Blog Culture 101

[Stage Notes:: Woot, day is almost over and it went surprisingly fast]
[Music:: All The Way Live | Thousand Foot Krutch]

I don't really know what I feel like talking about so I am just going to start, and see what happens. On my old blog, I tended to go a long time between posts mostly because I like waxing philosophical about things. I would come up with a topic that I thought the world direly needed to hear my thoughts on, spend time contemplating the weight of the issue, and come up with my synopsis and opinions. It did not help that updating was not quite as simple as typing into a little window, though considering the limitations the web space had, it was pretty darn close. Naturally I will only admit that now that I have moved to an even simpler method of posting.

It always bothered me though that after spending large amounts of energy on writing something that may or may not have ever gotten read by its intended audience, I could never get feedback from the occasional reader. Again, another reason that I wanted to make 'the switch'. However, now that I have this improved method of posting, I feel like the quality of the posts in diminishing rapidly. Take this post for instance. I am basically writing whatever comes to mind because I don't have much to say.

I think this is the current trend in the quote unquote blog-o-sphere. Initially, blogs were journals. The first site that threw itself onto my radar was LiveJournal and most people that used it exactly as the title suggested. It was the author's diary and as such, the author rarely had any concern over who read it. The author wrote the livejournal for themself, and if people read it that was just fine. Of course, eventually wars erupted over who said what about whom in their journal, causing people to either make their entries or whole journals private, or it caused people to hold back the emotion of whatever they were feeling so no one would be offended. Isn't it interesting how we take something that is uncensored and artificially impose censorship on it? Sorry that just came to mind.

Continuing on, the journaling community adopted new forms and created blogging 1.0. The difference? Well, it seems that blogging became slightly more random. These blogs either maintained a common theme like a sports team or a hobby, or they were less emotional musings about a collection of seemingly random topics. The age of short quips and anecdotes had been ushered onto the web almost like small talk being printed on a screen.

These themes merged and separated several times, but still left distinct impressions on each other and created two sort of new wave trends that I shall call micro-chapterization and pit-foruming. No you won't find those anywhere. Nope, not even in wikipedia. What do you mean, 'How do I know?' I just made up the terms that's why. Because I didn't want to call it blogging 2.0 or 1.2.42. Ok, we are way off subject.

Micro-Chapterization is in my opinion one of the best things about blogging in general in my opinion. These people are the ones that blog for the purpose of letting people know what is going on in their life. Frequently these blogs are the result of someone moving away to a remote area that has limited technological access, and this allows people to post something once that everyone can check, and then leave comments letting them know how much they are loved and missed. I love these blogs because they often have the best stories. I call it micro-chapterization because in essence you have an author writing extremely short chapters of a very large and fantastic story.

Pit-foruming on the other hand has a different focus. Rather than tell a story, these blogs often try to engage a user base and get feedback. The blog itself is a mini web forum topic that uses the comments section as the forum itself. These are fun both for the blogger and the readers because it creates a sense of community. Often these blogs have a larger reader base. I call them Pit-forums because they are basically pit stops for people. When the day or week is over, any given forum topic is forgot about while the community moves on to new topics of discussion. People can stop by quickly, fill up on the latest information, leave a comment, and move on until they need their next dose. These can also be a lot of fun because you do not need to be aware of what has happened in the rest of the person's blog.

Realistically, most blogs are a combination of the two with different levels of leaning towards one or the other.

Wow, that was rather long winded for not having anything to say. Maybe I should go back to pre-thinking the blogs. Or not. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the blog title was actually written after the blog because I didn't know what it would be about before hand. My head is spinning. I am going home now :)

Discovery Zone

[Stage Notes:: Getting hungry, probably time to figure out lunch]
[Music:: Red Sam | Flyleaf]

Inspired by Ms Maggie Moo's Toosdae's, and sheer curiosity, I thought I would pose a question for you to answer in the comments section. This involves you--yes you--well there is no one else reading this at the moment--knock it off, we are getting off topic :P. As I was saying, this involves you going into the comments section and writing something related to the question.

One thing about commenting really quick for those of you who are new to commenting on blogger, at the moment there are three 'Identities' you can use for a comment.

1. Blogger ID - If you have a blog on blogger, you should already know about this, but if not, you can sign in it will automatically use your blogger name and leave me a link to your blog so I can check it out :)
2. Other - This has two fields, one for your name or some random name that you make up to be silly or create some semblance of anonymity. The second field is for your web page. This is an optional field so if you don't have one or really don't want me to see it, leave it blank. But I like looking at other sites/blogs/xangas/myspaces etc. If you have some web presence somewhere I would love to know. For example, on some blogs I could enter in Hepcat and my old Blog address.
   
3. Anonymous - Honestly, I don't like this field, but if you really want to use it you can. I would prefer that if you use it, you give me some clues as to who you are, but at that point you might as well just use other, and at your request if you are ever talked about in the blog, I will use the silly name you have created for yourself.
   

[ INSERT REMAINDER OF SMALL PRINT, LEGALESE, AND BLAH, BLAH, BLAH HERE ]

Now the question:

What is your favorite pre-travel ritual?

~I have so many rituals before taking a big trip, but since it is my rules, I should probably stick to them. For the moment I am going to have to say stacking my luggage at the foot of the stairs. I really love seeing my pile of luggage neatly sitting at the base of the stairs waiting to be put into a car. It always makes me feel anxious, excited, and relaxed all at the same time.

Now it's your turn!!!

Squishy

[Stage Notes:: Can't seem to keep thoughts in my head, they just run away]
[iPod:: All I Can Say | David Crowder Band]

Despite my current state of confusion about life in general, there are some things that are still exciting. Travel is always exciting and now I am only about a week away. It also means an opportunity to take the camera out and go to town. Ever since I got my new camera and a few lenses, I have been trying to soak up every piece of information I can get surrounding the subject. Lately I have even started going through old National Geographic magazines to get ideas on how to do photojournalism. I mean this trip is really an opportunity to do exactly that for myself. My goal is to capture the trip as more than just a series of events (that is what I see in many people's travel photo albums).

Don't get me wrong, I do not think there is anything wrong with that, in fact that is what my camp pictures generally look like, and each story tends to have its own story to go along with it. That always makes going through the pictures fun. However, on this trip I want to challenge myself to move outside of my comfort zone and capture the emotion of the people I am going to help instead of the emotion of the people doing the helping.

On a related note, I have been doing a tremendous amount of photography for Epic both for the new website that I hear is launching around Easter and for banners that will be around the church and other events. I am really excited and a tad nervous. This is the first time any of my photography will get any publicity. I will let you know when the new site is launched and let you see my handiwork [beaming smile goes here]

All of that said, I thought I should start sharing a few pictures. The one above was taken on a trip to Tennessee last April.

Happy Wednesday!

It's That Time Again

[Stage Notes:: Restless]
[iPod:: Charlie Brown | The Coasters ]

Those of you that know me well are probably going to get about half way through this post and say to yourselves, "For crying out loud, I thought we were past this." Guess again, and try and help me out, it is far more productive!

For the rest of you, Hi.

The variables:
X = It is the end of March
Y = I am restless
Z = I am embarking on a trip that will no doubt be very meaningful.

X + Y + Z = Crisis time. Granted, Y has been more or less a constant ever since I graduated and realized I am not doing what I am supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, that realization was not combined with the immediate understanding of what I am supposed to do. Thomas Jefferson once said, "I have not had 999 failures. I have found 999 ways how not to make an electric light bulb."

Well, check Engineering and Application Support off the list, now what are the other 998 possibilities? Hmm, somehow I do not think I have the time to try out 1000 careers. If I did each one for 3 weeks, It would take me 57 years and 36 weeks just to get done with my trials. I'll be 81 years old an just starting my career. When would I get to retire???

Heck, yesterday I started thinking about just trying to find really awesome seasonal jobs and float from job to job for a while. It would probably make for an interesting book down the road, and I would have no shortage of pictures to show for my time.

I think one of my problems is that the job I wish I could do, I just cannot do. Seriously. I know what you are all thinking, "You can't do it now, but with some classes and hard work, you can do anything." If education were the only problem then I would agree whole heartedly, but that is not the big problem. If I could do anything, I would be a doctor. Yes, I know, I hate doctors, but I would still be one.

Confused yet? Stay with me. The job of a doctor or even a nurse has pretty much the characteristics of my ideal job. Lots of interaction with different types of people, creative problem solving, passion, meaning. Enter the problem; I have a very weak stomach. I have been doing MDA camp for 8 years and there are still fairly basic things that are very difficult for me to do. I wish I could, but I just cannot seem to get over it. I even have to turn away during parts of Grey's Anatomy or ER.

What does that leave me? Well if nursing and doctoring are out, take another 6 weeks off of the total. Just 57 years, 30 weeks and 994 careers left to try.

Ten

[Stage Notes:: Wishing time would go faster]
[Podcast:: International Justice Mission | Daily Jeezit w/ Noel]

One of my favorite days before traveling is when I can finally see what the weather forecast is for the day I arrive. It is one thing to look at the local forecast and get a rough idea of the local weather, but it is something entirely different to see the day show up in the 10-day forecast! To me it is one of the first truly tangible things about any trip I am taking. It means the planning is pretty much finished and the trip is going to be a reality.

Today I saw that the weather in San Diego will be 63 and Partly Cloudy when we arrive and that day it will be 92 and mostly sunny in Mexicali. I guess that means I need to start doing some serious thinking about packing...just not physically packing because I cannot do that any more than 24 hours away from the trip :)

Call Me El Mariachi!!

[Stage Notes:: Bored, yet is in a silly and contemplative mood. I don't know how that works either]
[iTunes:: Soy Feliz | Azusa Pacific]

Last night, we had a fundraising dinner for our Mexico trip! I do not yet know how much we raised, but we did run out of food at one point and had to go out and buy more while we entertained the crowd with songs and skits we will be performing in our vacation bible schools. The build team also talked about the house they will be building for a family of 10!!

I spent most of the dinner being a roaming musician :) About half the time it was just myself and young woman named Julie and the other half the time there were five or six of us. I would play and we would all sing, though to be honest I think we spent more time deciding where we should go next and what we should sing as opposed to actually playing the songs! Oh well, it was fun! Our set list included and was pretty much limited to:

• Soy Feliz
• Tu Nombre Levantare
• Aunque No Marche
• Yo Tengo Un Amigo
• To Tengo Gozo
• Alabare
• Jesus Yo Te Amo
• Su Bandera Sobre Mi
• Padre Te Adoro
• Este Es El Dia

I Can See Through You

[Stage Notes:: Waitng...just waiting]
[iPod:: Seasons of Love | Original Broadway Cast of Rent w/ Stevie Wonder]

I am a gadget freak. I love gadgets, gizmos, thingamabobs, lights, switches, dials, etc. I am also an electrical engineer which means I am, at least a little bit, fascinated by the inner workings of electronics. Combine that with the general love of fantasy and science fiction movies, and you can just imagine the types of toys improvements I can imagine. Movies like Star Wars, The Matrix, many of the Star Trek movies, and all of the 007 films have shown us technology on the edge. They tease us with things that can make guys drool (other than the women).

With that in mind, it is my great pleasure to introduce many of you to some of the wonderful technological advancements that have been successfully made and are in the process of being improved. That's right, I said all of these things are functional!!

• Transparent Organic Light Emitting Diodes
• Transparent Integrated Circuit (Microchip)
• Transparent Flexible Batteries

Now, when they start making transparent robots, I might be a little scared. Until then, I am going to keep dreaming about the transparent iPod that send music directly to my brain without the need of headphones :)