• Filming and editing videos

- Still have the same 3 final episodes of Scooter Sunday Season 4 filmed and sitting and waiting to be edited into some type of greatness. With Season 5 coming up in the next 90 days, I best get crackin’ on this. Obviously, Snowy Sunday is in the queue as well. More on this in a future blog post.

• Writing

- Working on my next submission for Thrice Fiction. A dark yet humorous piece that is actually flowing quite well.

• Screenwriting/Movie making

- Talked to my daughter this last week when we attended a Sundance 2012 film, which is when I get the most motivated to create something of my own. The idea is still there, the characters are stil in development and it’s in my mind each day.

• Reading Books

- No progress here. Same stack, same spot on the desk they sit.

• Exercise

- Probably the most progress I’ve made of all of these TINTFA items. I am to the point where I am actually going to the gym without making my own excuses. I still am highly distracted by others, but working to overcome those.

• Golf

- I can tell you that with cold temps here in Utah, there won’t be any updates on this until at least late March or early April. Still planning on playing at least 15 games this year.

• Blogging

- I have been posting more over on Chillywilly.org and have made some more consistent design changes over on Scootersunday.com, including a nicely edited pic of the scooter as the header image and a Favicon, too.

Motivation needs to be my middle name.

Another update on March 1st.

Thanks to Kapgar for his blog post update.

This time, it is happening. 2010 and 2011 were failed starts to a promise of change. And since there were no TINTFA lists made for those years, there wasn’t much headway made into getting things done.

But I have to say that this doesn’t mean that 2011 was all bad. In fact, lots of it was good. I traveled a lot [Myrtle Beach, Vancouver, WA, Seattle, LEGOLand, Las Vegas], I made a few videos, I expanded my writing by contributing to Thrice Fiction and I had a great Christmas.

But all that good doesn’t change the fact that I wanted to do more with my creative talents. I let way too many other things distract me from what I really enjoy and want to do.

So with that, here is my TINTFA 2012 list of what I want to accomplish:

• Filming and editing videos

- everyone that has read this blog for any length of time knows the videos I’ve done. Both Scooter Sunday and Snowy Sunday videos have been fun to make and fun to hear other’s comments on them. I love making them and have missed making them. 2012 will be the year I make more of these. Scooter Sunday Season 5 will be my push to make at least 10 episodes this spring, summer and fall.

• Writing

- my other love is writing. I’ve almost made a living at it some years back and would love to do that again. That takes time to sit down and write and often. Meeting deadlines for Thrice Fiction helps, but I want to write more and expand my skills. 2012 will the year I add at least another regular writing gig to my portfolio.

• Screenwriting/Movie making

- combining the above two, my daughter and I have talked about making a movie together. 2012 is the year we stop talking about it and actually make a movie… regardless how professional or rudimentary it is.

• Reading Books

- along the same lines as my desire to write, reading other works seems natural. And I love to read, but just don’t make the time to dust off the stack of books I want to finish. 2012 will be where I read a book a month. Ambitious for this wordsmith, but it will be a great thing to accomplish.

• Exercise

- As I recently blogged about, I joined a gym that is very close to my house and at a low cost per month [$10], which gives me pretty much no excuses to not get fit and in shape. 2012 is the year I do this without any more failed attempts. My health depends on it as I approach the age of 50. Also would be great to get rid of my chin and gut.

• Golf

- I only played 2 games of golf this year. I played none – ZERO TIMES – in 2010. 2012 is the year I plan to play at least 15 times. I enjoy the game and simply need to make time for it.

• Blogging

- I blog enough here, but I have two other blogs that I post to as well – ScooterSunday.com and Chillywilly.org. But I am working [and have been for almost 2 years now] two commercial blogging sites. I have made some progress on both of them, just at my distracted pace. 2012 is the year that both sites [which I will talk about more as things get closer] will be launched.

And that should be enough TINTFAs to keep me from being distracted in the year of 2012.

Wich me luck. Better yet, kick my ass in a couple of months if you don’t see any updates on these items here on this blog. Because that’s one of the ways I’m going to stay accountable for the above list. Regular updates so that I can see my progress.

Hello. My name is Marty and it’s been a month since the last time I posted here.

Ok, this is not some sort of affirmation. It’s me finally checking in here. Where do I start?

Where Have You Been?

I started this post on May 4th. Today is May 12th. That should give you some idea of my attention to this blog the last month. It’s not that I wanted to ignore this place. I didn’t. But uttering the phrase “life just happened” is not enough.

A lot has happened in the last month that I really want to blog about. To get myself back into a regular blogging schedule, I will be posting some details about what’s been going on with me. For one of the rare times I do blog about work, I will be going into as much detail as I feel comfortable about my day job and the changes I’ve been forced to embrace. Also, I will detail my efforts [or lack of] my workout schedule and why I’m still not working out on a regular basis. And lastly, a detailed and revealing post about my distractions and my many efforts to overcome them.

My plan is to write up these posts here very soon and work towards getting back to posting here.

For now, know that I am ok. I’m not sick or ill. Nor have I or will I ever, quit blogging. I love it too much, even if I do let life get in the way of creating new blog posts. I’m also still very involved with my LEGO minifig Cooper and I still have plans for him this summer. Also, Scooter Sunday will be back for a third season and once I get some decent scooter-riding weather, the filming will commence and I’ll be posting regular [hopefully weekly] episodes. And we’ll see the creation of all the other posts that I wanted to do but was too consumed with other non-blogging related activities.

So as I’ve said in many posts before, stay tuned. I’m working my way back here. To my faithful readers, I thank you for sticking with me during this unplanned hiatus.

For me, it was great. I got some new cologne (Calvin Klein Euphoria for Men), got to spend time with family and enjoyed a few days off of work (and obviously posting and reading blog posts). Not a lot, but enough to call the time good.

So what did you get? What did you do?

THIS IS IT… The Year End Clearance of Blog Posts.

Since about the end of the summer this year, I’ve been a very sporadic blog poster. It’s not that I haven’t had anything to write about or any new videos to make. On the contrary. I’ve had a plethora of subjects that I’ve wanted to post, but most I never did. And there’s been a few episodes that I wanted to complete but for some reasons [which I will go into in a separate blog post next week], I never made them.

Now there are nine days left to 2009 and I want to not only get these posted, but kick myself back into a regular habit of blogging.

So between now and December 31, 2009, I will be posting as many blog posts and Snowy Sunday episodes that I can in what I like to call a Year End Clearance. Nothing Held Back. Don’t adjust your feed reader.

Stay tuned. I think you will enjoy what I have to share. And it will be a good way for me to roll into 2010, injecting this blog with life again.

It’s not that I don’t have anything to say. I’ve got lots to write about. But I’ve just not made the time or had enough motivation to write a new post. Hey, at least I’m being honest.

I’ll admit that some of it is summer related, although I can’t really blame the lack of writing on my enjoyment in the sun. Up until the last few days, we’ve hardly had any sun. Mostly rain. And lots of it. No one wants to read constant blog posts filled with complaints about how much rain there is.

So what gives? What can you tell us, Mr. Mankins? Give us the scoop.

The Future of Banal Leakage

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been contemplating making some changes out here. More than just a template update or a formatting change. And before you ask, NO, I am not shutting this place down or quit blogging. I plan to keep Banal Leakage up for as long as I have something to say. After all, the main reason I started this blog was to have a place that allowed me to write more.

But I really want to change some things about how I blog here and what I blog about. So here’s a list of the various changes I want to make.

• Scooter Sundays

This is obviously one of the parts of my blog that I enjoy doing. Sometimes there’s delays [like this week], but it’s mostly related to trying to film the various parts of each episode and putting it together to make something that not only provides entertainment to my readers, but also to me once I watch the final edits.

So while I’m working towards regularly posting each episode on a Sunday, there’s also lots of behind-the-scenes details that will provide a cleaner look, easier navigation and better video viewing options. Stay tuned.

• Regular Posts

I’ve been doing the two-posts-a-week for sometime now and sometimes only one post a week. Even for me, in my laziest of modes, it’s not enough. I need to post more and more often. And not just needing to, but wanting to. There’s a lot of topics and subjects that I think about, but then don’t share them on my blog. I want that to change.

• More Details About Me

Which leads me into my next change. I plan to share more about me. Not too deep and there’s still some subjects that are off-limits for a public blog. But there’s a lot that happens to me or things I experience that I feel like sharing. I read other’s blogs and enjoy their posts that reveal more. Peeling back a layer or two that gives insight to not only the writer, but also letting the readers give their perspective.

Don’t get me wrong… I like to entertain my readers with posts about music, movies and food. But there’s more that I’d like to write about and share with all 40 of you the collective readership here.

Other Projects

I’m also working on a myriad of other personal projects that are taking much longer than I expected. I think at times that I am spreading myself thin, but at the same time, I get another idea and think about it for a while before adding it to the mixing bowl. Of course, not all of my ideas come to fruition. Most are notes that I carry around with me on my phone. They are ideas for stories, web sites, domain names, blog posts, articles, data backup systems, exercising I need to do, places I want to travel to, drinks I’d like to make, etc… etc… etc.

Out of these hundreds of notes, there’s only been a select few that have been or are getting made into something public. A short story, a novel, a blog [you are reading it now], some short films, scooter and snowy videos and a screenplay. Then there’s those couple of “if I could complete these soon” projects that I really am putting time into, but they seem to be more involved than I imagined. Progress is moving forward, even if it is in small steps.

Nutshell

So have I confused you more than I helped clear things up? Let’s summarize the above:

• I will be posting more than two posts a week and they will be more personal and revealing.
• Scooter Sunday is here to stay, but I am working on some improvements, one of which will be revealed soon.
• I have more things to do then I have time to do them in, but I still would like to complete some of them in the near future.

All clear now? Nope? Well, then ask away in the comments. I await your perplexing questions.

To be more accurate, it’s been twenty days since the last time I [me personally] posted a real blog post. Sure, there was the post of photos that I put up here on my last day in Hawaii, but March 5th was the last time I posted anything of substance out here.

It’s not that I don’t love blogging. And it most certainly isn’t that I don’t like making videos and posting them here for my readers. Because I still love doing both.

A planned episode of Snowy Sunday still sits on my hard drive, almost completed.

There’s another almost completed post where I will tell you all about my trip to Hawaii.

And there’s a bonus video of some footage I took in Hawaii that I’m sure everyone will like. [a suggestion by a few of you]

But there’s no hiding the obvious: I’ve been pretty quiet here this month.

In my defense, I do have some good reasons.

I was ordered not to blog or make videos while on vacation in Hawaii, which was an order I willingly obeyed. I twittered some and updated Facebook from my phone a few times, but left the blogging to my guest hosts.

I can attribute some of it to being busy at my day job, which gets credit for doing a great job at saving almost all of the work on my projects until I returned back from Hawaii. I’m catching up, but still have a monster load of work to do in a short period of time.

I have spent time working on some of my stories, one of which looks like it will see publication here soon [more details coming soon].

I also have my share of personal interruptions from all sides: family, friends and others who have various questions, physical needs [moving desks for sister-in-law] and help with random tech needs. No complaints, but in reality, it’s time that takes me away from blogging.

I really didn’t plan to let this happen. Perhaps I really needed a break, even after a vacation.

I’m not stressed about it. Really, I’m not. I’m more wanting to make sure that I don’t turn this into some unplanned, extended hiatus. No worries… I don’t think that will happen.

I’ll be back to posting on a regular basis again [which is at least two posts a week]. In fact, I should have my Hawaii vacation recap post and a new Snowy Sunday video up here soon, [hopefully before this coming Sunday] as well as that bonus video I mentioned above. But for now, this is what it is – for the last twenty days and most likely until the end of the month.

I’ve got a great month planned in April for this place. So sit tight, enjoy the temporary silence, and I will post again soon. I promise.

The pattern has repeated itself multiple times over the course of my adult life. I start off with a great plan of attack. Get myself prepared. Sit down and attempt to make some creation come to life. But then a phone call happens. Or I’m at my desk at work and a bevy of people need something fixed. I get home and there’s things to do, clothes to fold, food to make, errands to be run. It’s a non-stop series of distractions.

I then think, “That’s ok. I can finish work on this tomorrow.” Then it’s tomorrow and more distractions come into my world. Some the same, others completely different. And no matter what I do, the thing I wanted to do and planned to do, doesn’t get completed.

And therein lies where some of the major issues I have with myself. Having lots of plans that I want to do, but letting too much get in the way and ending up with unfinished works of greatness.

Oh sure, some things get done and I normally can accomplish most tasks on time, pending any serious distractions like technical issues, family concerns or reasonable obligations. But it’s much larger than that.

Most people that know me well, know that there is one major thing in life that I want to do:

• Become a full-time writer

Of course, having shared that on a regular basis with others many times over the years, it’s become more of something I say, rather than something I do.

My true frustration of what I want to do in life can be summed up with two things:

• I used to be published years ago
• I’ve got stories that I want to complete

So, you say, if you really wanted to do it, why not make it happen? I mean, if it happened before, it can happen again, right? Let’s take a ride in the way back machine for a moment and see how I got here, at this moment in time.

Starting Gate

Back in 1991, I was 28. It was the year my daughter was born. Life actually was pretty good. I was happily married, had a decent job and didn’t have much stress. And I was self-published. I did a newsletter called Take It With You, which covered palmtops, PDAs and electronic organizers. I published this newsletter for almost two years before halting publication. I loved writing and I spent lots of time learning Aldus PageMaker on my Mac IIcx and getting very good at desktop publishing.

But in April 1992, financial issues hit and I filed for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. It wasn’t easy going through that financial stress and eventually, it took a sizable toll on my creative side. Most of my focus returned to my day job [I worked at WordPerfect as an IT professional and software tester in the Macintosh group]. But I still managed to direct some focus on my writing career.

“I have the keyboards!” – in my best He-Man voice

I had started to freelance for various publications, all of them computer related: Service News, ComputorEdge [San Diego-based weekly tech rag], Mobile Technology Review, Network News, NetWare Solutions, Pen Computing Magazine, Connect Magazine [my own column, called "Staying Connected For About A Pound" appeared monthly], Intelligent Newton and a few others. From the end of 1993 to around the end of 1996, I had enough freelance writing jobs that it was looking like I could take the next step, jump in with both feet and make a living at it.

Ummmm… not so fast.

The first part of 1996 was pretty rough. I worked for a local hospital as their Network Administrator. But it wasn’t what I did or where I worked. It was WHO I worked for. Stress was a large part of my day, having to answer to someone that didn’t give two shits about me or what I did. I spent almost seven months in pure, fucking hell. I did a get a break in July 1996 when I went to work for Teltrust, which turned out to be a good thing. But the damage had been done to my wordsmith skills and I quit doing most of the freelance work I did.

Fast forward about three years. It’s now February 2000. A lot of changes are going on in my life. I am going through a divorce and am now more concerned about my daughter and trying to find myself in life than I am trying to write the next great novel or pen a work of brilliance in a monthly rag. My job at Teltrust came to a screeching halt [another story for another blog post]. Fortunately, I found a Systems Admin job at Cimarron Software and had no interruption of employment, although nothing was being published on the writing front.

But in 2001, something happened. A good friend of mine and I were chatting via ICQ one day. During our chat, she asked me what I wanted to do in life. And even though I hadn’t done any regular writing for a few years, there was no hesitation when I said, “I want to be a full-time writer.” So she asked if I had anything to share with her. I did not have any of my previous work in electronic format available. Instead, I came up with a story and started typing it out, one IM chat window at a time. After a few days of this, I ended up with the first chapter to a story that I continue to work on today – “Heaven Forrest”

The feeling I got from creating this story from scratch – complete with characters, story line and overall plot – was incredible. I continued to write and finished three chapters in less than two weeks.

So what happened? You would think with that burst of creativity, I would have continued with my writing and finished the story. Alas, once again, there was a distraction.

October 2001, I was laid off from that job. I then spent the next 18 months doing various side jobs, breaking up with my girlfriend [now my wife] and trying to stay afloat financially. Too much doom and gloom for you? Hang on. There’s a positive spin here.

I signed up over at Blogger.com in February 2002 and started blogging. It wasn’t anything regular [I wouldn't post my next four entries until October 2002], but it was a step in the right direction, even though most of my posts were venting about my disassembled life. My postings were semi-regular until December 2006, when I went into a ten month dry spell. I wanted to get past this irregular writing pattern and work towards writing on a regular basis. That’s when I decided to get serious and start a dedicated blog site.

On April 1, 2008, I started Banal Leakage [which is what you are reading now], which has always been and always will be the main venue for moving me into the direction of writing on a full time basis. Sure, my posts are a mix of funny, trivial, entertainment and sometimes a stolen meme, but it’s me writing on a regular basis.

But it’s still not a paid gig. That is my ultimate goal. Not the money part, but being published again. Don’t get me wrong. Benefitting financially from my writing is needed to sustain myself in life, but it’s writing on a regular basis beyond the confines of my own blog that is of greater importance.

Fortunately, I get those moments where a surge to write again happens.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were at dinner. We talk a lot during dinner, mostly between bites of food. I mentioned the stories I am working on and how I actually have been working on them, just not talking about them. That lead to a discussion of my story “Heaven Forrest”, which my wife knows a good deal about [She's read the first three chapters and knows the plot]. By the end of dinner, she had made some extremely groundbreaking suggestions for the story that elated me beyond words. Seriously, it was so great to have something added to this story. It’s these burst of ideas that keep the story going. They may only last a few days until the next surge of thought, but it keeps me working on them.

In the most recent surge of urgency this past week, Winter of Sunlight Sucks and Lex Valentine, was a guest on The Jester Show on Talkshoe.com. She’s been one of my inspirations as a writer [Catherine at Seventh Notebook is my other] and has made incredible progress on getting herself published. She’s dedicated herself and carved out time in her busy life to make writing a priority. While she has used the word “sacrifice” to describe her process of making time to write, she has done it. Not only does she have several contracts for books with publishers like Pink Petal Books, she’s also continued to write her story- even including me as a character in one of her forthcoming works. Color me flattered.

Ok, stepping out of the ego-induced light I’m basking in.

If I am to make something happen, it’s got to be me making some changes. And while I get these bursts of renewed writing vigor, they haven’t produced permanent results. As I sit here writing this up, I am thinking of all sorts of ways to keep the many distractions I have in my life at bay, learning how to deal with them as they come my way and learning how to return to writing:

• When I get interrupted, write down what it was I was doing, then attend to the issue at hand. This will help me repoint my focus to my writing once I’ve removed the distraction
• Carve out a specified number of hours each week to write. This is the only way I feel I can make progress on my stories
• Take a break to unwind from the stress of the day before writing. Clearing one’s head of any bullshit is a critical step into focusing on the stories and allowing them to flow out of my head

Those are just a few steps I am going to apply in my life to re-focus my energies towards my writing. If they work, I will see some progress. If they do not, then I need to rethink my strategy.

Making Changes

Ok, I’m sure I’ve lost many of you about ten paragraphs ago, as most of you are just wanting to know when the next Snowy Sunday is getting posted [an all-new Episode 15 shows up this Sunday]. For those of you that stuck with me to the end, thank you and I hope to be showing off some of my writing talents here and in other places in the very near future.

It’s time I took all of the years and many attempts I’ve made to enter a full-time writing career and make this next one permanent. It can only mean great things for me in the end.

Well, I leaked the details out over on my Facebook page and told a couple of other bloggers where I was going. It’s about time I revealed to the rest of my readers the destination.

Yep… Hawaii. I’ve never been there and neither has my wife. The dates we are going are:

• March 6 – 15

We are flying direct on Friday March 6th from Salt Lake City to Oahu, where we will spend two nights. Then we take a puddle jumper over to the island Kona where we will spend the remaining of our time. Then returning to Oahu via puddle jumper on Saturday March 14th, then a direct red eye flight back to Salt Lake City, arriving early Sunday morning, March 15th.

Will You Be Blogging?

Of course, to my readers, the question that comes up is: will I be blogging? And the answer is: very little, most likely in the form of a couple of posts with photos and a small blurb.

Guest Bloggers

So this means that I will need a few guest bloggers, three (3) to be exact. I already have one lined up. Catherine from Seventh Notebook has offered to guest blog during the week of March 9th.

I am needing two guest bloggers for both Sundays, which means that there will be no Snowy Sundays for two weeks in a row. I know… major crisis, but hey, where I will be, there is no snow… not a single flake. Oh, and my wife has requested I take these two weeks off from doing videos to actually be on vacation. I think most of you will understand.

If you are interested in guest blogging either of the following Sundays:

• Sunday March 8th
• Sunday March 15th

… leave me a comment below or send me an email. The posts do not have to be Snowy Sunday themed. They can be whatever subject you want. And when I say any subject, I mean ANY subject.

But wait a minute. I’ll back on Sunday March 15th. Why do I need a guest blogger? Because I will be tired and in no condition to put anything together that resembles a blog post.

Snowy Sunday Returns March 22nd

I will be back on March 22nd with an all new episode of Snowy Sunday. I will provide more details about the season ending episode of Snowy Sunday, along with discussing the return of Scooter Sunday in a future blog post.

So, just to summarize here and clear all of this up, here’s what’s happening on Banal Leakage for the month of March 2009:

• March 1st [Sunday]- all new Snowy Sunday episode
• March 8th [Sunday]- Guest blogger
• March 9th [week of]- Guest blogger – Catherine from Seventh Notebook
• March 9th [week of]- a couple of posts with photos and a small write up.
• March 15th [Sunday]- Guest blogger
• March 22nd [Sunday]- all new Snowy Sunday episode
• March 29th [Sunday]- the season finale of Snowy Sunday

Wow. Ok, take some time, digest all of that, and if you have any questions, want to guest blog or tell me how jealous you are that I’m going to Hawaii, leave a comment.

TINTFA

A lot of people will make New Year’s Resolutions. I’m not much into them. Sure, I’d like to have things I want to accomplish, but they seem too contrived and shallow to me, like something you hype up, only to fail at in the first few months of a new year. I’ve set many resolutions over the years, only to look back and see what never happened. So I got to thinking… maybe if I give them a new name, there will be more of an increased desire to complete them.

I came up with TINTFA. It stands for:

Things I Need To Fucking Accomplish.

Or if you want the sanitized version, it’s:

Things I Need To Finally Accomplish.

To avoid posting the f-bomb multiple times on this blog [now what fun is that?], I’ll just use the acronym each time I need to refer to that. Will it work? I have an entire year to find out.

So with that, let’s take a look at things I did in 2008 and what can be expected in 2009.

Blogging

2008

This was the year that I delved into the world of big time blogging. Before, my blog posts were as sporadic as sex between Hillary and Bill. Now with Banal Leakage, you get at least two posts a week from me. I try for more, but two a week is what it is for now.

2009

For the new year, I really want to post more per week. I have a lot of stuff in me that I need to get out, which includes [very soon] my 100th post. A TINTFA that I will make extra efforts on in the new year.

I will also announce a new blog. I eluded to it last year in this post and still have plans to make it happen. I will not keep everyone in suspense for much longer… I promise.

And finally, there will be some cosmetic changes here, mostly in the form of graphics and other fun updates.

Switching Jobs

2008

Although I didn’t blog about it, I switched jobs earlier this year. In October 2007, I left the company I currently work for for another company because I was burned out. After three months at the new company, I ended up going back to the previous company. Confused? Yeah, so were a few other people in my life. But it was a good move back and even though my current employer is going through some changes, it’s still a good job and I don’t mind hanging out there as long as I can.

2009

Unless this company I work for does something really stupid [more stupid than they usually set out to be], I won’t be switching jobs. So no TINTFA efforts needed [for now, at least].

Getting Married

2008

As most of my regular readers know, I got married this summer, which I blogged about here, here and here. It went off great, we had a lot of family and close friends with us and we had fun, too.

2009

Our plans for the new year include spending some fun times together and a few more updates to the house. For sure, some good TINTFA will happen in new year.

Scooter Sunday

2008

This year, I turned a weekly blog post into a weekly video of me riding my scooter around the Salt Lake valley. It was fun, I got some great comments and feedback from my readers and I got to expand my video making interest into something I did on a regular basis. In short, it’s become an addictive part of my life, in a sort of non-addictive way.

2009

As I’ve mentioned before, Scooter Sunday will make it’s return in late March. Expect all new episodes each week that continue well into the fall of ’09. [I may take a week or two off, but that's it] There will also be some contests I will throw in throughout the season. For those fans of Snowy Sunday, I will keep making weekly videos until Scooter Sunday returns.

Writing

2008

I’ve mentioned a few times that my greatest love in life is my writing [Sorry honey... I still love you] and starting this blog was to help me improve my writing skills and start pursuing a career in writing. I feel I’ve made a good start and even though I sometimes get writer’s block, I enjoy sitting down and coming with ideas to publish.

2009

Each year about this time, I reflect back on what TINTFA I wanted to do the previous year. So I find myself in the same position why I didn’t push myself harder to write more and spend more time honing my literary skills. This is one of those TINTFA that I so want to work on and I do, but it seems I let too many other things in life distract me and keep me from making my re-entry into the writing world. I’ve got so many stories, novels, screenplays that I want to do… I just need to focus and get myself in a good place to start writing on a regular basis. I did it with the videos, I can do it with my stories.

Reading Books

2008

I’m horrible at reading books. I love to read… love it. And I want to read. That’s not the issue. The issue is making time for it and to stop getting distracted when I need to sit down with a good book. My daughter will tell you that one of her greatest wishes is for me to finish reading some books. I have no less than ten books I’ve purchased over the last year and I’ve read two of them. Pitiful, I know. They sit there, I pick them up and then I put them back down. Sometimes I read 4 or 5 chapters, then I find something else that take away my time. Triple-dog pitiful.

2009

I’m going to do my best to make time for the growing stack of books. A very much needed TINTFA. Plus, there’s a lot of books that will be coming out in 2009 that I will want to read. So best to be caught up before adding more pulp-based bookends to the bookshelf.

Traveling

2008

This year, I’ve been to Lake Tahoe, Mesquite, NV, Las Vegas, Valley of Fire and San Francisco once. Not a lot of out-of-state traveling, but enough to have some good times. The first trip to Lake Tahoe was the week I started this blog and then a second time in June for my wedding. Mesquite NV has Lee’s Discount Liquor and my favored Tilt 8%. My daughter and I went to San Francisco in late August to see Radiohead in concert with 60,000 other people at Golden Gate Park. We also went across the bay to see an Oakland Raiders NFL game [my daughter's first NFL game].

2009

Travel plans for this year should be fun, with a trip planned in the first part of the year [which I will reveal where in the next few weeks] with a few others thrown in throughout the year. My daughter and I always try to find a place she’s not been before and of course, there’s always Mesquite NV. [got to stock up, you know]

Political

2008

What would a year end blog summary be if I didn’t mention politics? This was a heated year, in which I revealed that I am a bleeding liberal, sometimes speak more than my mind [which ruffled a few feathers], squash a few rumors and sound off on pre-election bullshit.

2009

As a very political person, you can be assured that I’ll post on various stories and news worthy topics I feel the need to be vocal about. I’ll try my best to not get heated in any of the comments, but I do get passionate about certain things that I feel strongly about. So I guess my TINTFA when it comes to anything political is to be vocal, but use some restraints.

—————————————————————-

Happy New Year

And this post ends the first year of Banal Leakage. To all of my readers, Scooter Sunday fans and commenters, thanks for visiting this year. Stick with me in 2009 and I’ll be here to provide the kind of blogging coverage you’ve come to expect. And maybe… just maybe… we’ll see some new faces here, too.

Happy Holidays

This is what a foot of snow looks like, dumped overnight – 12/26/08

I hope everyone had a good holiday, regardless of which one(s) you celebrate. I wanted to post this on Christmas Eve, but with a family party to prepare for [I made three cheese scalloped potatoes, a spinach artichoke dip and played bartender all night], the packed schedule of Christmas day and getting a nasty-ass cold/flu like crap on Friday, it took me offline for the most part. But now it’s Saturday, we have an extra foot of snow here in Salt Lake, I’m feeling a bit better and I actually have some time to sit down and do some writing/blogging.

As I get older, Christmas has changed. Instead of hoping for the perfect gift, I’m now giving the perfect gift. Instead of getting all excited for Christmas morning, I’m casually getting up and having a cup of coffee before opening gifts. The holiday still has meaning to me, just more focused on family, and not the religious aspect.

Being non-religious, I spend this time reflecting on everything that’s happened during the first 11.8 months of the year. Then as I try to squeeze in a few days off, I like to make time for family and friends and enjoy the company. But just because I don’t celebrate the religious part of Christmas, I still wish people a “Merry Christmas” without issue. People say it back to me without me becoming offended. For me, there’s no “War on Christmas” Over 95% of all retail establishments are closed this day. People everywhere respect this time with their families. Regardless of anything related to Jesus, Christmas is a time of the year when people should put aside their biases, forced religious views and any elitist mindsets and just let people celebrate the day how they want, even if that means no celebration at all.

Five Questions

The latest blogging fad…. started by… who knows? This set of 5 Q’s was sent to me by Kapgar.

1. As I’ve stated in my Google Reader Notes, you are ridiculously talented and it makes me ill (just kidding). If you had the ability to bottle up that talent and share it with the world, would you do it or horde it all for yourself? If the former, can I be in on the test marketing?

I could never horde my talent. If I can find the right avenue, I would bottle it up and share it with anyone and everyone. I’m hoping to do more than just videos, as I have some writing that I’d like to post for all the world to judge see. As for test marketing this talent, you’ll be on the list, towards the top.

2. Now that gas prices have gone way down, can we still expect the same quality and frequency from Scooter Sundays that we’ve come to expect? Any hints as to what might be forthcoming in season two?

Regardless of how low or high gas prices go, the scooter is here to stay. The quality of videos and posts will actually go up, at least that’s my plan. Using highly technical and scientific methods [upgrading video production software and hardware], Scooter Sundays will be transformed into a world-wide phenomenon that will over take the global market for….. oh, who am I kidding…. the videos will be a weekly fun-filled multitude of visuals once Scooter Sundays make their grand return at the end of March 2009. The part above about upgrading my video production is true, though. I am moving to Final Cut Express 4.0 this winter, which will allow me to do all sorts of cool effects.

As for any hints into the second season, I share nothing… you will have to wait in anticipation.

3. When the heck are the T-shirts happening????

As the 20 or so millions of Scooter Sunday fans know, t-shirts are a great way to spread the love of all things scooter. I am planning on having T-shirts available to order before the first episode hits.

Also, as Penelope suggested in the comments of this post, there will be a contest to name the scooter. I will post more details on this in the coming weeks and months.

4. What upcoming blogger meetups are you hoping to partake in?

I’ve been to two (2) blogger meetups, both involving Dave from Blogography and myself. [my wife attended the first Dave Lake City, back in April 2008] As for future blogger meetups here locally in Salt Lake, I would like to get together with some local bloggers, which I have yet to meet any. There is one who is very big-time [who I seriously doubt would want to meetup with any of us "small-time bloggers"], but other than her, I really don’t know any. I guess that means I need to scour the blog search pages to see who is blogging here in Utah.

Until that happens, I wait for Dave Lake City 3. Oh, and TequilaCon ’09 [Whenever that gets announced]

5. How did you get your start in blogging?

Back in February 2002, I signed up for a Blogger.com account and posted my first entry [I moved and consolidated all of the previous entries to here]. My frequency in blogging was pretty dismal, at best, although I do have a smattering of posts that document parts of my life from 2002 to when I started Banal Leakage in April 2008.

The big push with this blog was to get me started back into writing professionally. Back in the mid-90′s, I did a lot of freelance work for several publications, but various life decisions halted that for a time. My skills have gotten better since I started putting out my words, pictures and videos for all the world to see. I will be adding other places I blog on in the future. But for now, Banal Leakage is my blogging home.

—————————————————————

Want to be part of it? Follow these instructions:
Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

—————————————————————

The End Is Near

This ends another segment of Random Leakage. Watch for my year end post next week. Until then, have fun and be safe.