two million dollars

Here's a question I often ask as a means of fantasization or wish fulfillment, but I ask it here in a serious sense: say somebody gave you two million dollars. What would you do with it? For my part, I would:

1) Tithe--$200K
2) Pay bills and stuff
3) New car not more than 35K
4) DV camera--$2000.00
5) Powerbook--$2500.00
6) Video editing software--$1100.00
7) Taxes on the 2M--$700K (approx.)
8) Invest 200-300K
9) Give as the Lord leads
10) Not quit working

Taken, again, as a serious question, what would you do? I think if you rehearse this kind of thing, you enable yourself to be a little more ready when some money does come, even if it's not 2M.

from funk to groove

Well, that funk didn't last long. Just until that evening. Ever since then, for certain reasons, I've been pretty happy, especially with the sunrise yesterday morning. A work of art, that was.

As to the house-sitting, I started to enjoy it that first evening and not remember: I can have a house like this, I can have a lifestyle like this--things can be this way with guidance from God and diligence. It can and will happen--even more would be welcome, but this house, while not a mansion, is _very_ nice, as it should be, considering it was renovated by the best builder in this town--a man who knows what he's doing, loves it, and does it well.

stuff to think about

12.26.05

Ever notice that, stereotypically, the richer people are the smaller their dogs get? For example, you’ve got Mademoiselle Genevieve Snobeau with her pocket poodle Fifi in her Louis Vuitton purse, and then you’ve got Cletus and Cody in their trailer with their combination pit/Rottweilers Lockjaw and Beernut caged up in a cramped chicken-wire dog run in the back. Something to think about.

Any comments on the new look of the site would be appreciated. I'm not sure. Might go back to classic black. I'll decide in a day or so.

Emily Rose movie--Heaven, hell...

I just watched "The Exorcism of Emily Rose"--not quite what I thought it would be, but a good movie that brings up some good points, or at least awareness.

I'm moved now to say, for any who read this blog who don't already know it, the following: God is real. Satan is real. Heaven is real, and so is Hell. Angels and demons exist. The spiritual world is all around us. It is, in fact, more real than the natural world. And we, mankind, have been given a choice: salvation or damnation. Heaven or hell. God has done everything to try to get us with him by sacrificing his only begotten son, Jesus, to pay for our sins. Satan is doing everything he can to pull us down to share in his damnation. Satan doesn't want us to take Jesus up on the offer of salvation. Don't listen to Satan. He is a liar who wants nothing more than to destroy us, whom God loves.

Listen to God. Listen to Jesus. Accept Jesus' offer of salvation and make Him your Lord instead of being ruled by Satan, which, whether you know it or not, you are if you're not saved.

Salvation. It's a free gift of life everlasting in heaven instead of eternal damnation.

This might be hard for some people to hear or read, but this is an important truth: We are spirits in a natural world, and once our natural bodies live no more, our spirits go on forever. _Where_ they go on is crucial: experience eternal life in heaven or experience eternal death in hell.

The choice is yours.

I urge you to pray this prayer, and mean it: Jesus, I accept you as my Lord and Savior. I give you my life. Come into my life and save me. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Christmas...

Maybe I'm just tired. Maybe I'm just selfish and disappointed. I dunno. I'm here house-sitting for one of my sisters and finding I'd rather be at my apartment. I used to love to do this, but that was when I didn't have a place of my own.

So I guess I'm alone, in the natural, this Christmas, and I wish I hadn't spent so many Christmases with family, because then I wouldn't miss it as much. When I was in college and for years afterward, I spend many Christmases with friends, but not with family. Here, I really haven't got any friends in the sense of people with whom I hang out. With so much family here, I've never had to try to branch out into having more friends. And it's not been something in which I've been that interested because I invested so much time and energy into the friends I left back up in my college town. I am still not ready to invest that much of the same into people down here. Right or wrong, there it is.

I miss my college town. I had a room, small but I loved it, where if I was there now, I could just curl up in the alcove and cry.

If moving here was so the right thing to do, why do I miss my previous town so much? Truth be told, I didn't have to move down here. Things were looking up. But I was so starved for attention that when a friend of mine asked me to make sure I was leaving (they were having a going-away party for me and didn't want to have it for no reason--I'd waffled, I think, before), and I was leaning toward staying put, I said yes, that I was leaving, so I could go to that party. Nobody had done something like that for me before. I'd been invited to parties, but never had a party thrown _for_ me. So, as part of the implicit deal, I left. To the person of whom I'm speaking, and you probably know who you are, please don't be angry or blame yourself--the decision was mine.

I don't know if I've ever come clean about that.

Still.

Still.

God has blessed me here, and it was time for me to go, if for no other reason than having gotten too comfortable. There have to be some sort of stressors on a thing for it to grow.

I dunno. I've been in a funk today, but you know what? Every morning, God gives me another day, and I so thank Him for that. So, you know, all told, I'm pretty blessed.

how to fix the movies

12.19.05

Studios vs. theatres
or
How to fix the movie business

There is an article here

which talks about the movie _King Kong_ being a test of the state of the movie industry’s financial health this year. I welcome you to read the article itself, but it says that two camps, basically, are fussing with each other, pointing fingers. The theatre owners blame the bad year on bad movies and the studios blame the theatre owners for a bad movie-going experience, including allowing commercials before the movie and cell phone use being a problem.

Thing is, they’re both at fault, studios and theatre owners. And, ultimately, we as consumers are at fault for letting them get away with it.

The article says also that studios are crunching down the time between release of a movie and its coming out on DVD, which the studios are eager to have happen because they make a lot more money off DVD sales than on movie ticket sales, so people are more willing to spend a bit of money on even a bad movie in the comfort of their home than on a bad movie in a "bad" movie theatre.

Well, the fix for the whole situation is pretty easy, but it requires long-term thinking and some investment, and it also requires that we put aside the fact that a lot of bad stuff in Hollywood is done as a favor, for whatever reason, to somebody else. At some point, just to survive, the director has to be able to direct, the writer has to be able to write, the actor has to be able to act and so on.

Whew! That all said, herewith follows the fix: 1) the studios have got to put out better movies. Don’t just think of what will make a good couple of weekends at the box office. As another article asserts, _Titanic_ started out lackluster and went on to make, all told, over a billion dollars. Just because a movie doesn’t do that well its first weekend shouldn’t be a sign of doom. If it’s good, if it’s a good story well-told, people will tell their friends. Writers should write better stories (and I include myself in this) and execs should give those better stories a chance.

2) If a movie theatre is gross as in dirty, if it’s uncomfortable, if it looks like it was just slapped together to make a couple of bucks for the five years it’ll hold together, people aren’t really going to want to spend the money to go. I go to two main theatres in my town, both the best in town of their kind as far as the physical environment goes.

Then there’s the customer service, and on this point, the workers should treat the customers as they themselves would want to be treated. And the managers should treat the workers as _they_ themselves would want to be treated. To the regular worker: this isn’t just a job--no job is “just” a job. Do the best you can at it. To the manager/exec.: same thing. To the company’s board of directors: same thing, and think long-term. You’ll make more money with repeat business than with one-time business. Think year-by-year, not quarter-by-quarter.

3) The studios should not shorten the time between a movie’s release and its sale on DVD any more. By doing this, the studios are starting to shoot themselves in the foot--if they’re going to cry about low attendance and yet admit that part of the reason for that low attendance is that the DVD will be out soon anyway, don’t make it available so soon. Make a better movie that will last longer in theatres. That'll probably do better on DVD when it comes out later--better in theatres _and_ better on DVD--more money for everybody concerned.

Basically, every side, from writer to studio exec to the movie-maker to the theatre owner has got to work as a team and up the quality of the product and/or service they provide. If you provide a great story and show it in a great theatre at a reasonable price, people will come. If everybody does the best job they can, things will work out.

Also, please note: a better movie does not mean more or louder explosions of better special effects or beautiful people all just for their own sake. It’s about, at its core, story. This is the underpinning of a film. Characters we care about in compelling circumstances leading to a logical yet surprising, inevitable end, all well-told. Everything else in the movie, including the explosions, the people, the effects, everything, should serve that purpose.

Now, as consumers, we’re not angels, but the studios and owners should see a very simple trend: the more crap that is shown and shown in sub-par theatres, the more we’ll stay away, preferring instead to enjoy the so-so movie in the comfort of our own mess.

That said, most of the poorness of a movie theatre experience is, however, because of the audience, so here’s what we as audience members can do:

There are a few other things we can do to make the movie theatre-going experience better: come in, sit down, keep our feet off the seat of us. Keep control of our kids if we have them with us. Once the movie’s started, keep the cell phones on vibrate, silent or turn them off. Be quiet ourselves (while still enjoying the movie)--verbally and with our eating and drinking. This is simple politeness. When the movie’s over, if we’ve brought food and drink containers in, bring them out again. Clean up our own mess (but leave spills of stuff for those with brooms to clean). Basically, be adults and treat others as we’d like to be treated. A simple way to remember all this is the following: when we’re in our private area (our home, our car, our room), how we behave and how we keep it is up to us; when we’re in a shared area, we need to be, yes, enjoy the heck out of the movie, but at the same time be polite and keep our part of it neat.

aggression and music

I've been listening to Rob Zombie and having little to eat but ice cream and little to drink but coffee--rather sugared and creamy coffee, too. I get aggressive when I listen to my favorite type of music, which is heavy metal--not the thrashy growly kind where they're talking about demons and dragons and crap and you don't understand the words and there's no melody--I mean the good kind.

Anyway, I've been listening to it and on my table I noticed a solicitation from a school loan consolidator. Well, I just tossed it, but I still feel rather aggressive toward it. I know these guys are just out to make a buck, but I wish they'd just leave me alone.

I also tried air-drumming for a while, but since I'm a bit blubbery and out of shape, I didn't last long, so I sat back and huffed awhile. Ten years ago I might still be drumming or strumming here, twenty minutes later. Well, ten years and about sixty pounds ago.

I really need to get down to two hundred pounds. Maybe two-ten. That's a good fighting weight for me--big enough to have some size, especially on my frame, while not so big I look like a butterball, which I've been called before, though that was by a gal I feigned sincere interest in though the interest was only sexual and she caught on and I played it off, which only made her angrier.

Amazing, isn't it, how stupid some of the things we do are? I suppose it's not so bad so long as nobody's hurt and it's not illegal or immoral and we learn from it. Which actually lets out quite a lot...

doing

I'm not saying this to congratulate myself but to share:

I bought myself some beef jerky at lunch last night--even though I didn't really want that much. I'd eat it and enjoy it, but I hadn't really planned on getting it. I got back to work and got the impression to give it to a co-worker, as I knew he liked the stuff. So I gave it to him. He asked why I bought it if I wasn't going to eat it. I think I said something like, "I was going to, bu then I thought, heck, why not just give it to you?"

So. I felt convicted because although the gift was a blessing, I hadn't said, "God bless you", or this is to bless you _because_ I liked the gratitude and wanted to keep it for myself. Well, that was about enough of that, so God helped me explain in a non-creepy way that the reason I give people stuff out of the blue is a) because it's fun and b) to bless them. "So," I said, "God bless you...with...beef jerky."

After I did that, he positively beamed, said he appreciated it, and I felt sooo much better giving with a blessing, trying to give God the glory, than otherwise.

I'm noticing that I'm learning a lot more by reading and _doing_ the word than just by reading it--so praise God for that, too. I'm in such a good mood right now--dunno if it's looking forward to watching more of _The Osbournes_ or God, but I think it's more God (hope so, anyway). :)

writer/childhood/teasing/cruelty

12.11.05

A good writer is a good reader. I’ve ignored that truth for far too long. This morning, instead of diving into work actually writing in this coffee shop, I enjoyed reading some of a book instead. I feel galvanized. Rejuvenated. Reminded. Just as an actor must act, must observe, a writer must read, and not just his own stuff. He must read widely and as eagerly as he writes. Read good stuff and bad, whichever. He can learn from both. Though I prefer to read good stuff. Right now, I’m reading Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”. I’ve been reading it off and on for years. I’ve about 550-600 pages to go (it’s about 1078 pages).
Next book is either Samuel Delany’s _Dhalgren_ or James Joyce’s _Finnegan's Wake_. I had a look at both. I'm leaning toward the former.

Childhood

You know, childhoods are funny things. Especially seen from a distance. I just noticed that lots of my memories fron childhood are pretty good, and yet I spent most of my twenties and early thirties recovering from the childhood. I think, for the most part, I enjoyed childhood, at least the early stuff. I think this is because a greater concentration of good stuff happened, but it’s also because, having dealt with the negative stuff for so long, I choose not to do so any longer. It’s been dealt with. Not to say I won’t revisit the negative stuff from time to time, but I’ve had enough of wallowing in it to the exclusion of any good memories.

I think it’s a matter of a perspective shift and the distance. And it’s a matter of either wallowing in it for the rest of my life, which isn’t healthy, or acknowledging it and moving on. And moving aside. There are so many treasured memories I have. It doesn’t matter with whom I was when these memories were formed; the fact is they’re there. And another fact is I did have a blessed childhood, as evidenced by the fact that I’m saved and here and healthy. Not bad.

I remember parks, particularly in eastern Iowa, where we had some relatives, and get-togethers. I don’t know if this was with churches or with family. Sometimes there wasn’t much of a difference. But I remember.

I remember moving to southeastern Minnesota and the becauty of that place, which I didn’t appreciate while I was there, but which I, thank God, learned to.

I remember sunsets on the fields just outside town in northwest Iowa, or the ochre sunset glow that hit nearby grain elevators in town.

I remember driving back and forth, slowly, through town on lazy days when I had little else to do. I would go by the nicer parts of town and dream of living in such places. I still do that.

I remember, in early college, going to a couple of cemeteries--beautiful places they are. I’ve even got my spot picked out for when I pass on--it’s perfect, even though I don’t even remember the name of the cemetery. I know where it is, though, and couldn’t think of a better place to have my body rejoin the earth.

What will I take from this place, this Oklahoma? I choose not to take the resentment in which I steeped myself almost since coming here, nor the disappointment I felt when I came to live after college--it seemed so...the same...since I would visit in the '80s. This place has certainly changed, in some ways for the better. But I’m the one who changed most. People do that. Change. If we’re smart, and if we’re paying attention, perhaps it’s what we do the most consistently. No, it’s a slow thing that’s inexorable, punctuated by spikes. As the writers of “Prozac Nation” might have said, slowly, then suddenly, all at once.

I wonder, often who reads this stuff. Nobody comments, or not often. I know who most of my audience is, and they, I think, think this just sounds like me. Same voice as ever. Perhaps that’s one thing that won’t change. What that voice says, though, that’ll change. Won't change much on God as far as core beliefs go save to reflect growth. Other stuff, though. Yeah.

I was writing to my best friend about teasing, and this is what came up: I was thinking recently that I might come off as a guy who hates to be teased or made fun of. I’m not like that. What I don’t like is lack of originality. If you’re going to tease me, care enough about me to be original, to think about it, and not just spout off some cliché. Maybe that’s it: I can handle teasing as long as it’s not clichéd, careless or obvious stuff like calling a bald guy “Slick” or a fat man “Fatso” or “Skinny” or “Tiny”. Be original, and then that takes the edge off what can easily be seen as an insult. Don’t go for the easy, cowardly hit--make it good, considered, which will make it funnier and more affectionate. When clichés come in, I feel marginalized, minimized, as though the person considers me only important enough to step on.

Never, never, never tease or pick on somebody maliciously--that’s not ‘teasing’, really; it’s cruelty.

It’s cruelty.

That sort of thing just has you feel important, and it’s not even validly doing that. If you can’t tease somebody affectionately, then shut up. Don't tease them at all. Both of your lives will be the better for it.

untitled

12.08.05

Superman fights for truth, justice and the American way. I can understand the first two. I’m not sure about the last.

I think it’s because that’s so individual, the American way. I don’t really even know what it is, and I am an American. I love America and what we, at our best, stand for. Helping those who need it, freedom, independence (more or less), liberty, even though that’s more or less freedom, so that’s kind of redundant. Family, other loved ones. stuff like that.

I don’t, however, remember being told exactly what the American Way is. If you look at some stuff this country has done, it’s not that great. If you look at other stuff, it is pretty great. Taken as a whole, I’m just not sure because it’s ill-defined

I wish I knew.

I always stumbled, at least snce college, over that American Way bit regarding Superman. Seemed a bit nationalistic. I see Superman more as a defender, whether of earth or of the old lady versus the sleazy purse-robber. He defends those who can’t defend themselves. Rather like Batman, acaually, but Batman’s sooo much less political. Generally, Batman protects those who can’t protect themselves. In that, he and Superman are alike. Superman just generally works on a much larger scale.

I digress.

Point is I’m a bit confused. If I’m to support the American Way, i want to know what I’m supporting. Why should I support something when I don’t know aht that something is? As far as I can go is to support American generally and let people know what a great, if flawed, country I think this is.

Hmmm. How about this for a definition, though a more effective endeavor might be defining it for myself: here it is for me: the American way is freedom, democracy, justice, opportunity. I tried coming up with other adjectives, but nothing came readily to mind. If I put in more, it’ll delve into my spritiaual beliefs, which I think are a higher way to live anyway, and simpler: the way of God is love.

Here’s the disturbing thing: I wonder how many people blindly accept this idea of supporting “te American Way” withough questioning what it is? I’m pretty well for it as I understand it, but to accept it without thinking smacks of...foolhardiness to me. If one is going to support a thing, one must know what that thing is.

Maybe I’m not giving people in general enough credit. Maybe they do honestly, for the most part, think about this stuff before falling into line. Myself, I think it’s better to be a bit out of line. A bit more Batman than Superman.

-----------------------------------
12.09.05

Had a great meeting with one of my pastors yesterday, and he ecouraged me. God’s telling me, through him, that I’ll receive no new revelation until I start using the knowledge I already have. It’s basically this: our knowledge, gifts, whatever, are not for our own personal use but to use to share God with others. Whether that be in art or automotive mechanics or fly-fishing, whatever, we can enjoy the resources God’s given us, but we’re not to keep it all to ourselves. We’re to bless others with them. It’s the hiding your light under a bushel thing where God’s said to let your light, the light of God in you, shine through to others.

Makes sense to me.

dreams

12.07.05


I can’t give up. My dreams won’t let me.

This time last year, I didn’t want to know nothin’ from nothin’ about Hollywood. Now I yearn to be in movies. Have done for about the last ten months or so.

I was thinking about a person in whim I was interested a long time ago and how, just now, the last part of me, which I didn’t think still held on to any fragment of hope but which I now realize did, gave up that hope. I thought, “That took a long time.” And that got me thinking of how many of my dreams I’ve given up on. Being a professor. Being an astronaut (more of a wish, that one). Being an artist. Etcetera.

When I left Hollywood, I thought some part of me had given up on being in movies, at least Hollywood-style. And yet that desire is still there. I think it’s not so much taht I won’t give up on it or on writing and publishing novels, short stories, etc., as, maybe, those dreams won’t give up on me.

i remember the resentment I felt toward whomever or whatever when I thought I had to give up the Hollywood dream. Now I willingly hand it over for a greater dream: just being in movies--good, big-time, nationaly-released, even worldwide-released movies. Of veinga recognized, working actor. That’s the dream now that Hollywood itself has quashed the idealized dream.

Maybe what really happened was a crystallization of the dream--a refining of it; instead of some vague notion of going out to Hollywood and auditioning and blah, blah, blah, I now have some idea of what Hollywood’s really like. And still I want to make movies. The desire is still there.

Frankly, I don’t know whether I won’t give up on it or it won’t give up on me. But I know that, as with writing, unless God tells me to do so in a way I won’t argue, I’m going on with it.

Maybe this is all a God thing. Maybe when 3we hand our lives over to Him, he’l put these desires ointo our hearts and though we might want to give up on them, they’re still there because God is still there, and he’ll never give up on us. God will never give up on me.

God will never give up on me.

There’s a heady thought.

Starbuck's--focus!

I just got to stand in line at Starbuck’s next to one of the most drop-dead beautiful blonde women with whom God ever graced the earth. Dunno whether she was married or not, and I kept trying to subtly see if there was a ring on the telltale finger. I gave over the idea, as there was no way of doing it surreptitiously, but I saw her going out of the store. With a glove on her finger, though I think I saw a bulge there. Urgh.

It’s interesting, though, the thought that has come to mind: I don’t know what to say beyond “Hi. How are you?” If the conversation goes beyond that with a woman whom I find attractive, I’m pretty much lost. Some people say to complement them. Nice coat. Nice blouse. Nice earrings. “What a gorgeous watch? Where’d you get it?” “Why, thank you. I don’t know. My third husband got it for me four years ago. Isn’t it darling?” Growl.

I actually prayed while at work for myself to be around attractive women the same as I am around anybody else. This is because people have told me that I’d be a good fellow to go out with, vey attractive, if I could just be myself around the ladies. I’m thinking that the key is to reject the fear of rejection. I find that women are more attracted to me when I don’t appear to care--when I don’t seem needy. And then take things easy--don’t appear too anxious. I’ve a tendency to get too close wayyyyy too fast, which I can see as being, er, jarring, let’s say.

Yes, I’ll now talk about the weather. It’s pretty familiar, actually, though not as much so as I’d thought it might be. I guess I’ve been in the mid-south long enough to get somewhat acclimated by now, so 21 degrees is a bit of an adjustment. Still, it feels real. Unlike California weather. That’s one thing that Oklahoma, Minnesota and Iowa have over the L.A. basin: real weather.

I keep looking at this lady nearby with a cute pink faux fur jackes, tiny brown leather boots, a big wedding ring and jeans about a size or two too small. Down, boy.

She was joined by a much more attractively-dressed highlighted blonde lady--these are all women I keep thinking I would think were too old for me, but they’re most likely about my age, or within about four, five years of me. I refuse to feel old.

I do have a white hair in my long goatee, which I like. I’ve even names it. Cletus. There’s also one on my temple somewhere, maybe even two. I haven’t got names for them. I figure I might as well make nice, since these white hairs are going to be with me for a while. :D

Oooh---Prong’s “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck” just came on. I haven’t heard it for a while, and it’s a welcome LOUD noisem, especially after listening to old Prince (good, sometimes) and Journey at work. Journey. That was about 1984. Well, whatever trips your trigger, as the saying goes.

You know, I rag on Oklahoma a lot, but it’s got a lot of beautiful women, I’m noticing. Maybe because I’m not in the mall and staring at Abercrombies and Fitchies (18-20-year old future sorority mavens) and their boyfriends.

I’m sooo enjoying this music. I haven’t sat and listened to the music on my headphones on my laptop in a while, so I’m pretty happy. People need to blow out the carbs in their ears every once in a while. If your ears aren’t ringing afterward, you didn’t have the music loud enough.

Jeans lady has take off her coat and has a sweater on--looks gorgeous. “She’s taken, dude. She’s taken. Eyes on the computer.” Must...avert...gaze...

I’m sitting here giggling to myself like a schoolboy. I guess there’s always going to be some part of me, a pretty sizeable part from the looks of things, that will be like that. Kewl.

I need to study my lines for the film I’m shooting in about twelve days. Know them well so well they’re second nature. Then I can play with them and really show some acting ability rather than memorization ability.

Okay, time to work on a screenplay. Yippie-ki-yayyyyy!
(really. :) )

comeuppance

Every once in a while, God will take me by the nape of the neck and bring a little correction into my life. Today, He did that through himself and a sister of mine. I'd been wondering about getting a new car, asking for prayer and wisdom about it and asked my sister for prayer over it. Well, I just realized how fast God answered: in a few minutes, as I asked her for prayer, my sister pointed out that if I haven't been making good on the debt I owe, why would I take on more debt?

God took it one step further: there's a part in the Bible that says if we're faithful in little, he'll give us much. That applies to debts owed. He's given me the resources to pay down debts, so now if I want them gone, I can pay on them and show myself fiathful in that way, in that financial area. Then he can trust me with greater responsibility, but not until then. Pretty simple, actually. Thank, God, for that. Thanks also to God for answering so speedily, as he often does.

blog networks

12.02

I heard part of a story on NPR today about blogs and how people are setting up networks of blogs, rather like NBC made a network out of the ratio stations, I believe. It sounded like a good idea, more or less. I’d sort of resigned to the idea through simple pragmatism: commerce eventually gets its hands into many things.

Case in point: hybrids. Alternative fuel cars garnered little attention until they could be done right. That’s simple enough, once you find out what “right” is. Still, you can build the greatest car in the world and if poepole don’t buy them, that’s their issue. But, through effective marketing of great products (probably mostly through word-of-mouth), Honda and Toyota have shown that a hybrid car, done properly, is a money-maker. So now that people know they can make money off them, we’ll see more of them. Not sure how I feel about that--others look like they're jumping on Honda and Toyota's bandwagon, sure, but if it saves resources in the long run, that's not so bad.

Same thing, regarding money-making, with blogs. According to the story, I gather, businesses want to cull or gather the blogs they want under their own roof to make it easier for advertisers to target their marketing dollars. Again, it’s sensible, but that still doesn’t mean I have to like it. One fellow also decried the idea of corporations trying to network together blogs. Instead, he said when you hook up to other blogs, you've already created your own network based on your own choices. I like that.