shout-outs. Thank you for reading and commenting.

Thanks for living through misery with me.

I'm sorry for the sappy post. I have just been inspired by so many readers and fellow bloggers recently with their own ideas and blog posts. I really am flattered that any of you think I have something worthwhile to say. It's motivated me to keep blogging. That's why this is already the fifth post of the week and it's just Wednesday.

Don't worry. I'll get back to cynicism and hating this place by tomorrow. Come to happy hour at the 'Tag if you happen to be in COMO. Let's have a beer together.

Searching for a Blogging Identity...or Blogdentity

I haven't posted much here lately. It seems I've had trouble coming up with topics and narratives to stick in this here HTML-for-dummies they call Blogger. Sure, I haven't had a lot of free time, but that's nothing new. I've found time to blog in the past. Recently, I have struggled in finding this blog's central focus or identity, a blogdentityTM if you will.

I feel that if I could identify what this blog's about, its main theme, then I could figure out what to write next. I thought long and hard about it over the past week. Two hours of driving for my job today was occupied with this puzzle.

Wordle provided my first clue as to running themes and word choice for lim. At first, I tried to use the blog's URL and feed to create a word cloud, but the results seemed skewed toward my most recent posts. To combat this problem and to provide a more random sampling, I pulled the text from about every 25 posts or so, skipping those that were primarily other media. The results can be seen below.

title="Wordle: random living in misery"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/683101/random_living_in_misery"
alt="Wordle: random living in misery"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

I'm not completely sure what to make of the word cloud above.The words "one", "best", "new", and "album" seem to come up the most. "Misery" comes up about as often as "Oberst". "Ohio" and "Obama" to occur as often. No clear message is revealed. I would say that most of what I write is about great new music, but that doesn't account many for other aspects of my life.

Then I decided to check my Google Analytic numbers. Here is some of what I found...
I charted my blog's traffic from the day that Google Analytics has randomly chosen to archive (August 17, 2008) to the present. The highest peak happened to be the day Lucia was born. Apparently, there were a lot of friends checking the site over and over to see if anything had happened. Beyond that (and one random day last November), my numbers have gone up and down, generally trending in the 70-80 range when I post more often and the 40-50 range when I slack. Of course, today I've hit my lowest since September 27th when I was barely blogging at all.
I looked at the ten most visited pages. The main page with the latest post always ranks first, so I'll skip #1. The number two slot has been held down by the same post ever since I started using Google Analytics: "Contemplating Kenny Chesney's Gayness". Believe it or not, this was actually a post about a concert...a concert I never attended, but a post about a concert nonetheless. Next are posts about being an indie rock dad, hipster Christians, and my snarky take on a best of list in COMO. Aside from a couple of sad posts about a friend who committed suicide, various rants about COMO, and several parenting postings, the most visited pages on the blog overwhelmingly have to do with music.

On a side note, the combination of keywords that comes up the most has to do with the whole Kenny Chesney post. In fact, "kenny chesney gay" comes up almost twice as much as the next combination, "living in misery".

I don't know what any of this really has to do with lim's blogdentityTM. It does seem that music comes up the most often. So, maybe that's where I should turn when looking for new content. I did get a new record in the mail. (Guess which one and win a prize.) Maybe I'll post about that.

Either way, thanks for reading and continuing to keep me on your RSS reader despite my lack of production lately. This blog is approaching 500 posts soon. I'd hate to lose any readers because I have writer's block. Look for some new posts really soon.

In the meantime, I'm adding a poll for you to vote on your favorite lim content. It will be near the top right of the page.