I keep getting frustrated with how this site works. I think it might be time for a change here. I think I need to work a little harder on the change to make it worthwhile. It has to happen, though, because I now get irritated enough about how this site works that I don't post here anymore. Change ahoy.

Well, hello, everyone. I know I haven't written here in a little while. Jenny posted several stories earlier, but I haven't said anything in a long time. I'm sitting right now at King's Cross/St. Pancras International Rail Station, waiting to board a Eurostar train that will take me to Brussels. At the same time as I was getting on a Circle Line Underground train to King's Cross, Jenny was boarding a Circle Line train in the opposite direction to Heathrow.

This was a pretty darn good weekend. I left early Wednesday morning on a train to Washington, DC. I was there for a workshop and to present at the workshop, which I did on Friday morning. I'm told that the presentation went well, so yay for that.

The past two weeks have seen several new chapters starting here, and probably the closing of at least one.

A revival of sorts this is. I've been letting this blog languish for a bit too long here. I started to spend a lot more effort twittering small updates, and ran myself out of time to work on larger updates for the blog. At the time, I decided to add my twitter feed to the top of the blog here. I checked it, then logged-out and moved on with the busy part of life. Today I noticed that the twitter feed hasn't updated in weeks, partially due to a configuration bug that was introduced when one of the machines where I have this blog hosted was upgraded. Argh.

Hi happy readers. It has been a little while since I posted here. We've been pretty busy. I've been working on a show for Riverview school district. They're doing Jesus Christ Superstar, which is quite possibly one of my favorite shows. That is going well, and will probably be the subject of a few longer posts later. I've also been busy learning my new camera, which has been quite fun.

My Dad gave me a copy of the News Photographer magazine yesterday, which is the journal for the National Press Photographers Assocation. It was a good read, and got me to thinking about a bunch of stuff. I was poking-around on the NPPA website today, and saw this quote:

Jenny and I just got home after a most delightful picnic. I am working as Sound Designer for a show over in the Riverview school district (that's in Oakmont, PA, in case you're not from these parts). There was a tech work session today, so I was busy over there for that. I was done with my part right around 15:00.

Do odd things happen in your old house, too? Jenny and I have never really felt "alone" here in our home, though we've also not had a whole lot happen that we thought was out of the ordinary. Lately, though, we've had at least two incidents that seemed to be strange.

So we have this great idea for a documentary based on sailing the ports of the Great Lakes. We would detail the mariners working on the Great Lakes, and how the various ports of call have fit into the complex and storied history of the Great Lakes. We would interview harbormasters past and present to tell stories of the ports and how things have changed. We would do this by sailing to the various ports, utilizing new and old technology to navigate the waters and learn a little bit about what it was like to work on the water a hundred years ago, and what it is like to work on the water today.

It's a fun idea. Now all we need is a few piles of money, this boat, a few more piles of money, and we'll be all set. So if you're interested in buying the boat and/or supplying some piles of money, let us know. Phone lines are open.... :)

BTW, I've found myself drawn to this style of boat lately. It's called a Friendship Sloop, and is based off of some working sailboats of years long past. It is typically a gaff-rigged boat. The example in the link above happens to be quite large and quite awesome.

jonathan