I'm Back (for now, anyway).

I have decided to revive this blog for a little while. I've been unemployed since December 23, 2008, and I'm ready to find a new job. I'm doing what I can to find one, but I think that resurrecting this blog intermittently might accelerate the process. Once I get a new job (or get bored with it again, whatever comes first), I'm done with this blog for good.

Truth be told, I've really enjoyed my year off. It stinks that I have a big gap in my resume (and I have a couple already), but I've had a real opportunity to explore other options and have new experiences. Last August, I traveled to Chicago for a few days. I traveled to Woodstock, New York Twice: Once to meet a potential documentary subject, then to attend the 2009 Woodstock Film Festival. I'm even thinking about making a movie there. In my absence from this blog, I've had a chance to do some serious soul searching.

I gave serious thought to returning to school, thinking about acquiring both either a second bachelor's, a masters, or both. At one point, I was considering getting a Masters In Human Sexuality. (That is, until I found out that the school was not accredited.) While I don't rule out returning to school down the line, I don't believe I'm ready to commit to a degree right now.

Right now, I'm taking a self-directed course in Copy Editing through MediaBistro.com. It's not a great time to be a journalist, but there are plenty of other places to secure copy editing jobs. I also may take another course in Medical Transcription (not offered by MediaBistro) down the line. I really don't want to do Customer Service the rest of my life. If my next job is indeed more customer service, I want to know that I can opt out for something else. I've also been trying to land freelance writing gigs, but that's been tough going. Six weeks ago, I had another reading with a psychic, and she suggested that it is time for me to get out of dodge. I'm looking at a few places, and if I am to leave, I want to confident that I can support myself.

Unfortunately, I'm not attending SXSW this year, which is going on as I post this. If the recently passed unemployment extension does apply to me, I may attend Tribeca this year. I'm also thinking about starting a new blog devoted to the writing process of Independent film.

But more than anything, I'm ready to work on resolving unemployment.

The End.

I have decided to close Indigenity. I started this blog at a point in my life where I wasn't sure where things were going to go. I wanted to stay in touch with people while I waited things out. While I'm not out of the woods yet, I believe the worst has passed.

I may return to the blogosphere soon, but I want to think things through before I return. This blog was only supposed to be temporary, and it has lasted about as long as I have expected it to last. In the meantime, catch me on Twitter!

Thanks for reading.

The Future

This may seem really abrupt, but I've been giving serious thought to winding down this blog. This was never supposed to be permanent, but I've begun to realize that it's been taking me away from getting other things done.

I've been blogging on and off since I was 19. Back then, it was a great outlet to channel my angst. Blogging was also relatively new, so I felt privileged to have an outlet to share my "discoveries" with others. Now that I'm older, I realize that everything is relative and sharing your life on the internet isn't particularly unique. Blogging has evolved considerably since then as well. In order to have a truly successful blog, you have to be willing to build a community, which right now I don't have too much interest in. According to my Google Analytics, I get 5-10 visitors a day. Not bad, but not enough to really keep doing this, either.

When I started posting videos to YouTube and re-started blogging two years ago, the whole point was to get noticed. I believe I have accomplished that goal, and then some. I have a more discernable focus now, and want to continue building on it by writing and make movies.

As I said earlier, I really want to work on other things now, and the time I spend blogging every day takes time away from working on other projects. I may not leave right now, but I may end this soon. I'm planning on continuing to contribute to The Film Panel Notetaker and I may even launch a new blog about writing eventually, but I don't think I want to do any more personal blogging in the immediate future.

Tommy the Angelman

My Christmas went well. Yesterday afternoon, we went up to my sister's place where we killed time while we waited to go to my cousin's house for dinner.

My 3½ year old cousin Tommy decided to make me his person of the day by continuing to grab me by the sleeve and dragging me however far until he lost interest. Tommy has very recently been diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome, which is caused by a chromosonal deletion. It can be a very devestating (as it has been for Tommy's family) dignosis, especially for parents who want to have more children.

I had a good time, and we had a filling dinner, topped off with a very tasty mint & cookie ice cream cake. I managed to sneak in a few minutes of watching Ben-Hur on TCM before the boys came in and decided to watch Basketball instead. When I got home, I finished watching Lawrence of Arabia, which I started Christmas Eve. (Watching a "Epic" has become a Christmas tradtion of sorts for me--last year it was Spartacus), and watched the first episode of Season 3 of Saturday Night Live, which I got as a gift.

I'm not going to mention everything I recieved, but another item I recieved was The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging. I'm not a huge reader of the The Huffington Post (with exceptions, like Jamie Lee Curtis' editorial on Miley Cyrus), but given that it's been successful, I figured it might have some worthwhile information for an upstart like myself. I haven't finished it, but so far, it does have a lot of useful tips which I hope to incorporate in the near future.

This weekend, I'm hoping to get started on the Are You From Bingo? website--sketching out the page before I create it. I might as well get to work on personal projects while I figure out what to do as far as work is concerned (at least until spring).