So far, just my toes are in the water...

I've spent most of my night cleaning up Google Reader, trying to ship eBay auction items, tinkering with my new phone, and learning about more things I won't have time to use. I turn into a technology-sponge when I sit at my computer. I just enjoy plowing through all the feeds and info. According to Google Reader, I browsed through almost 1200 items today, and we didn't I wasn't even home from our 3 day weekend until 4PM.

All this to say, did I just waste the last 5 hours? Did I do something productive? Did I affect anything in a positive way? I don't know. Maybe someone will read something I have done and say, well done, who knows. I think I need to train myself to contribute to the web 2.0 sphere, not just feed off of it. Although I really haven't found the time to get involved in FriendFeed yet, my limited experience with it has taught me if I want to contribute, I can't sit on the sidelines. If I really want to learn, I have to be involved and open up. I can read 1200 items in a day, but have I shared with anyone what I have learned or how it makes me feel? I want to be part of an interactive web, not a self-affixed knowledge sponge. I need to start finding ways to sqeeze the sponge after it has been soaked up. Once I start squeezing, hopefully my experiences can be shared with others in a way that inspires.

Can you be a casual junkie?

I was pondering this question over the last few days while I thought about my interests in the web 2.0 'sphere. Can you really be a junkie if you only have the time for it to be a casual interest? Sometimes I don't feel like I have time to keep up with the internet. I am signed up on so many sites that I don't have time to use. I just signed up for Freindfeed just because I heard it was cool. I could spend hours reading through feeds, writing reviews, updating a blog, or tweeting it up. I sign up for sites that I just hear about, I'm not even sure if I'll use it or not.

It really leads me to my next question. Why do I enjoy web 2.0 so much? Well, I think it comes down to contribution and interaction. I want to be able to learn and share with others. I want to have fun and intelligent conversations about technology, local issues, the economy. I want to learn what's interesting to other people that have the same (or sometimes differing) interests. That's what makes it so great. You don't have 1 site to check for news or opinion, you can see the ebb and flow of what's important to people everywhere.

For now, I think I'll be a casual junkie. I'll get to the computer when I can. It's a hobby. Maybe some day it will be more than that, but that's definitely not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for opportunities to open my mind and to contribute to the greater cloud of the web.

Thank you Seth Godin

You'll have to thank Seth Godin for this post. His blog just inspires me to write here. I know I may not know what I'm doing on this blog or have any specific vision right now, but I can't get better at blogging by doing nothing at all.

Changing my ways...

I've been trying to change my ways ever since I read a blog entry from my friend Kevin about the amount of spaces after a period, where he states:

"two spaces is a relic from the days of typewriters"

I have found that this type of change is not something you can do overnight. I've been taught ever since the time of Mavis Beacon that I must use 2 spaces after each sentence. At work alone, I probably write at least 30 to 40 emails a day. It's just not that easy. I need to retrain my eyes, fingers, and most importantly my brain to keep up with the times. I feel if continue to use something from the past, then how can I be on the cutting edge of technology. I know, flawed thinking indeed.

I should be going to bed...

I know, I should be in bed right now, but I thought I would blog instead. I thought I would share what I currently use the computer for nowadays, since I probably have a tab on Firefox open for at least 2 of them right now. I use the computer the most for the following 5 things;

email
news and blog reading
paying the bills
genealogy
facebook
blog

The internet sure keeps me up to date with the news and my friends a whole lot more than Tivo, XM, or a phone ever will. Before I started using Google Reader, I didn't have any connection to the real world. I would listen to XM Radio, where it's music 24/7, and with Tivo, we hardly watch any live TV, let alone the news.
Anyways, I hope some of you get some insight into what I do with my home computer and laptop. Although, it may be mindless at times, the internet is a wonderful thing.

Bye for now...

My blog is boring...

Well, I'd admit it, who would ever want to read this blog. I'm going to have to assume that no one really knows I have this blog. Maybe I should let everyone else know. Ahhhh, I'm lazy and it will probably never happen.

If I make this blog a little more interesting, then people might be a little more interested in reading it more often. I'll have to get my thinking cap on and get going. Motivation is a funny thing sometimes.

Bye for now...

Subject Line?

I'm trying to get a subject line from my phone. I know, boring.

So. This is my first ever blog post from my phone. Sweet!

Detroit Haters

OK, I get the whole rivalry thing in sports. But what makes an entire crowd chant "Detroit Sucks!!!" during a playoff game. Is it because they don't have anything better to chant? Is it because of the syllable content of the phrase? Do they really fit so well together that it's that easy to scream? Or is that the way people cheer nowadays?

I've been to all kinds of sports games here in Detroit. I've been to Tiger games, Pistons, Red Wings, and even the dreadful Lions. I've even taken in a couple UMich and Michigan State football games. I don't ever remember the crowd chanting that the other team sucks. I guess it's kind of difficult to "chant" something that doesn't go together. I mean "Chicago Sucks" or "Anaheim Sucks" just doesn't have the same ring. Then again, I think I have heard "Bull S***" chanted plenty of times by our good ol' home crowd, so all we hate are bad calls by officials.

I just thought I would point out the less obvious idea that we still don't flip our cars over and burn 'em after every playoff win. And as you can see, the sarcasm continues to flow like molasses on a Michigan Winter day.

Go Pistons!!!
Bye for now...

A New Blogging Revolution (maybe...)

This is pretty much the same as Xanga, but it's Google. How can you go wrong with Google. We'll see if it gets me any further with my blogging abilities.

Bye for now...