The Sole Proprietor was surfing the Macromedia site looking for a web authoring program named Dreamweaver when he found a picture of Elvis in shorts tucked away in the back. And a bunch of clever clothes you could dress Elvis with including rhinestone encrusted glasses and a cape, a kind of electronic paper doll set without the little tabs. All of this done by someone named BaddGrrl who worked at Macromedia on the Dreamweaver team and who -- and this was pretty far out -- had a link to her personal page on the Macromedia site. An obviously enlightened management.

Now BaddGrrl, aka Lorraine, has an elaborate personal site that covers a lot of territory. I think of BaddGrrl's site as being like a Chinese dragon. Not the up tight European stuffed full of neuroses that need to be conquered dragon, but the Chinese gamboling and splashing and happily rooting around in the swamp dragon, the mud spattered embodiment of life itself. You kill European dragons to get rid of your hangups. You kill the Chinese dragon only when you want to kill life itself. Which you don't. I hope.

Anyway, BaddGrrl keeps a journal. An open, in your face, pretty damned honest journal that bumps and bangs along much like that dragon. A "You don't like it, f*ck off!" sort of a journal for all to see. And that's pretty rare. Most people learn to duck and step to the back at an early age to avoid the rain of rude comments that will come your way from the idiots in the bleachers.

And maybe that rings the Sole Proprietor's bell just a bit. Many years ago he did his own share of knocking about like a Chinese dragon. And he got his fingers burned. And his toes. And his nose. But part of him kind of liked that feeling when the wind gets up over 60 skating down a hill dodging the pot holes and the police all the while eating a peach and yodeling at the moon. (Have we mixed our metaphors yet?)

So this is maybe a good time to start his own journal. He's not quite sure what this Journal Ring is, but BaddGrrl seems to be managing it, and it looks like something that might keep him on his toes and actually write once or twice a month. Or a week. Or -- oh no -- every day. The members' sites are fairly advanced with pretty nice design so the Sole Proprietor's page will look clunky in comparison, but what the hell, the idea seems right and nobody's complaining.

So, thanks for the motivation BaddGrrl. The Sole Proprietor is off on his own adventure. He just hopes not too many people at the office figure out his new domain address. Particularly when he runs the pictures he took at that overly informal office party when all the middle managers had to quit.