Major Changes.

 

After languishing for a couple of years, I've decided to resurrect my Blogger.  No clear plan what will happen here. I've tried several things... gaming blog, vanity blog, humorous stories.  I doubt many folks will be concerned with what I do here. I don't think folks even use Blogger anymore. But what has happened is that I moved lencain.com to Google Domains. I figure with the combination of that along with the various Google tools, this could be a handy device.

So I'm going to give this blogging thing another try.

To Blog, or not to Blog

Does anyone 'blog' anymore?

That is a sad question.  I fear everyone has been absorbed into the beast that is Facebook. As well as it's minions (I'm looking at you Instagram.) and Twitter.  Blogs have died.  This makes me sad.  I've been on the Internet for 24 years.  I've made websites, catalogs, shopping carts, web apps and ... blogs.  I remember the old days of Geocities.  I've had a Blogger account since the beginning.  Yes, I even snorted the drug that is WordPress. But now everything is... "Follow us on Facebook."  or "Follow me on Twitter."

Yes, I'm as guilty as the rest.  I've spent my time in that scrolling quagmire.  I"ve viewed far more shallow 'likes' and 'status updates' than I care to think about. I miss the old days.  It takes a little effort and commitment to update a blog on a regular basis.  Look no further than here.  My own fits and starts with this current blog.  I make a resolution to share some information or part of my life with the rest of the world then i let that fruit whither on the vine. 

I'm going to try an experiment.  I will see if I can start blogging again.  Then I will look around the web and see if there are other, old school bloggers out there.  I may even give shout outs.  (Not that anyone reads this. But hey, it's an effort.)  

It's that time again!

Yep, it's that time again... Resolution time!  Yay.

Yes, resolution time.  Once again we get to make promises to ourselves that we can't really keep.  Well, can't may not be the right word.  Maybe won't.  If losing weight just required a promise, we would all be thin.  If you could simply swear it off, no one would be a smoker.   Don' t get me wrong,  I know these things can happen.  I myself quit smoking.  (But not via resolution.)  I quit after much commitment and false starts.  While I did resolve not to smoke anymore, I didn't do it on Jan 1.  (Actually it was like March I think. Don't remember, it was like 20 years ago.)  But it wasn't a "resolution".  I just realized I had to quit. 

Why do we make "New Year's" resolutions?  Can we only change our lives by starting a new calendar?  If we don't resolve to do it in January do we have to wait twelve more months to try again?  What if we fail?  Have we failed for the year?  I don't think so.  I believe it has to do with fresh starts.  It's easier to dramatically change your life when you have a specific, identifiable starting point.  "I transformed my life by resolving to do so March 12...  That really doesn't carry the weight of "I resolved to {insert life change} on New Years Day."

How about we just resolve to be better... everyday?  Eat a little better.  Move a little more.  Be nicer to the neighbors.  Why does it take a resolution?  Can't we just decide to be better?  Can we do it like in February?  (or September?)

Just asking.

Snow days

Remember when you was a kid and snow days were great?  Yeah, me neither. I lived on a farm.  Snow days meant shovelling, firewood and a whole new list of chores.  I know some kids got to watch cartoons and ride sleds, but we had to work.  So now I'm all grown up. (So they say.)  In lieu of trashing my 'newish' car on the icy roads, I've opted for a snow day. 

Well, this should be a nice casual day of cartoons and sled riding.  Yay!

Well, not so much.  After I spend a couple of hours shovelling the driveway and mailbox.  (Then re-shovellling after the snowplow.)  I can go in and answer my emails, then field some phone calls.  I then have to remote into my desktop and finish a monthly report and check the network.   I'll also need to check on my assistant to make sure he's surviving the onslaught alone. But all in all I should be done by six o'clock ... which is when I normally get home. 

So  I guess I'll never get to set and watch cartoons.  Whatever happened to Johnny Quest anyway.  I miss that show.

Taz wanted to say "Hi"

Freedom.

Yes, I think that's what I have gained by quitting Facebook and Twitter.  Freedom.  I have followers and I followed others.  The problem is that a lot of those followers are  family and many are coworkers.  Then top that off with some folks I share interests with like model railroading and games.  and sprinkle in the random strangers and I felt a bit constrained as far as what I wanted to post. 

Things my family may find funny are too personal for strangers or coworkers.  Darker humor intended for strangers would offend family.  I also don't like bringing my personal life to work as well as my attempt to separate work from home life.  Too much pressure!

So here I sit.  Blogging on Blogger.  Or should I say venting.  But that's just it.  Here I feel I can say what I want.  There's no pressure to acquire or keep followers.  No worry about offending my boss.  Yes I know they could always stumble across this,  but at least they are less likely to share it with all of my relatives and old high school friends.

I guess the other thing is, I have no desire to view "You may like this" posts that some bot found similar to something I typed.  Or the political ads disguised as pseudo-news articles.  Or the continuous  advertisements for the  lawnmower I searched for six months ago.  Yeah, fuck social media.

You are welcome to read this blog... or not.  The choice is yours.  Either way, have a nice day.

Wow! Dormant for almost six years!

That's terrible!  How could someone do this?  Wasting resources, ignoring opportunity... how dare me! 

Truth is, I'm not much of a public speaker.  I generally feel folks don't really care what I think about things.  I mean, everyone has opinions about things like games, books, politics.  (Well actually, screw politics.  Those people are idiots.)  But anyhow, I've always found that I'm sort of average.  Kind of boring and for the most part, not that interesting.   Also posting content is time consuming. 

Plus, I forgot about this blog.  Like everyone else, I got caught up in Facebook and Twitter. (And yes, even Google+ for a bit.)  But sharing someone elses share of someone elses friend's share becomes quite... impersonal.  I found that everyone I knew was sharing the same thing over and over so fresh content basically didn't exist.   And yes, the political idiots found their way there too. 

So now I have quit the "social media" shouting match and have decided to simply share information.   If someone finds it interesting, funny or even informative, then great.  Otherwise who cares.  I'm not getting paid to write and they aren't paying to read.  Mostly I doubt that in a world of "share me, like me, look at me" anyone will notice this little blog anyhow.  Someone told me recently that blogs are dead so here I am, a scruffy old mage on a dead medium.  I can live with that.