Plate techtonics

The circus metaphor of spinning plates on sticks provides an overview of my entrepreneurial activity. The plates represent different projects, and the sticks are blogs created to whip the projects into shape. Sometimes, a plate can wobble through inactivity, and fall to the ground, like homeofthedome.com, and cyberdale.us, two spur-of-the-moment domains obtained, inspired by my own rhetoric! ;-), like with walterwendler.com a few years ago.

If spun the right way, the plates become frisbees flying into receptive minds of readers and consumers, as in the case of Marry the Mayor dot com, which got too big for its breeches and eloped.

The simple plate provides another metaphor for action: turn it over, and it's heaped with food, a 'full plate' of things to do.

Spinning plates and having a full plate are metaphors for effort, even when the plate feels like a manhole cover:

1. Updating Shawnee Net web site and revisiting long-dormant blogs, improving formats and adding Google ads. Makes sense!
   
2. Carbondale After Blog b(l)ook --this plate is on the back burner, due to limited writing time. Last week, I used free software called Sprout to make a Flash-based promo, including an audio clip of City Councilman Joel Fritzler's take on blogs, and posted it on Shawnee Net. And speaking of sprouts:
   
3. Vegetable House -- The seed for this project was planted in 1995: a film script about the comic comeuppance of meat-eaters and vegetarians on a college campus. Although the story is set in a fictional town, there will also be some recognizable C'dale figures making an appearance. Brad Cole as a sarcastic waiter? Walter Wendler as manager at Wendy's? And who will play the role of "Holiest Man Alive"? Treesong?
   
4. Sands of Time -- Selling "sand prints" of sand paintings by (the late, great) Victor DeGraff, especially the painting of the now-demolished Stage Company building, colored with actual brick from the building. The prints are printed on special sandpaper, so the feel of the original is reproduced.
   
5. Two new volumes of Between the Rivers local music compilations: of keyboard virtuoso's (piano and organ) and vocalists. The web site needs a spin or two.
6. Move the local Greyhound bus station to a better location on Main St. in May, when the lease expires on the current space on N. Washington St.
   
7. Open an Ebay sales service in the Washington St. space when the Greyhound ticket office moves out.
8. This year's Bike 2 Work Day is rolling around. Last year's event led to the creation of a new domain spokesfolks.info, which has been dormant. It should be redirected to the Bike 2 The Future blog or vice versa.
   
9. St. David's Day will be here in 9 days. On March 1, everyone should drink some amber colored ale or lager -- to commemorate a Celtic Saint! Why wait until March 17 to green beer? Amber is better. This year, I'll repost the "St. Dave's Day" stuff I wrote in the mid-90's, before the internet ruled. The Beer Philos'pher has created a cool social network web site called Aleluminati, that's really taken off in two short weeks, with about 66 members worldwide, counting The BP's wife. ;-)
10. Least, but not last, the long dormant, cobweb-ridden Shawnee Shopping store got a spin from the Southern Illinois Specialties lady yesterday. Look for more changes on that site soon.
    

Spinning plates is also called 'multi-tasking', which isn't as vivid a phrase. But "task" is the operative term. Each item on the list has many details to get done . . . important details like finding a cameraman and actors for the Rugby tournament on April 5, and changing the orange color of the beer in St. Dave's mug to amber.

Hopefully, this post will keep this blog spinning, as I get on the stick for those other projects.