This year, I’m feeling more adventurous, so I’ve set some photographic New Year’s Resolutions. Click on the link to visit the all-new AugieShoots.com for that post.

My first resolution for the new year: Keep AugieShoots.com running regularly. It might not be daily, but at least three times a week should be doable.

The second resolution: Get VariousAndSundry updated regularly again, even if it’s only once a week.

Three: Watch more Blu-ray movies. I’ve been very slow to buy them, mostly because I haven’t watched enough of the ones I DID buy. So let’s start correcting for that in 2011.

Well, not exactly.  But I promise updates five days a week for the next couple of weeks, at least.

It’s going to be me getting all of this photographic stuff out of my system.  Whereas AugieShoots.com displays images well, it’s not so great with the text side of things.  So my musings on photography will be the single subject for this blog for a little while.

Consider this a test.  If it works, we’ll see where we go next.  Thanks for hanging in there!

It’s also the first day of my brand new blog.

Look for the official announcement here tomorrow. . .

(Yeah, I have no actual content today.  Sorry about that. Er, but Happy New Year!)

Yeah, I know.  It’s a holiday and nobody will be reading. Don’t worry — everyone will catch up. But the announcement needs to come on Thursday.  You’ll see why.
This has been a teaser.

That all said, here’s my rundown of web-based projects these days:

Various and Sundry: This blog carries on, five days a week.  Some weeks are writing bonanzas, others are a bit more sparse.  It varies from week to week, but that’s the nature of the beast.  I wish I could write an original 500 word essay on a daily basis, but I’m not sure I could, even if this was a full time job.

Pipeline Commentary and Review: Recently celebrated its 600th weekly column.  I got ahead on the column in preparation for the baby’s birth, and while I’ve pretty much caught up on that lead by now, there’s still a backlog of stuff I want to write about.  This week’s column is a 4000 word monster, as I type this, though I might have to hack and slash at it a bit.

Pipeline Podcast: Coming up on its fourth anniversary at the top of 2009.  Can you believe podcasting is that old now?  The schedule has suffered due to back-end technical issues I continue to fight with, and time constraints at home.  Sadly, the computer with the good mic set up is in a room that shares a wall with the baby’s room.  So while I only get to record the podcast after she goes to sleep, I can’t use that mic because my booming voice would wake her up through that thin wall.  I’m looking at buying a Snowball USB mic for the laptop to bring up production quality.  For now, I record with a blanket over my head and the laptop to cut down on the echoes.  Ah, the glories of podcasting. . .

CBR Reviews: This is the biggest time sink, but also one of the most productive.  I am the editor of the CBR Reviews team, six guys writing reviews daily of the week’s books.  We published 80 reviews in November, and are getting better about publishing them closer to publication dates, and even in advance.

Secret Project 1: I think this one is stalled out.  It’s something I started thinking about before the baby was born, but I’m not sure how do-able it really is, given time and scheduling restraints.  But I’m keeping it in my back pocket.  It’s comics-related and nobody else is doing anything like it right now.  I want to be the first, but c’est la vie.

Secret Project 2: Vaguely and tangentially related to SP1, but there’s real movement on it. It’s something that would only take a couple of hours a week of my time and could be very successful.  Look for it in the first quarter of 2009, if it does happen.

Twitter: It’s like having another email account. It’s the first thing I check at night, clicking on the “Responses” tab to see who’s talking to me and who I need to write back to.  Lots of interesting people, lots of continuously-updating content, and designed to eliminate spam on its own.

Flickr: One thing that the baby has changed completely is my photography.  I’m doing less nature photography and more people photography, mostly the baby.  I invested in some lighting equipment and am experimenting with that now. Am thinking of selling a lens to afford a different one that’s more amenable to my current shooting style. Need to update Flickr more often, though for baby privacy reasons, it’s not likely.

Google Reader: I do 90% of my web browsing through RSS feeds via Google Reader now and share out the best links and stories I find there. I’ve started sharing them with notes now, to add some additional information to the feed.  If you’re a Google Reader, I invite you to friend me or click on that link to subscribe to my feed.  It covers more of the kinds of things I’m interested in, above and beyond what you see on this blog.

I’m not going to ask you to buy anything specifically. I won’t hard sell you anything.  I’m not pushing a book or something crazy like that.

But if you are ordering anything through Amazon in the next month for Christmas, there’s an Amazon banner at the top of this site’s front page.  Click on it to get to Amazon and this blog will receive a tiny fraction of the money you spend.  (Somewhere between 4% and 6%, depending on volume.)  It doesn’t have to be anything specific.  Just click through before putting items in your cart, and this blog will be credited with directing traffic to Amazon, and those nice folks in the Pacific Northwest will cut me a check in a couple of months.

Lots of blogs emphasize this at this point of the year, and I’m no exception.  You’re going to spend the money anyway, so why not help a brother out at the same time?  Pick a favorite blog and click through their Amazon links before you shop.

Thanks for your support and your readership.  It’s been a fun year, and there’s still plenty to go!

Here endeth the meta talk.

Podcast fans: Sorry to say, that got delayed to tonight, as well.

Management thanks you for your patience and continued support.

I’m sure it’s only a matter of time, though.  It was a bit unfair of me to spring this on corporate America on a Friday.  I’m sure there’s a corporate office staying up late this weekend trying to raise the funds.  They’re probably working on a bond issue or something.  Two million bucks isn’t always “ready cash,” unless your Apple.

If you’re Apple, I’ll lower the price to $1.9 million, if you throw in a couple of iMacs.

Let’s wait this out till Monday.  Something’s going to come.  How can it not?  This is almost literally too good a deal to pass up!

And it can be profitable to the both of us.

I’ll set the price at $1,000,000.

That’s not much these days.  That price won’t buy you many 30 second spots in prime time television.  Heck, depending on the show you’re buying ad time on, you might not get more than a minute.

I’m offering you something better:

My blog.  It’s for sale.  I’ll change the name to “[Your Company's Name Here] Presents Various and Sundry.”  Heck, I’ll buy that as a domain name.  I’ll make you the exclusive advertiser on a blog that updates at least five days a week.

You’ll get better than a million dollars’ worth of press coverage on the deal.  What better story for the tech press to fawn over for a week or two than your company buying up a no name meaningless blog.  It’s an amazing publicity stunt that makes no sense.  It’s PERFECT internet fodder.

This blog doesn’t have a big readership.  It’s definitely under a thousand readers.  It’s probably closer to 500.  It makes so little sense for you to sponsor it that it’ll command great attention.  We can do a joint press release that’ll light up the blogosphere.  I can get on one of those crazy Revision3 video podcasts.  I’d happily be a guest on Net@Nite. TechCrunch would be all over this.  I’m available to do press with all the cable news stations.  I can blog the experience, to boot.  It’s material for me; it’s tons of publicity for you.  I’ll wear a baseball cap and a t-shirt with your company’s name on it when doing all of these shows.

I can even talk to the point that this deal will mark the end of the second web boom.

I am a friggin’ sell out.  Just go ahead and buy me now.  My e-mail address is linked to my name at the top of the right column.

Sadly, someone already beat me to Buymyblog.com.

But I won’t let that stop me.  Others sell pixels for a dollar a shot.  Others promise to do outlandish things.  Some sell space for tattoos on their body, but I’m not going that far. I’m skipping all the work part.  I’m just going to do my thing and take your money, sponsor!
You need something more personal?  I’m going to be a Dad this fall.  I can be a stay-at-home Dad with your million dollars.

Wait, I forgot about the taxes.  Better make it two million bucks, just to be safe.

GoldenPalace, are you reading this? Call me.  I like to play poker, too. . .

Barring all that, I’ll take a Drobo for lesser terms.

We here at Various and Sundry don’t believe in that kind of crap, so we’re just not updating today. Take everything you read today with a grain of salt. In a few days, the internet will return to normal and sort through what the real announcements were and we can discuss it then.

In the meantime, be nice to each other today, OK? And don’t go making crap up.