It's Been Fun
Over the past few months, I have received a bunch of private email
asking where BC was hanging out and when we could expect him to
return. Well, after a long stay away from writing articles for this
blog, BC has decided to move on and let BlindConfidential fade away
into blinkosphere lore.
Boris, Sam and, of course, Gonz and there friends will be moving to a
new space dedicated to the weird world of gonzo journalism from which
they arose. I'm not certain when or where they will return but I will
probably create two new blogs: one for the gonzo stuff and the other
for creative writing pursuits (articles like the Snow Bird's Tale,
Actors Inside, etc.).
For the three years that I ran this blog, I have had an awful lot of
fun. I've made a lot of new friends from the online community and,
very sadly, lost a few resulting from things I wrote in these pages .
As I have said many times in these pages before, I write them off the
top of my head, usually in the morning while somewhat caffeine
deficient. Also, I've had my share of mood swings over the years and
have written some pretty hurtful things from a false sense of self-
importance and righteous indignation. I'm not sorry for anything I
wrote here (except for the one I actually removed by request of the
CEO of one of the AT companies) but, upon rereading quite a number of
them, the tone and content could have certainly been more fair but,
alas, they are what they are . As I work toward getting the two
creative writing blogs in order, I will start removing items that fall
into the criticism and creative non-fiction categories from Blind
Confidential as most are woefully out of date and problems I discussed
have long ago maybe got fixed.
One long term reader asked me to write about the characters in the
Gonz articles, whom they are based upon and where and how I came to
invent them. I think this might disappoint a few people as it is
hardly outrageous:
Gonz Blinko is based on me if I was actually a far better writer and
had someway of having lived a life similar to that of the great Hunter
S. thompson. Gonz, in many ways is the he whom I wish I could have
been but the best I could do was let the Gonz inside speak out.
Boris Throbaum is a spoiled, whiney child of affluence. the
character in the Gonz stories was revived in name from that which I
used when I sang for the Corporate Pigs back in the 1980s when it was
pronounced "Throw bomb" and represented my anarchist leanings. In the
blinkosphere, Boris never went blind but he didn't really accomplish
anything of value after his early twenties when he vocalized for a
punk rock band. Boris is the character who speaks for me when I feel
dark and dismayed.
Sydney "Sy" T. Greenbacks was not to satirize any particular company
CEO but rather speak from the most cynical crevasses of my mind.
Years ago in an FS executive staff meeting, it was me who pronounced
that war is good for the blindness business as shrapnel and eyes, when
combined appropriately, cause screen reader customers.
Samhara, Gonz's gay lawyer was loosely based on Laslow Toth, Raoul
Duke's (HSt) legal companion. Gonz, from the beginning needed a
sidekick and Samhara (the name of a favorite perfume of an ex-
girlfriend of mine) came into mind and, in my opinion, became one of
the most interesting characters.
Most of the other characters, typically made from their real world
names by changing a couple of letters in their names should be fairly
obvious. but feel free to write me about anyone you can't figure out.
Like most authors, most of the Gonz stories came from some actual
event blown up to be enormous or some weird idea I may have had
sitting in a journal for years looking for a home.
There are lots of other blogs that cover the technology used by people
with vision impairment and now that I am out of that biz for about 5
years, I really cannot be relied upon as a source because virtually
all I use fits into a small set.
So, my fearless readers, if there is anything you want to keep from
this blog, get it now because sometime in the coming weeks, it will
start to disappear. If there are any articles you especially despise
that are not Gonz based, send me an email and I'll put high on the
list to be eliminated early in the process.
Finally, as I've taken back many promises I've made in these pages,
there is some probability that BC will return in this spot and with
the current Blind COnfidential attitude.
Why the death? I have a full time gig and in my spare time I'm
working on a chapter for a friend's textbook and a work of creative
non-fiction for a real life publishing company. Thus, I'm all written
out and simply cannot generate any spare energy for the blog.
I, with a triple shot vente late, salute you, my loyal readers and
thank you for your support over the years.
-- End
5 Comments:
Best of luck to you BC with your new gig. I thank you for linking to me over the years. And though we have never met, I think I understand your plight very well. I try very hard to be fair to all the AT companies and I dropped being hypercritical back around year 1 of TRS. The first rule of the AT Business is that it is a business. The second rule is that the industry is very very small. Everyone knows everyone and it is always like juggling chainsaws when you want to talk about the biz while you still are in the biz.
It sounds like you have found a new outlet for your writing talents and it also sounds like some ghosts have faded away. Time heals and all that. I’m not sure if I agree that removing content is the way to go because it does reflect a particular time and a particular place in a particular setting. I’ve written some not so good posts as well. And I’ve even used these horrible viewpoints as launching pads for new articles just to show that I’ve grown since the time of my original remarks in bad judgment. Okay that an archive.org and Google probably has it all anyway and some more tech savvy person will just repost my mistakes again for the world to see. But when you do edit, and that is totally your right to do so man, go for the “coming full circle” arc. That way a new reader who stumbles upon the site can get a good timeline of events with few holes. Minus the stuff that you feel strongly has to come off the site of course.
Drop me a line when you have the new works going. I’m anxious to see where this new path takes you creatively. And don’t count out tea! I find it helps the brain motivation when I break the coffee cycle with something new!
I will miss your musings. I wish you all the best in your writing endevers.
There is simply no reason to alter or delete one’s archives. Leave everything as is.
Huh, just like that, gone? I don't remember how I ended up running across this blog or Chairman Mal's but it wasn't very long ago... so it feels like, there are gone. In a blink. (lol)
I agree with Joe, leave everything, but maybe with a note on top stating the times they were written in. It's considered bad form to burn or Photoshop those photos from back in the day when folks were wearing polyester suits, afros, bell-bottoms and platform shoes.
Good luck to new endevours.
BC, this is not the end of things.
You know what the old blindnews service used to be like before, and how its basically been limping thru 2009 compared to the good old days. Well thats just while I take a back seat for a while, but rest assured my friend, that limp is steady & it will be back running sometime, better than it ever was!
I'm currently just whisking through some of my favourite blogs for some nice posts in the May 09 period to include on the vipnews list. & doing so has just reminded me of what a fantastic bunch of great writers out there, there are. True "from a blind person's perspective" writing still remains extremely rare, definitely far less than 1 per cent in the overall journalism picture. But through doing the newslist work I have done, sometimes the small guy and sometimes even some of his small posts, have ended up on the desks of World Blind Union reps and major decision makers. I hope it has opened some third eyes, even glass ones! *grin*.
I do not believe for a minute that you're about to disappear on us all as one of the world's pioneering blind bloggers of the
21st century. Come on now, own up, you have finally bought yourself a Novint Falcon joystick with iFeelPixel software, and have taken up haptic drawing instead!
Ref:
http://www.ifeelpixel.com/download/whatsnew9.htm
That is how I imagined things, leastaways. I cannot imagine you giving up technology and going fishing, leastaways not permanently. There is winter to consider!
And after all, many blinks such as yourself are so attached to all this AT equipment that you are the new generation BORGS. Even with no life left in the flesh, there is surely a stirring of power left within the mechanics somewhere, that is the spark of a revolution not yet encountered...
auf wiedersehen! Leon Gilbert
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