My RSS through Google Reader is jam-packed with items, always showing 1000+ to read.  Evelyn Wood, where are you now?

#blogpostfriday:  I didn’t put the reminder on my calendar yet–but I should not need to, this tradition should be instilled, automatic.  As Dave Winer mentioned, instead of following folks via #followfriday, follow your own thoughts and get them down.  That’s precisely what I’m trying to do here.  We call all of this interactive, these innumerable posts, pages, videos, slideshows, ads, you name it.  But maybe it’s not.  Maybe it’s really a one way situation, with a click or a chuckle here and there.  Are we responding or creating in any way really?  This is a good chance to put some thought into it and get the juices flowing.

I’m sitting back here right now perplexed.  Wondering what is real anymore.  In this world of cyberwhatever, we don’t even know who is behind what post.  Possibly we know who’s providing our own posts!  I have not a ghost blogger, yet.  No ghost blogger, twitterer, myspacer, anything.  When you have one, does that mean you’ve arrived, or that you’re too lazy?

I see the WordPress word count at the bottom left.  Curious when it actually increases.  Seems to do so as I type.  At 200 now, approximately.   But then again, I’m not so sure.  I’ll look at the code.  Be right back.  Looks like it happens during saves, auto or manual.  Thought it might have been some ajax deal.  It’s not quantity, it’s quality.  That’s all you’re going to get here.

As my trusty old Honda Civic was being repaired the other day (ouch, I didn’t have that kind of money), news of Senator Kennedy came on.  Excerpts of his speeches were reviewed.  The man was larger than life.  As part of this mythical clan, one that tragedy often visited, he survived, not letting himself be deterred.  The figure was huge–something like 6500 pieces of legislation had been put into place with his involvement.  The power of his words and commitment to everyday Americans will resonate for many years.  I saw just recently that an official twitter account for the Kennedy family was created–@kennedynews.  Yes, there is mention of the vigil, of an official site, tedkennedy.org.  What a loss, what a pivotal figure in our history.

Here was a figure who was involved in the moving forward of civil rights, a figure who was involved in the marches; he passed the torch to Barack Obama, offered his endorsement, his support.  Backing him in healthcare reform efforts.  How far the nation has come, how the world has come, since those times.  Who’d have thought our nation would have an African American leader.  It says so much for our country–and Senator Kennedy was there to see this, the movement, this success.

In the healthcare debate, and beyond, in politics, I’m clueless as to how to keep track of all of the rhetoric, clueless as to who to trust.  One of the most disturbing discoveries in most recent looks at C-SPAN was that legislators were voting on items they had not even had the chance to read.  There’s not much American about that, but it’s rampant.  Even if a representative is fully trusted, how the hell can we have any confidence in a system which requires votes under these circumstances?  Who the heck knows.

The world will keep doing its thing.  I guess.

Music Publishers Now Suing Lyrics Sites And Their Execs | Techdirt.  I was wondering if and when this was going t happen.  My feelings are mixed.  Songwriters should be compensated, and this is another way for their work to be copied, and pirated.  These lyric sites *are* making money on the backs of songwriters, and the material is part of a copyright.

However, I think this is just another desperate attempt on the part of publishers to recover from the deterioration of their revenues.  And how productive will this really be?  It’ll be another public relations disaster, and fans will be even more resentful.

Being a songwriter, I’m heartbroken that technology has made it so easy for folks to use this hard work without any compensation to the creators; but as mentioned in this article, this is an ideal way for a fan to get to know the artist and writer.  This could result in sales down the road.  I wish there was an easy answer.  And above all I wish that the songwriters could have their livelihoods preserved.

There’s a solution somewhere, right?

Getting Started. – I’m always looking into improving my writing skills.  This page is on a site I bookmarked long ago, a very friendly way of looking into English composition.  It describes FreeWriting, Clustering, Outlining and more, with examples of each.  It is interesting how topics are discussed, how they become the starting point.

Often I’ll start freewriting without any particular topic.  I just get the pen moving, or the keyboard buzzing.  Letting go is the name of the game.  Judgment, criticism has no place in these efforts.  Even as the words come across, the presence of the critic can be felt, but I keep going.

The freewriting is enjoyable–it helps you get to know yourself pretty well, with journaling and so on.  However, ultimately real development has to take place, direction has to be clarified.  For me, anyway, that’s the biggest challenge.  This site is a great place to start.  I heartily recommend it. 

Yes, it was a terrific day here in Nashville.  I made solid progress on client tasks and took time to enjoy this magnificent weather.  There is much gratitude here.  Breathing, loving, and smiling.

First U.S. Rehab Center for
Internet Addiction
Opens Its Doors.

Excellent post and the video that inspired it.  How much time have you spent on the internet?  Probably too much.  See the list of 10 signs of addiction–you might be surprised at how many you can answer yes to.

The young man featured in the CNN video on the Mashable page was pretty matter-of-fact about his issue.  It was a somber sight though, this young man with such talent–it appears that he’s getting back to what he loved in “real life”.

It reminds me that there’s other important stuff off of this grid.  Much of my work is on computer and on line, so it’s difficult to flat out break away sometimes.  All the more harder to do so anyway.  Hard or not, it’s necessary.  At issue is balance.  You do the work here that’s needed.  The internet has sucked so much attention away from television and more traditional media outlets, but big media’s getting into the fray to provide more content here.  So it’s more tempting to stick around and find the gossip, the tv shows, the sensationalism.

Recovery starts when you know you need it.  Sometimes others let you know.  Regardless of how you found out, take the path.  Prioritize and establish–or re-establish–that balance.

Got the new Posterous account going, giving it a test drive.  Thanks for the help Sachin.

Posted via web from webalong’s posterous

UberBeyond Information Overload

OMG, I need filters and need ‘em fast, at least if any attention will be paid to real time web or anything similar.  And tell me it’s going to get any slower or more manageable from here on out.

Organization is crucial.  It starts with deep breaths, quiet, and patience.  Understanding too.  Just a few questions occurring:

• What are you looking for?
• What to buy?
• How to enhance skills?
• Looking for a job?  Tips on how to get them?
• Where do you get the information?
• Who do you trust to tell you any of this?
• Who are reliable sources?
• What are those sources’ motivations?

I am going to drown without a level of trust, a real idea of what actionability is, a time limit, a goal.  Set that goal, get in, get out, if ya can…. everyone in the world is clamoring for attention, has a story to tell, has a product to sell; the noise is UberBeyond Info Overload, at least in terms of this dynamic, real time paradigm.

Step Away From The Internet.

Back in the year 2000, we thought things were strange.  This song documents those days.  I wrote it with my pal Rachel Owen.  Some of our inspiration came from folks at a Halloween Party.

Podcast: Play in new window

GReactions

I am going through the motions with gReactions right now.  Put it on FireFox 3.5.2, MBP OS x.

The install was smooth.  Mozilla provided precautionary words before download.  Did due diligence.   I do not see any customization capability yet.  That would be nice.  The font is so small it’s just about impossible to read.  Getting a size option on that would be welcome, or at least a bit larger font.  The timeliness of the responses, the dialogue, appears to be instantaneous–the scraping process would be a hoot to check out.  I’m going to get to know that a bit better.

Tracking the sources of the comments is klugy.  These days as well, it seems difficult to find the real source of items–you might need to navigate through a couple of third party syndications before you get to the original post/reaction.  A very high order would be real time refreshing, i.e., a FriendFeed within the results.  I didn’t see how that could be done here–a refresh within Google Reader would either make the item you’re looking at disappear, and or the entire feed would refresh to the most recent item.  The topic gets drowned in all the updated content.

You can filter the responses by the syndication source, this is a useful feature.

Overall it’s a great.  Hey, it’s viewed as Alpha, version 0.1.c.  I’m keeping it in GR.  Can’t wait to see and install updates.

Real time web blowing my mind.  I wonder what the world will be like after this.  It’s already after this, and another million pages and entries and blog posts and tweets and retweets have been created.  I’m not offering hard numbers here, just a personal reaction as a tail end baby boomer who was born way before the information age barely kicked in (or at least the mainstreaming of it).

We are getting it all as it happens–but what are we getting?  Once again, and most importantly, we have to look at a trust issue.  In what comes across our radar, our content, interest, what do we act upon?  Do we consider our sources?  How and where do we filter the data?  Can we really call it information yet?  Assertions are made, but for the most part, they’re fields in RSS streams.  The have not been assessed, we don’t know their true value yet.  Caveat emptor and good luck sorting through it.