My other issue is of where some of my posts belong. As most of you know I write for TUG.n and have since starting it with Chris “back in the day”. I love writing geeky stuff but as I start to get better at writing ( I am improving a little, aren’t I ), I find myself wanting to post much more thought-out posts rather than the normal quickly written posts you’ve seen on TUG.n over the last several years.

That being said, who has the time? Though I think there is a balance, and blogging should not be turned into a form of journalism where every single detail is gone over with a fine-tooth comb (at least not for me personally), I am finding it difficult to strike a balance that I am happy with. So, the TUG.n airwaves go silent.

Perhaps this same issue plagues Mike, and Josue too. Not only are we finding it hard to produce good content on a regular basis (that we’re happy with), but I think we’re also trying to find out where each post belongs. Personal blog, TUG.n, company blog, etc.

It is something that will probably continue to challenge me for quite sometime and I don’t believe I’ll ever be able to fully solve the issue. But I have some ideas up my sleeve that will hopefully be able to pull some of this stuff together and that will help that decision become less important (in theory).

Whoever said blogging was easy never really blogged much or only has one blog.

[tags]blogs, itunes, theubergeeks, madeincr, josue salazar, mike stickel, screenflicker, chris fehnel, writing, personal[/tags]
[slug]itunes-belonging[/slug]

Well, Roxeanne of Beach Walks with Rox, decided to reply to that post with a slightly different twist on the same idea. She says there is no need to keep up-to-date on everything all the time, but she’d rather search for something once she needs it.

Great idea. Why keep up with everything when you may not even need that information? Just look it up later. This reminds me of another famous great mind Albert Einstein (yes I’m comparing Roxeanne to Einstein) who:

When one of Albert Einstein’s colleagues asked the eminent physicist for his telephone number one day, he reached for a telephone directory and looked it up. “You don’t remember your own number?” the man asked, understandably startled. “No,” Einstein replied with a shrug. “Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a book?” — via Anecdote

I am not sure if this is fact or fiction but the idea rings true regardless. The Internet is an enormous phone book that can be consulted at anytime using powerful tools like Yahoo! or Google whenever you feel like you need some information. And as Roxanne says “…you might find something even better…” than what you would have if you’d kept an out-of-date bookmark of that information from the past.

If you aren’t already subscribed to Beach Walks with Rox I certainly suggest you check it out. The show is ran by two of my friends (whom I’ve not yet met) in Hawaii and it is one piece of entertainment (though I think Beach Walks has an enormous amount of value beyond simple entertainment) that I will never get rid of.

Thanks for responding Roxeanne and “Secret Cameraman”. Keep up the great show!

There are also some other great replies to that post in the comments, so be sure to check out those too.

[tags]beach walks, video, personal, thoughts, entertainment, hobbies, internet, web, thinking, roxeanne darling, hawaii[/tags]
[slug]re-entertain-yourself[/slug]

Being entertained by today?

The world continues to shrink due to the speed at which information is broadcast worldwide. This makes it really easy to tap yourself into pretty much whatever type of information you want and soak it all in. However, regardless of how small the world is perceived to be because of technological and information distribution advancement – the world is still huge. The amount of information found on the Internet is increasing at an immeasurable rate. In other words; you will never be able to keep up.

Let’s say for example that you are interested in space. By now you probably know that I have a modest amount of interest in space that continues to grow. The amount of information on the Internet about space is staggering. I can imagine a kid walking into a library years ago and pulling an entire section of books off the shelf dealing with space and being overwhelmed with the amount of information he has to catch up on. Even with modern day tools to help us find exactly what we’re looking for, this feeling remains very much the same for me. But this is a good thing – the bad thing would be to try to “keep up-to-the-day” on a particular subject globally, since it proves to be near impossible to do unless you are a researcher by trade.

Call it information overload. But there are ways to combat this. Be specific in what you are looking for and the amount of information on the specific thing can be whittled down into something manageable. Do not “tap your brain” into the Internet and hope that you have the time, or the ability, to weed through the right, the wrong, the bad, and the good. Eventually the cream will rise to the top.

Being yourself?

More specifically; finding out what your personal interests are. I get the whole “social web” thing that allows us to monitor hundreds if not thousands of topics or people in various ways. It allows us to interact with people who have similar interests than us regardless of geography, economic situation, or language. I completely agree that the Web is a cool place.

But have you ever found yourself being a follower of everything? I touched on this in “Taking advantage of the things you already own”, where people want the latest and greatest before they even know how to use what they already have. I’ve been guilty of this. But there is also the idea of the quantity of “things” you have too. Or the quantity of the interests you supposedly have. Do you have 1,000 hobbies? Or, perhaps you just have 1 but it changes every single day before you have a chance to fully explore the hobby you did yesterday? I think it is good to have a few hobbies, this way you can pick what you want to do today based on your mood – but having too many can lead you to never fully exploring any of them.

Where did all of this stem from?

Hopefully if you read this you are able to understand what I am trying to say and maybe you can even relate. I’m definitely not the best writer and I seem to leave stuff out pretty consistently so I hope I was able to at least make a little sense.

Where did this all come from? A few months back I was notified that my Flickr account was going to expire. It got me to thinking about whether or not I use Flickr to its fullest potential, and whether or not I could simply live with the free-account for what I actually do use it for. A few days later I got an email from Microsoft about my Xbox Live account expiring. I looked at the pile of dust on my Xbox and decided that I would not renew that either. I don’t want to be forced into using something because I’m paying for it. Then I looked at my telescope and watercolor paints collecting dust. Realizing I’d much rather use them than the Xbox. I spent some time outside collecting fossils (I used to spend the majority of my life outdoors and now it is the opposite) and I really wanted to start to find out what my “real world” interests were again. It used to be mostly natural things. The woods, animals, plants, dirt, anything outside. Then it completely switched where I spent over 10 years almost completely indoors learning how to do what it is I do now – but I believe there to be a balance and I am definitely not striking it. Call it my resolution for 2007 or just a personal goal – I want to balance things.

I was talking to my friend Dave O. the other day and he feels very much the same as I do. I’m guessing that we’re not alone. He was commenting to me how much he enjoyed playing games with his son, or just “petting the dog and staring at the wall”. I couldn’t agree more. I’m looking forward to this new challenge – and it will be a challenge. I’d like to start spending nearly the same amount of time pursuing real world personal interests as I do online ones.

The World only looks like it is shrinking when you look at it through a monitor.

[tags]personal, thoughts, entertainment, hobbies, flickr, xbox, nature, space, telescope, internet, web, thinking[/tags]
[slug]entertain-yourself[/slug]

Being part of the-diet has lent itself to many small victories. I figured I’d note just a few of them.

The first one that comes to mind happened just today. Eliza and I had to run some errands and while we were out we stopped at Subway for lunch. Typically, even while on a diet, I’ll shove down a 12-inch sub, a pack of potato chips, and diet soda. Does this fit into my daily-caloric intake? Sure. Do I need to eat that much at lunch time? Absolutely not. Today, after recalling a recent success story shared to us on our Flickr group, I opted for the 6-inch sub. After eating it (slowly), I was more than satisfied and much happier with myself.

Another small victory happened at the tail end of playing about four hours of basketball on Monday. I mentioned this briefly in my week three weigh-in, but I wanted to make sure I made a point of this. When you are on a diet you gain much more than you lose. Sure, you lose weight, pant sizes, and inches – but you end up gaining energy, stamina, and enjoyment out of everyday activities.

Kevin, who is also on the dieters list, mentioned about his experience recently of meeting up with an old friend and how he wondered what she thought of his weight. I have had this happened to me on more than one occasion over the years and I am hoping that one day I will be able to add this to my list of small victories, wondering how the person I am meeting has gained so much weight and them wondering how I still look so good.

[tags]diet, the-diet, personal, victories[/tags]