Jay Rivers, American

(Jay's new web site.)

I met Jay Rivers in early 1993, shortly after he moved to Columbus from Charlottesville, Virginia. I'd been playing drums in a band called No No Man for a short time when No No Man's guitarist, Ray, told me about another guitarist he'd recently met (Jay). Ray gave me Jay's phone number, saying he thought Jay and I might hit it off. So I called Jay shortly thereafter, and we made plans to get together and play some music.



It was apparent the first night Jay and I jammed together that we had instant chemistry. We didn't even need to discuss what we'd be playing; we just kind of played. Jay would start playing a riff he'd been working on, then I would join him, and we'd mess around with it for 15 or 20 minutes. Listening to the tapes afterward, we sounded like a band that had been together, refining our music, for months or years. Our jams sounded like songs. Jay and I were so in tune with each other that we could take a jam in a completely different direction in a split second.

One riff we worked on was a polymetric thing Jay had been constructing in his head and on his guitar for a while, hoping desperately for the chance to play it with a competent drummer. Jay's riff was in 5/4 (or 5/8), but he wanted the drum part to be a simple 4/4 (or 4/8) pattern--"Boom Tap Boom Tap"--with the two voices meeting on a down beat every 20 counts. After a couple times through this verse pattern, there'd be a refrain (or maybe it was a bridge) in which Jay would join me in 4/4 time. This song was fresh and inventive, like Led Zeppelin's Kashmir, but nothing like Kashmir. It was one of the signs that told both Jay and myself that we could go somewhere playing music together.

Jay is a phenomenal guitarist, and I have no doubt that we could have been "rock stars" if I had only been as passionate as Jay. And honestly, I have no idea why I didn't devote myself completely to playing music with him. I mean, I spent hours every day playing my drums in the early to mid 1990s, and I got really good initially by playing along with Pearl Jam's album "Ten." After Pearl Jam I started playing along with Smashing Pumpkins's "Gish," one of the most incredible albums ever made, with amazing drumming. In a short time I went from a pretty good drummer to a fucking bad-ass drummer, simply because I practiced so much and was so passionate about drumming. So where was my passion for paving the road to rock stardom? I wish I knew.

Anyway, I pretty much stopped drumming after I moved to Las Vegas in 1997 to attend UNLV. And as my passion for helping people blossomed, my passion for drumming waned. While I went through the motions of teacher training at UNLV (it's not education), Jay went through some heavy shit that most people never experience. But he got through it all, and now he's trying to find ways to use his immense talent and intelligence to go somewhere in life, just like I am.

Although I've been kind of pissed off with Jay for a while, Jay is still one of two people I consider a true friend. There have been times when our friendship was as good as could be, and there have been times when we didn't speak to each other for a year. But Jay is a true friend, and true friends are hard to find in this world.

If you live in or near Columbus, Ohio and would like guitar lessons from someone who knows the guitar inside and out, visit Jay's new web site. His site is not just for people interested in guitar lessons, though. He may offer something else you need.

This is an epidemic

OK, I've about had it with all the September 11th "documentaries" that have been airing on A&E, Discovery, TLC, Court TV, et al for the last week or two. Yes, I have been watching them because I guess I keep expecting to see something new, something insightful. But it never happens. Never! They just keep showing the same footage we've been seeing for 5 years. They keep interviewing the same 5 people--Stanley Praimnath, Brian Clark, etc.--asking the same questions and receiving the same answers we've been hearing for the last 5 years. Sometimes it's even the same interview footage from one show to another.

I have no problem with people making documentaries or other informative shows about September 11th because we need to know what happened that day. We need to see what happened that day. We need to see the bodies falling from the top floors of the World Trade Center, not because we are sickos but because it happened. We need to see everything there is to see, even the bodies hitting the ground, because it's the only way we can truly grasp some of the unbelievable things that occurred that day.

We don't need to keep seeing the same shit over and over. We don't need to keep hearing the same shit over and over. We don't need to be protected from the naughty words in the background that naturally occur when people witness something like a 767 hitting a New York skyscraper. All that does is keep us ignorant and in the dark. And we don't need any more of the pathetic attempts to capitalize on our nation's darkest tragedy.

Due to the fact that most people don't actually read what they read, I'll say this again: We need documentaries and other shows about 9/11, but we don't need the shit we're being shown. In fact, the people making these shows should be prosecuted for capitalizing on tragedy, because that is all they're really doing. (I'm half joking there.)

I'm on a time limit here, so I need to scram. Maybe more about this later.

Supercross: The Movie

I just watched most of Supercross: The Movie, and I found myself spending more time analyzing it than actually following the story. I couldn't help it; the purpose of the movie was not to tell a story. Rather, it was a series of advertisements using an unrefined story to connect them.

A short list of products featured in the movie that are fresh in my mind right now:

Mountain Dew
Papa John's
Thor
Honda
Kawasaki
Yamaha
Las Vegas
Sam's Town
Supercross

It's kind of fun to analyze this movie because the producers' objectives are so obvious. They clearly intended to make a movie with a high quality look and sound--something that would feel right in theaters. They didn't cut corners when it came to equipment quality, but the actual content of the movie was not the highest priority. Clearly the #1 objective was to find ways to highlight the products that helped pay for the movie.

The movie doesn't suck; it's OK. But one thing really limited my ability to enjoy the final scenes. The last 10 minutes of the movie was a fictional version of the Supercross season finale at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. Even though the event is set in only one place (Sam Boyd Stadium), the footage of that single event came from at least a few different stadiums, which really distracted me. Instead of focusing on the story, I ended up paying attention to the background to see if I could figure out how much of the scene was shot in locations other than Sam Boyd Stadium.

It doesn't bother me that some of that scene's footage came from different locations, but it does bother me that they didn't try very hard to make it look like a single location. Having attended UNLV, I know how Sam Boyd Stadium looks and feels. It's basically a "U" shaped stadium with no upper deck and small-radius curves around the corners of the south end zone. But in the final scene of the movie there were shots showing upper decks and 45-degree-angled seating transitions. Even if I wasn't familiar with Sam Boyd Stadium, I would have noticed the inconsistencies. I can tell the difference between Sam Boyd Stadium and the Orange Bowl, and some of the scene from Sam Boyd Stadium was filmed in the Orange Bowl. That just bothers me.

But, as I said, the producers obviously placed a higher value on advertising than on content. Their objective was to make money, not to tell a great story, so I can't complain.

There is a lesson to be learned from Supercross: The Movie. Movies are a good place to advertise. If this was not true, why would so many large corporations continue to contribute funding in exchange for screen time?

I have realistic expectations regarding Aimless's potential for exposure. That is, I know it's not going to reach as many people as Star Wars or ET. But Aimless will be able to reach an audience at least as big as Supercross's audience without a lot of difficulty. And it will take a lot less money to do it.

So yeah, I'm making the pitch again: Sponsor Aimless if you want to make some easy money.

Learn something from this

According to an Associated Press article found on Yahoo News:

Ford to halt production at 10 plants
DETROIT - Ford Motor Co. said Friday it would temporarily halt production at 10 assembly plants between now and the end of the year, blaming high gas prices for pushing many consumers away from its pickups and SUVs and toward higher-mileage models... Don't even bother reading the entire article.

Hmmm, if gas prices are to blame for pushing consumers away from Ford's gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs, then shouldn't these consumers be buying Ford's fuel-efficient models instead? My bad... Maybe Ford just didn't receive the same information about unrenewable resources the rest of us have hearing about for decades. Yes, this must be why they were incapable of planning for the imminent rise in gas prices.

God-damn gas prices! Who could have seen that coming?

Are we supposed to feel bad for Ford? Specifically, are we supposed to feel bad for the top brass at Ford, who make their millions even while the company fails?

No!

The "suits" at Ford are failing horribly. Their job is simply to operate a profitable company by making profitable decisions, but they don't do it. And because they don't do their jobs right, Ford is losing money. It seems pretty reasonable to me that we could expect incompetence to go unrewarded and unpaid. Right? That's what would happen to me if I owned a pizzeria that wasn't making money. But the suits at Ford still make millions every year while the real workers, who actually do their jobs well, get shafted.

So should we feel sorry for the workers, who give their heart and soul to a company that doesn't appreciate such devotion? Should we feel sorry for me because I've been similarly unappreciated on the job? Should we feel sorry for the small investors who keep pumping their money into companies that don't function?

No!

We should have enough human decency to care about them (and me), and we should hope they'll be able to find new ways to support themselves and their families. But we should also realize that they agreed to work for a company operated by greedy, incompetent thieves who have the power to continue such operations. And we should realize that the small investors willingly put their money blindly into a company that doesn't know how to use it, setting themselves up to be ripped off.

It should bother us that the regular, everyday people of the world (not just Americans) have to live like this. But feeling sorry for them is not going to help anything. Feeling sorry for me is not going to help anything.

Here are the solutions:

Everyday Workers - Stop working for people and corporations that rip you off. You are worth more than you've ever been paid. These corporations need you a lot more than you need them, but society has tricked most of us into believing the opposite. Consequently, we feed their greed by treating them like we need them more than they need us. Don't do it anymore. Instead make a low-budget movie or try to open your own small business. I know that's not easy to do; I'm proof of how hard it can be. But I'm putting my heart and soul into it because I know it's the only real chance I have to get something real out of this life.

Small Investors - Stop giving your money to large corporations that rip you off. They don't invest your money; they take your money. Instead, think logically about how you might capitalize on one of the many great ideas brewing in the minds of people like me. Great ideas are worth a lot of money. The people with the greatest and most valuable ideas are not easy to find, and they don't wear suits. Investing wisely requires some heavy-duty thinking and analyzing (unless you already have millions of dollars). It requires unconventional thinking.

But don't take my word for it. Invest your money however you want to invest it. If you like paying for some greedy criminal's mansion, invest in Ford or Wal-Mart. But if you want to make some money and help make a positive impact, invest in someone like me.

Introducing Harry Roland

Some of you have probably seen Harry Roland in action at the World Trade Center site. Some of you have even met him. Others may have read about him in a newspaper article. I'm sure I speak on behalf of most of the people who have met him when I say: What an awesome guy!


For those of you who have no idea who Harry Roland is, he worked in one of the World Trade Center towers until September 11, 2001. Now he spends his days on the perimeter of the big hole where once stood the mighty twins, teaching WTC visitors about the World Trade Center and the most infamous day in American history. As you'll notice in the picture, he hangs a jug from his neck, in which his "students" may place dollar bills as a way of saying thanks.

Harry represents one of the many different kinds of people I'll be hoping to encounter after I hit the road to make Aimless. He is charismatic and he has something valuable to say, without saying it in an interview or even for the camera. And even if I have already decided I'd like to include him in the documentary, I won't be breaking my rules because I was aimless when I first witnessed Harry Roland in person.

Aimless and faithless

The search for sponsors is becoming very tiresome and frustrating. I've sent well over 500 e-mails--maybe even 1,000--to various businesses, organizations, and individuals, but not one person has contacted me regarding prospective sponsorship. It's really starting to make me lose "faith" in the competence of the American business community.

I could lie here and say people are standing in line for their opportunity to sponsor Aimless; I know most people in this situation would do that, as an attempt to create an illusion of demand. But I don't work that way. As I have said in a couple places on the Aimless web site, I follow a policy of honesty and integrity, and I am not willing to compromise those traits to trick people into sponsoring Aimless. Besides, if I did resort to dishonesty, I'd end up attracting the wrong sponsors. That's not my objective.

There are a million things I want to say here, but I'm having trouble sorting out everything in my head. Maybe I'll update this entry later or just post a new entry whenever I start thinking straight.

Emancipation

I've spent so much time working on Aimless over the last couple months, I'm starting to lose touch with my original vision. I'm starting to place a higher value on things that were never supposed to matter much, like my photographic aptitude (or lack thereof), perhaps to the extent that it's becoming counterproductive.

Yes, I want to end up producing a film that looks and sounds as good as possible, but there are a lot of other important objectives to consider, like ending up with a final product that people actually want to see. And if I forget the initial feelings that motivated me to begin this project, I might as well quit, because I began with the right motivation.

When I went to the Memphis International Film Festival in late March to see the premiere of Pizza! The Movie, I watched a few other documentaries and I learned a lot from the experience, even though I had no interest in filmmaking at the time. One thing I learned is that sound and picture quality really don't matter a whole lot. As I watched one documentary at the film festival, I noticed right away how good the picture and sound were. The film was of very professional quality, but it just didn't reel me in. Conversely, the pizza movie's sound and picture were merely OK, but it was fun to watch for the whole 90 minutes because it has a compelling story and compelling characters. Similarly, in Jeff Buckley: Amazing Grace, the sound quality of the interviews was horrible, but much of the film's content was high quality archived footage of Buckley recording, playing gigs, and just being alive. You'd have to see it to understand how powerful and moving his performances were.

Seriously, Pizza! The Movie is good enough that you should have heard about it from someone other than me a long time ago. However, it doesn't matter how good it is if no one knows about it. And no one knows about it because Michael Dorian doesn't seem to understand how important it is to effectively market the film. (The Aimless web site has only existed for three weeks, but a Google search for Aimless will yield almost as many results as a search for Pizza! The Movie.)

But that's not what this entry is supposed to be about.

I need to get back in touch with the Ryan of a few months ago, the Ryan who really was desperately aimless. I need to stop thinking so big, to stop entertaining the idea that I might be able to call myself a filmmaker shortly, because I'm not a filmmaker and my goal was not to become a "filmmaker" in any way other than by making a film. I need to extinguish the feeling that Aimless has become a job and start thinking of myself as unemployed again.

I wanted to disappear long before I wanted to make a film about my disappearance, and I have to get that feeling back. Maybe this entry is how I do it. I am going to bookmark the archived page of this entry, and I'm going to read it whenever I feel like I'm losing touch with the true Aimless vision. Additionally, I am going to remove all references to "Albertine Productions" on Aimless web pages because there is no such thing as Albertine Productions. And by pretending I am some kind of production company, I'm just setting myself up to lose sight of what really matters.

Albertine Productions will exist, and it will exist soon, but it's just an idea right now. Aimless is not the creation of a production company; it is the creation of a lost and lonely individual who desperately needs to find something worth living for.

I'm happy right now. I'm probably happier than I've ever been in my whole life because I have something to look forward to. But a couple months ago, after hitting rock bottom, I was free. Money didn't matter; rejection didn't faze me; pretty girls didn't make me nervous; I knew I held more power over my boss than he held over me. Like I said, I was free, and that kind of freedom is a really nice feeling. I want to get that feeling back, and I think this entry is big step in the right direction.

Documentaries don't have to be so boring

In the last couple months I have done a lot of thinking and reading about documentary films. I have also watched more documentaries than usual, even though many of them are completely unmoving and boring. And with all the attention I've given to the concept of documentary film, one thing has stood out both in the books I've read and the documentaries I've watched: interviews.

I can only guess what kind of imagery comes to mind for most people when confronted with the word 'documentary,' but I suspect it goes something like this: People talking, interviews, yap yap yappity yap, [snore], etc. And if that is how the average person thinks about documentary, I'd say it's because most documentaries seem to be nothing more than a series of interviews. Instead of showing something interesting, they show somebody talking about something that may have been interesting. Then, when they're not showing some boring interview, they clutter everything up with narration.

(This actually just occurred to me, but I think bad documentaries are what come to mind when most people process the word 'documentary.' And although most everyone has surely seen at least one good documentary, they probably don't even think of good documentaries as documentaries at all; they probably just think of them as another good movie.)

Anyway, there is no doubt that documentaries tend to rely heavily on interviews. And only rarely does a documentary come along that realizes any kind of box office success.

Is it cause and effect or is it just correlation? Well, it's definitely correlation, but I imagine it's also a case of cause and effect. However, it is impossible to compare documentaries to feature films because they don't have the same objectives. While feature films appeal to our emotions and sense of humor, they also depend on visual effects and audio effects and other effects requiring a theater atmosphere. Documentaries depend almost 100% on the story and the visual evidence; even poor quality visual evidence. Also, documentaries don't come with all the bells and whistles and special stuff that can only translate well in a theater, so they don't require that theater atmosphere. Additionally, they cost a lot less to produce, so success can be defined on a completely different scale.

Regardless of all that, some documentaries have managed to do well in theaters; Fahrenheit 9/11 and Hoop Dreams are a couple that come to mind. And for a documentary to even make it into theaters pretty much means it has succeeded beyond anyone's reasonable expectations and made a lot of money. So why have a few managed to find such huge success while most others linger in some kind of purgatory? Here's why: Because it takes a lot more than pointing a camera at stuff to make a compelling documentary, yet it does not necessarily require photographic expertise.

Great documentaries tell great new stories; they don't just provide a new medium for old news, like so many historical documentaries. ("Here's a book about some historical event; let's make a film telling the same story, showing the same still pictures." Mega boring!) Great documentaries have great characters. Great documentaries are made by passionate, enthusiastic individuals who disregard "conventional wisdom" and write their own rules. Great documentaries are made by people who have an eye for interesting things other people never notice. Great documentaries are made by people like me.

More about this stuff soon.

Me Me Me

I've been struggling a bit with the reality that Aimless seems to be more about me than it is about what I'm creating. I feel like the web site is very similar to a personal home page in a lot of ways, projecting a message of "Look at me. Listen to me. Give to me. ME ME ME!" And to be totally honest with y'all, I'm very uncomfortable making myself so visible to the world; I generally like to remain in the periphery, not attracting much attention to myself.

The original incarnation of the Aimless idea could have been described as purely a travel documentary--an attempt to recreate an experience similar to that of the characters in Rain Man or Easy Rider. It was to be almost exclusively about the people, places, and things I would see, with me remaining behind the camera most of the time. But as I thought about it, I realized that's not enough. That would be interesting but not compelling, so I had to rethink some things.

As I continued thinking about making a documentary, I realized this project had everything to do with me and my unique life experiences. While there are certainly plenty of interesting people and places out there for me to find and document, this is my story, and my story is pretty damn interesting, too. So I'll tell your story and my story both. In fact, I really don't know yet what story I'll tell because the story cannot be told until the story has occurred. This blog entry is part of the story, but it's not part of the film, just as my life is part of the story but may not be part of the film.

Anyway, I don't like being the center of attention. I don't even talk to people much anymore because I realize most people can't identify with me. And because I've spent so much time in isolation over the last two years, my social skills are not exactly sharp. So why am I all of a sudden forcing myself upon the world, sending dozens or hundreds or thousands of e-mails to people, inviting them to look at my web site?

It's not because I crave attention; it's because I need to learn how to seek the right kind of attention. I need to learn how to not care so much about what people think of me. I need to learn how to communicate my ideas better. Call me a whiner if you want, but I need to try to undo the psychological damage originating from way back in high school, when my parents and teachers treated me like a worthless fuck-up.

Aimless is taking this form because I have something really special to offer the world, but I have to pass a lot of my own tests before I can give it to them.

I don't know how it feels to trade money for goods and services because I've never really had any money. And I don't know how it feels to trade any other kind of personal asset for anything of value because no one has ever taken me seriously or traded fairly with me.

I have no reason to believe in humanity anymore, and Aimless will either give me reason to believe or it will kill me. Either way I win.

Sometimes you just have to say "Fuck it" and face your fears. Right now is a good example: This entry does not say what I intended to say when I began writing it; I think it is some of the worst writing I have ever done. But I'm going to post it anyway because right now it's time to say "Fuck it."

Fuck it.

Ready for NCAA Football?

Copied from a Sporting News forum:

I love posts where OSU & UM fans go head to head. Always great arguments in debatably the best rivalry in college football!!

The Backyard Brawl (WVU vs. Pitt), which is our biggest rival game, doesn't compare to the hatred between UM/OSU. I love it!!

Not exactly Aimless-related, but I created Aimless and I am a Buckeye. And although I respect The State Up North and its football team, I'm happy to know that both us and our rivals are respected by outsiders for having such a healthy hate/hate relationship.

Boy it's going to be fun watching Buckeye football this year. People are making a big deal about OSU's defense losing 9 starters, but there are two reasons it will not matter: 1) Ohio State produces a great defense every year, regardless of how many starters return, and 2) OSU's offense will be unstoppable this year. (Remember 617 total yards, Notre Dame? Ain't nobody ever done that to you before. And all but a couple of those guys are back.)

Yeah, "we" really like playing in Arizona in January. It's becoming a tradition and I don't see anything changing next January.

Time to get soliciting again

In late June I sent out 40 or 50 solicitation e-mails to Columbus area doctors and dentists, following a fund-raising tip from a filmmaking book. Included in the e-mails was a short message and an attached letter containing the information that has become the About Aimless page. I didn't get any responses.

I'm not stupid; I knew it would take a lot more than 40 or 50 e-mails to find the support I'm seeking. But I didn't even receive any responses saying, "Your idea sounds neat. Unfortunately we're currently not in a position to assist." No responses at all. That's when I realized I needed a web site ASAP. A web site would enable me to keep the e-mail messages short, allowing people to look into Aimless at their own convenience, instead of reading a two-page letter they probably never wanted anyway. Also, I believe people would be more responsive if there was a web site to show how much work I've put into this project; to show that I am very serious about it. So I turned my attention to finding a web host.

Right away I sent maybe 15 or 20 e-mails to web hosts I found through a Google search for "'Web Host' Columbus, Oh," and I received responses from a couple people. One of them agreed to host the web site for me, but she was very busy with her existing clients, so I patiently waited a couple weeks for her to set up a meeting with me. But by then I really needed to get the show on the road; I had designed and created enough pages for a complete web site, and there was not much I could do until they were out there for people to see. So I sent my prospective host an e-mail saying I need to get the show on the road, and that I was about to start sending more solicitation e-mails to other web hosts because I just can't keep waiting. I'd been patient, and my patience was only holding me back, taking me off task. One passage from the e-mail I sent her describes the mindset I'm striving to maintain:

Aimless is about going out and getting, like you did when you started your own company. It's about giving and receiving and making fair trades. It's about not allowing excessive patience to continue being such an obstacle. It's about: "Here's what I have to offer. If you want it, act now or risk losing your opportunity to someone more insightful and decisive. If you don't want it, nice meeting you. Good luck." And I have stuck to the framework defined in the last sentence with everyone except you.

So do you want it?

Within an hour or two I started sending e-mails to other hosts, mostly just to find a back-up plan in case my current situation didn't work out. (I'm digressing here. Let me get back on track.)

It was two weeks ago when Glenn Shope from Net Acceleration offered to host the Aimless web site. After thinking about it for a day (or "sleeping on it"), I agreed to accept his offer. And 13 days ago the Aimless web site became a reality. It was still a couple days before I'd uploaded enough material to make the site worth checking out, and I've been doing a lot of tweaking over the last ten days or so. But the site is pretty solid now and I need to face my fears and start begging for assistance again. That starts today.

That is something I could not do before. I couldn't ask people for help when I desperately wanted to open a pizzeria. There are a lot of good reasons for that--about 200,000 good reasons--but there are also plenty of good reasons for me to chicken out with Aimless, too. But I'm not going to.

Aimless could also be called "Fearless." I have been afraid to make important decisions in my life, to ask for help, to go out and get what's mine. I'm a pussy, and that's surely one large reason I worked for $7 an hour at age 32. Well, I'm not going to be a pussy anymore. I have nothing to lose anymore, and that's why Aimless exists. Ideally I want to get back the feeling of fearlessness--of freedom--I had in early June, but right now I'm a little afraid. I'm afraid to face rejection. I'm afraid to ask people for help.

That fear ends right now. Today it all begins again. As soon as I post this entry I'm going to send all those doctors and dentists a follow-up e-mail. Only this time it will be from an official-looking e-mail address and the letter will be short and sweet. Then I'm going to find more people to send short e-mails. Then more. And I'm going to do this for as long as it takes because Aimless is no joke. Aimless is no dream. Aimless is real, and Aimless will become something very special to the American people beginning now.

I finally have a real blog

It's way easier to get a blog set up than I figured. I just went to blogger.com, following one of my own Google ads, and set the thing up. The cool thing is that I can choose whether I want it to be on my server or theirs. I have chosen to keep it on my own server for the time being. For as easy as it was to set up this blog, it sure was extremely difficult at the same time, due to a bunch of technical problems and stupid stuff.

Anyway, I have been doing a lot of stuff to the site the last few days. You probably can't tell, though, because it doesn't look like I've done much. But I've gone through each of the pages and made a lot of code changes to make the pages look alike from one browser to another. I was shocked when I visited the site from Explorer because it looked a lot different than it does in Netscape. It still looks a little different, but nothing huge. I don't know why different browsers can't just all read the same code. That's stupid.

All right, so I keep jumping a bunch of new hurdles, thinking I'm almost home free, but then I encounter new hurdles. What'll be next? Right now I just need to go make some pizza dough because I am starving. Unfortunately the dough won't be ready to use for a couple hours. Urg!

Oh yeah, and this will remain the location of the blog because this blog is worth keeping.

Blog Forum

[REPOSTED FROM OLD BLOG]

This "blog" is moving to this location in the Aimless Forums.

So for the blog (in case this dumb html editor screws up the links), go to http://aimlessmovie.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=16. And for the Forum index, go to http://www.aimlessmovie.com/phpBB/.

Swim

[REPOSTED FROM OLD BLOG]

I'm about to go swimming for the first time this summer if I can find my trunks. Me white boy. Very white boy.

Hey, is anyone actually reading this?

[REPOSTED FROM OLD BLOG]

Since this "blog" does not allow commenting, I don't really know if anyone has been checking it out. Well, I do know it's very unlikely that anyone has been checking it out because 1) The site is only a week old, and 2) With the site only being a week old, there have not been many visitors yet.

Anyway, if you have been checking in on this "blog" periodically and you would like to comment on what I have to say, I request that you take your comments over to the Aimless Forums. The format of the forum is actually useful, and I would really like to get some action going over there, whether it is related to Aimless or not.

Baby steps

[REPOSTED FROM OLD BLOG]

Now that this web site is running and looking presentable, it's about time to start sending out e-mails to anyone and everyone in hopes of finding prospective sponsors. I knew before I got very far into this project that I'd likely face at least a 95 percent rejection rate (or non-response rate), but I can't let that stop me because I know someone out there is waiting for the opportunity to be a part of something like Aimless. Who is it? I don't know, but I'll find them.

Not a lot of people know about Aimless yet, but I'm happy to report that I've received very positive feedback from those who do. It just confirms my belief that this is worth doing--that people will be interested in what I'm trying to create.

A few things

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I can't even remember what I was going to write about here. There is so much going on inside my head, it's not even funny. Oh yeah: My progress, Net Acceleration, and Twerky.

Let me start off with Net Acceleration. Glenn Shope and Net Acceleration are totally awesome. He has been kind enough to set me up with web hosting for this site because he gets it. He understands that I am passionate about Aimless, and he wants to help me nurture that passion. Also, I can only assume he understands how his assistance will eventually pay off big-time for him. I mean, he offered to host this site literally 20 minutes after I sent him an unsolicited solicitation for assistance, which actually kind of freaked me out. It just reinforces my belief that I will find people willing to provide the assistance I'm seeking. Some people get it; others don't.

Twerky. If you noticed the photo at the bottom of the "home" page, you may have figured out that my cat had a leg amputated yesterday. Poor little dude. But you know what? He doesn't care. I picked him up from the vet's today, and he's running around and "smiling" and happy as can be. He's a special little guy, and I love him.

I am tired from another 12+ hours of working for free, so I think I'll just skip the part about my progress. If you didn't already see this, here's Twerk yesterday morning before the operation:

OK, for some reason this doesn't seem to want to show the picture. I know I got the code right, but it's still not here. Whatever. (All right, I fixed it. Man, I really don't like the html editor I'm forced to use right now. Hopefully by Monday I'll know how to get around it.)

Another one

[REPOSTED FROM OLD BLOG]

Well, I'm coming around. Got some pages up, but I really don't want to keep using this template. I sure hope there is a way to allow comments to this blog. Not much point in having one without allowing comments. I mean, I could just make another regular page for all the stuff I'm saying here.

First Blog Entry

[REPOSTED FROM OLD BLOG]

This is my first blog entry. Trying to figure out how to set this shit up. Getting frustrated.