Ed Ryder:  

sue a project, then kill it because I lose interest in it for various reasons. One of my other projects: I happen to be the king of over-sized Philadelphia art. I've had an artist in Russia painting for me since 2002. I sought out an artist to work with me on this project and discovered Stanislav Bogdan - a polio survivor in his fifties who was born in a Stalin labor camp in Kazakhstan. I assumed since he had been painting for over 35 years that he had plateaued as an artist. But he has continued to grow and evolve and all his work from the past 2 years is amazing. At one time 12 galleries here featured his work, but it is tough to sell expensive art around here. Recently, I have mostly just been a collector, but I've got my eyes on the convention center expansion and the arrival of new hotels and think that my art belongs in the guest rooms of one of them. A couple years ago I wrote a book about debt abandonment for financially distressed consumers. And now I am in the process of making a tutorial DVD video to go along with that. Instead of being sold through bookstores, it will be available through mall kiosk resellers. And online through me. After I spent so much time researching and writing that book, and further refining it, I put it aside and did nothing with it while I explored other ideas. (I had legal concerns.) In August I saw an infomercial featuring somebody branding themselves as a debt solutions guru. It caught my attention and so I listened to his speil. It appeared he was trying to appeal to the least sophisticated consumer. I found that interesting. But then he said some things that got my bullsh1t detector awakened. Hmm... and then he made a statement that was highly suspect. Two weeks later I was walking through a bookstore and saw a pile of this author's book. Hmm... so I picked it up and turned to the section where I suspected very bad advice was waiting. Ah ha! What a phony. I was right about that author. He didn't know what he was talking about and for the people who would follow his advice, it was going to be very damaging for them. Right then I knew I had to get my material to the marketplace - because people need it! So that is what I am working on now. For the winter it appears I will be in Florida. (I prefer warm weather.) For anybody that remembers Bob Toppi from 5th and 6th grade, I'll be hanging with him. Bob is a ton of fun. We always laugh and have a good time. He built an impressive house on 12 acres of ground north of Tampa. (His neighbors are horses and cows :) I was just there. Lots of fun. Anyway, to sum it up, it looks like I turned out to be a bit of a free-spirit. Never got married. Never had kids. I don't even have a dog anymore. And I kind of like just being able to go anywhere/do anything when I feel like it. Nothing is tying me down. I'm expecting I'll be someplace in Europe next summer. We'll see. I have lots of friends over there. The reunion was a nice time. I'm glad I went. I was feeling uncomfortable about it leading up to it, since I wasn't really very popular and didn't really succeed in building a base of friends at Penncrest. However, I had some nice chats at the reunion and there were little gestures of kindness here and there from people. And it turned out to be a pleasant evening. And thanks to the classmates who said I hadn't aged :) About 75% of my visitors on this site hide themselves. That's no fun! Come on - leave your guestbook signature :)