the pod bay door

The problem with getting older is that short-term memory loss kicks in more often. Where was I again? Recently someone in my office at work asked me why I blog. It’s a good question. And I think this question will go around and around, and that there are not enough answers to this question, because everyone who blogs has his or her own thoughts on the subject.

First of all, it’s fun. Yes, fun. One’s definition of fun isn’t the same as another’s right? Perhaps you get your kicks playing with from electric trains, collecting ketchup bottle labels, watching old movies, playing chess, working out, raising raspboras, what-evah. This is one of many things I enjoy devoting time to doing.

Since I began this in July, what I learned is that serendipitous blog browsing is an interesting way to discover and learn about new people and ideas and information, no different fundamentally from browsing a library shelf or the contents of a magazine. Here the playing field is somewhat larger, however. See the links in the right hand column to other blogs? The NYC ones, for example, were discovered by randomly surfing through the nyc bloggers site.

Within the weblog world, there are so many ways to connect with other blogs that most of the time I don’t know it’s happening. Witness this recent entry by Chris Heilman, of which I was not aware until he posted a comment on my site. Note that he says he found my site through Waypath, yet another linking service of which I was – wait for it – not aware. Waypath is a fascinating concept in information gathering: “…an attempt to network the weblog community, connecting weblogs that share common themes, ideas, and topics”

Another reason that became clear to me after a time is that it’s an outlet to be creative. I confess that most of my friends are better writers than I am (Derryl, Robert, Geoff, Keith, Stephen, Bill, the list is endless.) I cannot think of myself as a writer – scribbler of words, perhaps. But the point is, I can log in, and wri – er – scribble about anything on my mind, and in the process become a better scrib – er – ok, writer. So, yes, I have to say it, blogging is “another learning experience!” AGGHHH!!! And no, writing a blog isn’t the only way to create.
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I’ve been banking with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) since 1968. Why? They were the closest branch to my house when I was a kid in St Boniface, Manitoba. Throughout the decades, the service in branches has been excellent. However, on the U of A campus where I work, it’s gone from good to poor to SBT: Sucks Big Time.

To wit: 1) many years ago: CIBC shuts down its campus branch and moves it five blocks off campus; 2) shortly thereafter: CIBC removes its two Instant Tellers from the Student Union Bldg; 3) sometime later: CIBC removes one of its two Instant Tellers from the entrance to my bldg (both heavily used); 4) this morning: CIBC removes the other, very heavily used Instant Teller for reasons unknown. This is a bank machine that has a long lineup most times during the day. It’s now boarded up with a hand written note advising customers to call a number and complain – duh. My first e-mail of complaint to the imaginary customer service suits is below. My advise: don’t bank with them if you haven’t. Now it’s time for me to consider my alternatives. What’s sad is that the service I get in my branch is penultimate – the people there genuinely seem to care about their small change customers like me. But the Suits must think differently – I guess students, the bulk of the users of machines like the ones outside my library, aren’t worth their time.

Here’s the text of my e-mail to the faceless wonders at CIBC:
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Another Saturday drifts into history. It was a lazy day. I didn’t sleep well, I woke up at 4:00 am with a killer cramp in my right calf, very painful. Had coffee this morning with a good friend, then saw 8 Mile, did Costco for fun, and retired to bed for a few hours. As for 8 Mile, I liked it – what can I say? I am not a fan of hip hop/rap, but Eminem is engaging in this movie, he definitely has a screen presence. The story follows a Detroit rapper named Rabbit, as he climbs the local scene towards better things like a recording contract. Rabbit’s final rap in the movie was, I admit, brilliant.

Please welcome Keith to the ranks of (non)blogging.

I’m still working on loading Gallery. But I am losing patience with programs whose downloading and installation instructions are ambiguous and fuzzy at the best of times. In fact, I’ve been really cranky all week! My head’s feeling very heavy tonight.
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Geoff and I were talking today about issues of privacy on the Internet, specifically how e-mails can be tracked down by bots and spiders, resulting tons of spam. Recently I deleted one of my aliases, lightspeed@telusplanet.net, because I was getting 15-20 spam messages a day on that one. Click on the “Contact” link to the right, and notice the e-mail that appears in the “To” field. It’s up to you to make the changes to that address; I don’t link to my actual e-mail address, because if I did, it would be one more place for the spiders and crawlers to find said e-mail address, and start spamming me.

Keith also discovered that information on my domain was publically available via a Whois server. This included my home address and unlisted phone number! (Thanks, Keith.) Since then, I’ve edited this information out from my domain registration site. Within 24 hours, my address and phone number no longer appeared in the Whois db (although my work phone number appears there now).
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Forgive me some random thoughts:

It’s an evening of mixed emotions, a draining day at work but one that reaffirmed my faith in being blessed to work with people who care about what they do. In other news, I’ve lost or misplaced a cheque for $60, and am angry at my own ineptitude – I had the cheque yesterday, and now it’s gone. Duh. Since my return from NYC, I’ve yet to work out, and am feeling frumpy. So I just ordered a pizza.

While I was in NYC, I checked my website on different computers, and was distressed to see how bad it looks on other browsers and machines. In two cases, the right-hand column moves itself to the left, over top of the blog entries. Keith has known this for a while; it will take me sometime to recode the site.

I’m fortunate to work with some great people, so when I returned to work, there was no anxiety about having a desk and an e-mail inbox full of paper and e-mails and books and memos and shyte. I survived the day, and am home, blitzed in the head. I won’t get back into my regular workouts for a couple more days (daze?).

Here’s an interesting essay from Pete Townsend on the future of The Who; thanks to Chris (brother) for bringing this one to my attention.

I want to put notice out that I agree with Geoff, and that he and I and many others blog because it’s fun, and for any other reasons that may emerge from the fun doing it, such as learning more code, improving one’s writing skills, sharing ideas and thoughts and comments, regardless of how useful or informative they might seem to someone else, meeting other bloggers, developing a new community of contacts and friends, whatevahdafuck, as Tony Soprano would say. The full essay to which Geoff refers is at Library Juice, and addresses the number of “wild librarian” sites that have appeared in the past few years. I don’t emphasize on my site that I’m a librarian per se, nor is my profession the focus of the site or the blog. It’s a pastime, a hobby, and as Geoff reminds me, a place to vent from time to time. So there. Nyah. Thpppppttt!