HeHeHe…
Nerd.
Speaking of Streaks
HeHeHe…
Nerd.
Tag: blog
Online Communication
In what ways do you communicate online?
The simple answer is that I don’t. Outside of this blog, that is.
I stopped using facebook. I stopped using twitter. I’ve been trying to find an app to replace them both but nothing really gets there. Threads is okay, even though it’s another evil zuckerberg product. Mastodon is okay. So is bluesky. Unfortunately few if anyone from my actual social network is on any of those social networks so I end up just responding to guitar and photography (and sometimes political) posts from other people and it’s like I am talking to the void… which I sort of am.
At work there is Google’s chat and Google Meet and Zoom and other things like that, but that is work communication, not online communication. It’s the same but very different, you know? Within the family we use FaceTime and I love every call, as well as group texts. Again though, that’s sort of different. I think it is at least.
This little blog gets a pretty healthy amount of engagement. Not compared to real blogs, but for a 52 year old introverted doofus in Massachusetts, it feels pretty engaged. At the same time, none of my actual social network, apart from one or two people, follows this at all so there isn’t any real world tie in. Mostly, at least. I had a few real world friends and family members following when I first started posting publicly back in 2008, but I doubt any of them are still coming around.
It’s kinda sad, really, you know, when you stop and look at it objectively the way this daily writing prompt is forcing me to do. I often think about stopping all together, which given that I post about 6-8 times a day doesn’t quite seem possible. Still, it is like shouting at the void… but maybe deep down I enjoy shouting at the void? I don’t know.
Snack Irony
What snack would you eat right now?
A day late and a dollar short. Sounds like me.
I had every intention of answering Friday’s writing prompt question on Friday, but I woke up sick and my whole day went down the toilet (literally and figuratively) and I never got around to it. That means that you get Friday and Saturday’s writing prompts on Saturday. I can see how amazed you are.
I will keep this one short and painful and hyper focused on the goings on in my stomach yesterday. The answer to the question at it’s basic level was I couldn’t eat a snack if I tried.
I woke up a little late and my stomach was a little sore. As I started to go about my morning routine that soreness became major pain. I tried to have some water, as I always do at the start of my morning, and had to stop after a small amount. I got my first round of vitamins in at least. I was curious if the pain was due to hunger, which sometimes happens, even though I knew it wasn’t. I tried to eat a protein bar but had to stop after a few bites.
That was it. I had another little bit of water later in the day but that went badly too. All in all I finished the day with about eight ounces of water (the goal is 64) and maybe five grams of protein (the goal is 80). I couldn’t have had any more if I tried. The very thought of food made me feel nauseous.
So the literal answer to the question of what snack I could have eaten at any given moment yesterday was none. Today might be a different answer, but I am going to take it as easy as I can. I probably will stick to protein bars until dinner just to make certain that everything is okay now.
I’m sure I will let you all know how it goes as the day rolls on. stay tuned?
Desks
When I work at home I have a work desk in the cellar, and a work desk in my step son’s room. I also have a personal computer desk that doubles as my music nook in the cellar.
That’s a lot of desks.
Last year I had to give up my desk in the office. They told us that if we wanted to keep our permanently assigned desks we had to commit to working three days in the office. Nope. I was committed to one, but that was all I wanted to do. A couple of months from now that one day requirement is being bumped up to two days. Along with the two day rule is the option to have a desk assignment. I signed up for a desk with the caveat that if they go back to requiring three days I will un-sign up. My boss agreed.
While my new office desk won’t go into effect until next week sometime, I am actually sitting at “my” desk today. We are living in a screwy world, I tells ya.
The commute in this morning was a bit rough. Lots and lots of accidents and break downs, and one cop who was pulling people over in the middle of a traffic jam. Not sure what he was doing, other than purposefully making the gridlock worse? Who knows.
It is supposed to rain all day today, but the blue sky broke through a few times during the drive.
Okay, back to work with you, Mr. Robert.
Buzz
If there is one thing I hate, apart from snow and winter and TV commercials pimping medications, it is corporate buzz speak. Mission? Buzz buzz buzz. Ugh. So today’s daily writing prompt is to write a corporate mission statement. Hows aboutcha blow me, Bloganuary?
My mission (I feel gross just typing that word in this context) is to do whatever I can to make Jen happy. She’s the love of my life, my soulmate, and my wife and it is my job to make her happy. I fail a lot but I will never stop trying to be better at my one job.
There. My mission. If you didn’t see that coming then you haven’t been paying attention, and that is okay. We’ll get through this together, friends and neighbors and kind readers.
AI Assistant?
WordPress.com let us know via email last night that there is now an AI Assistant available in the blog post editor. At least if you are using the Block Editor format. I don’t know if it’s there if you’re writing HTML code or anything else, but if you’re using blocks you can add an AI Assistant block and ask it to do stuff for you.
For example, I asked the AI Assistant to write a paragraph about using AI to write a blog post and it came up with this absolute fucking masterpiece:
AI has revolutionized the way we approach content creation, offering unprecedented efficiency and creativity. By harnessing the power of advanced algorithms, AI can rapidly generate compelling blog posts on a diverse range of topics, tailored to specific audiences. Moreover, it can analyze trends and audience engagement to optimize content, enhancing its impact. While AI streamlines the writing process, it also empowers human creators by providing valuable insights and freeing up time for strategic thinking and ideation. Embracing AI in blog writing opens up exciting possibilities for innovation and scalability in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
How cool is that? Now I don’t have to go to Google Bard or Chat GPT when I want to add something fucking stupid to my already lame-ass blog posts. Hurrah!
Do I Need a New Hobby?
Well now… this is just getting a little silly now, right?
Prep
I mentioned in yesterday’s daily writing prompt post… I think it was yesterday’s at least… that I’ve been writing pointless blog posts for about 17 years. I did something today that I have never, in all that time, done before. It has to do with my dumb haikus for you’s thing.
I have a new note on my iPhone where I have already written tomorrow’s haiku for you.
I did prep work. Really. I feel so gross. Like, this page is supposed to be spontaneous brain droppings, right? Where do I get off doing prep work?
Whatever. Anyway…
I have a couple of tasks for work that I wanted to crank out this weekend. It’s 7:11pm on the final day of this glorious three day weekend and I haven’t even started them yet. What the hell is wrong with me?
I had a bad case of what my mother used to call “the hungry horrors” after lunch today. I feel like I had a full days worth of between meal snacks in the space of about 30 minutes. It turned me into a giant gas bomb that’s ready to burst at any moment. It wasn’t bad enough to ruin dinner (I didn’t eat anything for four hours prior to dinner) but it’s left me uncomfortable and distracted. Blah. I have to push through and get that work done before I go to sleep tonight. Moron.
Okay, time for Robert to buckle down.
Why Do I Blog?
Why do I come here and do this? At this point, after all these years it is probably a sort of compulsion more than anything else.
It started with a social media platform that doesn’t exist anymore. It was 2006, I think. Maybe 2005. After years of having a sort of online social life via America Online Chat rooms I was looking for a new source of faux-human interaction online and I hit on Yahoo 360. I created a profile and started clicking on stuff. It had a blog function built into it and I wrote something about Pluto’s demotion to Dwarf Planet that I thought was kinda funny. A few people commented. I was a little hooked.
Practically no one was using Yahoo 360 though, at least practically no one I knew, so I went looking for another outlet. I ended up on Myspace. Myspace had a blog function too so I kept writing. All of those posts are here on this page now. They are anything dated prior to mid-November 2008. Blogging on Myspace was fun. It wasn’t the most important thing that happened on that platform though. I met a woman there. A wonderful, brilliant, beautiful, charming, witty, hilarious woman named Jennifer. In 2009 we got married. Yeah, I met my wife on Myspace. Tip of the hat to old Tom’s social media platform.
In mid-November 2008 I was having a slow day at work. During my lunch break I went poking around for a new blogging platform. I ended up with Google’s Blogger, which I think used to be an independent thing called Blog Spot, wasn’t it? I created a blog and challenged myself to post once a day. I ended up posting multiple times a day. I also had a spin off page that wasn’t public that I used to post anything related to Jen’s kids and my niece and nephews and really anyone I knew who was under age. The main page was public, the kids page was private. In December 2012 I moved from Blogger to WordPress.com. A few years later I moved from WordPress.com to Medium and then a short time later moved back to WordPress.com on a new account, and that’s where we are today. All of the posts from the other platforms and accounts are here on this page now. I merged them all when I created this page.
None of that answers the question of why though. Well, it answered the original why. I was looking for a way to be social without actually having to go out and interact with real people. The ultimate introvert work around. I will admit to having been a bit of a social media content whore for a while there. I was posting to Facebook and Twitter very often, as well as the blog. Eventually Facebook made me feel gross so I stopped posting there and I started posting more here. For a while there I wasn’t really posting to the blog daily. Close, but I had cut down a lot. I think it was summer 2019 when I re-challenged myself to focus on the blog more. It was 2020 or 2021 when I shut myself off from Facebook. When that putz Elon Musk bought twitter I shut myself off from that platform too. The frequency of posts here increased yet again. The only other social media platform I am playing with today are instagram, though I don’t really engage with other people there, I just post pictures, and Bluesky, though I don’t post there very often.
So why am I still posting here? The whole faux-social thing is still part of it. I also just like sharing photos and music. I like having a place where I can share my opinions knowing that basically no one other than a few close relatives are paying any attention. I can be as pissed off as I need to be to get my ya-ya’s out, you know? I can get my pseudo-intellectual frustrations out over politics or social issues or sports or work or health or anything at any time I like.
There’s also a historical thing at play now. This is not really a blog per se, as it isn’t focused on any one topic. It’s more just a personal journal that I just happen to leave open to the public. Dear Diary, today I stubbed my toe. Har Har Har. The historical aspect is this gives me 17 years and counting worth of This Day in History data. I can click on something I post today, go to the URL and remove the post title, and then change the folder path to show me the same date in prior years. I can go back through my past one year at a time and read about what I was doing on this date. Since the start of the pandemic the frequency of posts has sky rocketed from maybe 1-3 posts or so to more like 6-10. There are a lot of past thoughts to review. I find this process both interesting and exceptionally goofy, and I enjoy doing it every now and then.
So to sum up why I come here, I enjoy writing, I enjoy reading old posts, and I enjoy the simulated social interactions. It’s also basically a way for me to send messages to my wife. Basically everything that I post here is written with her in mind. Hi love!
There you have it. This was quite the long post, huh? I wasn’t planning on that. While we’re on a roll, let’s add one more thing. How about we ask Google Bard what it thinks? I asked the AI, “why should one write a blog?”
This is what it came up with:
There are many reasons why someone might want to write a blog. Here are a few of the most common:
- To share their knowledge and expertise. If you have a passion for a particular topic and want to share your knowledge with others, blogging is a great way to do it. You can write about your own experiences, research findings, or insights on the topic. This can help you to establish yourself as an expert in your field and build an audience of people who are interested in what you have to say.
- To connect with others. Blogging can be a great way to connect with other people who share your interests. When you write blog posts, you are inviting people to engage with you and share their own thoughts and ideas. This can lead to meaningful conversations and relationships.
- To promote their business or brand. If you have a business or brand, blogging can be a great way to promote it. You can write blog posts about your products or services, industry news, or other topics that are relevant to your target audience. This can help you to attract new customers and grow your business.
- To make money. While blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme, it is possible to make money from it. There are a number of ways to do this, such as advertising, affiliate marketing, and selling your own products or services. If you are able to build a large and engaged audience, you can potentially generate a significant income from your blog.
In addition to these specific reasons, blogging can also be a rewarding experience in general. It can be a great way to express yourself creatively, learn new things, and grow as a person.
Here are some additional benefits of writing a blog:
- Improve your writing skills. The more you write, the better you will become at it. Blogging can be a great way to practice your writing skills and develop your own unique voice.
- Boost your SEO. Search engines love fresh content, so blogging regularly can help to improve your website’s ranking in search results. This can lead to more traffic to your site and more opportunities to connect with potential customers or readers.
- Build an email list. One of the best ways to stay in touch with your audience is to build an email list. You can use your blog to encourage people to subscribe to your email list, where you can send them updates about your latest blog posts, products, or services.
- Have fun! Blogging can be a lot of fun. It is a great way to share your thoughts and ideas with the world and connect with other people who share your interests.
If you are thinking about starting a blog, I encourage you to go for it! It is a great way to share your knowledge, connect with others, and promote your business or brand.
https://bard.google.com
Random Thursday Thoughts
Just jotting down some smallish, random thoughts on a Thursday afternoon.
My stomach is being a jerk today. Gas. Bad gas. Lots of bad gas. My stomach is a bit upset. A little bit of pain. Nothing bad, just gassy. Super gassy. Pardon the T.M.I. of it all. I just felt the need to share.
In the interest of daily creative behavior like the photo a day challenge and my current 1400+ day posting streak on this little bloggie, I was wondering if I should post a daily haiku. What do you think?
One haiku each day
You know, to keep the brain loose
Could be worth a shot
I have watched a lot of Doctor Who today. Like, an alarming amount of Doctor Who. A frightening amount of Doctor Who. Both the original series and the new series. So much Doctor Who. I may have a Who problem.
We brought Harry’s car to the shop today. Here’s hoping they get the work finished before he has to go back to work next week. I may have to drive him back to Burlington after I finish work one night, and then turn around and drive home right away. That could be a long night. I will do it with a smile on my face, but… yeah, that would be a long night.
The cats have been super affectionate today. I am not sure why. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but it is definitely a welcome development.
Inside the Red Head's Head 