Spur of the Moment blog - New and Different!

Ew. Gross. Um. I'm sorry. I didn't realize how bad things were getting here. I haven't looked in for a while and I see it has gotten quite dusty and a bit moldy. While I work on abating this mess, take a look over to the left there. I added a link for one of our little group's newer bloggers. Kimberly has taken her babbling global with the launch of her new blog. She's quite a talent and we look forward to big things from her.

The rest of the gang is busy hacking away. We've made some progress, and some changes that we hope will bring our little party to the rest of you sooner rather than later. Not that it isn't already later. For a group called Spur of the Moment, we do tend to get things done rather slowly. We're working on that. Bear with us. In the meantime, check out the rest of these links. You may even find some surprises.

Coming soon:

SOTM/Dr. Dirk's Podcasts!

Hear that everyone? Podcasting, podcasting, podcasting!

Everybody drink!

Posted by JAM @ 11:33:00 AM - Permalink

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Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Gearing up

This blog has been neglected way too long while we have all been dealing with a variety of issues, including various production activities. We are near to having an actual complete episode of DDIOA in the can (so to speak) and everyone is very excited. But not so much that they are doing very much about it. This crew is remarkably undedicated. I'm not casting aspursions here because I'm not putting in as much effort on this as I should/want to. But that is not to say I haven't been doing anything at all.

There has been some progress. Jymi created a temporary home for the SOTM Productions web page, while I secured a domain for its permanent residence. We can now be found at SOTMProductions.com. I'm considering whether to move this blog over under that domain. Kind of makes sense, but I'm not sure.

And of course, in the meantime, all the really hip, happening crew members are gleefully playing around on the DDIOA forums.

I'm personally very pleased with the talents of this crew and when we roll this thing out once and for all (sometime in this decade for sure) I'm sure it will turn out to be worth the effort. It is really hard to make progress when everyone's lives are so full. We've all got a lot going on and different priorities so we've had to be satisfied with the slow pace we've achieved so far. And of course now we hit the holidays, so it isn't going to get better for a while. It makes it hard for someone like me who really appreciates timely, topical humor. It is more difficult to create funny that will remain funny until the show is released (and beyond.) But so far, what we've done is there. Funny once, funny twice. Still funny months from now. Let's hope we can keep it there.

Posted by JAM @ 11:04:00 AM - Permalink

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Monday, August 22, 2005

Grimagix Network grows

Gradually, we see the boundaries between this dimension/reality/realm and the other blur and become indistinct. The border shifts and some of the weird and wonderful begins to make itself known in a universe we previously thought we understood. Some of the stuff that comes through from time to time is just fun. Some of it is beautiful, ethereal, magical. And some of it is just plain sick and wrong.

As we continue our work (which involves ripping open this rift in the space/time continuum that allows us to glimpse this other place) we expect to see more of this kind of thing (and other stuff too) leak through and - well, infect - our "normal" world with creative madness. Enjoy!

Posted by JAM @ 8:48:00 AM - Permalink

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Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Well, that was fun. NOT!

Ok, I want to be up front about all this and as I said, this is going to be personal - a narrative of what's happening lately in the world of the Spur (to clarify, that means the Spur of the Moment Crew, my friends and I - about whom you'll be hearing a great deal in upcoming weeks and months.) Since the events of the weekend impacted our productions to some extent, I guess the story must be told.

Let me state unequivocally and get it out of the way - I'm a real fuckup. I've screwed up so many times in my life I can hardly believe I'm still alive. I'm not just being down on myself (though I'm definitely not liking myself a lot and that's been an issue for a while.) I really feel like a loser. And I'm not blaming anyone but me. I know better, but I do the wrong thing over and over and it fouls me up every time. I seem to have a real self-sabotage complex happening, and I haven't managed to break the cycle.

So, I got busted. I was on my way home from a scriptwriting session with Todd in Rockford and had my son in the car with me. Turns out I had a taillight out, and I got pulled over. As it happens, my license was suspended and there was also a warrant out for child support. Now, let me be clear about this. It was all my fault. I should have known about both of these issues, but I didn't. This is where my problem lies. I'm a lazy, procrastinating, goof-off. If it isn't immediately in front of me, and there is any pain associated with it, I'll do my damnedest to ignore it and forget about it. Every time. I'm bad that way. I'm not making excuses. I'm well aware of my bad habits, I know I need to correct them, but I've never managed. I keep putting it off. Not trying to be funny. It's fact.

I wrote late last year on the old Spur about the old lady who totalled my old car when she pulled out right in front of me. At that time, I got picked up on a warrant for child support outstanding as well. Let me explain a bit of the history of this. Once the FOC got involved in the arrangement I had with my son's mother, I started making payments to them instead of straight to her. Not long thereafter, I started getting payment slips from this State agency that indicated my payments were supposed to go through them. I started paying them. This went on for a while, until I was informed that she wasn't getting the money. Apparently there was some disconnect between this State agency and the County FOC office. That ultimately resulted in me getting picked up the first time.

Understand please - I take care of my son. I've always been good about paying his mom what she needed and he and I are very close and I spend as much time with him as possible given that she lives about an hour south of here. Every other weekend and I try to spend one night each week with him as well. I take him out to dinner and we talk. We talk a lot. I think we have a great relationship. He's the best kid in the universe. I'm a lucky dad.

But when things turned rocky for me employment-wise a few years back (Old Kent Bank bought by 5th/Third put me out of a job, followed by Worldcom and their troubles leaving me on the street again) I did miss a couple of weeks. At that point, we had always just had a personal deal worked out. But - well, anyway, she ended up deciding it would be best if the arrangement were formalized by the court. So now we end up going through FOC.

Since that original screwup, it has happened a couple more times. I get the immediate issue cleared up and pay the bond they've imposed and make sure that gets paid into the fund so she gets the money. Then I figure we're set and my lazy part kicks in and I forget the whole thing. Partly this is due to the fact that it all ties in with these traffic stops that cost me money and I keep ending up driving illegally.

Ok, I realize it all costs far, FAR more when I get busted, but when I just don't have the money to pay the insurance, it lapses, and - oh, hell, you get the picture.

So here's the sequence - after getting busted early last year for expired tags (which happened because I had two previous tickets that had gone unpaid and I was driving suspended anyway - are you starting to get the picture of how fucked up I am?) and there being an outstanding warrent for a remaining portion of child support arrears (we aren't talking thousands here, but several hundred) I made a really terrific effort to clear it all up once and for all (I didn't have a lot of choice, frankly.) I was put on probation and had to stick to regular visits and meet certain deadlines for paying off my old tickets and getting my license reinstated, etc. I did it. I stuck to it, I made sure I made it happen. You might read about some of my adventures on the bus while I was going through all of this stuff on the old archive (once I get the links working again.) In any case, I got through it all. Got myself square with the court and Secretary of State, got my license, got insurance, got my car fixed (it had broken down right after I got busted that time anyway) and registered. I was on the road legally for the first time in quite a while. Of course, making all those payments and so forth had again set me back a couple of months in child support, but I figured now that I was legal on the road, the time saved in bus travel and general added mobility would give me a chance to pick up the slack and get that paid back down quickly.

What I didn't know was that they had already put out a warrant again because I had missed a hearing date (remember, she lives a county south of here, and bus doesn't run there - no excuse, I still should have called and made some arrangement, but with everything I had happening, I let it slip) and so, when that little old lady whacked me just over a month after I'd put all that money into getting back on the road, I was in for it again.

All of this results in an ongoing strain on my finances so I'm not just living paycheck to paycheck, I'm living off next week's check. My rent is late. I'm in a hole and I feel like I can never get out, and depression sinks in and I don't want to deal, and...

Well, I hadn't yet gotten my permanent proof of insurance yet, and I was late on my insurance payment (see above) so I was given a ticket for no proof of insurance. But as I was being taken in on the FOC warrant, that sort of slipped my attention.

Again, I got the FOC dealt with, got out (thanks as always to efforts of friends I cannot overvalue) and put the whole thing behind me. The car was a loss, I was broke and in a total funk as the holidays were around the corner, and I managed to get through it all thanks to my boss who kindly loaned me a spare car he had for a few weeks during the holiday. Then it was straight back to hell as the winter months dragged and I still had no prospects for getting out of the hole. Meanwhile, they started just taking the child support straight out of my check, so everything was square there (I thought) and a few months ago, I got a chance to buy a decent car cheap from a friend of a friend. It was a good enough deal I couldn't pass it up. I scraped together the cash and bought it. When I went to get insurance, I found out I was suspended again for the ticket I got when I was hit by the old lady. I didn't have enough to pay that ticket and get my license reinstated. So I drove anyway. My plate was good because it was from my old car and the tags were good through last month, but I knew I'd have to get clear by then or I'd surely get pulled over. That's my luck.

But things kept coming up, and I was still behind on rent and the late fees just pile up... I couldn't get ahead of it.

So. Saturday, last. Coming home from Rockford. Turn on to 28th, just 5 minutes from home. Pull right past a Kentwood cop, who notices my taillight. He gets on me and sees my tag - now expired. He pulls me over and... Suspended. No insurance. And yet still, a warrant from FOC. I got hauled out of the car and handcuffed. In front of my son. I've never - EVER - felt as low as that. This was the worst.

Fortunately for him, I have better friends than I deserve, and one of them came and picked him up and took care of him while I was hauled off to jail. He's ok. He's a smart kid and he gets it all. I've spoken with him and he's cool with it.

But it took me a couple of days to get out, because all my friends have tight finances right now, and I'm on the hook for more fines, still late on my rent, no car for at least a couple of months most likely.

And I feel diminished. My son is amazing, and he doesn't hold it against me. But nonetheless, he saw me get cuffed and sent to jail. He was there and had to be picked up and taken care of by someone else because I screwed up. Whether he marks me down for it or not, it's still a memory he'll have and I feel like the scum of the earth for allowing that to happen. I'll spend a lifetime trying to make up for that and I'll never be able to take that image away from him. I don't know how he'll think of it as the years go by.

Several of my friends (and especially my sister, who has long suffered because of my ongoing failure to overcome my faults) worked to help me out this time again. They are tremendous people who love me despite it all. I don't know why. I'm humbled by their support and caring. I truly don't deserve it. I really, really want to be worthy of it this time. I can't keep allowing these things to happen. I'm going to work it out. I'm going to do my best to be the person I know I can be so that they won't have to prove again how loyal they are when I screw up.

So, the upshot of all this is that thanks to my crap getting in the way, Todd and I didn't finish the script for the show segment we were working on to have ready for tonight's meeting. It's about half-done. The meeting goes ahead anyway and we'll try to put the remainder together for Thursday. It's really funny stuff. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Posted by JAM @ 9:04:00 AM - Permalink

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Friday, August 05, 2005

Welcome

Welcome to the new and different (far too early to call it improved) Spur of the Moment blog. The old Spur archive has been moved (linkings will be forthcoming soon) and will remain accessible, but will no longer be updated. I'll spend a bit of time making sure the links are all right, but once that is done, the old Spur will be history and the new Spur will be where it all happens. Why the break? Why the need to draw a line between the old and new? Well, let's face it. The old Spur never really hit its stride, for a number of reasons. But with much happening in the world where the Spur originated, that is about to change. This change of direction is going to bring a new, more focused, more personal version of the Spur. The Spur will now tell a story. I'm going to talk about my friends and the project we are now working on. This story goes back a way. Long ago, I promised on the old About page that I'd give some of this background to explain where the airplane logo originated (thanks to Jymi for providing me the scan of the original version - much better than my pale imitation was) and what it meant. Now, here, I will fulfill that promise and tell you about where it all started long ago, and what it has led to in the present day. It's been a long strange trip and it's going to get a lot weirder from here on out. Buckle in and get comfortable. We're about to light this sucker up and see if she'll fly after all these years. Enjoy the ride.

Posted by JAM @ 9:33:00 PM - Permalink

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Thus endeth the current blog posts. See the archives for more.