greatbear | The audience is listening

Yikes, I really had no idea that 250+ people have somehow taken an interest in this trainwreck I call a blog. It's not like I post anything earthshattering or even beyond mildly interesting. Not even saucy pictures. I feel I should be somehow doing more here.

Speaking of pictures (saucy or otherwise), I have finally rebuilt most of my library of digital pictures, video and music after a couple nasty drive failures and PC troubles. Luckily, most of the 'lost' music and picture files were fairly recent and not part of the 'irreplaceable' stuff I harvested off the net over the years. Still, I have a couple hundred CDs to re-rip and the CF cards in the cameras still held the last year or so worth of various shots. Make more backups, dammit Phil. With flash memory becoming so cheap, it's basically going to be economically feasible to simply fill them up and keep them as the backups in the next year or two. Think of them as being the new millennium equivalent of a box full of slides and negatives. I really should take more 'serious' pictures for the sake of the art form. I envy so many on my friends list (

spigotmd,

bitterlawngnome,

chuckdarwin,

michaelnolan,

themonkeybear,

chrisglass,

theoctothorpe, just to name a few) who have an incredible eye in the viewfinder.

I'm starting to feel a bit down these days since the loss of daylight saving time and the shorter days. I dont feel I am ready for winter just yet. Driving home with the headlights on just feels so wrong for some reason. Seeing the xmas crap in the stores even before Halloween does not help matters either. Once winter 'officially' hits though, I settle into the urge to cocoon for the winter and play in the snow. The woodstoves tend to be lit 24/7 with their hypnotic flames and soothing heat. Some of my best ideas seem to come to me while staring at the fire. I plan for the spring and summer, think about the past, remember the good times.

Thanks for letting me ramble for a bit.