Is This Thing On?

Some will not have noticed I was gone, but it’s been a few months since I put this blog on what I called “indefinite hiatus.” I took a leave from what started to become a burden, that of entertaining you ungrateful and slothful people who are supposed to be working, but instead troll the wires looking for laughs and oddities, anything but that dreaded task you’re supposed to be toiling over, the one that saps your soul and makes you long for a real job; something like a lumberjack or a crab fisherman. But then you remember there’s no WiFi out in the middle of the North Pacific and you settle back into your dimly lit cube, with your Starbucks and your iTunes and your Bose® | QuietComfort® Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones and you say to yourself, “Life could be worse. I guess. Whatever.”

When we last parted, I was seeking full-time work and I needed a roof. Since then, I found a serviceable assignment as a contractor with a large corporation specializing in hospitality and travel. (There is little else here in Orlando.) This assignment enabled me to get that roof. Now we don’t cringe every time it starts raining at Casa de Jetpacks. But style guides and communication guidelines don’t often leave much room for thinking outside the PDF, so I kept busy on some other side interests. If you follow me on Twitter, you’re familiar with my series "Coffee with Jesus", (54 of those to date), Saturated Street Scenes (the latest is called "Pinche Gringos - Cozumel, Mexico"), and hopefully with other aspects of what is happening at Radio Free Babylon, an 11-year old endeavor/passion/mission that I’ve always fantasized would someday employ not only me, but hundreds of thousands of people across the globe. (Not really, just me.) To date, I think we sold a mug on cafepress once.

The contract mentioned above is expiring, they told me this morning, in early August. They have hired a full-time staff employee. They would like for me to train my replacement. I’m thinking of training her all wrong. There are other irons in the fire, and as I wait for them to heat up, I thought it was a good time to fire up the old jetpack blog and see if it had any kick left for me. I already like it again, I think. (And I'm blogging from work! Shhhhh!)

So, put this blog back in your RSS readers if you deleted it, like RFB on Facebook, Link-In with me and comment here when something pleases you or pisses you off. We writers are a needy lot, just like anyone else who makes their living in the “arts.” Designers, musicians, actors, hell – even jugglers and mimes – we all crave that little morsel of recognition. You don’t get paid to blog in most instances and you can’t hear any applause or booing, so comments are like the little fish tossed to the trained seal at Sea World. (Sorry, I meant SeaWorld® Theme Park.)

If you have actual little fish to toss my way, send me an email and I’ll give you my address.