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Posted by on Jul 25, 2023 in Internet Geekdom, Real Life |

Well, okay Synovus

Well, okay Synovus

I work in the web development and hosting industry, and this error is probably just thrown because I attempted to look at the payment screen, i.e. the screen I would go to if I made a payment. Still – funny.

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Posted by on Jul 21, 2023 in Consulting, Local, Real Life |

Going Real Places; Meeting Real People

If the story of my life is doing too much, today was the story of my life.

I attended a Vantage lunch meeting in Huntsville, then drove down to Birmingham to a “Tech Thursday” gathering in Vestavia Hills. Mexican food for lunch, BBQ for dinner. The food was good both places; time will tell whether the combination wreaks some kind of havoc on my constitution.

The evening event was mostly outdoors. The temperature was in the 90s. There were plenty of tents and liquids, so this wasn’t as bad as it might seem.

In both places I came away with some new contacts, and had some conversations with people that I’d like to get to know better. As I told my wife when I got back: if I hadn’t done a lot of these kind of events over the years I’d be working at a convenience store:

  • I met my first ecomm client at a Montgomery chamber event.
  • I found a developer for that site, who ended up giving me a job at his agency, from a referral (from another referral) – I’m struggling to remember how I met the person in Auburn who “knew someone local,” but in those days it almost had to be a chamber of commerce contact. Or perhaps LinkedIn. Remember when you could actually meet someone via a social network?
  • That in turn led to my meeting the guy who’s hired me for the past two jobs and actually got me on a firm footing working for something other than the family business.

The speaker at the Vantage event talked about acknowledging God in all your ways (Proverbs 3:6). The tie-in here is that what we think of as luck, or chance – if you believe in God, you should believe more in providence and less in “luck.” I consider myself a believer, but I struggle here.

I also struggle sometimes to be energized to do this kind of face-to-face networking, perhaps more so the older I get. I also struggle to finish books, practice musical instruments, and blog. I’m tempted to chalk that up to laziness, but perhaps it’s really more about constantly seeing a kan-ban board in my head of things that need to get done on the day job. And trying to do too much, like doing two such events in one day.

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Posted by on Nov 18, 2022 in Internet Geekdom, Real Life |

Knee-Deep in the Hoopla

Knee-Deep in the Hoopla

I keep thinking it would be nice if I got off social media altogether and got back to blogging.

It’s all narcissism; blogging was a different, more early-20th century flavor of it.

Facebook and Twitter you know (used to know?) that there were eyeballs on it; the question was – could you get a few shallow likes, comments, follows, etc. It’s like going to Wal-Mart and running into your friends from high school – not really all that satisfying but reminds you you’re alive.

Blogging is more WORK, for one thing, and even pretty good ones don’t get a lot of engagement relative to even an average Facebook/twitter poster. People have to go out of their way to look for you.

We shall see. I’ll try to check in here.

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Posted by on Oct 30, 2022 in Current Events, Real Life |

Scary Nights

Scary Nights

Scary nights thinking about who owns social media platforms these days. I’ve never been the most consistent blogger, but I did a lot better job before Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit ate my brain, or at least the free-time part of it.

I am considering putting up a message on these accounts (Facebook and Twitter, anyway) saying “moved to new location” and referring people here, but I thought I’d post some content here first.

A fun time last night with some folks from church. Costumes say a lot about people’s personality and willingness to explore their creative side. One family dressed as Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, and Peter Pan. My wife dressed as a cat. One son put on a green shirt and tan pants and instantly looks like Shaggy. One son didn’t dress up at all. Me? I wore a jacket from my previous employer and told people I was the ghost of managed hosting past…

Every post needs an image so enjoy the zeitgeist of October 2022, the Spirit Halloween meta-costume.

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Posted by on Mar 21, 2021 in Current Events |

De-Trumpifying America

The violent events of Wednesday, January 6 at the US Capital has caused many former allies to turn away from Trump. The usual expression is “in the 11th hour,” but this is more like 30 minutes after midnight. How late is too late?

Life-long progressives have (understandably) gotten angrier over the past decade or so. Or perhaps we’re just seeing it better. It’s easy to oversimplify and conflate technological change with a change in people’s minds. When we see more people angry on social media, and wonder if they’ve always been there, or does social media somehow “cause” the anger, I’m inclined to say “yes.” I believe the technology has put more people in possession of facts and opinions that make them angry, sometimes with justification, sometimes not.

And the same, of course, can be said of the other side. I do not believe the breach of the Capital could have taken place without social media. But to my main point, those who oppose what took place (storming into the Capital) would like to place the blame on Trump, as well as numerous other elected officials.

First of all, opposing what happened January 6 is a reasonable position. One that I hope is shared by everyone who believes in democracy and the sovereignty of the US government. In a way, even the perpetuators of these violent actions demonstrate shame, in that they tried to blame others and pretend they didn’t do it.

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