In May 2012, I will be returning to this domain with a brand new site. In the meantime, please visit me at Still Unfinished, where I am participating in 30 Days of Photographs II, a 30-day photo meme.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf Cries Wolf Again — For The Last Time
Afterword
In October of last year, I declared the end of this blog with a post called “And now the end is near…”
I cited as my life already was undergoing a couple of changes:
- Resigning from my job as a newspaper correspondent and thus ending 15 years in the newspaper business as my hours increase at the library where I work,
- Giving up volunteering at the local senior center also
it was time to make a change with my blogging, namely to:
- Close the curtain on this blog.
- And open the curtain on a new blog.
Then in December of last year, in another post called “More blogger navel-gazing…”, I announced that I was returning to this blog while also keeping the new blog, because:
- The numbers weren’t climbing.
- The design on my new blog was confusing to many of you.
I said at that time: “For me to relegate those posts to a dead blog is for me to turn my back on my history, not only of my blogging life but also of my…gasp…REAL life. Who knows maybe there is something not only for me to learn from these past posts but maybe also those who read these humble scribblings/typings?”
However, now after being back here after almost five months, I am thinking that it is time to close this blog, not to turn my back on my history, but to close a chapter or maybe even chapters — lengthy and important chapters, but chapters nonetheless — of my history. I have learned from these past posts and they still will be here for me and others to read the humble (and sometimes not so humble) scribblings.
Chapter 1
To wit, when I began blogging in late October 2005, my goal was to chronicle my journey to reach a marathon by the time I was 40. In September 2007, I finished the 25-mile Bald Eagle Mountain Megatransect, which while short of a marathon, was at least as exhausting physically, mentally and spiritually as a marathon, and in essence completed that goal. Thus ended my first blog, Just A Running Fool.
Chapter 2
Then in late April 2008, I began another now defunct blog Just A (Reading) Fool to keep track of what I had read, was reading and wanted to read. Yes, I still keep track of what I have read, am reading and want to read, but I am not strictly a book blogger and is why I ended that blog also. That chapter of my life, strictly as a book blogger, is over, even though I still am in contact with many book bloggers and I will continue to remain in contact with them.
Chapter 3
In December 2007, I began the now defunct blog Journeying with the Saints to chronicle the rest of a journey through The Spiritual Exercises Of St. Ignatius of Loyola that began in September 2007 and ended May 2008. There, I reflected on the Exercises first and then, after I was done with them, on other devotions with a special emphasis on the works of the saints– from Ignatius to St. John of the Cross and St. Benedict, to name a few– as well as sharing resources for devotions and the Exercises. I still find Ignatius’ Examen a worthwhile exercise to reflect on the week or even the day. However, within the last month, my wife and I both have decided that the Catholic Church to which we converted isn’t for us anymore. Thus closes another chapter.
Chapter 4
The other blog(s) I had were called Unfinished Ramblings and Unfinished Rambler, even using the identity Unfinished Rambler, an alter ego to Unfinished Person. They were humor blogs and I was associated with two different humor blogging communities, but to simplify it more than it really was, when those communities died, my blogs…and my humor, to some degree…died.
FORWARD
So now what?
Unfinished Person will live on, but not on this blog. I now can be found at Unfinished, where I will keep track of what I’m reading, what I’m listening to and what I’m watching as well as anything else that comes to mind — even maybe sometimes things that strike me humorous.
I’m not changing my name, because like all of you, I am a work in progress. You and I are still…
…unfinished. I hope you will follow my journey toward becoming a more complete person on my new blog.
Note: This blog will remain here, as I’m not just deleting seven years of work with a snap of my fingers. On Monday, I will be putting up a final page on the blog (“You have reached the end of this blog..”), including a link to the new blog for future visitors. The archives and categories still will be accessible on the sidebar.
Still reading My Thoughts Be Bloody — and getting bored with this blog
I’m still reading My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy by Nora Titone and during my dinner breaks at work, I’m reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 2. I just finished The Return of Sherlock Holmes and now am on to The Valley of Fear, followed by His Last Bow and The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes to round out the collection. Other than that, even though I said on Sunday I’d pick out something to go with My Thoughts Be Bloody, I’m not reading anything.
I’m still thinking I might continue Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe series or Lawrence Block’s Burglar/Bernie Rhodebarr series or maybe even start Block’s Matthew Scudder series. Hopefully I’ll let you know by this Sunday’s Sunday Salon.
I haven’t progressed very far into My Thoughts Be Bloody, but it’s no fault of the book, the subject matter or the author. The weather is changing for the better here, with temperatures in the low 60s (Fahrenheit), but unfortunately my allergies are kicking in full swing. The last few days have not been fun and when I’m not at work hopped up on Sudafed (I already take generic Allegra, which helps most of the time except on particularly bad days like the last few), I’m home on the couch either listening to music or trying to focus on something on Netflix. Reading just isn’t happening.
In non-reading related news, I’m getting bored with this blog, which for those of you who have followed this blog for a while, this will come as no surprise. I’ve had several blogs, starting with a running blog, then running the gamut from a book blog to a humor blog to a spiritual blog to an “anything goes” blog. I could write more about this, but it’s just more blogger navel-gazing that you’ve seen too much of here. As spring approaches, I’ll be doing some spring cleaning here, but I don’t know yet what form that will take. You’ll have to stay tuned.
What are you reading here in the middle of the week? Do you ever grow bored with your blog? What do you do to spice it up?
My Thoughts Be Bloody…and witty and bright?
This past week wasn’t a great one for reading. However, I did finish one book: Wycliffe and the Last Rites by W.J. Burley and I started My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy by Nora Titone on Friday night. The Wycliffe book was okay, though, not great, and the book about the Booth brothers is good so far, although I don’t know if the author will convince me completely of her thesis, as fascinating as it is.
Her thesis is that when John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, he was motivated not just by the war between the North and the South, but also by the bitter rivalry he had with his brother to become a star of the theater like their father before them. Even though I might not be convinced by the end, so far I’m finding the story intriguing, beginning with Edwin Booth’s death and then Junius Booth Sr.’s coming to America with his mistress and the Booth brothers’ mother, Mary Ann Holmes. If nothing else, I’m learning about a period of history I know little about beyond having a class on the Civil War and Reconstruction in college more than 15 years ago. It also is good becoming reacquainted with an old friend: history, especially American history.
Since this is such a tome, weighing in at nearly 600 pages even on e-book, I probably am going to break my rule of being a monogamous reader and dip into something a bit less hefty at the same time. I’m not sure yet exactly what I’ll read in addition to My Thoughts Be Bloody, but I’m thinking I might continue Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe series or Lawrence Block’s Burglar/Bernie Rhodebarr series or maybe even start Block’s Matthew Scudder series. Of course, I’ll let you know by Wednesday’s Midweek Review what I chose.
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This past week my wife and I have fallen in love with That Mitchell and Webb Look which we’ve discovered on Netflix. We already were familiar with the comedic duo’s work in Peep Show, but had no idea about this series. I’ll leave you today with this literary skit from Mitchell and Webb:
What’s the last book about American history you’ve read? Do you read nonfiction otherwise? I confess this book on the Booth brothers is my first nonfiction book in quite a while. What are you reading today, this week, this month?
an unfinished person (in this unfinished universe) 
