Monthly Archives: January 2012

Socialite

Its no secret that I’ve been accused of being an early adopter…its actually something in which I sort of pride myself. I see it as being a sort of risk-taker…you never know if that great new device or service is really going to prove itself worthy of what you just paid for it.

With social media, however, there’s a little less of a risk. I’ve been an early adopter, there, as well…while I joined the blogosphere somewhat late (I started this space in 2005, and it has evolved with me into something very different since then), I set up a Facebook profile when Facebook was new and all the rage (remember back when you had to be enrolled in an academic institution to set up an account?). Since then, I’ve jumped on some social media, and avoided others (Foursquare? No thanks.). I use social media for which I can realistically see a use or benefit, and sometimes begrudgingly hold onto social media profiles only because I can still see a benefit.

A few months ago, a blogger I follow regularly posted a list of the social media sites that he uses regularly, and asked his readers to comment with theirs. I did, and I was amazed at how many social media sites I use. Certainly, social media has changed our world, altered the ways in which we interact with each other forever, and guided us to new people with whom we can interact. My commenting on his post drove that fact home to me, and I thought it would be interesting for you, as well. So, just for fun and a break from my usual blogging fare, I thought I’d do something similar. Here are the social media sites I use, and how (or why) I use them.

Facebook. I have a personal Facebook profile, and I keep it locked down pretty tightly. This blog, of course, also has a Facebook page. Personally, I’m over Facebook. As its privacy thresh hold becomes lower, and as it leaves its niche to attempt to do everything (first it attempted to copy Twitter with streams of status updates, now it offers video chat…really??), I find myself posting to Facebook very sparingly, and use my personal account only because it is the easiest way in which to contact several of my friends (and, perhaps for sentimental reasons, as well).

Twitter. I love Twitter. I love the people I meet there from various backgrounds and disciplines, I love the real-time nature of it, I love the casual conversations that are sparked there. I love the interesting links that I discover that I otherwise wouldn’t, and the absolutely hysterical humor that can brighten my day. If all you ever do is tweet about the meetings you go to or how when you’re talking on your iPhone, I won’t follow you. Give me a stream full of interesting links or quips, and my attention is yours.

Tumblr is a recent venue for me, but I’ve already met fascinating people. I love the simplicity of Tumblr, how its not about how many people you follow, and how it is full of great art, beautiful images, and thought-provoking quotes. Tumblr receives far more of my time than Facebook, and I’ve turned it into sort of a collection of the things that inspire me to write, both here and elsewhere.

Google+ is the site that I truly wish would replace Facebook, and is perfectly capable of doing so. Because my blogging activities are tied into my Google profile, this one is important to me. However, while I’m connected to a relatively large number of family and friends there, not many of them use Google+ regularly, so my activity there is unfortunately limited until everyone recognizes how superior it is to Facebook. Of course, I have a YouTube account associated with this, but use it rarely. I aggregate my RSS feeds with Google Reader, and share interesting posts occasionally that way, as well.

LinkedIn is valuable for keeping in touch with present and former colleagues. I’m careful about my connections there, and its one of those sites I have a feeling will become much more useful in the future, so I’m keeping it around.

Goodreads is where I keep track of my voracious reading appetite, and chat about good books with good friends. I’ve began to connect more and more with other writers that I’ve met on Twitter, there, and I’ll eventually set up an author page…I just haven’t gotten around to that, yet (once I finish the work-in-progress, I think).

Delicious was a network I joined several years ago. Its one of those profiles that you forget you have until there’s a link to a site that you really need to store somewhere for future reference, and keep it with other similar links, and then suddenly Delicious is the most valuable profile you have. I don’t use the social aspect of Delicious as much…its a repository for my bookmarks.

Instapaper is something I don’t know how I survived without. Its simply a place to put all of those stories and articles and posts that you know you want to read, but just don’t have time to read at the moment you find them. Instapaper is amazing!

Of course, other sites have come and gone, but this is quite enough to manage, don’t you think? When I consider how integral these sites have become to my daily routine, I’m quite amazed.

What social media do you use on a regular basis? How has it impacted your life, for better or worse?

Photo Attribution: ivanpw

Baby Talk

Several years ago, I remember a colleague bringing her young baby to the office where we shared a day job. I was busy at the time…you know, the young professional trying to make himself valuable (this was prior to the onset of my more curmudgeonly nature), and popped into the office of the other co-worker to whom she was showing her baby to ask that person a quick question about routing some paperwork or something like that. They joked with me that every female in the room had instantly zeroed in on the new baby, but that I had hardly noticed.

Fast forward several years. I was sitting in a green room backstage a few weekends ago and talking to a couple who were waiting for one of the musicians that had been onstage to finish packing up his equipment to leave. I ended up in a conversation in which we compared reasons and stories for our favorite brands of cloth diapers. Yet, I felt no need to surrender my man-card.

Its amazing, isn’t it, how children so easily break down cultural barriers? Last night at an Epiphany service and Twelfth Night concert, our daughter became a bit fussy. Yet no one minded. We received smiles from across the congregation, and comments on how well-behaved a child she is. All sorts of people from all different ages approached us conversationally. I ended up making some unexpected connections in the local arts and academic communities because of discussion about children sleeping through the night.

When we read about situations in which children are in danger, adults almost invariably rush into dangerous situations to save children…situations in which there may be hesitation to save other adults, or a motivation to wait for professional rescuers to arrive. Even the most tax-averse of conservative politicians have difficulty justifying reducing funds that help children in the community. And, even among the most hardened of criminals who are incarcerated for unspeakable acts, child abuse is viewed as a most heinous of crimes, and child abusers introduced into their populations…well, we’ve all heard about how that goes.

Children seem to have this universal way of breaching these false barriers that we put up around ourselves, these invisible but inviolable walls by which we isolate ourselves from others according to cultural status, income level, or (God help us) ethnicity.  The innocence of a child is an instant conversation starter with those whom we may not have otherwise had conversation. They are instant motivators to justice and protection among those who might not otherwise be as motivated.

In a crowded airport shuttle in November, a seat was immediately surrendered for my wife to have a place to sit with our daughter.

I also wonder why we don’t see other adults this way? Do we see ourselves as now tainted, somehow? As being part of the rest of the cynical world? Do we mourn this, and want to postpone that perspective reaching an innocent child for as long as possible? Or is it as simple as the fact that we become overwhelmed by the “cute factor?”

I’m amazed at how children bring us so easily together, in any case.

(Insert Obligatory Post About New Year’s Goals Here)

Karen and I were driving home from our weekend grocery shopping expedition on Saturday evening when we decided to stop by a restaurant for dinner. We arrived to find the restaurant closed at around 5:00 p.m. on a Saturday.


Why? That’s strange! 


Then, realization dawned.

It’s New Year’s Eve!


Sadly, that epiphany has escaped  me by Saturday evening. I had an engagement mixing audio early on Sunday, and was planning to be in bed by 10:00 p.m. A quick perusal of Twitter left me wondering what the #NYE hashtag was supposed to indicate, until I read someone’s tweet that actually mentioned New Year’s Eve.

Oh! Realization dawned again, somewhat begrudgingly due to the fact that it had to show up twice. It’s New Year’s Eve! 


And, for the first time that I can remember in recent years, I was sound asleep some time before midnight. Ah, parenthood.

While the whole Holiday season felt at best delayed, and at worst anti-climactic this year, I truly did not recognize that Saturday night was the conclusion of 2011. And, Sunday did not feel like the beginning of 2012. Had I at least watched the ball drop, I would have had a marker, perhaps. Instead, I was completely adrift, floating through the transition from one year to the next nearly unwittingly. I haven’t been careless of any thought for 2012, though, so, along the lines of what is apparently a bit of an obligatory post in the blogging circles I frequent, here are some of my hopes and goals for 2012.

1. Finish a complete draft of my first novel. It’s a near-future, dystopian speculative fiction novel, and I finished Part I in September. That leaves Part II (about 150 pages or so) to go before I begin some serious editing (during which I will follow a process).
2. Change careers for my day job.
3. Maybe even make some plans for a PhD? I have a promising lead, but my new role as father to my beautiful daughter complicates this significantly. Hmmm…
4. Become less task-focused and more focused on the things that matter, primarily my family, friends, and faith (this goal sort of flies in the face of the first three).
5. Relax (this also flies in the face of the first three…I’m contradictory right now).
6. Read more.
7. Write more. And publish something, because its been a few months, now, and I miss it.

What are your goals for the new year? Here’s to hoping that 2012 greets you with much opportunity, happiness, and dreams come true.

Image attribution: Creativity103 under Creative Commons.