Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

Jeep.

I was making a right on red turn on the way to the airport this morning. The intersection was adjacent to an expressway ramp, so I pulled out slightly to see around the guiderail and stopped to make sure traffic was clear.

That’s when I felt a big “bam” and my Jeep was rammed from the rear by a white mini-van.

I pulled to the side of the road, saw that the corner of the Jeep was messed up and walked to the van. The first question out of my mouth was, “is everyone OK?”

Everyone was OK.

We exchanged contact and insurance information. The man driving the van apologized. I found the license plate that had been ripped off the rear quarter panel and wedged it between the high-mount brake light and the spare tire. I took pictures of everything and actually shook hands with the driver that hit my beloved Jeep.

I then continued my journey to the airport, took a few minutes to calm down, contacted Earl (who handled the stuff with the insurance company) and had a great flight today.

6 January 2018 by J.P. Why. 0

PosiTweet.

So Earl bought me a new iPhone X this evening. While we have been discussing the purchase for the past several days, I say that he bought me the phone because he gave the OK to spend our money to purchase this new piece of technology. I must give a special shout out to a close Apple employee who shares his “Family and Friends” discount.

As I was setting up my new iPhone X, I wondered if I wanted to just restore my phone from a backup of my old iPhone 6s Plus or if I wanted to go ahead and install everything from scratch. The pivot in this decision was Twitter. If you follow my Twitter feed (see sidebar), you’ll notice that I have been fairly critical of the platform and in particular, the CEO and decision makers at the social media company. The fact that Twitter allows Donald Trump, and others in position of power, tweet in an unbridled fashion, sharing videos of pro-Nazi activity, making threats of nuclear war against another country, etc., bothers me. I can understand if Twitter allowed this sort of activity from Trump if he was using the *official* POTUS account on Twitter, but he’s not, he’s tweeting from his personal account and other users would not be allowed to be so aggressive on Twitter. Users have been blocked or bounced for much less. The disparity in treatment is what bothers me.

Earl and I were talking about this; we don’t agree on the subject and in the long run it’s fine that we don’t agree. He’s the sensible one of the family, and I think he’s the brighter bulb in our chandelier, so I always listen to what he says. I might rant and rave about a topic; he’ll just counterpoint and say, “why are you yelling.” It’s what’s kept up together for over 21 years.

As we talked over dinner, I told Earl that I was frustrated by Twitter and he said he thought I could do better at sharing positive things through the platform. Bust through the negativity with a positive attitude. The light always beats the dark.

We were reminded of a wedding we attended a couple of years ago. We were the older folks in the room and seated with a bunch of people younger than us. We had a wonderful time as the mood was festive that night. Every time something witty or remarkable happened, a young woman with crazy hair seated across from us, Lee, would shriek “I have to tweet this!” and then her fingers would dance across her smartphone and it’d all become part of the public record. While it may be ridiculous that every moment, anecdote, belch, etc. was being shared on Twitter, the theme of the moment was that Lee was having fun, wanted to share that fun with the world, and more importantly, was laughing and having a good time as she tweeted.

As I munched on my bacon wrapped shrimp tonight during this reminiscing, I was reminded about how much I missed laughing and having a good time as I tweeted.

I’ve wretched about this sort of thing a lot since the 2016 Elections. I miss feeling a positive vibe in the world. If Twitter is starting to suck in my eyes, it’s not the time to run away, it’s time to make it suck less.

As I looked around the restaurant, I made the observation that the mood around us was cheerier than what we would encounter in restaurants where we used to live in Central New York. Having moved from a decidedly red part of the country (some described it as a ‘snowy Alabama’) to a very blue city in the Midwest, I’ve noticed that not only are the people more diverse in nature, they seem to be happier. There’s less scowling and more smiling. Now, I’m not saying that everyone is tip-toeing through the tulips in the Windy City and that everything is champagne and caviar, but there is a more positive disposition here and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to move.

I should bring more of that positive disposition to Twitter.

I still strongly feel that Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and crew at Twitter are more concerned about building engagement numbers and ad revenue than they are about free speech and giving everyone ‘their say’ via Twitter. I still think that Twitter is nothing like it was intended to be when it was introduced to the world over a decade ago, but I don’t think it’s a hopeless case yet. I’ve met some groovy people on Twitter, folks that I genuinely like and look forward to meeting up with in 2018. We can still make great connections via social media. They key to success in this endeavor is being positive about it.

Sometimes you have to jump over the ditch to get to the green grass on the other side.

5 January 2018 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 2

Tiviachick.

One of my friends from my radio days, Laurie Jean, is on a quest to play laser tag in all 50 states. She goes by the name Tiviachick.

I’ve always admired Laurie’s zest for life and her lack of inhibition. One week, when I was the Director of Operations and she was a sales and promotion person, she came in everyday dressed in a different wild outfit. She did this for one week, never gave an explanation as to why and she didn’t do it again during my tenure with the company. It was odd but it was awesome.

I’m happy to see that she still lives the dream.

Here’s the link to her blog: Tiviachick Loves Lasertag

4 January 2018 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

War.

As a teenager of the 1980s I used to have nightmares about nuclear war. There’d be a bright flash, lots of wind and destruction and then we’d melt. Sometimes the nightmare included walking into a bright light holding hands with someone. It wasn’t until I married Earl that someone held my hand in this nightmare. I haven’t had this nightmare in a good many years because I kind of thought the era of a nuclear threat was behind us.

But here we are, with North Korea claiming they can hit the U.S. with a nuclear warhead and Trump pretty much goading them into with a series of “my button is bigger than your button” tweets.

A lot of this fear could be toned down if Twitter would just shut down Trump’s account. Actually, I think it would be best for the world if Twitter shut down entirely and I have occasionally advocated for their demise right on their platform. I sometimes wonder why I stick around on Twitter, after all, it’s not about crowdsourcing information as much as it’s about PR and getting your name, your brand and your ego out there. I can be absurdly snarky on Twitter. It’s not something I’m proud of. It just adds to the noise. I’m trying to calm down about that in 2018. I’ve probably made that statement before in previous years.

The thing is, I don’t have news organizations trumpeting out every idiotic statement I make on Twitter, but Trump’s tweets are out there front and center. His carelessness on the platform can change the National, heck INTERNATIONAL dialog in an instant. I don’t believe the powers that be at Twitter really know the power their platform wields.

I hope they don’t wait for a bright flash and a nuclear winter to convince them that they’re making a terrible mistake by not taking control of their platform. Heck, their CEO sees his duties at Twitter as a part time gig. He doesn’t even take the platform seriously.

Is this the instrument of war and peace we want in our volatile world today?

2 January 2018 by J.P. This Ain't No CNN. 0

Crowdsourcing.

Earl and I binged watched the last three episodes of CBS’ “Wisdom of the Crowd” tonight. There are two remaining episodes scheduled for January; the show has been cancelled, mostly because of the alleged sexual misconduct charges against series star Jeremy Piven. It’s a shame this show has been cancelled as it’s taken this long for the show to find its stride. The technology is a bit showy for television but the concept of the show is interesting: a crowdsourcing application is used to solve crimes. The show also tackled some interesting challenges we are seeing in today’s society, including video “stars” being stalked by other users. On the show the video platform is called AllSourcer, but in reality it’s YouTube. Our society is fueled by notoriety and this one episode in particular tackled that head on.

It’s a shame there’s only two episodes of the series left. Like “Century City”, the short lived lawyer show on CBS from 2004 that took place in the year 2030, “Wisdom of the Crowd” is just finding its ground as it meets its early demise.

One of the things I like about “Wisdom of the Crowd” is the use of crowdsourcing. Engaging users into an application platform and urging them to make quality contributions to the information being shared is so compelling. Using the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ to solve problems that plague us today should be where we’re headed with technology today. We have a great number of steps in that direction: Waze, Wikipedia, Yelp, TripAdvisor: all of these platforms rely on quality content from contributors. There has to be a sound, trusted way to curate this incoming data. This is tricky for software engineers, this is tricky for algorithms and this is tricky for human screeners, but the community contributing to the platform bears the ultimate responsibility.

Is our society today ready to handle wide-scale crowdsourcing efforts? I wish this was the case but honestly I’m skeptical, especially with the amount of disinformation that is spread on the social networks. There are many bad actors that use Twitter, Facebook, etc. for building distrust and spreading lies as fact. They’re the new avenues for FUD: Fear, Uncertainty and Distrust. At one time I would have considered Twitter a crowdsourced event platform. Earlier in Twitter’s history I used it as a source of late-breaking news. Today I’m skeptical of anything I see on Twitter. The company has failed in securing the authenticity of the information on their network. This is a shame, because Twitter had the potential to be one of the greatest crowdsourced platforms out there. But they went for the numbers and the revenue. Quantity over quality. Ad revenue over accurate information. A wasted opportunity that has moved into the realm of notoriety.

I’m intrigued by the concept of “Sophe”, the crowd-sourced crime solving platform on the show “Wisdom of the Crowd”. I like to think that if users think they are doing good thingin the world through an app, they’ll share their information at face value and hopefully bias is set aside. Is the U.S. ready for a real-world “Sophe”? Only time will tell. I’m sure someone out there is already working on building such a platform. I know I would participate.

In the meanwhile, I’ll keep writing quality reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor and sharing data on Waze. I like being a voice in the crowd to make the world a better place.

1 January 2018 by J.P. Geek 0

2017.

As the sun sets on 2017, I can’t help but feel excitement about the New Year. The reality of it all is that tonight just marks a moment in the manmade construct of time where the Earth is approximately in the same position it was one revolution ago. We’re not lined up with anything, it’s not the beginning of a season or the ending of an era, it’s just a mark on a timeline. But still, we like to think of it as a chance to make changes, to celebrate ushering in something new, to do something to better our lives, so tonight we celebrate the end of 2017 and welcome a New Year.

What will 2018 bring? Only time will tell, but I have plans. I always have plans. But honestly, I’m anxious to start working on those plans. I’m wired to always need a pivot point to better myself, and ringing in the New Year is #1 with a bullet when it comes to the list of pivot points to choose from.

Moving to Chicago earlier in 2017 was a good start, but I brought some old habits with me. It’s time to push in the clutch, rev the engine, and shift for even better things.

I feel hopeful. Let’s make 2018 the year of hope.

31 December 2017 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

Repost: Resolution Revolution.

From my first New Year’s Eve blog post, December 31, 2001.

With New Year’s just around the corner, it’s time to completely revamp one’s life with what I call the Resolution Revolution. I tend to take New Year’s Resolutions very seriously. With the dropping of the ball and the birth of a new year, its the best time to take a new lease on life, slip into the body that I’ve always dreamed about, clear my skin, become more spiritually focused, get involved in civic affairs, become a cook, a gardener, a sky-diver, a nuclear physist, the list goes on and on.

But seriously, I do have hopes of improving my life and well-being around the New Year’s holiday. The holiday holds so much promise.

Last year, one of my major New Year’s resolutions was to become a full-time vegetarian. I had been dinking around with being a part-time vegetarian for a couple of months beforehand, mostly when it was convenient, but I told myself I needed to become dedicated to the cause. If it had the ability to take a dump, I wasn’t going to eat it. That lasted until we went out west for vacation and I discovered “Sonic” and “In and Out” burger. So much for that.

Another resolution I made last year was to not spend unnecessary money. In celebration of this event, I went crazy on ebay and purchased a cash register system from a defunct department store. I guess I needed a place to store all the money I was saving.

One of my better resolutions of last year was to learn to speak French. I did the whole CD tutorial thing, along with “French for Dummies”. Earl and I headed up to Montréal for a weekend, the perfect opportunity to test out my French. Trying to be friendly, I tried to strike up a conversation with a nice older woman in the mall. Since it was July, I simply said “Boy, it’s hot”. After she slugged me with her purse I realized that I had said, “I’m in heat.” So much for French.

The first resolution of this year is the only one I am going to share. I’m not sharing my resolutions with anyone. After years of making promises to myself, and announcing them loudly to everyone within a 50 mile radius of my mouth, people tend to not take me seriously anymore. But after my Resolution Revolution of 2002, suffice it to say that I’m going to be rich, famous, a contributing member of society and absolutely gorgeous to look at.

At least until January 15.

31 December 2017 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

Cold.

Not to be deterred, or maybe because I’m just stubborn, this evening I walked a little over a mile from Wrigleyville to our condo. According to Siri, it was 1ºF at the time. The colder temperature kept my step lively. I was rewarded with Exercise Bling Circles on my Apple Watch when I reached the warm of the lobby of our building.

I can handle the cold better than I can handle the feet of snow they’re getting right now in our old stomping grounds. I grew up in the Lake Ontario Snowbelt, and there was always a certain amount of excitement surrounding heavy snowfall, but after the excitement wore off the excessive amount of snow was a bit of a pain to deal with. We have less than two inches of snow here on the north side of Chicago. I can handle that. I can even handle the overnight sub-zero temperatures. I come prepared.

I am looking forward to warmer weather, though I’ll probably have to wait a few months.

27 December 2017 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

21.

Earl and I are celebrating 21 years of marriage today. Being a gay couple, we are fortunate to have many anniversaries, including the anniversary of our original commitment ceremony, the anniversary of our legal marriage, etc. Today we celebrate that 21 years ago we exchanged our wedding rings in a simple commitment ceremony at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia. The ceremony was witnessed by Earl’s youngest brother Rick and his, at the time, girlfriend (now his wife). A boat load of Marines went by. That was not planned.

Tonight we ate at Cité at the top of Lake Point Tower near Navy Pier here in Chicago. It was a very romantic evening and we have a very lovely time together. We’ve had a lovely time together for the past 21 years. I wouldn’t change a thing.

My wish is that everyone finds the happiness that they seek, because, as I speak with first hand experience, when you find the person you’re going to spend the rest of your life with, life is truly awesome.