It has been and will continue to be a long Act 2 here on Life on The Wicked Stage, although there have been times when I’ve wished for a longer intermission this year. I still find it hard to believe that I’ve been doing this for four years, and yes, it is even harder still to envision not doing it. More to the point, I sit every day in wonder that people actually come here, or read what is written on RSS feeds after all this time. The thoughts, links, and musings here are things that I find of interest and chose to comment upon one way or the other. The fact that anyone else deems that of value is a bit scary and still inspires a bit of awe in my pea brain.
This has been a challenging year for me personally on a number of fronts, and consequently things fell off here in spurts. Even so, I still counted it as a blessing that I could return to share things that I found silly, fun, ridiculous, outrageous, sublime, beautiful, ugly, and above all worth sharing. Yes, it is still a refuge, and yes, it is still a place that I like very much.
This year was indeed a wacky one and the stages have been both wicked and wonderful all at the same time. We successfully renovated and returned to our little theatre with a big heart in Middletown. That was a challenge in and of itself, especially after things went south with a deal that would have given us two theatres to operate. That seemed like a real blow at the time, but given the economic downturn, (hey, now it is a recession that has been going on for awhile-who knew?) that turned out to be a blessing. At Wayside Theatre the fall has felt like the autumn of September 11, 2001 all over again. Our business has fallen off as much as it did then, and we’re struggling to make it through. So, on a real world front, the stress has been enormous, which is why this refuge is becoming perhaps more important to me. But at the same time, the work of the artists who sometimes get featured here always astounds me and lifts me up daily.
As my contributions here fell off a bit, they often moved elsewhere online as this was the year of Twitter and Friendfeed, and I find the discovery and sharing there to be as wonderful as I did in the old days of the blogosphere. I’m not one of those who thinks blogs are dead. Far from it. In fact, I think the impulse for sharing what one thinks is just shifting a bit to other venues that compliment blogging. Facebook also contributed to some of that wonder as, there too, an intersection of all the worlds that are my life blossomed a bit more this year.
This was also a year that I really became platform agnostic, dipping into the world of Apple and liking very much what I found both on an iMac and on the iPhone. Nothing is perfect and this is certainly true of both the iPhone and Apple computing, but it is fun and worth the discovery and I’m glad that I can hit from both sides of the plate, and steroid free at that.
My tech blogging fell off here but political blogging picked up with it being a presidential year. Some liked that, some ran away screaming. More power to both sides, although those that shy away from politics and what they mean to our daily lives remind me of ostriches with their heads in the sand. But I guess that comes down to whatever gets you through the night, and maybe that makes up for the fact that there were no emu sightings this year. I enjoyed being a part of the discussion with some new friends during the primary and the general election, and whether or not it is true, I felt more like a participant than a witness.
History was made in this year’s election, and I’m glad I was alive to see it and marvel at it occurring. The hope here is that we’ll pay attention as we watch things change and not get too hung up on the fact that things are changing. For some change is a scary thing to be avoided, but perhaps because my work in the theatre means continual change, in the plays we do and the people we do them with makes me relish the opportunity for change. We also got to watch the main stream media by and large turn into sports commentators trying to pretend like the inferior team really had a chance at winning, in what I hope might change the way these things get covered in the future. It is high time that racket got exposed for what it is and maybe the blog/Twitter-sphere will help that happen.
For those who do miss the tech blogging and don’t get enough of it on my other home at GottaBeMobile.com, don’t worry, it’ll come back soon here as well, but perhaps with a different twist.
On the first anniversary of my being a blogger, I created the Annual Life on the Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards to celebrate. They were created to celebrate the community of Tablet PC fanatics that I was a part of (and still am) and it has continued as an annual feature here each year since. This year the Ink Blot Awards have expanded a bit as my interests have expanded. I would imagine that trend will continue as I continue to marvel at the human condition and all the wackiness, weirdness, and wonder that it offers to those who pay attention. So, as I celebrate year four of blogging on Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 2, I’ll amend and extend the annual introduction to this year’s festivities:
As we head into year five, I hope that through some intelligently designed construct what happens here will to continue to evolve as I do. In the meantime join with me as we celebrate four years of Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 2 with the Fourth Annual Life on the Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards.
