Bloggers tend to blog about this subject ad nauseam, particularly people who have just started blogging. So it pains me a bit to go down this road. But what the hell. At the risk of making people sick, I have to now jot down a few words on this here blog about - here it goes - the act of jotting down a few words on this here blog. Don't you love it? Blogging is so self-referential. It's the perfect medium for a postmodernist-leaning, Gen-Xer such as myself.

I've felt a bit muzzled lately. Muzzled, as in restrained, like the the thing that goes over the snout of a dog. Not muzzle as in a Muzzle of Bees, which is a Wilco song. Or just plain old Muzzle, which is a Smashing Pumpkins song. Sorry, but the Mellon Collie recently found its way onto my iPod for some reason, which might explain some of the Infinite Sadness, of late. And, holy moly, have I mentioned that the new Wilco CD, Sky Blue Sky is really, really good? Really.

Crap. You see? This muzzling - it's got me all crazy-like. Makes me all scattered in the brain. And a bit skittish. I mean, even more than usual.

But let me get back to the issue at hand: the fact that these words I'm writing are up here and out there and every other term you can think of for 'publicly available,' and indexed, and devastatingly searchable, archived - potentially - for years and years. Sometimes that reality is just a little bit overwhelming, especially when you see it backfire on some people in not-so-positive ways. There's so much talk about how the things you write online might turn off an employer or client or, in the case of singles, a potential date. Luckily, I'm not worried about the latter, but the former does cross my mind from time to time - the fact that there may be potential clients out there who have Googled me, found this blog, and written me off because, you know, who wants to work with a guy who writes about having an ultrasound done on his right testicle?

Of course the flip side of this, is that putting yourself out there in words and pictures (no, there are no ultrasound pics, sorry) may help you find people who actually get your personality and sense of humor, and this could lead to some much better working relationships. However, if I were to find a date based on the aforementioned post, I might be a little - what's the word - terrified. The bottom line is you can't think about it. Otherwise, it's hard to write anything at all without editing it to death, which goes for just about any writing, really. But with blogs it's kind of part and parcel of the whole medium, because there tends to be a kind of 'urgency' ingrained in the very style of the thing. It's a get-this-out-there-now, editing-is-for-wimps kind of mentality. But here's a little confession: I edit all of my posts. Here's another: there are many, many things I've written for this blog which I've never posted. And finally: It's not uncommon for me to spend a couple of days writing something to put here.

This all might make me a little uncool in blogging circles (as if the testicle/ultrasound thing hadn't done that already). And it's part of the reason I'll never be an 'A-List' blogger. There are actually several other reasons: I post too infrequently, my posts are way too long, and I'm a male 'personal blogger,' quite possibly the lowest life-form in the Blogosphere. And right now, I'm muzzled. Which makes everything worse.

It's times like these that call for photos instead of words. So here are three new galleries I've been meaning to post for a while now, two final ones from our trip to Japan this spring, and one final 'Before and After' gallery for our bathroom. I will now go back to being muzzled.

Japan Trip - Osaka
Our trip to Osaka, where we come across painted manholes, Panchinko and accidentally venture into the red light district.

Japan Trip - Nagoya
We spend a couple of days with Mitch and Naoko in Nagoya. We catch a baseball game, go to Starbucks, shop at the local Mac store, and eat burgers. Such a strange and different world from being in the States.

Bathroom Remodel - Start to Finish
One final gallery for the bathroom. A lot of people have seen some of these pics already, but I figured I'd put them all in one place, the before, during, and after.

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