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Not Quite Failure

not quite failure

As you may have figured out, I’ve failed again (mostly). I have not been updating this blog frequently. Long-time readers will know this is, unfortunately, somewhat of a pattern for yours truly. I have good intentions, but alas, time and will have other ideas.

I do love this blog. It’s been a part of my life longer than my son has. It’s my first baby, so to speak. Does that sound weird? Maybe.

The truth is, writing is hard. It’s been hard since the first time I did it and it’s still hard. I also don’t make a living doing it anymore so the financial aspect and incentive to do it is gone. Now it’s “just for the lols” or whatever.

I also just don’t have as much “free” time as I used to have. And, things are pretty bleak in the world these days. I’m sure that also has somewhat of a detrimental effect on my willingness to put “pen to paper” or whatever the kids call it.

And yeah, blah, blah, blah you’ve heard it all before. I know. I know because I’ve said it all before. I can hear myself.

Honestly, I’m doing what I can. I won’t call it “doing my best” because, let’s face it, that ship sailed and hit the proverbial iceberg long ago. Still, I persist. And I guess I always will until I can’t anymore. Even if it takes time and only happens once in awhile.

Who knows, maybe I’ll be writing the next witty bon mot from my new cabin in the outskirts of Vancouver? Or, from the deck of a luxury cruise ship on its way to exciting ports of call? You never know.

Actually, I was on a cruise recently and it was pretty great. Highly recommended. More on that later.

Until then, be kind to each other.

I Guess I’m Back

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

New Home, Same Stuff

moving day

Hello to all of you who follow this blog. I do appreciate you. Just wanted to take a minute to let you know I’ve left Media Temple and moved my whole operation to new hosting.

Why did I do this? Well, one big reason and a few smaller ones. The big one is Media Temple was purchased by Go Daddy. I don’t like Go Daddy. Never have, never will. So, that’s a big “No” for me.

The smaller reasons have to do with use cases, cost and a bunch of other stuff I won’t bother to bore you with. Just know I didn’t make the decision lightly. It’s kinda a pain to move things, if I’m being honest. I wish I didn’t have to do it, but here we are.

So where did I move? I went to a hosting provider called Site Ground based on recommendations from several people, my own research, and more. I’m giving them the chance to keep my business. I hope I made the right choice. I think I did.

I guess we’ll see.

Cheers, all. Be kind to each other.

 

Note: No, I don’t know who those people in the photo are. I just grabbed this pic from a stock photo source. They look happy, though. That’s nice.

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

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.

Reversing Changes and More

As I said in a previous post, I moved the Ullrich Media website off of Squarespace with the intent of hosting it on our dedicated Media Temple server. But after I did I realized something: the site looked like ass.

The sad truth is I’m not a web designer, nor do I know that much about WordPress. And, if I’m being honest, I don’t really have the time to learn more about either of those things right now.

I would love to, believe me. But for now I’ve made the decision to return to Squarespace and keep that as the home of Ullrich Media for the foreseeable future. It’s just easier and I need things to be easier right now.

I think you can probably relate.

In addition, I made some changes to the site itself, which is actually quite easy to do with Squarespace. No, they didn’t pay me to say that. Although, I’m open to it . . .

For the site I added more photos and made the portfolio section a bit more organized to highlight my work. Mostly I grouped the photos in different sections depending on the kind of photo they are. If you go there it will make more sense.

And hey, I also decided to offer prints of some of my photographs too. You should buy one, framed, and hang it on your wall. I did. It looks pretty cool.

Here’s the direct link to my Print Shop. There’s also a link when you go to the main Ullrich Media website too, if you’re so inclined.

I think that’s it for the moment. At least where my website and work/personal stuff is concerned.

Wait. I know what you’re thinking: Hey Chris, where’s that book you were working on? Oh that. I’m still working on it . . . and a new one in an entirely different genre.

So far, so good for both.  More on those soon.

Oh, it looks like we might get a vaccine for the kids pretty soon, which I’m quite happy about. Good for the kids and, frankly, good for the parents too.

It will be nice for everyone when the kids can go back to school, be with their friends and worry a lot less about being exposed to a potentially deadly virus. Very nice indeed.

Let’s hope all the parents (or enough of them) decide to vaccinate their kids. They should, but you never know . . . selfish assholes can have kids too.

I hope you’re not one of those. But since you’re reading this, you probably aren’t. I don’t think that’s my “audience,” but who knows?

Okay, that’s really all for now. Be kind to each other until I get back. Okay?

 

Image: ©2021 Chris Ullrich. All Rights Reserved. 

A Small Update

The funny thing is, I haven’t forgotten about this blog. It only seems that way due to the complete lack of new content. What can I say? I’ve got a kid and a life and I’ve not really felt like writing much lately. Blah, blah, blah. Still . . .

Now I’m gonna say the thing that all people who’ve stopped writing on a blog have said so many times: I’m gonna start updating this site again.

One of these days.

Until then, have you checked out my photos on Instagram lately? If not, take a look. Feel free to like one or two of them, if you don’t mind.  Thanks.

See you soon.