Pen-Elayne on the Web

Out with the Old

One of the reasons I like blogging is that it allows me to use the same excuse for laziness that I used to employ back when I was self-publishing INSIDE JOKE all those years ago - that, because I do one-to-many essay writing in a regular and chatty format, there isn't as much need to be a perfect e-mail (or snail mail) correspondent, and besides pretty much everything I'd say about "what's up with me" and "what do I think about such-and-such" in a personal letter or e-mail has already been published here. In fact, if it weren't for Pen-Elayne on the Web I probably wouldn't have been able to write our first-ever "Riggs Residence Roundup" insert that I put in our holiday cards to friends and family; it was a lot easier reviewing the year from seeing what I wrote at the time than going by my ever-worsening memory!

That said, I do recognize the excuse for what it is, and one of my goals for '05 is to be a lot better about responding to those personal e-mails, as well as not letting ones that request I pass on various bits of info languish in my in-box. To that end:

I thank David Chin for keeping me continually updated on his A Picture's Worth project and his fascinating travel life; during his holiday a couple months ago he "visited parts of the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain and France. I had a wonderful time, particularly celebrating my 25th birthday in Paris on Halloween and doing many of the touristy 'must-do's in Europe." It's no wonder David has such a wonderful perspective on things!

And speaking of pictures, I have a lot of in-box comics-related links to pass on as I heard from old friends and acquaintances like Jason Armstrong and Paul Ryan, as well as new but interesting strangers like the editor of FreedomToons (whose simplistically-drawn work accompanied by invective reminds me a lot of Tuli Kupferberg's old contributions to IJ) and Mike Russell, selling the book he illustrated called Santa's Lil' Gimp (I detect some Gahan Wilson influence there, I love the illo on Page 10, and shouldn't that be "Li'l" with the apostrophe before the second "l"?). Also, Ken Gale is famous, having gotten his picture in the NY Times article (which you can't see any more without paying for it, but Mercy sent me a photocopy) about his activism with Audubon NY and the red-tailed hawks.

Lastly, a few politically-oriented plugs to pass along: Igor Volsky has both a blog and a radio show which is broadcast from Marist College in Poughkeepsie every Friday from 4-6 PM. I should have gone into college radio, I had the face for it and it was a cool place to hang out, but I was always doing too many other things... Also, Bob Hayes wants to plug his blog, Let's Try Freedom; and Tom Ball from Political Strategy asked for a blogroll/link exchange which I'm fine with because my News+Views Groups section isn't all that unwieldy yet.

There we go, all caught up, save a reply to an e-mail from Priest and those always take time anyway. This past weekend, and my enforced relative inactivity (i.e., my decision not to move comics longboxes these past few days because I don't want the leg/groin injury to worsen and render me completely unable to drive), have enabled me not only catch up on e-mail pass-alongs and blog-reading (less than 300 posts to read, but I just found out Ampersand moved Alas, A Blog to a new server so I please update your links and RSS subs) but also on many comics; I'm currently going through the last of my saved-up Vertigo and Wildstorm stuff, after which it looks like I only have one box worth of books to read. Of course that doesn't include graphic novels and newspapers and magazines and... oh well, welcome to 2005!