IanCasselberry.com

After moving from Blogger to Squarespace, I didn't anticipate moving my personal blog to another platform for quite some time. But sometimes, you get seduced when you don't expect it.

During the holiday break, I started playing with Posterous, and quickly became enamored. I love that I can post via e-mail, and can include audio and video clips rather easily. (The audio is especially appealing, since finding a satisfactory audio player has been difficult.)

So for the second time in less than six months, I'm moving my blog. You can now find me at The Casselbloggy (or at http://casselberry.posterous.com). I've actually been posting stuff over there for the last week or so, but realized I never made an announcement here. So if you've been clicking back here (as my friend A. has), hoping for some fresh content, I apologize. (And if you're someone who reads via RSS, here's my new feed.)

I probably never gave Squarespace a fair chance, but when you get that feeling, you just have to go with it. One thing I don't like about Posterous is that I can't install much sidebar content, and that's something I spent quite a bit of time working on in here. But I don't know how many people check out blogrolls anymore. And as much as I love Flash and Javascript widgets (especially my beloved Twitter widget), they tend to make a site load slower.

(I intend to keep iancasselberry.com alive. But it'll be more of what I originally intended: an archive of my work, an online resume, sort of a one-stop shop. In other words, a website, not just a blog. Now I just have to put some actual work into that.)

Once again, thank you for sticking with me as I keep moving around. Now that I'm not blogging at Bless You Boys full-time anymore, I plan to do a lot more writing. I'd like the new blog to be a bit more "stream of thought," with posts on all sorts of subjects - articles I've read, movie reviews, podcast clips, etc. - rather than "this is what I've decided to write about today." That approach always kept me going at BYB, and I don't see why it can't work here. 

So please follow me over to The Casselbloggy (or the new RSS feed). And I should probably mention that you can also find me on Twitter and Facebook. I'll try my best to keep you entertained and informed enough to check back regularly. 

This is for Rob, who may have missed this on Saturday night. It's been kind of a running joke over the past year.

I'm pretty sure this is why I can never see The Lovely Bones. (Nor The Happening, which is making the rounds on HBO.) The whole time, I'd be thinking of Andy Samberg's version of Mark Wahlberg.

Rob, say hi to your mother for me, okay?

Maybe Mark Wahlberg can be on "What Up With That?" eventually (and try - but fail - to keep up with Jason Sudeikis's sweet dance moves.)

In anticipation of getting Casa de Casselberry ready to put on the market, we've begun the process of clearing out what's not being kept and packing up whatever's making the trip to wherever the next stop is.

Today, I was going through my father's office, beginning with his bookshelf. And I never realized he had so many books about writing. These are just a handful (apologies for the photo quality; the lighting in the room wasn't very good):

Dad always was a stickler for good English. I knew that. One of the last gifts I ever bought for him was Eats, Shoots & Leaves. And he ticked me off a couple of times when he'd read a story or essay of mine and point out grammatical mistakes, rather than give me feedback on character or structure.

But I still had no idea he felt so strongly (or perhaps was so insecure) about writing well to almost fill up an entire bookshelf in his office. This will be added to the list of conversations I wish we'd had before he died. (I can only imagine what he would've thought of the work I've managed to publish since then.)

With the news that Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden will retire after 34 years on the job (44 years as a head coach overall), and at the age of 80, I quickly thought of one of the many scenes from We Are Marshall that gets me every time.

Bowden was the coach of West Virginia in 1970, when Marshall University was trying to rebuild its football program after nearly all of the team's players and coaches were killed in an airplane crash. When Marshall's new coaches wanted to run the same sort of offense WVU was known for, Bowden allowed them access to playbooks and game films. WVU also wore tributes to Marshall on their helmets.

I'd like to think football coaches would do that sort of thing today (they'd likely pay tribute on their helmets), but given the level of secrecy and competitiveness in big-time college football, I'm not so sure many would show the same compassion.

But what I liked most about Bowden is that the guy seemed to have fun coaching football. I know it's serious work, with a punishing schedule, but is it really as life-or-death as so many coaches make it seem? (Of course, Bowden probably wasn't doing much actual coaching in recent years, letting his assistants do the grinding work, so maybe that's why he seemed so "dadgum" jolly.)

Still, Florida State has been one of the powerhouse programs as long as I've been a college football fan. When the Seminoles came to Ann Arbor to play Michigan back in 1991, that was a big deal. (So was the Desmond Howard-Terrell Buckley match-up.) I can't quite believe they've fallen into mediocrity. (I was referring to Florida State, not Michigan, but I guess that applies to both schools now.)

Obviously, that's the main reason Bowden is "retiring." It's too bad he didn't step aside before being nudged out the door.

By the way, if Florida State and West Virginia can play each other in the Gator Bowl for Bowden's final game, that would be a wonderful ending. Hopefully, that can happen.

After the debacle that was January Jones hosting Saturday Night Live (quite possibly the least funny episode ever), I was almost ready to give up on it for the season. Fortunately, I decided to give this past weekend's show a chance before calling it a night. The cold open - particularly Jenny Slade's shrill delivery - gave me reason enough to stick it out.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's fabulously energetic opening monologue is also well worth your time, if you missed it. But "Will you kiss me? I like to be kissed when someone is doing sex to me!" made the night. Painfully funny, because it's so true.

It's too bad Fred Armisen has completely given up on trying to hone his imitation of Barack Obama, however.