Nov 17, 2008 | blog, happiness
Like Jon Swanson, I’m not really big on memes, but since the 5-Things meme is a long standing blogging tradition, who am I to refuse? So in his 25 Things post, Jon tagged me with “Five Happiness Reasonsâ€, I’ll bite and hand off to another couple bloggers.
Here are my items for the “5 Things†meme: Reasons to be Happy:
- The change of seasons
- Our ability to overcome challenges
- Your family & friends
- Being part of the community
- Doing something for someone
So now I’ve got to tag another 5 bloggers eh? Well, I’ll tag Mykl Roventine, Todd Jordan, Josh Kahn, Mike Keliher, Garrick Van Buren. What’s the five things? Since it’s that Thanksgiving time of year – how about 5 things in social media to be thankful for? Participate if you like guys.
Photo credit: Leo Reynolds
Nov 9, 2008 | blog
Hey there! Yeah, I’m still around. I’ve had a heck of a down week this past week. It started out just fine, got back from a great little weekend getaway with the family and started the week just fine. Got out on Tuesday and voted, but that’s about where it ended.
I’d spent the rest of the week trying to work through one heck of a nasty cold. Finally here on Sunday, that’s really lifting. I usually don’t get the common stuff that floats around, including the flu – but this one got me real good. Oh well, it’s about done and I’ll be getting back to business this coming week.
What’s been fun though was meeting more great people involved in social media here in Minneapolis & St. Paul and helping them get connected and able to meet each other. I wish them well as they work on the ideas and projects they create together – fun stuff.
I’ve been wondering about this recent meme on the death of blogging. What rubbish. A great way to drive traffic though – which is what those kinds of memes are for anyway. Though I will admit that all the social sites have diluted the waters of the blogosphere and have pulled many bloggers off their game and kept them from focusing on their goals. I know, I’ve let that happen here as well.
Ok, that and work – having to keep up with a full-time consulting gig at a fortune 100 company can really take up a significant portion of your time. However, that’s all good, should be getting better too I would hope.
Anyway, I just wanted to check with folks and let you know I’m around, a quiet mainly because of time constraints, but still here. Drop a line if you’d like and let me know what you’re up to.
Oct 15, 2008 | happiness
Knowing that thousands of bloggers around the world are doing something today about poverty. http://blogactionday.org/
Oct 11, 2008 | blog
I’ll warn you up font – this post is pretty much a rant about the blogosphere as it is today. Read on if you want.
I think I have it – the reason I’ve been blogging less these last several months.
It’s the stress. The stress of debate, of the times, of confrontation. That’s what I think I’ve been seeing develop around the blogosphere the last several months. I’d been thinking it was part of the buildup to the super bowl of political events – the U.S. Presidential election.
It’s more than that, however. It’s permeated nearly everything I had been reading and following the last several years. As such, I’ve found less interest in participating in the discussion. Finding most of it to be that very echo-chamber we complain only the A-List participates in. Not true really – it’s top to bottom A through Z.
The same tired topics, the same rhetoric, the same names, the same points of view, the same crap over and over until it becomes nothing more than a manifestation of the joke that the “unwired†population think “web 2.0†is. That makes me both mad & sad.
What’s my point? It’s that I started blogging because it was an outlet for ideas that I couldn’t share at work. It was a way to explore new topics outside the confines of my IT background into new fields of interest. It seems like that period has passed. Perhaps it hasn’t, but to me it appears that way. The tone, while civil, is changing. The conversations among bloggers is becoming debates.
Bloggers I’ve followed for years have developed into just another version of the mainstream media. It makes me wonder if there’s space left to really exchange new ideas and further explore them to the fullest. Instead, I find the same rehashed topics left over from CNN, Fox and CBNC. Oh joy.
Layer the economic issues coming to light in the last week or two and you get a cacophony of “sky is falling†postings from all the usual suspects. What’s worse than amateur journalism without a point? Uninformed, fear-filled, amateur journalism without a point. This point should back that statement up pretty well except that it’s not fear-filled, but rather loaded with disgust. Disgust that people who once came up with and shared new ideas, now can’t help but echo minor variations of the same theme.
On the other hand, some of those same popular bloggers that I used to read with gusto pointed me to the next great resource for ideas and inspiration. Fellow bloggers and writers who labor to share, teach, learn, improve and otherwise give back to their readers. I’m off to the explore and share those ideas and experiences. Bloggers who’ve yet to really get noticed by the who’s who (and maybe one who has) are what I’m looking for, so share some of the ones you know of.
How about you? What’s your take on the state of the blogosphere?
Photo credit: James Gordon (James has an interesting post that accompanies the above photo about the sliding rocks of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, CA)
Update: Of course, an hour after I wrote this great post I ran across Coarsness Threatens Social Media Growth by Chip Griffin. That’s what I get for not staying on top of my feeds!
🙂
Oct 4, 2008 | blog
It’s been awhile, but I’m using my mobile kit again for blogging. This is made up primarily of my old T-Mobile MDA, ThinkOutside Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse.
We’re off to find adventure in the afternoon in front of us, be it large or small. I’ll have to take a picture of the entire kit later, but we’re heading out the door as I write this. Until later!
