There are a few things I’d like to put down, though, mostly for myself, so future-Josh doesn’t have to rely solely on my sad, crappy memory to recall these sundry events.

This week I am in Braddock, Pennsylvania, embedded with the members of the BrokenDayton art collective as they prepare for a show they’re putting on called “I Am Immortal.” Here’s the premise behind it:

Ohio-based artists Nicholaus Arnold, Ian Briedenbach, Ren Cummings, Phillip Evans, Ashley Jonas, and Frank Travers will present work in different mediums exploring the resurgence of art and culture in Braddock, PA.

A highlight of the show will be a time capsule available for public participation. Guests are invited to bring items from their lives for inclusion in the piece, which will be buried on site during the closing reception on July 22nd.

The show starts Friday and runs through next week. I’m following them around this week and taking notes as they transform the performance space into their own. Afterwards, I’ll be writing up a piece detailing my experience for eventual inclusion in a chapbook or something they’re planning to publish later this year.

We’re being housed in a gorgeous convent next door to the space. It sounds odd at first to think one is being quartered in a domicile that used to be inhabited by nuns, but you’d be surprised at how rapidly you get used to the idea. More on that tomorrow.

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This past Saturday I went to see THE LION KING at the Schuster Center. I’d been wanting to see one of these live-action Disney musicals for years, and this was my first real opportunity to do so. It didn’t disappoint. The music and performances were phenomenal, as expected, but what really impressed me were the tricks they used to bring the Savannah wildlife to life. It’s kind of mesmerizing seeing a person move across the stage with canes strapped to their hands and feet, doing a damn good approximation of a giraffe’s body language.

My sister tells me BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is coming to Cincinnati in the late fall. I would really like to see that one, too.

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Dunno if anyone’s noticed, but last week the new site theme went live. I’ve been working on it off and on the last month or so. I think this is the 11th redesign I’ve done since this blog’s inception nearly ten years ago. That may seem like a lot of redesigns, and it kind of is, but I enjoy poring over and editing lines of HTML and CSS, so it’s really never a chore — though at the end I always feel a little burnt out. This new theme still needs a little tweaking, but on a whole I rather like the new, warmer look. I hope you do as well.

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The next month or two is looking to be busy as well, which pleases me to no end. Aside from this BrokenDayton gig, I’ve got another exciting project in the works: designing a website for a Real Live Client. I’ll hopefully know more about that one in a few weeks. Web design and getting paid for it is something I’ve been looking to get into for some time, so being able to add this to my pre-existent portfolio can only be a boon.

And then sometime in August, Kristin, yours truly and a couple of her friends, are taking a road trip to Hilton Head for a few days of relaxation on the beach. I’ve never been to Hilton Head before, and I honestly don’t care where we’re going so long as it’s warm there and I get to relax on a beach. This should serve to fulfill those needs.

So yeah. Interesting times these are.

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Disclaimer: I make no promises that I won’t sell your email address to any company that offers me bags of money in return, or that I won’t give it to my Russian neighbor Dmitri — who likes to refer to his occupation as a “network security tester” — in exchange for cases of Vault Zero.

Otherwise, you can totally trust me.

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Hannah is, of course, referring to this post from a couple of days ago.

I’m not sure what surprises me more: the fact that I received a complaint, or the fact that I have a reader who isn’t one of my friends, and is in fact a complete stranger.

Very politely, I pointed out to her that while I didn’t throw up an NSFW tag anywhere in that post, I did mention that the picture showed “the teeth/mouth apparatus that are mounted into the jaws of Real Dolls, those life-like sex dolls that so creep me the fuck out.” One would think that if I say an image is one of a group depicting the construction of sex dolls, then the NSFW would be implied.

So let me spell it out now.

JOSHUA BALES dot NET is occasionally not safe for work.

If you are worried about getting in trouble at work for looking at something that could be considered inappropriate, then maybe you should not view this site until you get home.

Of course, I don’t plan on this blog turning into some sort of goatse or lemonparty linkblog. I don’t hate you that much, gentle reader. However, on occasion I do post stuff which could be frowned upon if viewed at a more conservative workplace, and when I do post such content, I don’t generally preface it by saying it’s not safe for work.

That being said, anything I do post that might be considered NSFW will almost always be phrased so as to clue the reader in to the fact, such as with the sex doll example above.

I mean, it’s not like I’m going to say, “Hey! Look at this picture of a cute cat,” and then link to a picture of a giant penis.

Though that would be funny.

(This is for part of Technorati’s verification process.)

I had the opportunity to buy the joshuabales.net domain last month for one dollar, so I did. GoDaddy had some sort of sale going on so I thought I’d nab it before some other rapscallion Josh(ua) Bales came up with the idea. Then I thought to myself, Self, now that we own this lovely domain, why not make it our new home on the Web? After all, it might help differentiate us from that other Josh Bales.

And here we are.

If you’re like me and are too lazy to edit your bookmark and add an “ua” to the URL, no need to fret. You can still reach this blog via joshbales.net; it’s forwarded to joshuabales.net, and probably will be for the foreseeable future. I don’t ever intend to give up the rights to my venerable domain. And should anyone else ever decide that they want to own it, well . . . I’ll give it up when ICAAN takes it from my cold, dead hands.

One last thing: as I’m sure you’ve noticed, this joint has a new look to it. Per what has become my semi-annual tradition, I spent the last couple of weeks redesigning the theme. I like it. The minimalist theme suits me.

What do you think?

1) Nate is blogging again, this time at Under the Thinly Veiled Guise of Sanity. It’s blogging for the depressed, by the depressed. And it’s pretty damn funny. Check it out.

2) I imported all of my old archives, so now the the engine’s tentacles reach back to October 2002. I’m in the progress of updating some of the categorization, but you can still check any and all of them out.

3) I joined Twitter. Been meaning to for a while now, but just have never gotten around to it until today. There’s not much there, but stay tuned because I suspect it’s all that will get me through the workday for the near future.

JAB

At long fucking last it’s done.

It’s safe to say that I’ve put more work into building this son of a bitch than I have since when I first sat down six years ago and thought, Huh. How about I make a blog? Perhaps that will finally satisfy these narcissistic tendencies I’ve been experienceing. Then I probably turned on the TV and thought, I dunno, what the fuck is “American Idol,” ’cause this was way back in 2002.

But I digress.

This “theme” (Gods, how I still hate that word) looks somewhat different than it did a few days ago. Someone in the peanut gallery remarked that the chosen color scheme made it look like “the pentecostal Christian affiliate of NAMBLA,” or something to that effect. Though a jackass remark, it did serve to make me realize something I was feeling but hadn’t yet externalized: I didn’t like the color scheme either. So a few hours of work later, and the site is no longer just some tarted up Catholic schoolgirl to whom I told sweet lies so that it would sleep with me; now I feel genuine affection towards it.

Thusly, here is the new color scheme; indeed, the new incarnation of JOSH BALES dot NET.

Hopefully it won’t suck.

JAB

Semi-regular posting and actual content will commence in the near future.

So . . . how’s everyone been?

JAB

Blogging will recommence in the short future, once I figure out how to make a WordPress “theme,” which I despise having to do. Movable Type, despite its many sundry flaws that made me stop using it, I at least understood how the templates work. Very slowly I’m beginning to understand how WordPress’s works, but it may take some time. I do have a new layout, and it is pretty nifty. Or gay. Possibly both. I’ll leave you to decide when it finally is up and running.

In the meantime, you stay classy, San Diego.

JAB