Blogging
I Guess I'm Back
I think the great Twitter / X / Medium / whatever experiment is over. I’ve devoted a lot of time and energy to those places and what is there to show for it, really? Not much.
In the case of something like Twitter / X it was nice to meet a few people and nice to engage in some conversations . . . until it wasn’t. Now, well, let’s just say shithole doesn’t really begin to describe it. I do feel bad about it, though. I do. It was sorta nice while it lasted.
As far as Medium, Substack (which has other issues) and sites of that nature, I think I’m done with them too. I wanted to like/thrive at Medium and I did write some articles there. In the end, though, it’s still a place controlled by others and could, on what may be just a billionaire’s whim, turn into another shithole. Or worse.
So, enough if that shit.
I really think I should just concentrate what little time/effort/patience/talent I have on this blog. After all, it’s been with me since 2004 and unless I totally fuck something up (not out of the question) it should be here until they pry it from my cold, dead hands. Comforting thought, that.
So that’s it.
People keep asking if I’m back. Yeah, I guess I’m back.
Image: Lionsgate
A New Update
So, I won’t be completely abandoning this blog after all. In truth, I kinda miss writing here. Over at Medium (which I like) I do feel the pressure to write things that are more “commercial” so I can get the tiny amount of money my articles generate from readership.
I’m not complaining, mind you, It’s nice to get any money for this shit. Still, complete freedom is nothing to scoff at. This blog is never going away (unless I stop paying for the server it’s hosted on or I die or whatever), so that’s pretty cool.
And nobody can tell me what to say or post on here. That’s pretty cool too. Although, you know what Lord Acton said about absolute power . . .?
Anyway, I’ll see you soon. Oh, and if you’re missing me, you can still find me at Medium, at Instagram and my new home at Mastodon. You should really give Mastodon a try, it’s pretty nice. Very few dickheads. I’d call that a positive.
Be kind to each other. Cheers.
Going Medium to Get Large
Hello friends. It’s that time. I’ve finally made a decision.
I’m going to be shifting my writing focus over to Medium for the time being. What does that mean? I won’t be writing anything new here. Instead, I’ll be ranting, raving and otherwise smacking the keys over at Medium.
Why, you may wonder? It’s a long story but let’s just say I’m trying to simplify my life, write more and potentially expand my audience. I think Medium has the best chance of helping me do those things.
So, if you enjoy my musings, please go to my Medium site and continue to enjoy. And tell a friend.
Thanks for a great time. I really appreciate you hangin with me all these years. I’ll see you on the other side.
Until then, try to be kind to each other.
Trying Something New at Micro.blog
By now many people who care are either outraged or happy Elon Musk is (probably) buying Twitter. There’s also some people who land in the middle.
Those people are concerned about what might happen but not enough to leave Twitter in protest. Instead, preferring to stay and get into some “good trouble.” For the moment, I’m in that camp.
But even if I do stay on Twitter, I’m also exploring other options. That brings me to Micro.blog.
It’s like Twitter in some ways but different in others. To really know what I’m talking about, you should probably just check it out for yourself. If you want to follow me over there, I’m @ChrisU
I also bring this up because I’m going to let Micro.blog start cross-posting to this blog. It’s a test to see if it’s more useful than annoying. I guess we’ll see.
(Update: Well, I guess I’m a bit dumb. Turns out I can post to Micro.blog from here but not, as yet, the other way around. So yeah, you won’t be seeing anything from Micro.blog on here until they work out how to do it. As you were.)
So, (don’t) expect frequent short posts on here in addition to the longer ones that appear, well, not as often as I’d like. I know, I know. I’m working on it.
That’s it for now. Try to be kind to each other. We need it now more than ever.
Still More Useful and Interesting Things
As life returns to normal (or at least my version of it) I realize it’s been several days since I last put some useful and interesting things up here.
So, with that in mind, here’s some more for you:
• Have trouble getting people to do what you want? Maybe this technique can help.
• For the screenwriting nerds out there, John August and his team have come up with a new version of the venerable Courier font, called Courier Prime, to use when writing your scripts. I’ve switched to it and it’s quite nice.
• If you have a girlfriend who would love this as a gift, marry her. If you already did, kudos to you and it makes a nice Valentine’s Day gift too.
• Here’s a complete collection of Mac OS X install disks. I think I still have all of mine too. Yep, Mac nerd right here.
• Have and iPad? Want to use said iPad in the kitchen or other place where it might get wet? You want one of these.
• I like talented people doing cool things, so I like this. Granted, I know Brian so I may be a bit biased. But still, it’s pretty cool. BTW, you should also read his book
• Last, but not least, Tom Witkin’s Poster app for iOS is for posting to a Wordpress site and is very awesome. It’s become my new favorite and I now use it pretty much every day. Check it out.
More Useful and Interesting Things
It’s the weekend so many of you are probably out doing weekend-type things. Good for you. Enjoy yourselves.
In the interest of enjoyment, or in some cases entertainment or information to enhance your lives, here’s another list of useful and/or interesting things I’ve found this week.
• I don’t know about you, but I loved arcades as a kid. In fact, I worked in one for almost a year while I was in High School. Games like Asteroids, Missile Command, Galaga and Pac-Man helped shape my childhood. It also cost me a hell of a lot of quarters.
But that’s okay, it was great fun and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. Sadly, it seems future generations may not have the same opportunity for fun as I did. The Verge spells out the situation in a must-read article for anyone who loved these places as a kid.
• Once again the folks at Lifehacker come through with some good info. This time it’s what to do before and after a disaster.
• Do you blog? Do you have an iPhone or other iOS device? If so, you may want to check out this great piece of software called Poster. I’m trying it out now and so far, I like it. You might like it too.
• Tired of paying through the nose (or other orifice) for a wireless plan and smartphone? If so, you might want to check out Republic Wireless. It’s a very interesting approach and something I’m going to be looking into in more detail soon.
That’s it for now. Once again, enjoy your weekend. I know I will.
A New iPad Writing Update
As previously mentioned, I’ve been trying to write with the iPad as much as possible instead of using the MacBook Air or any other OS X-powered Mac. After a couple weeks of doing this, I’ve got some thoughts to share.
First, and this should not come as a surprise, I love almost everything about the iPad as a device. It’s extremely portable and has amazing battery life, even when used for several hours of work and pretty much continuous syncing of Dropbox via Verizon’s 4G LTE. I can only imagine the portability and battery life are going to get better and better as we see newer versions of the iPad.
As a device used for content consumption, the iPad also excels. If you want to watch a movie or TV program via Netflix or iTunes, the iPad is your best choice. The screen is excellent and the afformetioned battery life can get you though several programs during a long plane ride to Hawaii, or wherever you’re going. It also features an impressive collection of apps devoted to bringing you content.
On that note, the iPad is excellent for reading books via the Kindle or iBooks app or comics using an app like Comixology. I also enjoy checking out news, Twitter, Facebook and my Instagram feed using an app like Flipboard. These kinds of content consumption, and the quality experience they provide, are all pretty much a given.
Testing . . . Again
Okay, let’s try this again. Let us test this out and make sure the move to new servers has worked.
Blogging from the iPad (Again)
Well, posting from within Chrome, and including a picture, is a bit of a pain. Would it be so hard to have a way to insert pictures from the photo library on the iPad? And no, there’s no way to cut and paste, at least not that I’ve found. Not into a Chrome window at least.
I guess Apple doesn’t like that idea. They probably don’t want a “full” file system in iOS. That’s what Mac OS X and Macs are for.
Anyway, on to other methods like Blogsy. I’ve tried this tool before with some success. I haven’t tried the latest version yet, so here goes.
After getting all my info set up in Blogsy I was able to get a picture from the photo library on the iPad uploaded to this site and inserted into this post. It’s the dragon pic above. Scary, right?
So far, it looks like Blogsy is the winner. The UI is a bit confusing and has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy to use. Not as easy as using Chrome on Mac OS X, but it may just be good enough for my purposes.
That is, unless I’m in a hurry to post something. Then, we may have a problem as thre steps are a bit time consuming. This is especially so if you’re looking for an image online to use in a post. You need to find it, save it to the photo library and if editing or resizing is necessary, use yet another iOS app to do the resize and crop, then bring it back into Blogsy to upload to your site for the post.
The resize/crop app I’m using at the moment is iResize, which seems to do the job pretty well. I guess you could always resize an image once you get it uploaded to your site but that’s not really the best way to go about it. Plus, cropping is out of the question if you do that. So, an additional resize/crop app seems like a must.
So, for the moment, it looks like Blogsy is the winner. I’m going to look into some other apps and workflows to see if I can improve my time to post and ease of use. Still, for normal blogging this setup works pretty well.
Site Stuff, Photo Sharing and More
Looking at the archives list on the right of this page reminds me I’ve had this particular blog incarnation since mid 2004. That’s a good amount of time (almost 8 years) and I’m proud of myself for sticking with something that long.
I have actually been putting stuff online since before 2004 but alas, those articles and content have pretty much been lost after moves into and out of various blogging platforms over the years. I’m pretty sure I could probably locate them if I really tried and perhaps I will someday. But for the moment, I’m content to have this blog’s starting date be in June of 2004.
In the interest of fun, though, let’s step into the Wayback Machine and see what I was thinking on that first fateful Summer day in June of 2004. From that first post it seems like I was talking about a mix of tech and politics and also managed to throw in a quote from Chris Rock too. Not a bad bunch of content at all.
Although, I’m not sure why I felt the need to say “later” at the end of the post. It’s almost as if I didn’t know what I was doing then. So weird.
Anyway, now that I’ve evolved into the highly skilled professional that I am (hey, if you get or got paid to do it, you’re a pro) I can safely omit any of that kind of stuff and just talk directly to the audience. You know, you and you out there reading this.
Yes, there’s probably only two of you but that’s okay, we know something that others don’t know, right? We’re the cool kids now. Suck on that nerds. . .
But, I digress.
Nostalgia and self-affirmation is great but it doesn’t help me figure out if I should keep my Flickr Pro account or not. See that there, that’s what they call a transition. Although, it wasn’t a great one. No, not at all.
My Flickr Pro account expires later this month and my dilemma is that I haven’t been uploading photos to it at all. In fact, I haven’t used it for many months. Granted, it’s only about 25 bucks a year but if I don’t use it at all, why bother? Plus, maybe there’s something better out there with more features, more interaction and the like?
I’m also considering that I have pretty much unlimited bandwidth, space and server power with the Media Temple servers we use for The Flickcast and other sites (including this here blog) that I could just host my photos myself and skip the third party stuff. That’s why you now see a “Photos” tab up there at the top of the screen.
I’m trying out various photo gallery plugins for Wordpress to see which one looks the best. Right now, it’s one called NextGen Gallery and I kinda think it’s the best of the bunch. We also use it at The Flickcast so I’ve got some experience with it. I think I will leave it in place for now and see how it goes. I will add more photos I’ve already taken and perhaps some new ones soon too.
I also know that I’ve invested a lot of time and effort over the years to upload stuff to Flickr and it has a lot of photos of mine. It would be a lot of work to start completely over somewhere else. In fact, I’m not sure exactly how I would bulk download all the photos at Flickr and upload them somewhere else. I would need to look into that more.
Given the potential pain in the ass and time involved, I would instead probably want to have Flickr serve as an archive for my old photos and would start anywhere new, like SmugMug, from this point on. However, because of the large number of photos I have (too many for the free Flickr account) I would end up having to keep paying for the Pro version just to maintain the archive.
So I guess that pretty much answers my question, doesn’t it? Yahoo will be getting 25 bucks from me this month. They can probably use it.
Thanks for playing along. Always fun to see the decision making process at work, right?
The truth is no service, free or paid, is going to motivate me go out and take pictures. That motivation has to come from within.
Now where did I put my camera?
Ups and Downs
Well, so much for the great “let’s post my Instagram photos to my blog automagically” experiment. If you’ve been following this site the last couple days, you know it went horribly wrong and resulted in lots of the same thing being posted over and over again.
Not good. Made even more not good by the fact that this site is setup to automatically update my Twitter with new posts and that’s set to automatically post to my Facebook. Not good times a hundred thousand.
So, that meant a lot of extraneous posts and a whole slew of bullshit I needed to deal with today in addition to the ever increasing pile I already have allotted to me. But I’m not unhappy.
However, to read this site or my Twitter or Facebook you might get the impression I’m disgruntled, angry or otherwise unhappy. Not at all.
In fact, I’m not disgruntled, rarely angry and thousands of miles away from unhappy. Just ask anyone who knows me well and they’ll tell you. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Welcome back. I tend to go the opposite direction of angry and in most cases, I just keep on being happy. I’m not saying I never feel down or sad, I do. Everyone does. Well, most everyone anyway. Probably not sociopaths. But they’re just weird.
Anyway, the truth is for a vast majority of the time I feel happy and I think life is pretty good. It has some ups and downs, sure, but to me that’s what makes it interesting.
Of course, I say this as an educated, white male living well above the poverty line in a city with great weather, great people and with a lot of opportunities for work, fun and to live life to the fullest. Yes, luck may be a factor too.
However, even with a lot of luck you still need to do something with the opportunities presented to you. You can’t just sit back and expect the world to come to you. It doesn’t work that way and at some point, if you’re still waiting, eventually you’re going to be disappointed.
The trick is to get out there and do something before that happens. That’s why I make sure I’m as busy as possible doing a variety of things that a love. I don’t want to look back later at my life and be an old man filled with regret (apologies to Christopher Nolan for cribbing that line).
That’s what helps me stay happy. It might not work for you but hell, it’s worth a try, right?
Let me know how it goes.
Hanging At the Grove
The Grove in Los Angeles is one of those great, outdoor shopping areas that attracts all manner of people. It’s situated next to the famous Farmer’s Market, which has been a fun hangout for hipsters, and non-hipsters alike, for many years.
I was at the Grove tonight to see a screening of director Steven Soderberg’s latest movie Haywire. It’s an action extravaganza starring MMA sensation Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor and Michael Douglas.
I will be doing a full review later this week for The Flickcast. For now, just enjoy the above picture I took at the Grove this evening.
Yes, it’s actually even nicer than it looks in the picture.
On a related note, we’ve made the decision over at The Flickcast to make the site dark in protest of SOPA and PIPA. We firmly believe in stopping piracy but we don’t want to give up liberty to do it.
For more on how you can get involved, go HERE.
Because of my personal disgust with SOPA and PIPA, i won’t be posting here at all tomorrow either. Be back Thursday.
Have a great day off from me.
By Way of An Apology: Some Notes About This Site
Happy second day of 2012. No, I don’t know how long people are allowed to say “Happy New Year” or what I just said. I’m just going with it, okay?
That kind of statement brings me, in a not so direct way, to this website, blog or whatever you want to call it. I will call it a blog or, more precisely, “The Personal Blog of Chris Ullrich.” See, it even says that up there at the top.
In other words, this is my blog and these are my thoughts, such as they are. They are not to be confused with anyone else’s or with those of anyone or anyplace I have worked, am working now, or will work in the future. These concepts are not that hard to understand so I will rely on you, good readers, to figure these things out. I feel confident you can.
Now that the disclaimer part is over, let’s talk about some other facts. I started this blog in 2004 (here’s a link to the first post ever) and it has been continuously published since that time. It used to have a decent amount of daily readers, but for various reasons, that readership has dwindled.
This is probably mostly due to the neglect it has suffered at my hands. That’s changed and this blog will now be updated regularly again.
Another reason readership has dwindled is due to this blog being moved around and hosted at various places using various hosting software. That is also done. This blog, along with the rest of my sites (including The Flickcast) is now housed permanently on it’s very own virtual server provided by the folks at Media Temple.
This blog is also now permanently run on Wordpress. It had previously been on other platforms, including TypePad, but now it’s Wordpress all the way.
It’s also been tough to find this blogs RSS feed because I’ve tried several ways to help that out too, including FeedBurner. Now that it is permanently on Wordpress, being served off of my own server and is not going to be moved ever again (if I can help it) the RSS feed is not going to change again either.
In case you’re wondering, the RSS feed for this blog is right up there in the top right corner. It’s also right here. Click on either link to subscribe and I will love you forever.
Why am I taking valuable time out of your day to tell you all of this? The answer is simple: I owe you an apology.
I owe you this apology because if you’re reading this blog, and have read this far, I should not have taken you for granted. I say that because people who regularly read a blog are often frustrated when it isn’t there when they go to find it. They are also often frustrated when they go to read a blog and find it hasn’t been updated in a long time.
I’m guilty on both counts, but I can change. In fact, I already have.
If you take a closer look you’ll see I’ve updated this blog more times in the last month than over the last several months. I realize that’s not a foolproof way to tell I’ve changed, but I just wanted you to notice.
I intend to keep writing here. Even though some have pointed out blogging is dying, I actually feel it has helped me immensely. I also feel there’s still an audience for quality (or in my case at least prolific) blogging.
So, I’ll keep doing it and doing it here (as well as various other places like The Flickcast) and if I’m lucky, people will start coming back to this blog and enjoying it. I think it’s possible.
Thanks for reading and feel free to check back here often. I’ll be around.
Keyboard Considerations
I’ve been trying to use just the iPad 2 for a few days to do my writing work and I came to the conclusion that I need a keyboard. That’s not to say that typing directly on the iPad 2 wouldn’t work for most people, or for me under different circumstances, it’s just that right now my fingers are a bit sore and it’s time to explore other options.
Fortunately, I already have a solution. I’ve dropped some hard earned cash on a keyboard case and stand combo from Incase. It’s called the Origami Workstation and it features a place to hold your Apple Wireless Keyboard (I already had one of from a previous experiment) and to hold you iPad or iPad 2 either vertically or horizontally. I usually pick horozontal, just in case you were wondering.
With the iPad 2 and keyboard in place things have gotten much easier on my hands and fingers. Yes, I realize having to bring a keyboard with you begs the question as to why I don’t just use the MacBook Air. That’s a valid question and one I could answer by just saying I just don’t want to. The truth is I’m not just doing this just for me. I’m doing it for you. For those of you who want to know if you can get along and get work done with just an iPad 2 and that’s it. The answer is, so far, yes you can – unless you have a problem like I do. In that case you need to make some adjustments. Problem or not, the iPad 2 is especially useful if you’re a writer, or some other type of creative person, who’s job it is to put words in a certain order and upload, print or otherwise share them with people. It really is a great tool. It’s likely if my hands were a bit younger and I haden’t spent the last ten or more years pounding keys I would have gotten away without using an external keyboard. Sadly, I can’t. You might be able to, however. And you should try. It makes the idea you can bring a small device like the iPad 2 with you, and that’s all you really need, that much cooler. My needing to use a keyboard doesn’t change the fact that the iPad is a great writing tool and so far has proven to be very useful in my everyday work. Now to get back to it. I’ll let you know how it’s going, don’t worry.
The Great-ish Writing Experiment
I think in the spirit of trying to make things work, and also challenging myself a bit, I’m going to try to use the iPad 2 as a writing/blogging tool as often as I can. Let this post serve as the first-ish example of that. I say -ish because I’ve already done at least one or two with the iPad 2, but that was before. Now, I’m going to take it more seriously and consider it more of an experiment, or test , then I did before. One of the first questions to ask when embarking on a journey such as this is do I use the built-in keyboard on the iPad 2 or do I use an external one? It’s an important question because, to be honest, my fingers do get kinda sore when using just the iPad 2’s touchscreen keyboard. However, that may be more a function of the fact that by the time I start using the iPad I’ve already been typing for a few hours. Maybe my fingers would hurt no matter what? I suspect they would. So, with that in mind I think I will try to use the touchscreen keyboard for now and see how it goes. I’ve got an extra Bluetooth keyboard I could use but that sorta defeats the purpose of using the iPad if you have the also lug around a keyboard. At any rate, I’ll know soon enough if my fingers can’t take it and then I will consider other options. Fortunately, as I discussed in an earlier post, the rest of the writing/blogging experience shouldbe pretty good on the iPad 2. I guess I’ll find out. In case you’re the sort of person who likes to know the more technical, nuts and bolts kinds of things, I’m going to list the tools I will be using during this experiment. Here they are: Apple iPad 2 (of course) - Apple’s device excels at so many things and has a battery that lasts a long time. It has become an indispensable part of my daily work (and fun). Blogsy - This is the primary blogging app I’m using. It allows for complete control over posts and offers the ability to insert photos and video. Pretty much everything you need and pretty easy to figure out and use. IResize - This is a great app that allows you to resize images to fit in a blog post or other writing. You can load any picture from your Photos on the iPad and change the size, resolution, etc. and then save the changed version for use in other apps like Blogsy. IAWriter - This app let’s you get back to basics and just write. It removes distractions and lets you focus on the words. Plus, it syncs with Apple’s iCloud and its own OS X desktop version to allow you to work on whatever you want and have it available on the iPad or your Mac with whatever changes you’ve made already there and synced. Other tools: Pages - Appple’s own writing App is pretty good and I used it quite a bit before IA Writer and Blogsy came into the picture. Now I use it less frequently, especially as oit doesn’t support sync across the mobile and desktop versions using iCloud as IA Writer does. At least not yet. FDX Reader - Sadly, my favorite screenwriting app Final Draft doesn’t have and iPad version yet. I’ve been assured one is on the way, but until then, I still need to use the MacBook Air when I want to write in Final Draft. However, I can at least read scripts in Final Draft format (instead of PDF) on the iPad by using the terrific FDX Reader app. This app allows you to load scripts written in Final Draft and saved as .fdx files and view them in their native format. Very useful and saves you the time and effort of saving scripts as .pdf files plus if your a writer on the go or collaborating with another writer it also makes it easier to quickly review the current draft. So, this is my challenge and those are the tools of choice. Of course, figuring out what you want to do and choosing the tools to accomplish a task is often the easy part. The hard part is doing the actual writing. I’m goin' in, wish me luck.
Writing On the iPad
Since the iPad first came out I was hoping it would completely take the place of my laptop for most things. I was especially hoping it would allow me to use it when I go to events like Comic-Con in San Diego and other places I’m covering for The Flickcast that require me to post to the website during the day. Unfortunately, as an early adopter, I got one of the first iPads released. And although the hardware was darn good, the software, and in particular apps for blogging, left something to be desired. Cut to today and I’m using the iPad 2 and there are lots more apps out there to do most of the things you want to do on the iPad. Sadly, there’s still a shortage of good blogging apps. Fortunately, all you really need is one. I think I’ve found that one. Or, at least I’ve found one that’s as close to perfect as I’m going to get right now. What’s the name of this amazing, life changing blogging app? Blogsy. It does most of what I need it to do in the writing area. I can write a post in either HTML or visual mode, add photos and videos and set it to publish. Combine that with resizing photos using the great iResize app and the iPad has become almost a complete replacement for my Mac laptop. It does take a bit of time to get used to blogging on the iPad and also, typing on the screen itself is a bit hard on the fingers. Still, for short things like blog posts (just like this one!) it works very well. I’m going to be using Blogsy more and more and I’m sure I will find things I don’t like about it. Still, it has enough going for it already that I’m very pleased and happy I found it. Also, I’m sure they will improve it over time with updates.
What's Up?
This site feels lonely. In fact, it is. I haven’t been updating it at all during the last few months because I’ve been spending the majority of my time over at The Flickcast and trying to make that the best it can be.
However, all is not lost. Part of my plan for the new year is to start taking more photographs. I'm going to be exploring my photography skills and trying to improve them. I will be posting the results here and, of course, over at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisu/" target="_blank">my Flickr page</a>.
So, stay tuned for more from this site. I haven't forgotten it and will get back to it soon enough. Until then, all the best for 2011.
I Am Still Alive and Other Developments
Sad I have to write that headline, but sometimes when you’ve kept a blog for a few years and updated pretty regularly and then stop, people often wonder if something bad has happened to you. Fortunately, that’s not the case. No bad things.
Actually, some good thing have happened, especially where my latest project is concerned. Yes, that's right, <em><a href="http://www.theflickcast.com" target="_blank">The Flickcast</a></em> has really taken off and as such, demands a great deal of my time. Not only to I run the site, for the most part, I also have to write for it each and every day. That takes its toll.
Because <em>The Flickcast</em> is such a demanding site and the vast majority of my energy is devoted to it at the moment, that leaves very little left for this site. Once I've pretty much said my peace on various issues via the site or the podcast, I've pretty much got nothing left to write about here.
When I started this site several years ago my intention was to have a reason and a motivation to write every day (or almost every day, let's be honest). Now that I've got <em>The Flickcast</em> going, I have no choice but to write every day so the impetus to keep a personal blog is not nearly as strong.
I'm not exactly sure what to do about this site. I like having it and I may, on occasion, put something here. But for now, it won't be a regular thing at all, my other project needs to be the priority -- especially if I want it to continue the growth its seen so far.
So, if you're looking for me and my contributions, head on over to <em><a href="http://www.theflickcast.com" target="_blank">The Flickcast</a></em> and you can find me there. Also, if you're looking for any of my other work, there's some good links at <a href="http://chrisullrich.net" target="_blank">my other website</a>. And, feel free to follow me on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/chrisu" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and friend me at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/chris.ullrich" target="_blank">Facebook</a>. I promise I won't bite.
FOIA Reform: Bloggers Are Journalists Too (Part 2)
More on bloggers getting rights and being considered "real" journalists. Now, according to this article, bloggers could have better rights under the Freedom of Information Act. Things are getting even more interesting these days -- especially if you happen to be a blogger.
And no, I don't think this will or should apply to everyone with a Wordpress or Blogger page but more to people who actually get paid to write for blogs. Yes, they actually exist. In fact, if you didn't already know, I happen to be one of those people. So yes, perhaps I'm biased, but still . . .
If you happen to be new here, I have written and/or currently write for several online publications. Among them are LAist, Cinematical, Comic Book Resources and The Unofficial Apple Weblog. You can check out the links to my actual articles by going to my main website at chris ullrich dot net and checking out the "Writing" section.
So yeah, as a person who gets paid to blog I wouldn't mind being treated more like an actual journalist with the same rights and privileges as someone who works for a more "traditional" news organization.
Yes, that would be nice indeed.
Testing the Ecto Beta
Just a quick post to test out the new Beta of Ecto, my blogging software of choice. So far, so good. Especially considering the last verion of the Beta would not talk to my blog at Wordpress. Now, it does. Thanks guys at Ecto for all the hard work. It's a good program and well worth the 20 bucks so give it a try.
Also, I'll be back to more frequent writing here and at other places too pretty soon. It's just taken a bit of time to get back into things. I'm sure you can understand.