Update! Yay!

The blog is coming back. 

I don’t know when, exactly…

...hopefully the first full week of May, but it is coming back. While it will pretty much be the same, I’m going to be tweaking it a bit. This is going to turn into a blog focused on doing the things I love on a budget.

So what the hell does that mean?

It means that I’ll only review comics that I buy, not ones I flip through or read in the store. It means that I’ll probably be making substitutes to the recipes I make, especially the Rachel Ray stuff. It means I’ll tell you where I find awesome music for free (legally) or on the cheap. The last time I paid “full price” for an album was last year when the Foo Fighters put out Wasting Light (totally worth it). Ditto for movies.

The first week will probably consist of getting-to-know-me posts. My likes and dislikes within the various topics about which I’ll be posting.

Here’s what I’m anticipating the schedule to look like:

•          Mondays = Food and Drink. I still do my best cooking on Sunday nights, so Mondays will still be a review of the previous night’s cocktail and cooking. I’m (hopefully) about to jump back into the dating world again, so there might also be quick write-ups on awesome date-type places that can be visited on a budget. The drinky-drink stuff, though, will be less focused on budget and more on taste. I’m a bit of a beer snob, but I try not to be overly snobby about it. If given the choice I will almost always choose any type of beer over a massive domestic like Budweiser, Coors, Miller, etc. I will never judge you for drinking what you drink, though. The same goes with liquor. I’ve discovered that the better tasting spirits are usually the more expensive ones, but I will try and point out good values for good booze if I come across it.
•          Tuesdays = Movies. I’m going to do my best to watch one movie a week. Between Netflix, Red Box and U-Verse, this should not be a problem. Don’t expect timely reviews of stuff out in theaters, though. Well, when Avengers comes out you can, but I don’t do movies in the theater much anymore because it’s just so damn expensive. But there is the whole dating thing, so I probably WILL be going to more movies. We’ll see.
•          Wednesdays = Music. I’ve got friends with a wide variety of musical tastes, and I’m discovering new (at least to me) music through them all the time. My routine seems to be:

1.      Find new music

2.      Listen to one song over and over on Youtube

3.      Find the group on Spotify and add their catalog to a playlist

4.      Weed out the songs I don’t like

5.      If I like everything, buy a CD immediately

6.      If I don’t like the whole thing but still enjoy the group’s music for the most part, wait until I can find a deal on the CD

•          Thursdays = Comic Books. I have significantly whittled down my comic book purchase list. I’m almost embarrassed that it primarily consists of Brian Michael Bendis books. I really dig just about everything he does, though, and budgetary issues have forced me to take a look at what I’m REALLY enjoying on a consistently monthly basis. Right now I’m reading:

1.      The Amazing Spider-Man

2.      The Avengers

3.      The Avengers vs. the X-Men

4.      Brilliant

5.      Locke & Key: Clockworks

6.      The New Avengers

7.      Road Rage (on the bubble)

8.      Secret (I’m going to give this a few issues)

9.      Shade

10.  Ultimate Spider-Man

11.  Uncanny X-Force (on the bubble)

12.  Wolverine and the X-Men

13.  X-Factor

Eight years ago I sold my almost 6,000 issue comic book collection. I had been collecting comics for the better part of 20 years, and I had a collection that I was extremely proud of. But I was about to be a first-time father, and I knew that I would not have the time, the room, or the money to continue this love. So I sold or traded the whole shebang. I sold my autographed comics. I traded runs for trade paperbacks and hardcover collections. Then I sold those. I’m sure what little I made on my collection helped out the family a bit in the short run, but it was the second-saddest/hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Over the past couple of years, though, I got back into the hobby in a big way. I’ve had to cut back again because I was buying WAY too much. But, in an effort to attempt to rebuild my collection, I’m also going to be buying at least two back issues each week, more if there’s stuff on sale or I had a slow week of new issues.

•          Fridays = TV. I watch a TON of TV. It seems like I’m never freeing up any space on my DVR, but I’m going to attempt to do a better job of watching shows the week they air, if not the day. Also, thanks to Netflix, I’m going to attempt to catch up on shows I passed on the first time around.

·         Also, plan to get funny/awesome videos, just like before. I figure I’ll post them as I see them rather than wait until one massive post.

So that’s the deal. I’ve missed blogging. Things are starting to change again in my personal life, and I always like to think that THIS is the time when I’ll start writing again, when I’ll finally finish that book. It never happens, but it’s nice to dream. But I always use the blog as an excuse to keep up with my writing even when I’m not writing.

If you’ve actually enjoyed the blog in the past and aren’t just one of my friends who I’ve bullied into reading it every now and then, please share it with your friends and bully them into reading it. And I’ll always remind you, if you would be so kind, please click on an ad or two. I get real cash-money from Google if the clicks happen on a somewhat regular basis. Seriously. Last year Google money helped me buy Christmas presents for my kiddos.

I've also got Twitter and Pinterest (yes, I'm a straight guy with a Pinterest account, now shut up) accounts, so feel free to follow me, and I'll probably end up following you. Not in a weird way...at least not so you'll notice.