So as I said in my last post, I keep tweaking and playing around with code and design stuff on the site. The newest addition is the Digsby widget you will find on the right hand side of the page. Why is it so cool? Well, because it allows you to chat with me. Just enter text and it is sent to my desktop as an instant message. Cool huh? Anyway, just thought I’d throw that out there. See ya around!

I don’t think the Internet planned this or anything but I read several threads today about friendship and the Internet.  Essentially there is a growing debate over whether or not things like Facebook and even blogs really help us communicate and know each other better or if it just gives us an excuse to not actually talk in person.  Are our e-relationships overtaking our real relationships?

Scott Brown from Wired had this to say about Facebook:

Think of it as the Long Tail of Friendship—in the age of queue-able social priorities, Twitter-able status updates, and amaranthine cloud memory, keeping friends requires almost no effort at all. We have achieved Infinite Friendspace, which means we need never drift from old pals nor feel the poignant tug of passive friend-loss. It also means that even the flimsiest of attachments—the chance convention buddy, the cube-mate from the ’90s, the bar-napkin hookup—will be preserved, in perpetuity, under the flattering, flattening banner of “Friend.”

Next came Brad Abare from the Church Marketing Sucks blog:

I’m not against match-making sites, but I am concerned that we let the illusion of social connection replace our ability to really connect. We’re addicted to watching our friends list grow, yet we have very little connection to any of them. Experts tell us that it’s impossible to have that many friends anyway. How can sitting at a computer, scrolling through status updates and photo feeds be community-building? I understand people chat online and swap information, but that’s hardly transformation. I would argue that the people who do have “deep” connection to others online have been or are in deep offline relationships with those people too.

Finally, “Jeff” had this to say on the Dreamhost blog: (Dreamhost happens to be the host for this blog, of all things)

While the web’s penchant for facilitating so-called navel gazing garners criticism at times, I believe that this, too, serves a purpose. The more we explore our own thoughts and ideas and allow others to peek into our world, the better our relationships with those people will be. I, for one, am happy to see the web evolve into a tool to connect people. It has become a humanizing technology.

Personally, I’d have to say I lean more toward the opinion put forth by Jeff on the Dreamhost blog.  I love how much information I’m able to glean about what my friends are doing by looking at the news feed of Facebook.  But I also see the argument from the other side.  I have friends (yes, I would could them as actual friends) who I have had far more electronic interaction with than face to face time.  Some of that is geographic and some is just convenience.  I don’t write letters not because I don’t like to write (to the contrary, I’ve always journaled by hand and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve practiced my penmanship) but because it requires buying paper, stamps, and an envelope.  It takes far more time and effort to mail a letter compared to sending an email or even a quick text message.  I believe there is still a place for written letters when it is important to convey a level of care about the recipient emails or other forms of electronic communication just can’t.  But I think in some ways it makes the physical and vocal interactions all the more valuable.

I don’t think I’m going to go through and clear out my Facebook friends list to my 30-40 closest friends, but I have thought of it.  It is a very curious feeling to audit your friends.  How do you place friends on a sliding value scale.  Do you take into account the things they can do for you, that this guy owns a truck or that girl bakes great cookies?  Or do you solely look at who you enjoy spending time with the most?  Or do you go completely dark and shut down your profile under the assumption that you have all the contact information you need for the friends who really matter the most?

I had a very interesting discussion at church a couple weeks ago about the fact that for the people I have real relationships with, our electronic interactions during the week make for many of our talking points when we finally see each other in person.  I enjoy being able to follow people on twitter who I’ve never met but I think are funny.  I like that there are people following my flickr stream that I’ve never had any contact with outside of a few sporadic comments.  I am certainly guilty of taking pride in my friends list (I’m almost at 200!) despite the fact there are people on it that I haven’t talked to in years and some I might not even recognize if I met them in person.

Those are my thoughts for tonight.  So hopefully if you are reading these words, and don’t know me, you feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.  Maybe we’ll even become Facebook friends.  You never know!

I just set up an account over at Tumblr. It’s technically another blog and I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with it just yet, but it will be different from what I post here. I’ve always seen my WordPress blog as more of the clearinghouse for any big ideas I get in my head that I need to work out or any photos I really want to highlight from a special event (such as the red carpet shoot last night). My flickr is then obviously my photos, and twitter has become my “hey look at me!” outlet to let anyone interested (or even those who aren’t) what I’m up to at any given moment during the day. Right now I’m leaning toward using Tumblr as the place where I will collect random webpages, photos, thoughts, quotes, and other things from throughout the day that I come across. Their mobile update system seems to work pretty well at least for text (I have to give photos a try at some point to see if it is any easier than flickr). Anyway, follow the link and head over to Tumblr to check it out. If you like what you see, leave a comment here.

esoterica eclectica

Well, I can’t really say I predicted this (since I didn’t).  Really I’ve just been wondering for a while when something like this would happen.  AT&T DSL customers will be able to access wifi hot spots at 7000 Starbuck’s locations around the country (starting in San Antonio apparently).  Free wifi has been one of the selling points of smaller independent coffee shops for a while and I figured it would only be a matter of time before places like Starbuck’s, Tulley’s and Peet’s do the same.  I don’t see this as being much of a threat to indie coffee shops though since most people who go to them would slice off their left hand before ordering a venti of anything.

Follow the link to the Wired article about it.

Someday soon I will hopefully be finished moving. Today was a good day for getting things done though. I was able to move pretty much all the rest of the large, heavy items I’m going to take with me. I was thinking about taking one of the dressers that is still left in Blackberry but it’s really not in that good of shape so I’ve decided I’ll just make due with one for now and start looking for a nicer one on CL or make a trip to Ikea in the next month or so. I need a coffee table to so an Ikea trip is definitely in the running. Right now the biggest thing I need to work on is unpacking and cleaning up the mess from all my various boxes, as you can see here.  I’m just glad I finally have my desk set up so I can start using my computer again.  I like uploading pics from Vintage asap so they are available if anyone needs/wants them and the fact that I wasn’t able to even edit them until last night was frustrating.   I still need to get my blinds hung but that is on hold until I can pick up a drill to replace the one that died.  Hopefully that will happen on Thursday, though it might happen tonight.

Comcast will be coming out tomorrow to hook up our cable and internet and I’m surprised they are doing it that fast.  Last time I moved it took them almost a week to send someone out.  Apparently the guys who came by to verify our address know people who know people, or something like that.  I’ve actually had really good experiences with Comcast when it comes to transferring service.  At least when they are making you pay an arm and a leg for service, they give you good customer service.  Anyway, my battery is winding down and I’ve done what I need to for now.  Time to get some dinner and head back to the Man-Pad.  Ciao!

As part of getting moved over to my new house I’ve been talking with Comcast to get them to set up my cable internet and tv.  Unfortunately they can’t find my address so it is going to be a few days.  Fortunately I was able to set up my cell phone as a bluetooth modem tonight so I will have at least fast enough access for email, blogging, and limited surfing.  Now I just have to figure out what I am going to do for getting internet to the Xbox.  If I put my modem/router in my bedroom then I will have to either buy a 100′ ethernet cable or a $100 wireless adapter for the Xbox.  The other option is to put the modem/router next to the Xbox and then use my old 802.11b adapter on my computer for now.  I’ll have to think about that.  It would be a waste of a big fat pipe to throttle everything through a wireless-b adapter to my computer just so I can plan Halo 3 and get killed by some 12 year old.

So getting my phone to work as a modem was the small victory I accomplished.  The epiphany I had is that I can no longer move by myself.  I have way too much stuff to move with just myself as the man power.  Even having Danny help me move the bigger stuff, it seems like a never ending task to get moved over.  When I move back to Seattle, I definitely am not going to be moving all of my stuff.  I would have a yard sale to get rid of things before I make that kind of a move or I would have professional movers come before I would try to do the whole thing by myself.  I wouldn’t say I wasted today because I did get a good amount of stuff moved but I still have a desk, dresser, kitchen counter, two chairs, a coat rack, a cloths rack, a steamer trunk, a computer and large monitor, and a whole bunch of random other boxes of “stuff” to move before I’m finished.  I was hoping to be finished with the move this weekend but I think it will be Monday night now before I can finish.  I know that there are now people waiting to move into my unit but I would have to kill myself to be completely moved out by tomorrow night before church.  Some stuff I do need to throw away but a good chunk of stuff I just have accumulated over the course of time.  And there is stuff I would still like to get, like an actual bed frame (which I started looking for on eBay).  Anyway, I’m feeling pretty tired and I still have some organizing and cleaning to do before I do more moving tomorrow.  I don’t know how I would ever move a whole house full of stuff.  Yikes.  Being an adult isn’t so much fun right now.

Thought I would do a little round up of some of the things I have been following this last week.  These are in no particular order. . . 

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Bit of an argument at dinner last night

If you’ve never heard of the Fake Steve Jobs blog it’s pretty funny.  Not always work safe (watch the language) but very geeky.  This post was the retelling of a fictional argument between two of Apple’s board members over dinner.  It basically cumulates with one member telling Al Gore he needs to grow up and stop trying to run for President, stating that the whole global warming cause he champions is just a way of creating a platform for him to run on.  I hadn’t really thought of that but it makes total sense.  Might be interesting if real life follows the internet!

Unlikely Hero

Bonds and Selig continue their dance around whether or not Bonds’ breaking Hank Aaron’s all time home run record will be legitimate and whether or not Selig will be on hand for the occasion.  If Bonds can keep from tying/breaking the record on Sunday then he will have a week’s worth of games in San Francisco to break the record, which would be the best possible place for it to happen.  If Bonds does it in San Francisco with Selig in attendance then I think it can all be forgotten eventually with history after A-Rod, Pujols, or Miguel Cabrarra break Bonds’ record eventually.  A-Rod is already on the brink (497) of 500 home runs and he is still just a few days from his 32nd birthday.  I think it is safe to assume that baring injury, he should be able to exceed Bonds and possibly be the first player to break the 800 home run mark for his career.  To do that he would just need to average 30hr/year for the next ten years, well within reach for a player who has hit 57 in a year.

Digital Camera Buyer

Lastly, I’m in print now!  I’ve been emailing back and forth with a photography magazine in the UK and they are publishing some of my pictures and an interview in an upcoming issue.  I’m not sure when exactly it comes out in print but I’m planning on figuring out how to get a couple copies mailed to me so I can have them for posterity. . . and bragging.

Anyway, I think that is it for tonight.  Time to head to bed.  The housekeeping staff is short staffed so we might be helping turn over rooms tomorrow.  Probably should get some sleep if I’m gonna help with that!

Jonathan+Assink took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test!“Seeks an affectionate relationship, offering fulfi…”Click here to read the rest of the results.

When a website more or less accurately describes me (especially the stress sources entry), I get worried. . .