my sometimes-skeptical social commentary

Archive for the ‘communication’ Category

I’ve been listening to a lot more music than usual… lately, and some of it is New To Me, so I thought I would share it with you.

Music is something else, isn’t it? There are some songs I haven’t heard in years that can remind me of what was happening in the world or in my life when I first heard the song. There are some bands that I listened to so much that they kind of define a soundtrack to that part of my life. Sometimes I look back at what I was experiencing…and the songs are vivid in those memories. There are emotions that come up with some songs, and I look back at them now and I don’t have exactly the same feelings about the music, but I remember the old feelings. Sometimes they make sense, sometimes I look back and I wonder how I felt that way back when….

Gary Coleman has died at age 42. He was just a little bit older than me, and I grew up watching him grow up on TV. He wasn’t a great actor, and he had a lot of personal problems, from what I’ve read in the news and seen on the web, he seemed like he was always trying to do better.

I have told my family and friends, but I just want everyone to know that Valerie and I are getting married!

I read the news today, oh boy…

When I heard that Floyd Landis‘s 2006 Tour de France win was negated because of doping, I was incredulous.  The guy was raised Mennonite, which I thought meant he would have retained the values of that church and be above doping. Also, the details didn’t sound right (the test results showed he had elevated levels of testosterone, which would be something a doper would use during training, not necessarily during the middle of a multi-day race). And, in the long run, Landis fought the decision in court, so I my incredulity lasted. Even though he had lost in court, I still had some hope there was a mistake in the test.

Until I read in the news that he admitted doping. What a letdown.

Landis says that Lance Armstrong was doping, too, which is an allegation that has been around ever since Armstrong won the first of his 7 Tour de France victories, but which has never been proven. I’ll be really let down if someday Armstrong admits doping, or his old blood and urine samples are somehow shown to contain performance-enhancing drugs.

Feeling let down by a star in one of my favorite sports reminds me of other letdowns by public figures. Some are athletes (Barry Bonds, for example), some are politicians (former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, for example).

Eliot Spitzer was New York’s Attorney General before he was elected governor, and he showed a lot of promise as a governor. Here’s what a New York Times editorial says about him in 2006:

If voters elect Mr. Spitzer with the kind of mandate the polls are predicting, he will have the political influence to press for priorities he has been stressing throughout the campaign — improving access to health care, reforming Medicaid and expanding education financing. He must offer hope for more job creation upstate and spur development at ground zero and other sites in the city. He should make sure that the court system is finally revamped and consolidated, if necessary through a constitutional amendment.

After Spitzer resigned office when his affairs with prostitutes was revealed, we were stuck with (then-lieutenant governor) David Paterson, who immediately admitted having used drugs and cheated on his wife. And we’re left with New York’s legislature still un-reformed, still dysfunctional, and still unresponsive to the needs of their constituents. What a letdown.

Public letdowns are one thing, personal letdowns are another. I’ve been let down by friends and loved ones (but this is not a post about that–I’m not pointing anyone in particular out). And I’ve let people down, too. The scale of the disappointment a person feels is not diminished by the private nature of it. When I promised the boys I would take them fishing, and then found that I couldn’t, I disappointed them (even though I had no choice but to cancel those plans). It’s a terrible feeling. And it makes me want to never again make a promise that there’s a chance I can’t keep.

I’ve announced on my facebook page that I’m leaving facebook’s privacy problems behind. Rather than re-write the arguments that persuaded me, I’ll just link to them in this post. (Each link opens in a new window.)

• first, here’s a bunch of news articles related to the problems people are having with facebook: Google News Search
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: Six Things You Need to Know About Facebook Connections
• New York Times: Facebook Glitch Brings New Privacy Worries
• C|Net News: Five hidden dangers of Facebook

Leaving facebook means that I have to figure out how to communicate with the people I’m connected to there who don’t have my phone number, email address, this web site address, and whose contact info I might not have. I’m letting my facebook “friends” know in advance, so hopefully I can make the transition without losing those connections. If you don’t think I have your contact info already, would you send me an email? thomas@woodswebdesign.com

I’ve considered that there are “real life” friends of mine who aren’t even using facebook, and I’ve managed to stay connected to them, using the old-fashioned methods like phone calls, and going to see them in person. I know that’s not possible for everyone on my facebook friends list, but facebook has been bugging me for a while, and it’s time to make the break.