Blog Not Needed

Life has been very difficult lately, and made more difficult by the fact that I’ve been fighting a major depressive disorder that has me all out of sorts and between doctoring, day jobs and dealing with everything that just leaves me overwhelmed, I have noticed that my “deadline” for launching autonomic has come and gone, and come and gone again.

I’m going to make it easier on myself from now on, and just say, that autonomic, and following that, the new diysearch, will be launched when I finish them. I can say that autonomic will be finished “soon” meaning, not “in a while.” I really am not comfortable giving myself a solid date, but more like a time period. So, I’m saying “spring time” for autonomic, and “summer” for the new diysearch.

I am happy to see that diysearch has made it back to page 2 on Google. What a drag that was, seeing it way back on page 10. Yuck.

I’ve been busy with other things as well, such as my solo music project. Just released a 3-song CD EP with a 6-song 12″ (and CD) in the works. I don’t have firm dates on that either, but if you like weird, melancholy, synth-pop-ish electronic post-rock instrumental stuff, then you might want to check it out. Or not, I’m not doing this to  move units, become a vacant rock star or to even make a dent in the indie rock world. This music project of mine is something of therapy for me… keeps me sane, gives me something to look forward to. It helps with the depression. Its a vehicle, pure and simple, and if someone else finds that they like it, well, that’s just icing on the cake.

In closing this post, I just want to ask those who still read and follow what goes on with this little insignificant project, to bear with me here whilst i get things sorted out. Thank you.

so, its the 22nd. Of January. 2008.

and no, Autonomic is not ready

I tried like hell to finish it, but it still needs work. I’d hate to release a half-assed piece of shit, so i slipped the deadline instead. the less not-good option in this scenario.

I think what I need to do is just push the deadline 30 days. I just want to make sure everything is tested, and that when it does come out, there will be bugs, but it won’t be like, “um wow, this is terrible.”

meanwhile, i have to contend with day job, day life, being a newly diagnosed autistic (asperger’s syndrome) and battling a pretty major case of depression (major depressive disorder ftmfw yo). i’m trying.

I’ve been submitting this blog to a few of the blog search engines. Why? oh I don’t know, but what’s funny is I submitted it to this directory called MyBlog2U.

Well, I got an email from the Webmaster (an automated email response to be sure) informing me that they declined to include my listing. That’s all fine and dandy, but what really got me was the ridiculous email they sent. Here’s one of the more stupid lines:

“Violated of our Submission Guidelines.”

Wow! Its English people! Learn to use it!

I also liked this classically stupid misspelling:

“reveiwed”

Gah! “i” before “e” knuckleheads! Holy shit… time to hit 5th grade English again.

Oh well, I’m done making fun of stupidity now (you’ll notice that if you read this blog, I do this because I can. Its how I show I care, at the same time how I simply do not suffer idiots lightly)

Just wanted to take a minute and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving… even if you don’t live in the US.

Yep, me and the significantly better half are all set, got the Tofurkey roast in the freezer (we prefer not to eat dead birds, or other animals for that matter) and I’m going to make some stuffing from scratch (I’m famous for it, well, no, but I do get compliments).

So, have a nice couple of days, I’m going to be working on the site here and there, but mostly chilling. Yay! Vacation!

I was recently going through the almost ghost town of alt.zines and there was an interesting post, “is zinning dead?”

I’ve been into the whole zine publishing thing since 1998, when I helped some friends with a zine called Empty Words in Erie, PA. I kept with the zine thing and got pretty successful with it (publishing UPState zine, a Syracuse, NY hardcore/straight edge zine) and contributing to numerous other zines as well as starting other small run zines since then.

But I can’t help notice that zine publishing has been shrinking or at least and perhaps this is what I secretly hope for, that zine publishing is crawling back to the real underground. For many years zines have enjoyed a rather interesting flirtation with the mainstream media (usually via the predominance of ezines turned blogs) and the realization of real free DIY publishing (whether through low to no-cost web hosting or via Cafe Press etc.)

There was always a craft involved with zine publishing, and the online world, while not completely eliminating the craft (more like changed the craft) the act of publishing zine requires a certain art that often, in our modern go go buzzword world, goes AWOL. I mean, there are just so many kids out there who would rather toss up a myspace page or a free blog and rant and rave about high school than interviewing a band or reviewing a pile or records, sneaking off to the kinkos to get 50 copies made, or even better sneaking into work after hours and comendering the copy machine. That element is really missing and because of that, perhaps zine publishing is dead.

In as much as anything that stirs up and requires passion can ever die, I firmly believe zine publishing is and never will die, so long as there are folks out there who want not just alternative non-mainstream news/information, but more importantly like to experience publications that express the author’s/publisher’s self and perspectives in truly unique forms without any constraints. So, zines? dead? No, not hardly. Its just like the “good old days” where you just have to look a little harder to find them. alt.zines has run its course I believe and probably isn’t the best source of zine publishing community activity. I could be wrong there, but since the question was asked there, my answer ends there.