Back Again

It’s been awhile – about seven months to be exact – since my last post.  It’s been pretty easy to not blog during that timeframe, because, well, we’ve been busy in Beemsville.

Mostly it’s the kids.  I’m coaching their sports teams and involved in their activities.  I’m on the PTO and that’s been even busier this Fall after the co-Pres and chief water carrier for our PTO unexpectedly moved and switched schools.  I have additional work responsibilities and the wife is busier than ever.

But that’s life for us:  it moves along.

Still, I found I missed the blogging and journaling.  I have some books I’d like to review, some thoughts on The Walking Dead, Juergen Klinnsman, the Illinois political mess, and other random topics.  Also, the kids are getting old enough to share their thoughts from time to time.  And they’re pretty good writers with interesting perspectives.

So let’s see if we can reboot and see what happens.

Back from Hiatus

Caught up in events and suddenly it’s been six weeks since the last post…  Suppose this happens.  In our defense, this is the first lengthy break since the blog started years and years ago.

One thing I’ll be trying is shorter posts – more opinion and observation than longer article-style entries.  For example, instead of a full movie review, I may do three reasons I enjoyed it (or didn’t).  Expect some Illini (hooray basketball!), super-heroes and sci-fi, soccer, maybe some Illinois state politics and finances, some youth coaching, parenting, meta-cultural commentaries (that’s a thing, right?) and whatever else pops into focus.  More journal-like.

See you soon.

Night Mowing and other Excuses

A couple of weeks ago, out mowing the yard, our Midwest daylight dwindling rapidly, and I’m thinking, have to get this done because when else can I mow this week…  My yard takes an hour and change, so it’s not like this huge daunting task. And then it was dark, and I’m out there with my flashlight trying to finish without leaving any big stripes and strips.

This has been the Beemsville reality in September:  stuff, stuff, stuff to do.  The kids are multiple activity-kids, work is more intense this time of year, and the wife and I are running, running.  Lots of people do it, of course, we’re not unique.  But this is the excuse for the lack of sparkling original content on the blog.  It’s not lack of ideas or stuff happening – going to have a couple of books to review, there’s an election on the horizon, and this whole process of coaching continues to be illuminating.  But October is just as full on the event calendar, the leaves are starting to fall (and that is a big, long, job) so bear with us, please.

Back from Hiatus

A little break was in order, mostly due to family vacation.  We’re back from hiatus now, however, and should have some new book reviews and other possibly interesting posts for you presently.

One reason for the break:  I was with the family on vacation.  People have sometimes asked me why the blog doesn’t include more about the kids – including photos.  My answer has always been that we don’t necessarily need our kids pictures out there on the wide open internet.  It’s also not necessarily a great idea to announce to the world when you’re out of town…

2012 for the Beemsville blog

Happy new year from Beemsville.  We definitely slowed the pace with postings in 2012, but remained fairly consistent.  The top three topics were book reviews, Illini, and US Soccer.  Sounds about right.  And behold, the WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for the Beemsville blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 3,500 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 6 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

500 miles

500th post…  500?  Yes, 500. A fair amount of blogging.  Mostly twice a week, sometimes three times.  And yes, I would walk 500 miles (theme music below).  So on this, the occasion of the 500th, how about a round of Q&A to sort of capture the zeitgeist.  Or Something. Because a blog ain’t nothing more than an outlet for ideas after all…

-How cool will The Avengers be next summer?  It looks awesome from the teaser footage.  The two Marvel movies/Avengers prequels I saw this summer, Thor and Captain America, were solid but not spectacular. Expectations for The Avengers are much higher, and here’s hoping they can deliver.

-Will DC take the cue from Marvel’s big screen wins and start combining their franchise characters?  Batman and Superman – the JLA…  There are some pretty great stories there to mine, if Warner/DC only had the vision and talent to make it happen.

-Why does Hollywood subject us to so many formulaic bad, bad films?  Can’t they literally flip the script once in awhile?  I’d like to see a few less sequels and remakes (which are easy to market) and a few more well-made original concepts.  Everytime a studio greenlights another Transformers flick, another Donnie Darko-esque film fails to get made or publicized.

-What’s with all the cheesy teen neo-fantasy horror TV shows?  Watched a little of MTV’s Teen Wolf last week and must have seen adds for half-a-dozen other similarly-themed show.