Trish and Harold's Weblog

News, information, and random thoughts from the busy lives of Trish Egan and Harold Phillips.


Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Training Up...

Yeah... so I'm a little sore today.  See, I'm "in training."

Somehow my dad (who's become quite the avid bicyclist in the past few years... in fact, he's ridden the Seattle to Portland Classic twice thus far, and he'll be doing it again this year) talked me into riding the Portland Century bike ride this coming August... and I haven't been on my bicycle for at least a year.

Now, I'm not planning on riding the full 100 mile trek on August 21st... that'd be madness given how little I've been on my bike.  I did agree to join him on the 40 mile route, though... which means I've got to get some miles in on the bike between now and then.  That might be a little challenging, given my wacky schedule, Portland's unpredictable weather, and the other "X-Factors" that can come up in Trish and my lives... but it's something to shoot for - and let's face it, I could use the exercise.

So, yesterday, I took a ten mile trip from my house to the nearest post office (had to mail some invoices...) and back.  It didn't destroy my legs nearly as bad as I thought it would... we'll see what happens as I start to expand out to 20 and 30 mile trips.

So, if you Portlanders see me wheezing on the side of the road, you'll know what's going on...

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Saturday, June 18, 2011

So, If I Haven't Blogged In Six Months Am I Still A "Blogger?"

The title of this post is a bit misleading... I have been blogging plenty over the past six months - in fact, I've been posting one or two posts to the internet most days in the past year... I just haven't been doing it here.

Instead, most of my online writing has been happening at www.OregonFilmandTVDollars.com, where I've been working to let Oregonians know about the film and TV (and new media, and commercial, and animation, and... and... and...) industry in their state - not just in an effort to renew our state's film incentive programs, but to remind them that this industry brings millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs into the state.

That said, I've missed the more personal writing I do here... the meditations on ideas or situations I've encountered, the sharing of good news and bad. Sure, I share a lot of this information on Twitter and Facebook, but there's not a lot of space on either of those platforms to really dig into the topics that interest me (even if they don't interest you!)

Of course, there's only so much time in a given day, and between work, family stuff, work, the other site, work, and trying to find some down-time to recharge... it can be hard to get an hour or so to sit down and really put together a nice article for the ol' blog here.

It's that recharging and rejuvenation that's been missing, though... I was talking to the director of an industrial I'm working on yesterday about the benefits of confession to Catholics (you get into some interesting conversations while the next shot is being set up...) Now, I'm not Catholic, I don't have any firsthand knowledge of this, but there's a reason they say "confession is good for the soul -" and it has nothing to do with theology. Confession, or psychotherapy, or just sitting down with some friends for a beer gives you the chance to think out loud; it lets you open up the cobwebbed attic you call your head, pull out a few artifacts from times gone by (or stuck up there in recent days,) take a look at them, and by explaining them to whomever's listening get a better understanding of what they're doing up there to begin with. Confession, or just thinking-out-loud, allows you to understand yourself better - your beliefs, your reactions to things, and the reason you view the world the way you do.

That's the real purpose of "journaling" or, in my case, "blogging." It's a form of confession... and it's good for the soul.

So, recognizing that there's been a lack of this confession in my life over the past few months, I'm going to dust off the blog and get back into things... don't expect a post every day. Heck, don't be surprised if I go weeks or months in between posts again (it wouldn't be the first time, obviously...) If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you'll see when I post a new entry - or you can still put your email address in the box to the right of this post and have an email delivered to your inbox when something new goes up here. If you care. If not, pop on by whenever... I'll be confessing off and on.

Hope you're all doing well...

-Harold