Published Mar 21, 2009
You may have noticed I haven’t posted here a lot recently. Umm, sorry. I do feel bad; I miss my old digs here! But, you see, I think there’s a lot conspiring against ol’ Juniorbird.com. Part of this is changes in my life; part is changes in the Web. I have a feeling there need to be some changes around here soon, and I’d like your input.
Life
I went from very not busy to very busy. The not busy part was a problem; frankly, being not busy can make me feel like I don’t offer a lot of value, and so what do I have to say? And, then, being very busy means that I don’t have a lot of time to say anything.
Anyway, part of the problem is that I don’t have any idea what I want to talk about here. I have the feeling that’s more about too much editing and less about not having ideas; I think I need to get a little more mundane here, talking about the things I follow and my hobbies, and not trying to write really good entries. Anything you’d like to hear about?
The Internet
Part of the problem is that the Web is changing, and for the better. I haven’t put many links in the sidebar here because, when I share a link on Facebook or Twitter, I get responses. Interaction. Fun stuff! Just what I always wanted to get here, actually. And I get responses to the blog entries I post as notes on Facebook; interaction with my friends and stuff like that. That’s also just what I always wanted. I mean, those tools are great — they actually push out content to my friends, in a way that my friends are interested in getting that content, and then provide ways to respond! It’s like RSS, but with somebody on the other end!1 What vaguely megalomaniacal compulsive writer could resist?
But then I don’t think I’d actualy use Facebook and Twitter to hold all my content, because I don’t like them keeping all my stuff, especially in the gated Facebook community. If I’m thinking of moving on now, I’m sure to be thinking of moving to the next thing in a few years again; that’s a powerful argument for holding my own content. So I really just need to figure out how to hook things up better.2
Anyway, I predict redesign in a month or two. Not bad, since I think I put up the current design about 3 years ago. Anything you’d like to see here?
Umm, Twitter
So, I mentioned I was Twittering up above. I know, if I’m into it, it’s probably passé, but I’m having a tremendous amount of fun. So, until I get things fixed here and my life to the point where I’m getting to bed before 4:30am on a Thursday, please follow me at http://twitter.com/jrbird. Come on, we’ll all have some fun!
1 Or, LiveJournal circa like 6 years ago. I know, I know!
2 Speaking of hooking things up better, I need to figure out how to get my Centro to talk to my Mac again, ‘cause that’s what’s really killing my moblog, I think — the photos are just stuck on my phone! Altho I think I will set things up so the thumbnail generation is automatic, to make things easier — recommendations on services for that will be taken!
Re: footnote 1, LJ still seems pretty active to me. I very seldom see a post more than an hour old with no comments at the bottom.
Oh yeah, LJ’s totally active — I just mean that all these features were actually in there all that time ago, and yet here I am happy that other services have them a half a decade later.
i hear ya about the interactivity everywhere but your blog. it happens to me where i post on my blog, which feeds into FB, where i get a dozen comments on my entry, but not a single one on MT. my solution to that has just been trying to post more often so folks check in with me more often than once a month. i don’t think this is working either.
but back to YOU, i don’t think you need a content makeover here. i like what you post and just want to see more of it. i figure JB is your personal site where you can post on your hobbies, vacations, observations, etc. and that is precisely the peachy stuff i come here for. and not just once a month, mind you.
I know, posting frequency is part of the problem. That’s the self-censorship part; I think I don’t give my friends enough credit for what they’ll put up with me talking about. So, more of that stuff, maybe!
Also, I need to get better at having photo assignments for myself. That would help.