It seems I'm leaning toward making Blogger the permanent home for the Stream. Honest, officer, it was nothing premeditated; I just feel like I need to consolidate my electronic soul.
I have some really cool friends over at LJ and I will definitely give them my forwarding address. I do hope they drop by and say hello here - maybe even become followers; what I call Riders on the Stream. It would be so nice to have the box over there to the left full of attractive little icons.
Going a bit deeper, what does this say about Google? I've always been a fan of Microsoft, even when barely resisting the urge to toss my PC into the backyard and use it for target practice. I don't care what anyone says, Bill Gates & co. are responsible for us all sitting here and typing on a personal computer today.
But Google - they are going one step further. They want to be the Microsoft of the Internet. They want to control all the portals - the on-ramps to the Information Super Highway - so to speak. And maybe not just the on-ramps; maybe the gas stations, cafes, bookstores, and everything else, too.
I'm not using their browser - I'm a dedicated Firefox boy (sorry Bill) - but I've got this blog, and I've got a Google website for my novels. Keeping up the original Stream of Consciousness over at LJ and trying to link it here or even post blogs here, too, was just becoming too high maintenance.
What about social networking? Who owns Facebook? Right now, as far as I can tell, it's private - run by founder Mark Zuckerberg. But how long will it be before Google, Microsoft, or someone else tries to gobble it up?
MySpace? I'm not really in love with MySpace anymore. I had a fling with it and still play a few of the increasingly annoying viral games there (i.e. Mobsters). But the more I think about it, the more of a black hole it seems to be. And although we live in the land of the free - especially in CyberSpace - I find a lot of the people there don't have very good manners. Call me a prude, but I don't need to be bombarded with the F-word to know how serious someone is about a particular subject or issue.
Besides, in my humble opinion, we're already sliding down the slippery slope of selfishness fast enough without needing MY space to enable our selfishness even further.
So, drop back by sometime. I don't always require a soap box for my blog entries. Most of the time it's just about writing, music, sports - especially soccer - or something I heard on NPR one morning and felt like sharing.
So with apologies to Jim Morrison and the Doors, I bid you adieu, for now
Riders on the Storm...
X
Well, here you are! Seemed like you'd gone quiet (of course, since classes started, I rather have, too), but I'm glad to see you're still maintaining a "net" presence. And blogspot isn't a bad place to do that at. Count me in as one of the 'riders of the stream." :)
ReplyDeleteHey - thanks for stopping by - good to 'see' you. How's school and Plan C going?
ReplyDeleteBusy, busy, busy. Ack. More so than I originally thought I'd be, and I'm only four weeks into the semester. It's mostly manageable right now, though. Just can't let myself get behind...
ReplyDeletePlan C is going really, really well. I'm getting a ton of help with it through the directed research course, which is helping me to correct weaknesses in plot and pacing. Right now, I'm trying to tack down the final storylines as best I can and tie up loose ends in the novel summary, then I'm going to start re-drafting it. The plan is to have a complete first draft by December 11th (then to polish it in the spring), so we'll see how that goes. :)
How are your writing projects going?
Gosh, sorry it took me a week to get back to you! Work and life is hectic as ever. IF you get to polishing time by Spring, let me know and see if I've got some time to be a beta reader for you.
ReplyDeleteMy writing projects? Ha! I wish I had time to write right now. I'm hoping that in a month or two, things will have settled down and I'll have some 'spare'time.
The ideas are there, everything is still germinating - I just can't string together the coherant moments to move the story forward.
But I will...I will :-)
Best to you,
X
Eh, no worries. For me, the workload has only amped up, and I expect next week to be no fun (Midterms...).
ReplyDeleteOh, and I WILL have a finished first draft by December. It's written into my syllabus for my directed research, and I certainly pray that my professor will hold me to it, ha ha. I imagine that I'll be hating my life in November, which - rather than Nanowrimo - will be considered "Plan C" drafting month. I'll definitely be keeping your kind offer in mind for the spring, which is when I'm hoping most of the magic will start to happen.
I know how frustrating it can be when "real life" gets in the way of writing. But at least the ideas can continue to percolate until you have a chance to get back to it. For me, I find some of the hardest parts of the process to be connecting the major moments from parts A to B - I tend to get bogged down in minutae. But you can do it! If you ever need to bounce off ideas, just let me know.
Oh, how's your son liking college so far? Is he exhausted yet? ;)
P.S. Happy Birthday!
Glad to hear I'm not alone in the crazy workload department. Add to that our second son having soccer tournaments nearly every weekend!
ReplyDeleteCollege boy is digging it, as far as we can tell. He's very nonchalant on the phone, but based on Facebook, he's having a good time. Soccer and school - he says that there are no classes on Wednesday so they can get caught up on homework! Is that normal?