I Made the Deadline This Year

But just barely. Last year’s “year-end” post didn’t get written until we were literally hours into 2008. I’m on the ball this year though.

Lots of changes for me this year!  One big event is that I changed jobs.  More accurately, I quit my job and got another one later.  It was basically a case of a one man union going on strike.  Negotiations didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, but I’m in a much better place now.  That seems to happen to me every time I change jobs.  Not a bad time at all to move out of the auto industry anyway.

I took advantage of my new situation to work on some really cool stuff in 2008, and I’ve met some great people who are thinking in the right direction.  Most of them are more Twitter-centric than blog centric, but I’ve also made some great connections in the blogosphere that have helped me become super-productive and inspired.  I’ve finished this year in a frenzy working on a new project that I’m very excited about–more on that tomorrow when it’s officially launched.

But enough about me.  Let’s talk about me.  Here are my top 5 posts from 2008, as determined by you the reader:

5.  Jitterbug Cell Phones for Old People
I saw this commercial and thought it was downright insulting to elderly people.  Then again, I like the idea of having a phone that just lets you talk to people and nothing else.  It’s very novel.

4.  Homeschooling Ruled Illegal in California
That may have been a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much.  It comes down to the State of California claiming to have more of a right to decide how a child is educated than a parent does.  Right.

3.  Died in a Blogging Accident
I saw this cartoon on XKCD and thought it was funny.  It turned out to be one of the most searched for terms on Google that day, and me being the SEO master that I am, I popped up second.  Weird that traffic is still tricking in on this.

2.  My Ideal News Thingy
One of the things I’d hoped for in 2008 was to get a link from Instapundit, and I got it pretty early on.  It’s interesting that almost one year later, I’m involved in a project that deals directly with some of the things I talked about in this post.

1.  Another Naked Idiot
Like everyone else with a blog, my most popular post is bound to be about a chick getting naked.  I’ve made a habit of writing about naked idiots because, well, because they make me laugh.  They get traffic if you are early to post.  LOL!  I try to keep it confined to naked idiots in Tennessee, but we seem to have exceeded our quota over the past couple of years.

So if you made it to the end, there’s actually a little bit of a payoff.  The biggest news of this year is that we are having another delivery from the stork in July 2009 and we’re super excited about it!  Aside from lots of work, I’ve been pretty busy lately taking care of The Missus, who gets morning sickness 24/7 for the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.  That further explains the sparse posting, but I plan to pick it up as she starts feeling better.

Dear You

I’m really not trying to ignore you. I’m just super busy right now. I will leave this for you to watch since many of you may be tired from 5 days straight of Rock Band. You still have a long way to go to catch this guy.

Ultra Light Blogging

So it not just me? I stopped by for some bagels and a cup of coffee (ok, I really stopped to get online), and checked my feed reader just now. Looks like there’s light blogging going on everywhere, which probably means there’s light reading going on everywhere as well.

Not much to write–I’ve been 1) Playing outside 2) Playing cards 3) Went to a movie (Benjamin Buttons)–the first movie I’ve seen at the theater in two years.

Because I Care

I’m finally getting around to setting up remote posting for this here site.  Since I’m going to be without constant connection for a couple of days it makes sense.  Plus I’ll be able to write posts updating every big poker hand I win.

You may ask yourself, “Why is he worried about being able to post remotely all of a sudden?  He’s been constantly connected since Thanksgiving, up all hours of the night, yet there haven’t been many posts recently.”

Well.  That’s a good question.

School Kids Make Me Jealous

So I’ve had a fun couple of days down here in Florida playing with my sister-in-law’s kids. We’ve been staying up until like 2 am drinking coffee (don’t tell their mom), eating pizza, playing Wii, and talking trash about our skills.  It doesn’t hurt that the weather is perfect, so during the day we can go outside and hang out.

But all that ends tomorrow.  For me anyway.  Tomorrow it’s going to get really cold (in the 60s), and they are all going to the zoo.  That sucks.  For me anyway.  I have to work.  And it’s worse when you work remotely, because at least when you have an office to go to you can forget about the fun everybody else is having on your drive to work and see a bunch of other people who are at work while all the kids are having fun.

Those kids better be ready for some Rock Band tomorrow night…it’s on!

The Absurdity of the Big Three Bailout in One Sentence

If the taxpayers of this country wanted you to have their money (or had it to give), a good indicator would have been that they were actually buying your cars.

Didn’t we already vote on this when we decided not to buy?

More here:

The federal government has no business running a car company. Congress has proven their inability to be fiscally responsible in any context. Five hundred thirty five CEOs of GM will only screw it up futher.

HT Michael Silence

2009 Internet Goals

I read this post the other day on Daily Blog Tips on 2009 Internet goals.  It’s a group writing project they’re sponsoring.  I haven’t participated in one of these in quite a while, but this one is pretty poignant.  Goal setting is usually something that I do in my head, but of course it’s a good idea to write these things down so that we can go back later and check them, right?  Right.

I think I came pretty far in 2008, and I hit most of the goals that I’d loosly set for myself, but there’s a pretty good chance I’ve just forgotten about the ones I didn’t hit, so I think writing them down is the way to go.

1)  Get at least two friends to start blogging.  This means you!!!  Even if you keep your blog private (that’s easy to do) or accessible only to your friends and family, it’s just too easy to have a nice site these days.  I have a whole different post coming about managing your online reputation.  Having your own site is the first step.  Grab a domain name for a few bucks a year, and talk to me about hosting.  I’m running a friend special right now.  😉

2)  Get over 100 subscribers to this blog (finally).  I’ve been hovering at around 85 for quite a while now.  I’m not really sure how to make it over the hump, but I have a year to figure out, right?  I think one of the problems may be that I bounce around a lot of different topics and get pretty streaky on things.  But that’s the way my mind works, and this is supposed to reflect what I’m thinking, right?  Oh wait, there is one thing I can do…BEG!!!  Please subscribe if you haven’t yet.  If you aren’t sure what I mean by “subscribe”, here’s a quick tutorial.

3)  Launch three new sites.  I actually know what two of these sites will be centered around–more on that next year.  That leaves me with the task of coming up with one other idea.  This shouldn’t be too tough to do–I’ve got a million ideas I haven’t even thought yet.  But then, there’s the implementation–there’s the rub.

4)  Money.  Financial goals are always fun.  With all of my efforts combine, I’d like to make it to $600/month by the end of 2009.  Right now I’m at about $225 per month, and it’s increasing at a pretty steady rate.  I think this goal can be attained by June or July, but I think it’s prudent to give myself some wiggle room just in case I don’t get a bailout.

5)  Empower a bunch of people.  This one is tough to measure, but I know a bunch when I see a bunch, and I hope some of the projects I’m working on will help a bunch express themselves and share information.

6)  Complete two WordPress plugins.  I’m almost finished with one sizeable plugin, and there’s another I’d like to write as well.  They both tie in with goal #5.  I think they will go a long way in making things easier for people to accomplish some tasks with their WordPress blogs.

7)  Get two links from A-list bloggers.  I’m not as concerned with which of my site(s) get these links as I am that I get them.  And I’m not picky about who these A-listers are.  Why would I be?  I think this is definitely doable–I got one last year.  Then again, that was in January and I didn’t get another one all year.

The Death of News Stories?

I was running with @Mr_Schwartz the other day, and we were (once again) coming up with solutions to the world’s most difficult problems.  Unfortunately for the world, I’m not doing too much distance these days, so there isn’t enough time to fix every problem.  Nonetheless, the topic of conversation this cold and rainy night was the news.  See, @Mr_Schwartz made a funny comment to this post last week, but in making a joke he also made an excellent point:

Why is is that NO ONE in the popular media has talked about how much this guy looks like Stephen King? You don’t see many of those haircuts out there, and if you do then they aren’t hung on jack o’ lantern sized noggins like this guy. AND he wears track suits??? Awesome!
We have someone that is trying to turn himself into the most stereotypical corrupt politician since the Mayor “diamond” Joe Quimby on The Simpsons.
I need these angles played, media! Do the work, Campbell Brown! You have to earn it…

I’ve been harping on this for a while in a roundabout way.  It’s a little baffling to me that newspapers are continuing to struggle in a market where the appetite for news is insatiable.  Of course, the management of newspapers can lay some of the blame at the feet of bloggers, but the fact that bloggers are beating them at the news game seems like proof to me that the market is thriving.  Is this just a management issue?

I’ve also realized that so many people at the top of the news business (print in particular) are still dealing with old standards that no longer exist. Instead of using the tools available and realizing that there has to be a balance between newsroom/tech crews, there are some local papers that are just seeing the dark at the end of the tunnel.

That’s a scary proposition to me, and I’ll tell you why.  I’m afraid that the death of newspapers is going to be the death of news stories.

Not the death of the dissemination of news facts–I can get those on Twitter.  Actually, I prefer to get them there real time.   Not the death of news analysis–I can get that on countless blogs and cable stations.  Actually, I can just read my own blog for that.

But news stories that are investigated, fact checked, pieced together through multiple interviews and accounts may actually disappear with the newspaper.  I would hate to see that happen.  Anyone with time to hit 140 buttons can tell a lie on Twitter, and blogs are like opinions–everybody’s got one.  But writers who can piece together and accurately tell a story are rare, and a lot of them are working for newspapers…for now.

The good news is, I believe there’s a place for these folks online.  I think the ability to accurately tell a good news story is about as rare on the web right now as it is in newspapers (yeah, ouch).  And I think journalists who are enterprising may utlimately find they are more comfortable and productive working for themselves online instead of working for bosses who just don’t get it.

But that’s just the opinion of a guy behind a keyboard at 7:30 am…not a proven fact, and definitely not researched.  😛

$100,000 Cars–Everybody Got ‘Em

For a limited time only, you can buy Barack Obama’s 2005 Chrysler 300 Series C on eBay. Current bid is just under $120k.

Apparently Mr. Obama gave in to pressure a while back and switched to a Ford Escape hybrid. Isn’t it ironic that his gas guzzler is still out on the road? I mean, the carbon footprint remains, so I don’t see what was actually accomplished.  At least his conscious is clear I guess.  Now if he could just find a hybrid jet.

If you can’t afford Obama’s Series C, maybe you can get Jon Voigt’s LaBaron instead.

And Now I’d Like to Pass the Mic

As you can probably tell, I haven’t had much time for posts lately, which sucks because there is a lot going on right now in Chicago. I’m doing my best to keep up, but my Chicago corruption kung fu is weak. If you read this post from a few days ago you got a little information, but the best stuff there has been contributed by TLittle in the comments.

TLittle is actually in Chicago, so he’s getting lots of stuff locally.  He is also way more Chicago savvy than me, although I must confess that the last time I was there he set us on the wrong direction on the Red Line.  But we were able to correct that without incident, so we’ll let it slide.

Anyway, I’ve asked him to guest blog (if he feels like it) with the good little gems he comes up with to help us stay updated on what’s going on up there.  So before you leave a comment complimenting me on a written post you just read on Chicago corruption, check who posted it.  I’m sure you’ll find that it was in fact TLittle who was responsible for giving you the useful information.

Meanwhile, I’ll be writing another post on rasslin’.