Vortex of Meanwhiles

Heads up:  We could be experiencing some site problems over the next couple of days, as I consolidate various internet activities under one new host, and also (probably) change the primary address for this blog from zombiecontentions.com to ckmacleod.com.

You will not have to update your bookmarks immediately – zombiecontentions.com should still point to the blog’s main page – but you may have to get around to it one of these days by around March of next year…  Or you may have to do it sooner if StartLogic (see below) finds a way to screw even that much up…

…unless I decide for some reason to hold on to “zombiecontentions.com” past its renewal date.  I do still occasionally get positive reactions to that name… Anyone want to offer, say, $1.5 MM for it?

Meanwhile, for your entertainment, here are recent additional additions to the site image archives:

Meanwhile,

Customer is abusing the server. Please do not unsuspend the account until the customer clears of the database resources.

First off, I was not abusing the server.  Maybe some weird zombie robot spiders were abusing the server, but I was doing my best to treat the server kindly and considerately, and had thought that StartLogic, my soon-to-be-utterly-former second web host, and I were on the same page on that there problem.

Yet the above message is what I found when when I checked the page where StartLogic “help ticket” communications are collected. I had just discovered that my freestanding web store and associated everything had been taken down, including connections to the many thousands of image files that accompany sales listings both at the store and at eBay.

I’ll spare you the details. I’ll just note that it’s not the first time that StartLogic has sprung an assault on my web activities, left me to find out for myself, then offered “support” that consists of someone with very poor English repeating a very sincere apology while pleading helplessness and falsely promising that someone will be getting right on it and back to me…

Meanwhile, it seems we’ve finally lost George. “Gai gezunterhait!” – “Go in good health!” – is one way that I’ve seen my feelings about that transliterated, and I’ll leave off the diverse continuations that encompass unfortunate accidents and unlikely activities involving stairways, short piers, and other ways and by-ways.  He sez his New Year’s Resolution (l’shanah tovah again) was “no more ZOMBIE,” and I figured that one way to help him out was to remove his author privileges and non-person him from the blog description.  The “bookcover” is weg.

Meanwhile, as you know, my movie project fell through. (Bob’s nephew’s is proceeding apace. May it go in good health.) That event has left me financially and professionally and existentially scrambling, tho it also seems to have left me in possession of an excellent HD-capable camera and other fine equipment, including a “pro” editing set-up that I’ve been teaching myself how to use.

In addition to writing the script, I was going to edit the film as well as star in it, shoot a lot of it, co-direct it, and handle major elements of its presentation and further development on the internet – obviously far too good to be true, right?

Obviously.

Here’s a further irony/serendipity/coincidence/short pier for you. Once upon a time, a thousand years and a day ago, I made a movie with the same guy – Jef is his name. It had a bit of a festival life, even won some good reviews and jury recognition, then settled into limbo, partly, I was informed, as a result of its distribution having been fumbled by Jef’s brother. The movie was called Drive. I don’t talk about it much, for numerous nauseating reasons, from now on to include the further nauseating reason that at the same time that this newest project was falling through, another movie named Drive was in the theaters, “coolest movie of the year,” and so on.

Meanwhile, some dudes have developed a plug-in that should make operating an OSCommerce store from within a WordPress blog possible.  So, I may just move the whole web store, or a re-conceived version of it, into a new Gift Shop page.

Meanwhile, Scott’s yoga book is in its first self-published edition. Needs publicity. We’ve started putting together some videos, and I’ll do him a web site.  Could work with the above.  Good timing!

Meanwhile, this site now has a usership of five, including me, and its re-design is in a first phase.  I do, however, have a never-exploited mailing list of old friends and enemies, and I do believe that there may be other traffic possibilities.  Ideal would be an additional income/connection stream through the site, but I’m cool with it remaining a test-bed/treehouse, if that’s all it amounts to – assuming y’all (and I do mean present company) are also cool with that.

I don’t expect everything smoothly and remainderlessly to roll into and blend indistinguishably with everything else, but at some point the synergies ought to begin to outweigh the conflicts, and it should be okay to replace diffusion and chaos with focus and unified effort… at least a little bit.

Go Tigers.

19 comments on “Vortex of Meanwhiles

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  1. I’m bidding $2 in M&M s

    disappearing George after his somewhat ambiguous and not necessarily irreversible decision ….N/G

    gimme gimme gimme link to something about your old Drive, pretty please with M&Ms

    • got nothing for you on the old DRIVE, dude. It was from the Dark Ages before everything was instantly and nearly everywhere on the web. What little web-trail there is on it is blood pressure-raising – writer credit screwed up to my disadvantage – part of the nausea I referred to.

      How’s the weather?

    • Woulda been 1991 or maybe 1992 I guess – hard to say what the real release date is for a film that gets festival-limbo’d. We were filming it during Desert Shield, IIRC, and it was in post-production during Desert Storm. Then traveled around the world. Maybe even have had a limited release in Italy. Had a 1-theater release in LA. I think I was seeing Julie Dole at the time, and that was only a six-month thing, and we did spend election night at a PBS studio, and went on to see Bill Clinton visit a shopping center when he was president-elect. So, yeah, 1992 I’d say.

      Yes, it did have a script. I wrote it, and that’s the truth whatever else you may read somewhere.

      Keep the snowshoes handy, just in case.

      • where is the script now, you frogleg-pulling frowsemeister ?

        Which Dole, the Mt Holyoke grad or the one who’s a Registered Dietitian and Registered Republican?

        (hope you retain enough memory to be able to answer either question. )

        • fuster: where is the script now,

          Well, subscribers to CKMacLeodXTREME can view versions of the original pre-shooting draft. Others may, in time, if they can figure out their browsers, view selected un-grabbing sections for free.

          I may also do a THING to the DVD of Drive that I recently got (after all of these years), once planned for the verkakte fallen-through project (“analysis of” [that was the working title], hereafter).

          Probly see as much as mortal phrog can bear.

        • fuster: Which Dole, the Mt Holyoke grad or the one who’s a Registered Dietitian and Registered Republican?

          Neither, though I was initially confused by the pretty videographer one, to whom Julie bore some, but not great resemblance. Last time I saw a pic of Julie, she had, what do you call ‘it?, fully totally braided hair, very long, probably a reaction to the trauma of separation from me.

          • the medical term is “Rapunzelian reaction formation” where a victim does everything available to be sure of escape from future foul cluchers.

            Well I guess there’s no end to Julie Doles lurking about in questionable company.

            pineapple princesses, babies of Bob, West Yorkshire welfare women…….

  2. Well since I’m not cool enough for the ‘reindeer games’ in the open thread, a couple of queries, have you been watching Breaking Bad, which has taken some interesting turns including a Grand Guignol wipe out of the Cartel, headed by my
    paisan Steven Bauer, and are you planning to take a look at Homeland, a kind of ‘through the looking class’ ’24, actually
    more an update of Sleeper Cell.

    • This is the first season I’ve watched BREAKING BAD from the beginning. I wonder if it’s jumped the shark, or whether it’s always been left of believable. Could be that it wasn’t quite meant to last, just like Meth use has great declined in the last couple of years. That said, I’ve been enjoying it despite my reservations, liked the first couple episodes a lot with Jesse’s post-murder depression and non-stop house party, and am very curious to see how things work out now.

      Something about HOMELAND looks a little “woulda been more interesting 5 years ago,” but I’m not sure. I’ll give it a chance if I remember to watch or tape it. BOARDWALK EMPIRE got off to a pretty good start, I think, and I’ll give DEXTER a chance to preserve my interest for sure, plus the WALKING DEAD is starting up soon, so I’m not sure I’ll have much spare TV brain for HOMELAND, especially if it turns out that there’s an NBA season after all.

      I thought TERRA NOVA was pretty horrible in a lot of ways, couldn’t watch the whole episode. My guilty pleasure the last few weeks has been STRIKEBACK.

  3. There was something about Terra Nova, that screamed ‘Jurassic Avatar’ and not in a good way, and listening to the premiere episode, confirmed the notion, Since I don’t have Cinemax, I haven’t watched ‘Strikeback’ maybe when it comes out on DVD,
    hard to imagine how Walt gets out of this mess, as Gustavo Fring, has become the Latin Moriarty of sorts.

    • miguel cervantes: I haven’t watched ‘Strikeback’ maybe when it comes out on DVD,

      I could be wrong, but I think you’d find it quite diverting, lots of sex and nudity, violence, terrorism, more violence, witty tough guy chatter, never know which minor character might get killed, lots of asshole-of-the-universe locales, running mystery-conspiracy-wtf plot-line. I wasn’t even sure I had CINEMAX until I started watching it, and I’m not even sure what got me started on it.

  4. ‘Paging Berthold Brecht, to the red courtesy phone, as you know I’m a sucker for innovative scifi, but there was something n ot right about it, Maybe Walking Dead will pick up the tempo, now that they kicked Darabont off, but I tend to doubt it.

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