The Final Countdown Has Begun...Again

Hey all you faithful readers out there! If you've ever read a thing or two on my blog you know that I'm prone to Grand Canyon-esque lapses between my posts. And it's been 44 days since my last activity here. But I've actually got a few semi-good reasons for that this time. In addition to my elephantine laziness, of course.

I've been directing my occasional posting efforts to an up-and-coming sports blog that I recently joined as a contributor. The site's NoCoastBias.com (NCB) and you can find my bio page and blog posts here and here. My writing there focuses mostly on the NFL and making fun of myself. So, it'll be fairly similar to what I post here! You should definitely check out the site. Not just because of me (although that is a good reason to go in the first place!) but because the site's founder, Derek Hernandez, has put together an impressive list of writers and contributors and we're churning out new content every day. Speaking of new content, I'm proud to say that my good friend Andy Soto joined the site as well and has written some great articles. Andy's got a wealth of sports knowledge in his handsome noggin and if you're a Chiefs fan you're in for a treat (though Andy may begin writing some depressing articles if the Chiefs keep losing).

Also, as the title of this piece suggests, the final countdown has begun! Again. A little background for you:

Do you guys remember MySpace? That social networking site that a lot of people (myself included) though would outlast Facebook and keep giving us glittery profile backgrounds and embedded content forever! Well, we were wrong! Anyway, back about a month before I graduated from college the first time, I added the song The Final Countdown by Europe as my profile song. In case you haven't heard it or want to hear it again, here's the video:

God, isn't that freaking awesome? Did you ever wish that you could have lived through the eighties? To be fair, I was born in '84, so I was a little kid during some of the prime rocking eighties time. If only my birth could have been dialed back a few years then maybe I could have gone to a Phil Collins concert while he was still cool and not pumping out Disney tunes. What am I saying? Phil is the best. I love Phil Collins. Did you know he was in the movie Hook? As a kid who had ample time to both wear out my dad's No Jacket Required tape AND watch lots of VHS movies, I thought that was the coolest thing ever to see him in that movie. Anyway, what was my point with all of this eighties stuff? Oh yes, the countdown. Well, I'm counting down to my second college graduation. I can't decide if that's a sad thing or not. I suppose if it results in me getting some better opportunities than I had before (and more money is always nice) and if I enjoy my work more than I did before then it won't be sad. It'll be worth the time that I put into it. That's what I (and my very patient wife) are hoping for. And since I'm counting down to graduation, that means I have to actually pass my classes this semester! And that means actually doing homework and going to class! Terrible things, I know. But necessary.

So even though I still find many ways to waste my time, I do have TWO WHOLE reasons for why you haven't been seeing much of me here lately. I hope to remedy that a bit. I've enjoyed writing about sports at NCB but I've missed writing about whatever the hell is running through my head at any moment and there's no reason that I can't do both. If you're looking for hard statistical analysis and rock-solid predictions about the NFL on NCB you probably don't want to read my articles. Check out Andy's stuff or any of the other crew members who post on the NFL. But if you want to read something goofy, self-deprecating, and loosely tied to the NFL, then I'm your man.

Google Minus

So I deleted my Google+ profile last week. Big news, I know. Let's take a trip down memory lane and examine my short experience on that site:

When I first heard about it I wasn't even sure what it was. Google Plus? What the eff is that? I read a few (or 20) articles from the oh-so-enlightened tech folks who were blessed with advanced previews of the service. The Buzz (sorry Google) was building. It was going to be like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and email all rolled into one! Awesome!

Do you have social media fatigue?

Uh, maybe.?.?

Then come to Google Plus where you can park your social media-ing ass and gush about how much better you are than the Farmville hordes on Facebook and Lady Gaga sycophants on Twitter!

Whatevs.

But I was enthralled and I wanted in. When I finally got someone I know to tag me in a post, which was delivered to my email with an enticing link to The Plus, I clicked and clicked and clicked and clicked until I was finally able to register and join the site. Success! And it was beautiful for five minutes while I set up my profile and invited all of my friends and family. Five minutes more of excitement while I scoured the site for tech writers that I follow on Twitter. Great!

Then I started posting articles I thought were interesting, just like on Twitter. Or Facebook, for that matter. And I posted some more. Occasionally I would +1 (The Plus' version of the 'Like' button) some famous person's post. Or I'd add a comment equivalent to "Awesome!" Meh. The Plus, like Twitter, has lots of interesting people on it who post interesting things. But I seem to have this aversion to wanting to dialogue with said famous people on The Plus/The Twitter (sidebar: I love it when people refer to Twitter as 'The Twitter.' It makes me giggle inside). First, I usually don't have anything worthwhile to say that someone else hasn't said a million times before. Second, said famous people don't really care what you have to say. Third, about a billion other people are blowing up the comments/+1s/reshares of these posts so I get lost in the shuffle. Fourth, I don't really feel like getting into a discussion or flame war with these strangers. Pointless.

What about family and friends? Those are the folks that I really care about communicating with on social media. They're the only ones who will reliably communicate with you, anyway. All the rest of it is just an illusion. Anyway, what about them on The Plus? Well, a few of them joined after I cajoled them. And then there was silence. Because. They. Were. All. On. Facebook.

That's my big takeaway from The Plus. Everyone is already on Facebook. Sure sure, you can join the Plus to rid yourself of the rusty anchor of Facebook that's dragging you down.

You can start over with only the people you really want to communicate with on Google Plus! 

Great! You can do that on Facebook, too.

Yeah, but you can find new people to stalk on Google Plus!

That's what Twitter's for.

Mike Elgan talked about social media fatigue and ditching all of it in favor of Google Plus. He called it the Google+ diet. Mike is a huge Plus user and a respected journalist with a large following. The idea sounds great, but the problem is that if I ditched all of my social media sites except for The Plus, nobody would care. I don't have that much gravitas to get people to join me on The Plus. Emailing/blogging/twittering/ranting/checking-in-ing only from The Plus would only serve to confuse and annoy my family and friends (only people I'm really concerned with interacting with, anyway--Twitter stalking notwithstanding) who would likely then ignore the email notification they received from my post.

So, while I joined The Plus enthusiastically and spammed the hell out of my contacts to join The Plus and leave Dirty Old Facebook for good, it didn't work. What was I to do? If I wanted to converse with any of them, I had to stay on Facebook. But I still wanted to be active on The Plus, trying to post interesting things and show that I was one of the smart ones.

And it wore me the fuck out.

And the answer for me is not to ditch Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare (love Foursquare), Blogger, Tumblr, ad naseum. The answer was to ditch The Plus and embrace my Facebook-folks and my celebrity stalking on Twitter.

I always felt disconnected going from Facebook to The Plus. Like I went from a warm friendly gathering at a coffee shop to a white-washed bullshit convention on how great The Plus is. I'm sure most people ignore what I post on Facebook, as they did on The Plus. But at least those who are ignoring me on Facebook actually care about me! (well, maybe they do. At least some of them do).

Some Thoughts on NBC News from my Google+ Page

This is just the text from my latest post on Google+:

Sad that NBC News seems to be actively censoring their Google+ and Facebook pages with any mentions of NDAA or SOPA. Seemingly more so on their Facebook page. I am so disgusted and disillusioned with mainstream media. Also, I'm disheartened by the path that this country is heading down. I've always wanted to believe in a bright future for our country and for the world, but I don't think that's a reality.

Yes, I know that there are terrible people in the world and that evil acts occur everyday. But I've always held to the belief that good will triumph over evil. That people eventually come to their senses. I suppose that's naive of me.

P.S. Funny thing, I just added the Facebook link for NBC while I was working on that last paragraph and the link showed up below with the description "A leading source of global news and information for more than 75 years." They should change that to read "A leading source of approved global news and information for more than 75 years." Makes me chuckle a bit.

Goings Ons and Suchs

My, it's been quite a while since I've posted anything on here. I've been tidying up some email business and decided to dust off this blog a bit as well. I also decided to stop importing it into my Notes on Facebook. Why? Dunno, maybe I'm tired of linking everything with my Facebook page. The inevitable Facebookization of the universe. Or maybe I'm just prepping to jump ship to Google+, whenever I can scare up an invite! Took me a few minutes to figure out how to stop importing into Facebook: had to go to their help page, had to search for Notes on Facebook, took me to the first result which was the wrong one, clicked for all search results, thought I found the right one, instead it was a fan page or something for Notes which had porn on it (good move, Facebook), went back to search results, sorted by Apps, finally found the real Notes page, and was finally able to click 'Stop Importing.' Nice.

Anyway--funny thing, listening to the Dan Patrick Show, which is my favorite (and pretty much only) podcast, Dan and the Danettes were at the premier of the show Damages last night and were discussing it on today's show along with social etiquette. When someone says at an awkward point in a conversation at a party, "Anyway . . ." that's a blow-off. That person is done with you! It was funny.

Anyway . . . I'm not blowing you off, I'm just changing the subject a bit. I'm back in school now, at Union College here in good ol' Nebraska studying Information Technology. No mas at Nelnet, just felt it was time to take a crack at figuring out what I really want to do when I grow up. Hopefully I can find a job I enjoy and that pays enough. That's all anyone can ask for I suppose, right?

In an update to much much older post, I've upgraded my College Football gaming experience by a few years. I've been playing NCAA Football 11 on my Xbox 360 and have found it to be an enjoyable (and occasionally frustrating, which Wanda can attest to. I can be one of those dreaded poor-sport babies) game with solid graphics and gameplay. I'm currently spending my time crafting Nate Johnson from College View Academy into a legendary Syracuse running back in the Road to Glory feature. Before that I won five straight National Titles with Nebraska before hanging it up there. My current dynasty is with the Florida International Golden Panthers who I've improved enough to get an invite to the ACC, finally moving out of the whipping-post Sun Belt conference. Gotta love those fake sports. I'm thinking that I should probably fill up as much on fake sports as I can and gobble up all the real college football this fall that I can handle, because it's still not looking super great for there to be an NFL season this year. If I had the NFL Network (hello, Time Warner Cable and the NFL!) I could at least watch Canadian football and Arena football. Alas, I do not. So all I've got is baseball this summer. Someone suggested I should start watching soccer, but I don't know if I can get into that or not. I suppose it would be worth a shot. But that would be cutting into my fake sports time. Gotta love those priorities! No more 'gotta loves', I've already had two.

Okay, this is getting very rambly, I could go on for much longer, but I think this is as good a place as any to end for now. Anyway . . .

My Library

I'm in the process of cataloging my book collection online. This is something I've had an itch to do for a while, and now on this Sunday afternoon, I'm doing it! In doing so, I've come across quite a few books I've had for a long time. Books I remember reading during many a long, boring, lonely summer as an only child growing up in Kearney, Nebraska. Good times, good memories. There's also plenty of books I have that I haven't read yet. And, there's some that elicit a chuckle or two. Like, Smooth Operators. A birthday gift from my early days of knowing Wanda. She sure knew just what to get a guy like me with such little fashion sense.

I'm probably doing more work than I need to be doing, but I'm cataloging both on Facebooks visual bookshelf and Library Thing. Check them out, it's a fun way to spend some time and maybe it will come in handy someday. Maybe, if I forget what books I own. Or something like that.

Twitter

It's odd how first, came Myspace. Then Facebook. And now, Twitter. I pretty much accepted Myspace whole-heartedly when I stumbled upon it. Facebook, I resisted for a while. But now I use almost exclusively Facebook for my pseudo-stalking and social (egocentric) updates. I even delved into Twitter. But I really don't see the appeal. There's plenty of hype, with businesses and athletes using it to communicate to potential customers and fans, but I just don't see the appeal. Twitter is pretty much just one big status update, that thing that Facebook pioneered and made it so even the most casual, thirty-times-removed types of friends can see just what it is you're up to at various points throughout the day. Twitter's just the latest craze, that's my opinion. A fad. I don't see the appeal. I guess we'll see, right? Perhaps I'll even get sucked in.