paulog · the life of paul grzymkowski - [ log.paulogy.com ]

If I haven’t said it to you by now, happy new year!  With 2009 firmly behind us, I can confidently say: good riddance.  For various reasons last year was certainly not my favorite, so I’m definitely looking forward to what good things 2010 will bring.

Now is when I could make some grandiose statement about how I resolve to post here regularly again (as if I ever did), but it seems those kinds of promises are destined to be broken.  That said, I do have some thoughts kicking around that will hopefully find their way here soon.  So we’ll see ;-).

With each new year I don’t create a resolution, per se, but I do try to have a word or theme that I try to follow. 

Well hello there!  So as you can see, I’m back on paulogy.  As many of you know there’ve been a number of other (not entirely unrelated) things going on lately which have been taking up my time.  But for now at least, my attention has come back here - to a site and blog which I had always intended on keeping current and fresh.

And no, this is not some early April Fool’s joke.  The growing popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter have caused me to reexamine some of the efforts I’ve taken to market “the brand of Paul Grzymkowski”.  While those relatively new sites, along with ones like YouTube, Flickr and countless others, now have folks from all over the world showcasing themselves and their works, I’ve been at it myself for quite some time.

My first effort, Paul’s Page of Pain, back in 1997 had existed to show off a little about who I was, and more about what I had done.  It underwent a number of revisions as what I did - and considered most interesting - evolved and as I learned new techniques in webdesign.  My second attempt, beautyinchaos, created in 2003, was intended to show off my work exclusively (as it contained nearly no details about myself) but did so by engaging visitors in a kind of extended conversation, instead of just listing everything on a couple pages.

But my third effort, paulogy.com was supposed to be different.  Serving the same purpose initially of showcasing my work, ultimately it was intended to showcase my life - and how the things I’ve created fit into it.  But it never really did.  And why not?

Today paulogy.com is alive.

After gestating for 9 months (or more?), this site is finally being revealed to the world and allowed to roam free. And apparently you’re reading it, so welcome.

“What? Paul has a blog? No way!”

Well, yes and no. I told myself I’d never have a blog (because in general I think they’re kind of stupid) but as you’ll hopefully see, this site is a little different. Before you (t)read any further, there are some things you should know:

“To be, or not to be: that is the question”
~ William Shakespeare

Life is full of questions. Many of which have plagued scientists and philosophers alike for centuries, such as: “is there life after death?”, “is there a higher power?”, and “which came first, the chicken or the egg?”. Okay, so maybe not that last one, but the point is, hundreds of these questions, from the profound to the absurd, have heretofore gone unanswered.

That is, until now.

It’s a Friday night, and you’re having some people over to watch the movie Crash.  It’s about 7:30, there’s seven of you (5 guys, 2 girls), and you’re getting hungry.  What do you do?

WHAT DO YOU DO?!?

Order pizza, right?

Sounds good, in theory.  But sometimes things don’t always go as planned…

Have you ever looked at an inanimate object and wondered to yourself (or to someone else) if it was male or female?

Wallet?  Male.
Purse?  Female.
Necktie?  Definitely Male.
Paper towels?  … uh, Female?  Maybe?  Hmm…

Well wonder no more, object sex is here.

As an early assignment for Architecture 132 - a class at Cornell I chose to take in part because it filled a history requirement, and because I’ve always been somewhat interested in architecture - we were asked to draw “every place we have ever lived”.  For me that was somewhat easy since, up until college, I had spent my whole life in the same house.  The point, I think, was to reconsider what is needed in a dwelling, and to compare our relatively lavish houses to a gallery of “primitive huts” we had just learned about.  Or something.  Admittedly, the well-attended course wasn’t that well-organized or coherent.

Regardless, it was an opportunity to draw again.  Something I hadn’t spent nearly enough time doing since my days in middle school.  So, with much excitement I chronicled my various dwellings, from childhood up until the present (as of Spring 2000).

Hello world.