Archive for the ‘meta discussion’ Category

Discretion

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

I’ve gotten a little frustrated lately with some things I would like to blog about but can’t. It’s not that anyone is telling me not to but rather I know it would not go well for me. There are some things that is just not helpful to talk about in public. By that I mean there is no foreseeable gain in doing so. In fact the only possible outcome of any note is that people who are important to me will get upset. Well not all the people who might get upset are important to me directly but they are important to people who I do care about.

Nothing illegal of course. Blowing something illegal out into the open would be a good thing. So mostly I am talking about things that are just embarrassing to people or perhaps more truth then some people can handle. What is the point of getting people upset if there is no potential upside?

I’m not talking about work either. Well not completely. See part of the problem is that when you work for a company anything you blog (or even say) is likely to be taken as official company statements. Especially by lawyers and by idiots. (Did I just repeat myself?) So for example there is no way I want to comment on any matters that involve the company and legal actions. Not even if I agree completely with the company.

And there are lots of cases where I don’t really want to talk about friends but sort of I do. Again things are open to misinterpretation and there is risk in being too open. Some things really just don’t belong blasted all over the Internet but not being able to tell anyone is frustrating at time.

I’ve just seen too many cases of casual remarks and personal opinion twisted in ways they are not intended. Some day when I am retired I might blog about some of this stuff but when I think about it maybe not even then. After all I want people to be able to trust that I can in fact keep things private. This being a grown up stuff spoils a lot of fun.

Blogging Burn-out

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

I’ve been blogging for about four years now. There has been some ebb and flow in both the amount I post and the amount of other blogs I read over that time. Lately though its all become less fun and somehow harder to do. In my other blog  I actually missed posting on several business days in a row for the first time in months. Usually I have so many posts in my head that I post several days worth at a time and am a week or more ahead. Not lately.

I don’t post as often here as I would like but there was a time when I posted daily at another blog that has been effectively abandoned. I had thought to move more of that blogging here but instead I just cut back. So total posting is really down about half or more from my peek. I still think about blog posts. I even write them in my head. What’s different is that I don’t actually get them written and posted. Why? Complicated.

Of course some of it is time. I have been traveling a lot lately. A week in Texas and couple of days in New York with lots of local New England day trips in the mix. And there is all this stuff to do because of the Christmas holidays. But that’s not all.

I used to take the computer into the family room and read and write blogs while watching TV. Lately I find I just want to get away from the computer. A bit of information overload I think. I just want to rest my brain.

Recently my brother and I talked about visiting a family owned home that is not much used in the winter. My brother said "but the cable TV and Internet connections are shut down for the season. Why would you go?" I answered "because the cable TV and Internet connections are shut down." Time with my thoughts. Time to pray. Time to just disconnect from the hustle and bustle of a world trying to live on Internet time.

I realized today that I have been programming computers for longer than more than half of Microsoft’s employees have even been alive. It’s been 35 years since my first computer program was written (in FORTRAN) and I have been running as fast as I can to keep up with the technology ever since. I’m not as young as I used to be.  I think now and again I need to get off the treadmill and take a breather.

I’m planning on taking some time off from work for the week that joins Christmas and New Years. My wife is threatening to confiscate my Treo so I can’t check email while away from the computer. I think she’s planning on getting me out of the house and well away from the computers as well. I think it will be good for me.

The only question is will I come back revived and roaring to go again or will I perhaps find that I like being "off the net" better than on it? And if the latter then what do I do?

Can You See Me Now?

Friday, June 1st, 2007

Well as quiet as the main page is here I am wondering if anyone even knows about this blog. For some reason I can’t get this one to work with Windows Live Writer. I keep getting a message that “A successful connection was made to your account however the server reported that you do not currently have an active weblog. Please ensure that your account with this provider is current before proceeding.” I keep thinking I should report it to the Windows Live Writer people. And yet Word 2007 is happy as can be to post blogs for me. Go figure.

Other than that I really like this blog format. I am thinking that I may mess with the layout some but that doesn’t have a high priority. Pretty much everything else is just so much easier to maintain and modify.

There is of course the fact that this page doesn’t show up on the main page for the domain. But maybe that is the best. In any case with this post I have the meta posting out of my system so perhaps real posts will show up soon. With or without anyone to read them.