Two years

Several things today, my first work day back from vacation:

I re-upped my hosting agreement. This meant plopping down $200 for the next two years of insane internet hosting fun – something that used to be keenly important to me, but has since waned after I joined IBM Research.

Turns out I joined IBM Research… two years ago.

And, explosively, spasmodically, coincidentally, the last blog post I wrote here was… two years ago.

I have a few things I want to get off my chest, sure.

One is, I think Facebook has killed personal blogging, or at least upped the ante so that people who write really good blogs are really focused about it – meaning there are fewer blogs out there. This is only my perception, of course, I have no hard data to prove this observation. Before Facebook, everyone seemed to have a bloggy place they could jot down some random stuff, or complain about some random stuff, or explain some random stuff, or just fire off a random comment and stuff.

But now? Anyone can do a micro version of any of that on a smart phone, hell, while crossing the street. Writing blog posts are a pain in the ass, especially on a small form factor device like a phone. Reading blog posts are a pain in the ass because who cares after 50 words? Besides, putting up a goofy picture or making wry or gross comments on Facebook gets lots of immediate feedback… as long as you are popular enough to have an audience who’ll react.

So there. My ongoing meh/hate relationship with Facebook. Off my chest. For now.

Another thing: the loss of manners in this country is deplorable. Guilty as charged, from time to time, I am sure, but some behaviors have become appalling.

The fact that it is socially acceptable to turn your face from your interlocutor to scroll on your phone is lamentable. You should be ashamed, but you never will, because it’s now part of the social fabric. The fact that it is socially acceptable to be reading from a phone while walking is not only rude and discourteous, it’s plumb dangerous. Old person rant: when I was being raised, I was taught that one should never read while walking, for the above reasons.

Not to mention texting while driving. Really? It is so widespread, and people who are holding up traffic while smart-phoning actually get irritated if you call them on their behavior.

Vacation was too short. Had to get that off my chest too.

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