From my Tumblog:

I’ll be out of town for the rest of the weekend (through Monday). Enjoy your iPhones, Pownce accounts, and whatever other shiny things you can find.

I’m not going to Europe, but I decided to plan out a hypothetical journey for fun. It’s a pretty extensive trip and would probably require at least a year to get through all of the locations I put on the list.

The majority of the locations on the list are in Italy, although I have locations as far north as Finland and as far south as Gibraltar and Athens. Because of the Italy-centric locations as well as the locations on France’s southern coast and a few Grecian selections, it would be entirely possible to break that section of the trip into its own “Mediterranean trip”.

Check out the map at Google Maps. I used their awesome My Maps tool.

Also, I did put this link on my Tumblr blog, which is located at http://comitar.com/. I’ve been having a lot of fun with the Tumblog format, so you may want to subscribe to that blog as well!

Chris

Here’s a list of my top favorite musicals. Yeah. Musicals. Get over it and listen to some great tunes.

1. The Last Five Years
   by Jason Robert Brown - A one act music that shows the story of a five year relationship in a rather unconventional manner. Wikipedia explains it best: “The show uses a novel form of storytelling in which Cathy travels backwards in time (beginning the show at the end of the marriage), and Jamie travels forwards (starting with the couple’s first date).”
2. RENT
   by Jonathan Larson - The most talked-up musical of the 1990s, Rent is deserving of its praise. The original cast is fantastic, and you’re at an advantage here as well because most of the musical is sung so the soundtrack is basically the whole show. You get the whole story.
3. Spring Awakening
   by Duncan Sheik and Steven Satar - This season’s most buzzy musical, Spring Awakening is a teen coming of age story - set in 1890s Germany. This is an addicting musical.
4. Wicked
   by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman - Produced by Universal Pictures, this is ultimately a family-friendly version of the novel it is based on: “Wicked: the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West” which is an excellent read. Nonetheless, it condenses the books plot enough so that it is understandable (big plus) and has some really great songs to boot.
5. Aida
   by Elton John and Tim Rice - I’m partial to this because I was in a production of it, but it really does have some great songs and a cool plot. It is tough to get a grip on without actually seeing a production, but trust me - it is cool.
6. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
   by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin - Although this probably won’t serve for any real inspiration, it’s a damn good show with some really catchy (and hilarious) music. This one is addictive too: be warned.

Writer extraordinaire Joel Kelly (a longtime Celtx user and brief collaborator) is working on a brand new podcast - Ingenioustries. The new podcast is a story podcast; currently he’s reading through a story titled “Deltree”.

Deltree is incredibly dark and well written and it appears to be getting even darker. Which can’t hurt, can it? The main character, Dell, is an incredibly sarcastic person who gives the story it’s awesomely unique flavour.

I recommend this podcast to anyone and everyone who is up for a great story. Check the podcast out at Ingenioustries.com.

Yes, I’ve moved my domain.

Please redirect your links and feed readers.

I am now located at:

http://chrisvanpatten.com/blog/

Feed is at

http://feeds.feedburner.com/cvp

Thank you!
Chris

Over the past few weeks I’ve been mulling over making a few changes to the site. I’ve decided that I will make them. Without further ado:

• Figure out the comment situation. I used to get a ton of comment spam. It isn’t so bad now, but instead I’m starting to get legitimate comments held in my moderation feed! This needs to be fixed, top priority.
• Blog more. I’m not sure how to do this. I like the looks of other blogging systems such as Tumblr and then piping those feeds into this one with some sort of aggregator, but this is ultimately something I have to make myself do.
• Polish the theme. I like this theme, but there is a lot wrong with it. Widgets make it slow to load, it has a few problems with displaying accurate information about posts, and there are stylistic faults as well. I may scrap it, but this is not a short-term issue.

I am also considering moving the domain (again!) to a more personal domain. We’ll see about that…

I love blogging but I sort of fake it. I do half the work necessary and then make excuses for the rest. No more! Summer is here, so it’s time for me to crack down and finish up all the projects that I started. I’m getting out of my funk. No more whining and complaining.

Time to get to work!