my sometimes-skeptical social commentary

Archive for the ‘blogging’ 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….

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.

I put a tip jar on this web site today. It’s like begging, only you don’t have to say no to my face, and I don’t have to ask to your face. Basically, my income doesn’t match my outgo, so all the writing I do on this blog needs to start paying so that I can balance the budget, Gramm-Rudman style.

What if you don’t donate to the tip jar? Nothing bad happens. It’ll be just like all those years I listened to NPR and never donated any money. Will I keep blogging? Do they keep making new episodes of Car Talk and This American Life? You betcha.

If you do put something in the tip jar, make sure you give me a way of contacting you to say thanks.

Instead of making resolutions, I’m writing down plans…well, not plans exactly, but stuff that I want to do.

I think most of these ideas are feasible. What do you think?

1. Finish the house we started in 2009. I’d like to incorporate green technology, but we’ll see.
2. Get back to running my favorite seasonal business, The Buffalo Bike Taxi Co.
3. Go to more pro baseball games than we did in 2009. I’d like to see my first major league game. In Toronto. I know what you’re saying…someone my age has never seen the MLB in person? Nope.
4. This one is related to #2 above. I will lose a little weight and continue to improve my cardiovascular health. Riding The Buffalo Bike Taxi Co, it would be nearly impossible to gain weight.
5. Do more writing, even if it just more-frequent posts on this blog. I do want to get back to real writing, though.
6. I’d like to learn to speak another language. I studied French in high school and college, so I remember some of that, but “Quiero aprender a hablar español de este año.” (Without having to use Google Translate.)
7. I have a bunch of audio cassettes that I want to convert into digital files, so that I can actually listen to that music. (Younger readers may want to ask their parents if they have any audio cassettes in the basement that they could look at.)
8. I say this every year, but this year is different (partly because of the divorce). I want to spend more time with old friends. I have not ever visited my friends Jesse, Rich, Craig, or Greg at their houses.
9. I’d like to buy an electric car. A Tesla Roadster would be nice, but I would “settle” for a a hybrid Fusion.
10. We live near a lot of water, so I’d like to make sure we get the canoe wet a lot this summer. The Buffalo River is a lot more scenic than you’d expect.
11. Another thing I’ve wanted to do for years, but somehow haven’t found the time to do, is ride my bicycle across New York State. The Erie Canal is a great way to go.
12. I want to take the boys camping, somewhere that they’ll never forget. I think the Adirondacks would be great.
13. We’ve been attending church more regularly, but this year, I would like to make it such a standard part of our life that the boys don’t resist going, when they are at my house on a Sunday. But here’s a problem I haven’t figured out how to resolve: I like three different churches, but I can’t go to all three on the same Sunday morning. Ultimately, I think it will be better if I am more actively involved with one of those three churches, doing things besides just attending morning church services.
14. Many of these things can be done, and some should be done, with family. Baseball, bicycling, and church, for example. This year, I would like to have time to visit my family members at their houses, but also to make the house we’re working on large enough for everyone to gather here for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

What about you? Will you be doing any of these activities?

I am still blogging, though very infrequently. Why is that? I used to blog a lot. More than one entry per day. Now I’m hardly blogging once per month.

I used to send photos from my phone and at least post a photo. Why did I stop doing that?

I used to have all kinds of strong opinions in my blog. Why did I stop writing them?