Month: January 2016

Empty box of chocolates. From http://gratisography.com/

Consumer

On January 3, 2016

I consume as much as the next guy. I constantly refresh Twitter hoping for something new to show up and give me a few seconds of delight.

I scroll through Facebook past the Likes and Stories Commented On to find the little nuggets of people’s lives I’ve chosen to keep up with.

I go back and forth with Tumblr trying to decide if it’s purely a place to read about Destiny and silly memes. Or if I want to follow writers, photographers and artists. Presently, it’s a mix of both and I’m liking it that way. It’s not too heavy I feel the need to skip reading it until I’m in the proper mood or mindset to get something out of it. And not to silly that I still feel the need to go there and catch up.

I’ve consumed a lot. I sit and I pour hours into video games and joking with friends and I’m sure I could be doing something more productive with my life. As a gaming friend said to me last week, “If I quit Destiny, I could write a book.” And while I have no plans to quit any time soon. I am going to make more of an effort to contribute to the world of consumables this year.

This isn’t a resolution. It’s nothing new. But I am starting to get a few things going that have come together around the same time. Here’s what I’m going to be making in 2016.

March 2 March

My March2March project reached the end of the year. I wasn’t sure if I would get this far but I did and I’ve had fun with it. March2March is a daily photo project starting March 1 instead of the first of the year.

Once I hit the March 1 again, I’m not sure if I’ll do it again for 2016-2017 or if I do something different. I’ll decide when I get there.

Buddycast

I’ve started a podcast with a few buddies from a Slack room I hang out in. The show is called Buddycast. The idea is a show about technology, games, movies, TV, and whatever we feel like talking about. It doesn’t have a set release schedule nor roster. There’s a core group of four potential hosts and whoever is available on the day we decide to record is on the show.

I appear on episode 1: Technology as an Enabler and the recorded-but-not-yet-released Episode 3. Which may or may not be all about Leisure Suit Larry 4.

It’s been a lot of fun to be on the show and the whole idea behind it is no-stress, no business plan fun. We’re not trying for sponsors or to make money from it. We’re just looking to have a good time and share our conversations with anyone who may be interested in them. We a geographically diverse cast and a great collection of accents. I’m staring at the token white guy.

Origin Story

I started a project about the origins of the names we use online. Origin Story has been on hiatus as I lazily forgot to send out requests to more people for interviews.

I have three in the queue I’m ready to release but I need to collect some more so I can keep it going instead of posting a few, having months of nothing, then posting a few more.

It’s going to come back in 2016 and I’m going to try to keep it going more than I did last year.

Book

I’ve sat on a small book I wrote a few years ago called Beyond the Reboot. This is the year I do something with it. It’s a series of essays about customer service and tech support and what it takes to be a good tech.

This is the year I take the text files, get them professionally edited and release it to the world for a few dollars.

What Else?

I’ve really enjoyed podcasting. I can sit and talk and I don’t stutter and stammer as much as I tend to in life. I have every Monday off with my new job so I’m more flexible this year.

I’d love to partner with someone else on a project. I don’t know what yet. I’m a terrible idea guy. So if you have an idea and if you’re looking for a partner in crime, I could be your co-conspirator.

I don’t have any coding skills but I’m a passionate customer service and advocate for the user. I’m a recovering advertising major and former graphic designer and semi-decent photographer.

If you’ve got ideas I could be the one to help you see them through. Let’s talk!

Dial-up Fibers

By Carl

On January 2, 2016

In Observations

We are all afraid of being alone.

We all went to the web to find out if the question we all had in our heads was true.

Am I alone?

Does anyone else feel like I do? Am I the only one who feels this way?

No.

We aren’t alone. That’s what the Internet was able to show us.

Back when it was the Information Superhighway or the World Wide Web. It was a big, flashing neon sign attracting nerds like flies.

I was one of those nerds. I was drawn to the flame. I craved the warmth and acceptance of other people like me. But I had no idea where to find them.

One School

I grew up in a county with one school. One middle school. One high school. One.

I went to high school with about 500 other people. I graduated in 2000 with 167 peers.

It was a small place and in that place I was the freak, the outcast. I was big enough to be the ideal football player. With no interest in being a tackling dummy.

I quit the varsity basketball team because it would mean missing our final Coffee House, which our Literary Magazine put on a few times per year to promote our publication and raise funds.

I knew who I was and what was most important to me. But there were not a lot of people like me. Later I learned there is no one like me. No one is like anyone else. We’re all our own people.

Lit Mag

Literary Magazine was a safe haven for me. I was able to be with artists and writers and musicians. I was able to share parts of myself that weren’t congruent with my 6’5″ and 250 pound frame. I was able to be myself.

I wasn’t the person I looked like. I wasn’t the stereotype people assumed.

I was my own person and that was a strange beast in my home town.

The Web

The web was a revelation. It was a place to go outside of my high school. It was a place I could be myself.

The web is about ideas. The web doesn’t care who you are or what you look like. The web is about information. Not appearance.

That’s what drew me in and why I keep going back.

I’m 34 now but I still feel like the same freak I was in high school.

I’ve never felt comfortable in my own skin. I skip around and follow wherever I see as the best path at a given time.

I used to feel like I knew who I was. But the deeper I look inside the less I feel I know myself.

But I know one thing. The friendships I’ve made online are keeping me going.

Some of my best friends are avatars. And those avatars are wonderful people I wouldn’t know what to do without.

From dial-up to fiber, the web is my home.

Man standing under a starry sky. By Greg Rakozy

Christmas as an adult

By Carl

On January 1, 2016

In Introspection

What is Christmas as an adult?

When I was a kid, it was a time of excitement and wonder. I loved decorating the tree and putting up lights. And of course, I loved the presents waiting in their glossy paper and getting to play with cousins I didn’t see very often.

As I got older and waking up the middle of the night was less common and the desire for gifts was less, it was still a good time. It meant a long break from school in high school. And in college, it meant an even longer vacation.

It was a good time to go home and unwind. It got me out of the daily grind. It was a nice change.

Now, as an adult, Christmas is a Friday. Christmas is an extra day off during a work week. It’s a time to sit with family and eat. It’s a time where traveling to see family more than a few hours away is untenable.

It’s a stressful time where traffic and limited time off has to be weighed against wanting to spend time with family.

Feelings are hurt. Money is spent. Christmas went from a time of wondrous merriment, to a balancing act.

I didn’t have much Christmas spirit this year. It was hard to muster much of it. I changed jobs right before the holiday so I had no paid time off. It wasn’t a long enough break to travel and even then, money would be tight and I keep finding myself asking, at what cost?

Christmas as an adult is summed up by John Siracusa on a recent Reconcilable Differences episode (48:35 into the show) where he said:

“You’re ruining your own holiday to fulfill the obligations put upon you by your family to do something you don’t want to do.”

I got to thinking about this because we don’t have kids so there’s no Santa Claus to talk about and no pile of presents to crowd under the Christmas tree. This year my wife and I didn’t buy each other anything. If there’s something we want, we buy it. There’s nothing that I wanted enough to ask specifically for it. And my poor wife’s birthday falls the week before Christmas so I got her a nice present for her birthday.

So Christmas morning didn’t hold any special meaning other than time off from work. It was nice to have a few days in a row away from work. And not to fill those days with fighting traffic, getting folded into an airplane and generally dealing with America’s travel infrastructure.

For people with children, Christmas is a very different thing. For me, the highlight of my Christmas time was driving around Richmond and looking at Christmas lights with my wife. It was a wonderful evening spent seeing about 30 houses from the Tacky Light Tour.

What would I like to do for Christmas?

A quiet day. Spent with my wife. At home. Quietly enjoying each others company. And eating. Pantsless.

Merry Christmas, you filthy animals.