Ponderings and Musings

A friend of mine recently asked about the technical details of creating and maintaining a blog. I hadn’t talked about the mechanics of this blog in a while, so it was fun to kind of remember what it took to get this thing going and what is running in the background to bring this alleged enjoyment to the dear reader. For the curious, this blog runs on WordPress on a wind-powered server in my own server-space. This makes maintaining the blog just a little more challenging in that I need to stay on top of doing software updates and the like so I don’t compromise the security of the site. If anyone has any further questions as to the technicalities of the blog, you’re always free to drop me a line.

After my friend and I discussed the mechanics of the blog and I offered the alternate suggestion of using the wordpress.com platform (which is essentially the same thing that I do, only using WordPress’ own servers, which are always patched), he asked me one more question: “Why do I blog?”

You know, I haven’t thought about this one in a while either. My blog is nearly 12 years old. Back when I started blogging, the whole personal blog thing was in it’s heyday. People were just starting to see the journalistic possibilities of the blogging platform. I didn’t even know it was a “blog” when I started it; I just started writing as an exercise for building webpages.

But what motivates me to blog? Mainly creativity. I don’t do nearly enough creative writing. I love painting a picture with words and it seems like I never have enough time to do that sort of thing. I try to write something at least once a day, but when I put myself on some sort of schedule I run into writer’s block. The words just have to flow when they can flow. Using my iPad to blog has helped a lot in this regard.

I have zero interest in making money off my blog. There are no ads on my blog. There is no paywall. I don’t think there’s a problem with charging to view a blog if you have something credible and interesting to share, but if you’re just writing along the same lines as the things I tend to write about, I don’t think that it’s worth charging users for. It’s just my personal preference.

I know that I write in my blog because I enjoy sharing my slice of life with the world. On the occasions where I’ve wrestled with something, emotional, mentally, physically, psychotically, whatever, there has been some comfort in being able to read the blog of someone have a similar experience. One doesn’t feel nearly alone in the world when evidence points to the contrary.

I guess I also write for my personal amusement. Earl laughs at me because I will occasionally read a blog entry from a few years ago and laugh at myself. That helps me keep in good spirits when I might be feeling the winter blahs or whatever.

So I’m hoping that my friend will start a blog and share his life experience with those that may be interested. There’s not a lot of personal blogs left these days; it seems everyone goes for the quick updates via the social networks.

Once in a while it’s good to let the paragraphs flow. I know I enjoy it.

I mentioned a while back that I really enjoyed the NBC series “The Event”. True to NBC traditional behavior, the network canceled the series before we ever really found out what the event actually was, but that’s what network executives do nowadays.

One of the big themes of the series was that there was some big event that was going to happen. This contributed to the undercurrent of suspense that was always present. What was going to be life altering? What was going to change things? How were things going to change? What was The Event?

I’m feeling that way in life right now. I don’t know that there is an event on my horizon as much as I want an event to be on my horizon. Perhaps this is yet another chapter in some sort of mid-life crisis. I’m basically a happy guy and I love my life, but I feel like there’s something that I should be doing or something that should be happening that hasn’t been done or happened yet. I worry that I might be missing out on something. Whilst many parts of my life wade into the deep water, I feel like there’s way too much going on in the shallow. Do we need to move? Am I challenged enough? Are my current challenges too predictable? Am I in the wrong museum, looking at the wrong big picture, yet again?

I don’t think that last question is the case. I like what I do, I like with whom I do it and I don’t feel a need to change there. That goes for all facets of my life. All of my relationships are rock-solid and I wouldn’t change a thing there. Maybe it’s the landscape. Maybe it’s the last vestiges of cabin fever, though we’ve been traveling enough that one would think that wouldn’t be an issue. Perhaps it’s a fear of a rut.

For lack of a better term, I feel like I’m not deep enough into the waters of life. I feel like I’m wearing a pair of floaties.

Maybe I need to jump out of an airplane or something.

So after a busy day yesterday, Earl and I were frankly too lazy to do anything about making supper last night. So we decided to go out. Not wanting to spend a lot of money and not in the mood for anything extravagant, but still wanting a relatively healthy menu to choose from, we went to a diner that isn’t too far away. We go to this diner often, but I don’t think we had ever been there on a Monday night. We figured it wouldn’t be too busy.

It wasn’t busy at all and before we knew it, we were seated in a large booth and looking over the menu. It was kind of weird being in the place on a Monday night because it was a completely different staff; it was kind of like watching a Broadway show with all understudies or something (nothing against understudies, by the way). The energy of the diner was more subdued than usual. We figured it was the Monday vibe.

Looking around I noticed a table of older woman sitting directly behind Earl and Jamie. They looked familiar to me but I couldn’t place where I knew them from. Had I encountered them at the grocery store? At a bank, perhaps? This gave me something to ponder for a while.

The server came over and didn’t really seem interested in pleasantries. She just kind of asked what we wanted to drink and shuffled off. When she came back, Jamie asked if he could have a plain, grilled-cheese sandwich to go along with a bowl of the tomato soup he had just ordered. She kind of clucked and said, “of course we can make a plain, grilled-cheese sandwich.” Her reply felt incomplete, like it was missing the words “you idiot” at the end, but perhaps she was into word conservation. Earl asked for a hamburger. She looked at him incredulously as he continued with his order.

“Uh, how would you like the hamburger cooked?”, again, with “you idiot” silently implied. Her cluck was accompanied by an eye roll.

At this moment I decided to keep my mouth shut and tweeted my frustration instead with a vague tweet:

tweet

I placed my order, filling in all the gaps that I already knew about because I always order the same thing and the pleasant server just confirms. There was no way anyone was going to cluck or roll on my watch.

She shuffled off to do her thing and I watched her busy herself around the diner. The kitchen door would wave open far enough where I could see food assembly in progress. A few observations:

1. She doesn’t like ice scoops. She’d rather use the serving glass as a shovel. That’s a NYS Health Department no-no.
2. She doesn’t like tongs. She’d rather throw a lemon wedge in a glass of water with her hands. That’s a NYS Health Department no-no.
3. She doesn’t like tongs. She’d rather throw the a pre-made lettuce salad into the bowl with her hands and then casually wipe her nose. That’s a NYS Health Department no-no.

I wasn’t in the mood to be confrontational so I let these things go because honestly, I had observed this behavior after we had all of our food and drinks and I figured I was already going to die so I might as well have a crowd join me in the better place.

As we made our way through the meal, she stopped by once and without ever looking us in the eye, she asked if everything was ok and then shot away. No refills for you!

She stopped by the table behind Earl and Jamie before stopping by our table to give us our check. Jamie snickered as he overheard the conversation at the next table. They had decided not to tip the waitress because of her rude demeanor. And that’s when it hit me.

The ladies at the table worked at the local DMV office. They worked with the woman I had called Donut Breath!

Now, if the ladies at the DMV think the woman is rude, there is no doubt in my mind that we weren’t being overly sensitive last night. So we learned a couple of things:

1. The diner shall never be visited on a Monday night.
2. The diner probably won’t be visited in a long, long while due to the health concerns that were observed.
3. If you’re having a cantankerous time at the DMV, remember, there are places where it is worse.

I have considered calling the county health department to set up an inspection, but I don’t want bad things to happen to the diner. However, I will probably send an anonymous letter to the location to let them know what I observed.

I just gave a presentation on software that I wrote this week. The software was conceived on Monday and the first draft was presented today. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

As the kind people in the audience made comments about the software and provided a couple of suggestions, my mind went into overdrive with the six ways from Sunday that I could improve what I had already written. They could hear the excitement in my voice and I had to admit that I’m full-blown geek and I love doing projects like this. Part of it’s a control issue; I’m writing the software so I know how it’s suppose to behave versus the other half of my job where I help maintain software that was purchased by the company. Anyone want to venture a guess as to which half of my job I’d rather be on all the time?

Because they could hear the excitement in my voice, there was a comment that I was just ramping up on a Friday when everyone else seemed to be ramping down for the weekend. That’s true. I find a lot of energy on Fridays for some reason. I get a lot done on Fridays. It’s just my own drum beat out of sync with the drumbeat of everyone around me. I’m used to that. I think I relax and get stuff done on Fridays because I don’t feel the pressure of the work week ahead of me. Maybe in addition to control issues I also have stress issues. I wouldn’t be surprised about that.

So now I’m all geared up to get my to-do list cleared off and head into the weekend with a smile on my face. If you were sitting near me as I type this I’d make a ‘w00t!’ noise or something of the sort.

This is my second blog entry of my lunch hour. My first blog entry was just deleted on purpose. Instead of blowing off steam and ranting and raving about something that is bugging me today, I decided to stop letting it bug me by preventing it from having it monopolize my thoughts and my bloggy creative juices.

Instead I’ll enjoy the cool waters of a mud puddle.

When I woke up this morning I knew that we had snow on the ground before I had gotten out of bed and looked out the window. Armed with the dubious habit of checking my phone the moment I’m awake, I had scanned Twitter and Facebook and had already seen the photos.

There were many comments: “April Fools’ was yesterday!”, “C’mon, Mother Nature, enough already!”. People were clearly upset to see snow on the ground in Upstate New York.

Snow in April in Upstate New York is quite common, folks.

People tend to forget that we get snow in April. Moving the clocks ahead earlier than usual since 2007 and chants of spring from the journalists all distract us. Photos of our Facebook friends in the south enjoying their spring flowers and the like make us feel a closer connection to the rest of the world, but we’re nowhere close. Prideful comments such as “It’s 52º in New York!” may make us feel like we are in the Big Apple but in reality, we’re nowhere close.

There’s around an inch of snow on the ground this morning. No sense in complaining about it, it’s what we do. It’s why we’re here. So sit back and enjoy the moment that Mother Nature has given us.

Keep Calm and Carry On.

I have not been able to get fully into the groove of work after returning from a most excellent vacation. Part of my brain is still in “Mickey Mode”, which is actually a good thing because it helps make each day a zippity-doo-dah day. In that respect, I’ve been smiling a lot. But the biggest obstacle to getting back into the work mindset has been the fact that I have been in training since Monday morning. I didn’t get to go anywhere exotic for this round of training; for seven hours a day this week I’ve had my headset on and I’ve been staring at a computer screen as the trainer goes through another assault of information. Luckily, this is the last bit of training for a while.

When you’re sitting in an office, staring at a screen, listening to someone talk and then doing the occasional exercise, your mind can wander, especially since there’s nothing to make you go “SQUIRREL” every once in a while. The squirrels hide behind the corporate firewall. So this makes my brain just go into daydream mode and the like and I start thinking about a whole range of topics. This isn’t a bad thing, in fact, it’s a good way to get things sorted out in my head. Luckily, the training wrapped up early and I will be able to get work sorted out this afternoon and hopefully get some things done. Incomplete items on my to-do list distracts me.

So what have I been thinking about? Lots of things: politics, better ways to use my blog, my growing disappointment with tech journalists, the simplification of my life, the reassessment of who is important to me and who is not, all sorts of stuff. Deep stuff. I tend to think deep when I get into a pondering mode.

I was happy to see all of the red avatars in support of Marriage Equality on Facebook on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was also happy to see quite a few people wearing red. Marriage equality is obviously a topic that is near and dear to my heart, so it’s always encouraging to see the support. There might be hope for the populace after all. For the life of me I can’t figure out why some segments of the population feel the need to spend millions and millions of dollars to try to force their personal beliefs on the entire country through a constitutional amendment that would be contrary in spirit to every other piece of the Constitution. Many equate this behavior to the GOP, but that’s only because the whack-jobs have hijacked the GOP because the Republicans have become such a mess. It’s not the Republicans per se as much as it is a segment of the Republicans, much like it’s not all Democrats that go on television spewing that they voted for President Obama because they got a free phone. There is a tendency to divide everything into two distinct camps. It’s black or it’s white. It’s negative or it’s positive. People need to realize there’s lots of gray.

I’ve decided that as I get older I must be getting a touch more cranky because my patience of basic asshattery is quickly dwindling. When I see two cars nearly smashing into each other because both drivers are jockeying for the closest parking spot to the door, putting nearby pedestrians in danger whilst doing so, I want to pull them both out of their vehicles and smack them upside the head. Especially since they’re parking at the gym. But then I realize that they’re not going to the gym to workout, they’re going to use the tanning services the gym provides, which is stupid in itself. Get outside and get some sun. I don’t even know why I go to the gym. Well, I know why I go to the gym, it’s because I sit in front of a computer all day and I need exercise. I’m counting the moments until I can get on my bike and ride on a lonely country road, enjoying the smell of “fresh country air”.

I’ve pretty much divested myself of any interest in what most tech journalists have to say about anything. The latest trend is to just bash Apple to death and make broad proclamations as to why said journalists are switching to whatever platform is the soup du jour. I’m happy with my Apple gear and I have no intention of switching to something else just because it’s the hip thing to do. The closest thing I’m getting to being hip is the handlebar mustache, and that’s still a few months down the road. My “tech reading” has been focused on productivity stuff lately. I’m becoming a productivity geek and for me, what I have on my Macs and my iDevices is what works best. I’m in the process of building my own “cloud” anyways and trying to get off of as many ad-supported services as possible. This helps me keep my brain exercised.

I have o many thoughts going through my head. This blog entry has probably been very rambly and all over the place, but that’s the kind of week I’ve had. Not bad, not good, just rambly.

I’m looking forward to the weekend.

So I’m seeing these Facebook updates about people being disappointed that winter weather is still upon the place we call home.

Last check of the calendar, it’s still winter.

Even though you’ve all convinced yourself that it’s spring by setting the clocks ahead a couple of weeks ago, Mother Nature knows best. It’s not spring. It’s winter.

And that’s why we travel to Florida at this time of year, to find some spring. Because as much as we think it’s spring because it’s light until 8 pm, it’s not really spring. Not yet.

Next time I’ll tell you why the trains don’t run on time.

The sounds of helicopters were heard a little while ago. They were on their way to nearby Herkimer and Mohawk, where a gunman shot six people today. Four of them are dead. Four people were shot at John’s Barber Shop in Mohawk, the other two were shot at a car wash in Herkimer. The gunman apparently set fire to his house before heading over to the barbershop.

It’s kind of weird knowing that this is happening so close to home. What’s really weird is that I know John the barber. He used to cut my hair back when I had hair. Earl and I have both been to his shop on many occasions. He has a really great singing voice. I hope he is safe.

The area schools are in lockdown. The story has made it to the national news.

Though the shootings took place 10 miles away, I’m still locking the windows and doors. It never hurts to be cautious.