Original From: Parent Phobia Blog To-Dos

Remember to the old days?  When you could launch a blog and just start writing?  When you just hoped and prayed someone would come and read your stuff (ok I still do that).  These days however it takes a bit more self promotion.  I already managed to snag a domain name otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.   However there are a few more things I need to secure until the blog is fully up an operational (then I can go take that Princess Leia – how does your precious Alderaan look now? – (too much?)).

I need to:

1.  Set up a proper e-mail address

2.  Setup a Twitter account

3. Setup the blogfeed to post to the twitter account

4. Setup a baby status twitter account so the short and sweet updates can be in one place for family and friends and not buried in my mindless tweets.

Then we can start the shameless self promotion of ourselves – is that shameful self promotion – ask my friends I say it’s former they tell me it’s the latter.

If you are reading this on Creeva.com then be warned you are only getting half of the story.  I will be crossposting all of my own writing over to Creeva.com, but I won’t be taking any of the other blog authors stuff over.  This means you are doing yourself a disservice by not going to Parent Phobia directly.

I would recommend subscribing to the Parent Phobia feed at first, then visiting the site regularly through the week.   Once the Twitter account is up I would recommend adding that as a twitter contact.

As things get in place I will be posting regular updates and I highly recommend you get back to the main site and read Xie‘s stuff she is going to post on Parent Phobia since I’ve read some of what she is working on and it’s truly great and personal writing.

If any readers have a suggestion of something else we can add please let us know – and no we are are not creating a myspace account for you to friend.

Original From: Parent Phobia Blog To-Dos

There is a group of six of us that exchange multiple e-mails on a daily basis.   I removed myself from the Internet for a couple days last week, and the last message I left on twitter was the fact I was at the hospital ( a family member was getting a procedure).   When I finally managed to get back to the real world (meaning my online life :P ) and catching up with email this is the thread I waded through (alternating between bold and italic to denote each email):

And I checked Brent’s twitter, and he was in the hospital yesterday…. I hope everything is ok.

Holy Moly……any idea what for?

He’s hasn’t Twitted since the one yesterday

http://twitter.com/creeva

Can he get his email on his phone?  Or IM?  I don’t have his cell number…..

I hope he is ok

As a big Adam Sandler fan, I cracked up at this post:

tweet, tweet, tweet, all day long, tweet, tweet, tweet as I sing this song. Shampoo is better – no conditioner is better

Isn’t that kind of the point of Twitter – some one get a hold of him!

Twitter is for him to update only.  We cant’ post to his account….

I hope everything is ok too…

And damn him for actually showing some sort of use for internet social networking !!!!

CREEEEEEEEVAAAAAA !!!!
/shake fist in air

I do enjoy that I have shown them the actual point of social networking.   There were more emails but most of those concern tracking down my contact info (beyond e-mail) and a theory that the whole thing was a hoax.   I am glad some of my real friends actually read my twitter messages (says I’m not speaking to just bots), but what does this say for social networking?  I forgot to update a bit more detail so friends worried.  I also should have told the people I’m in constant digital contact with a warning that I was going MIA for awhile.

For those wondering since I’ve stated before that I don’t use SMS with twitter, what I did use was Jott to act as an intermediary.  I called Jott up and then it transcribed my voice messages into tweets.  A perfect scenario for someone who never uses all of his minutes.

Let this be a lesson to all of you – make sure people understand your tweets to some degree otherwise your causing undo worry to your digital life.

Picture from here

You would think that 48 hours away from the Interwebs would be easy.   That catching up would be no big deal.  Well not really.

Upon finally bringing myself to login, it wasn’t as bad as I thought but took a few hours to catch up. 858 unread feeds to wade through – this took two sessions.  Emails – 84 unread email threads – with about 150 unread emails – these are all ones that have made it through my filters and some I could immediately dismiss, but then again I’ll have a load of work email to tear through on Monday.

My blog had unread comments that I needed to reply to, I had to go through and check stats, myspace messages to reply to, livejournal and vox comments to read.  After 4-5 hours I’m now just caught up with all of my day to day Internet activities.

BLAH.

I still have almost 30 draft posts I need to wade through.

Picture from here

Today I read a comment on slashdot that inspired me to write on this subject.  The comment was written on the Secret History of Star Wars article and was given by Omestes and was as follows:

Oh god, the Nerd/Dork/Geek argument. We always went with nerds being unwashed, antisocial geniuses who small vaguely like cheese, and somehow manage to reference Yoda, and differential equations in every utterance. Dorks are just like nerds, but dumber. And geeks are the swashbuckling generalists who get all the chicks (er…) because they have some modicum of social skills, while still knowing their swallows apart.

By your jargon though, there still is a deep relation between nerds and dorks, since both of them are “systems” people. D&D is just another complex system to play with, just like math, code, and circuits. As is, oddly, the various nerd friendly mythologies. Both groups, by your classification, are equally likely to get the chicks… Not very. Neither math nor D&D impress many of the chicks I know.

So where does arguing over the semantics of nerdery put one?

Now this has been written about hundreds of times (if you don’t believe check google), but wanted to stick my two cents into this discussion.   Let’s go over my own defintions:

Picture from here

Dork: A dork is an invidual that has an interest in something in so far that they are singled out and people believe because of some title given to them they are thought to be an expert.  In all actuality they are no better then a lay person and has the largest social anxieties and problems dealing with others.   They normally think they are smarter then they are, but yet normally lack in depth knowledge to move them up the dork/nerd/geek ladder.

However there is a missing factor to this definition, that is the fact that a dork is more likely to be the one that non dorks/nerds/geeks are most comfortable around.   They are the ones that come off lovable – like when your friends or significant other says “You big dork”.   While in some terms dork is an insult, when you properly it is definitely the least offensive to the general population at large.

Picture from here

Nerd: Nerds are the individuals that have an interest in things the goes so far that not only do they have to prove tehy are better then everyone on the subject of interest, they also are so intensely interested in there area of focus that social situations really don’t bother them.   It’s a waste of time for them.  They don’t know why you don’t want to dig into replicating a hologram in your microwave with tin foil and baking soda, which they do daily for amusement.

Picture from here

Geek: Geeks usually can deal with society the best, but completely zone out similar to nerds to nerds, but are normally capable of human relationships, though they took the hologram in the microwave and made a short film out of it to upload to youtube.   They are interested in the obscure and bringing it into fruition.   Normally geeks wear the term geek on themselves with a badge of honor.

Me and my grandparents – Years Ago (Years and Years)

I can say in certain areas I’m all three, but I’m mostly a geek.   I’m normally quite knowledgable in the things I have extreme interest in, and i’m capable of zoning out.  Most of my family considers me a nerd when it comes to social networks (and I really am when it comes to crossposting).  When it comes to certain items and gadgets I’m definetly a dork trying to be a geek.

Wait what am I saying I was a pimp, I don’t know why I’m sticking myself into any of these groups.  You don’t believe me?  Behold Creeva with a mullet (once again many years ago):

So which do you identify with and what is your definitions?

To get an n810 or not is the question.   A few days ago I wrote a couple blog posts from my wife’s new n810.   I have some reservations about the keyboard for “power writing”, but that can be handled by a seperate bluetooth keyboard.   I think that’s not an issue.

Would I use it instead of a laptop – kind of.    Right now through work I have a Mac Book Air for my mobile device.   It’s great, it’s light, it does most of what i need it to do (what it can’t do would require linux or windows so it’s forgiven).    The one thing I run into with the air is the same thing I run into with my normal laptop, accessibility.   For normal computer use they are highly accessible, but if I do make it to HOPE this year or other travel venues it would be MUCH better to not bring a full laptop (if I do take an 810 to HOPE I’ll be accessing the internet through an encrypted Hamachi VPN tunnel to home and using a proxy there to access the Internet – no clear text information is going to be slipping by me – I can deal with the speed hit that will cause).

It’s much easier to have a bluetooth keyboard and an N810 to haul around to these places more so then a full laptop.   WIth a full laptop I need to worry about power (n810 has better battery life), privacy due to larger screen size,  finding a place to sit versus standing and using the n810.    These things are all things that go through my head while debating this purchase.

So yes the N810 would make me more mobile, and be more convenient.   I know for me (extreme power user) it won’t replace a computer or laptop, but for some people (like my sister) I could see this as a 100% computer replacement.   Too much geekery for me it seems.   So then we open up the question, could I live for a week with just the N810?

The N810 isn’t really designed for offline use.    If it has an internet connection that’s great.  I would be able to do most my blogposting and status updates via email so when I hit wifi I could sync up and go.   In alot ways I think this is enough.   To check this I need to menally compare it to my my Palm TX.

I’m not sure that the N810 will fully replace my Palm TX (then again no one said I couldn’t keep it).  WIth my palm TX I use it as an email platform, a web access device, a centralized syncing device, and an ebook reader.   Anything else I use it for is mostly games so that’s not really an issue – IM has always been painful on it do to .

Since the N810 does not have heavy document handling and I don’t think the resolution is quite right for ebook reading (the two thing I think I would keep my TX for)  it does have better web page filtering (my blog almost breaks the TX).   I would also be able to do IM since I wouldn’t be forced to stay on the IM screen like I do on the TX.   Email should be equal or better on the N810 versus the TX, Web Browsing would be better, and IM would be better.   The occasional full need to document editing and e-book reading would mean the TX could sit on the bottom of my bag (and a bluetooth keyboard would work with it – two devices one keyboard).

So theoretically I could replace my laptop about 90-95% with the two devices.   With having a much smaller footproint and ease of use in carrying these devices with me.   Having the N810 would mean that I no longer have to carry an iPod around since it would handle my podcast playing – bonus to the fact that it will auto scrobble to last.fm something that I have never gone working to a level I liked with an iPod and linux.

Movies however I’ll probably still use my palm TX – I can play full divx movies on it without having to re-encode them.   Bonus to me.    This will also have the side effect of saving me battery life on the N810 if the TX is with me.   I don’t watch movies too often on the go though.

Through hackery I would be able to sync my calender on google with my N810 – something that never worked right on the TX.   I would be able to compose music on the N810 (yes it can compose music).   Someone is also working on an instrument tuner – which is something I was going to buy this summer – so I’ll save 30.00 there.     I was going to buy an iPod, but with the 10 GB I can max out on the N810 and the fact that I only really use an ipod for podcasts would mostly make that that a non issue  – so a savings of 150.00 – so far I’ve saved myself 180.00 on stuff I would probably buy this summer.

There is an NES emulator (that works better on then on the TX) and a GBA emulator – this should save me from carrying around my GBA (which I ironically use more then my DS).   I also play RPG’s so the slight frame drop won’t really effect me.    I can use skype which really isn’t to much of an issue for me since I mostly would call my wife and we have free phone calles between us.   With utterz I can use my phone to “call in” blog posts.

I would be able to start geo caching with the N810 built in GPS, I’ve watned a gps for a long time, not for driving directions since I can look at a map easily and I’m able to figure out where I am.   My wife is sometimes jealous of my innate directional sense.   Usually I get way to lost sometimes by actually reading a map, wrongly at that.   I could get a cheap GPS for 90.00 – but that would take my total electronic purchases to 270.00.   We are approaching the N810 price.   (We actually match it if you figure out it would handle my gaming needs – but I already own those devices)

I like the N810′s keyboard versus the N800′s touch screen which my wife tried out first, but it still a small small keyboard and I have bigger fingers then her.   I can enter information quickly enough for a mobile device I can whip out real quick – and 500% faster then I can do on my phones keypad.     If I utilize bookmarks and saved password this should help limit my typing.   The less need I have on this the better.    Once again if I’m going to write a long blog post like this one is becoming i would have to have a bluetooth keyboard.

My tmobile internet connection is very slow on my cellphone, but being able to stop by any mcdonalds or burger king for quick internet access kind of alleviates that concern.   Granted wifi coverage isn’t ubiquitous but it’s common enough that I think I would be fine.

I’m probably going to decide tonight to get one.   Working through this post has helped alot.   I think I started with the fact that this would replace my palm TX, and going through that thought process I don’t think it would.   I think it will however handle the fact if I’m gone for a week or two away from a computer (though I can fathom two weeks away from a regular computer) that I could be just fine in a solely mobile solution without a laptop.    Using the host mode hack on the N810 coupled with the card reader program on the Palm TX means I’ll be able to utilize the Palm TX as a removable storage space on the N810 if I need it with normal SD cards instead of needing a thumb drive that would drain the N810′s power quicker.    This would allow me to throw another 8 GB and make the card switch out very easy for me.

I’ll keep everyone updated on what I decide.

One thing I’ve been working on for awhile is and Internet Deadman’s Switch.  With all of my crossposting and media re-usage activities in the grand scheme this should be fairly trivial.   I am sure however that some things will slip me up.   We’ll start in this section of identifying the goals I wish to acomplish and work through some of the stages in part two.

What do I mean by Deadman’s Switch?

A deadman’s switch is something that is triggered normally to keep you alive.   A quick example is the pressure plate on a riding lawn mower.   The pressure plate must have weight on it or the lawn more will not start and if the weight is removed the lawn mower will shut off.  So essentially one action cause another action to occur when certain variables are met.   My trigger would be my death.  If I didn’t verify if I was alive after a certain period of time to a program/website/etc.  the a serious of scripts and actions would trigger leaving behind all the information I wish to impart on those behind me.

Why do I want a Deadman’s Switch?

This idea started in my head about 7-8 years.   There used to be a website that had you check in once a month and if you didn’t log in it will send off emails to the ones you care about (or the ones you don’t).   This gives you the final word and allows you to send of those things that might be important.   I can leave my wife information about all my accounts and password, any relevant information that she may need and won’t be able to gather up, parting words to friends and families.   I would also thanks to my current setup be able to post to all my social networks and make an announcement of my death.   This I find intriguing and I’ll at least go through all the steps of implementing this (whether I actually use it and maintain it will remain to be seen).

What would I send?

I’ve broken down what I would want to send into four sections:

• My wife – I can deliver my final message, copies of important documents, access to all of my accounts and any other relevant information she needs
• My family – I would send each family member a personal message from the beyond – I also would send them a follow up to do with my wife in case something happened to her at the same time, that way there would still be someone i could trust that would have access to the information they may need to clean up my estate.
• Friends – I would send each of my “high level” friends an individual message – if somehow my whole family is taken out in one full attack – I don’t think I’m passing any of my personal information off to them.
• Public Internet at Large – this is broken into a few more sections, but essentially I’ll be leaving a video, audio postings, status updates to my social networks (“I’m dead thanks for all the fish”)), and a few final blog postings.

The trick to all of this is of course is reliant on a few things.   The first and foremost being that I can send email after I’m dead.   It also can not be reliant on my home PC (if a housefire hits or a tornado takes me out I don’t want my home to be the weakest link).   Finally whatever script I use must be able to pull from an FTP site (for the audio and video).    Once those can be accompished I’m fairly sure I can get everything else done.

When would I send it?

This is the other conundrum isn’t it?  How do you net tell everyone you have passed on while you are still alive (that could be embarrassing).    You need to pick a time period that seems suitable to you (every 12 hours is not suitable).  I’m thinking either every two weeks or every month I would have to login and verify that yes I am still alive and kicking.  The only problem this would really cause is if I’m kidnapped or held hostage.   The chances of those being so minimal that it is unlikely so I won’t really take those into account.   So to be safe I’ll set it for somewhere between 14 and 31 days.

Another thing I would like to do is configure it to be staggered.  That way I’ll be able to send a message to my wife warning her about the upcoming announcement of what is going to occur before it actually does.  Then to family, then to friends, and finally to the Internet as a whole.   This would keep it from being one big whirlwind hitting everyone at once like a ton of bricks.   I don’t want someone completely freaked out when they see a new youtube movie of my me uploaded.    So a staggered release would be the best scenario (if it’s possible).

How am I going to do this?

You’ll just have to wait for part 2.

My teenage years however gave me lots of time to get yelled at for cutting through lawns.   Once we destroyed a guy’s mailbox in retaliation for yelling at us one night.   It was beaten in to me.   Though I flaunted authority and didn’t care even going so far to save 15 steps I would cross someone’s lawn.  Now I’m an adult.  I am the authority.

I’m not one of the anal retentive people with immaculate lawns, far from it.   I take care of it as little as I need to, and I prefer it that way.   I’m sure my neighbors would love it it I was like my grandfather.   He’s one of the lawn hobbyist that mows his lawn more then once a week.   I would almost imagine if it was feasible he would take out scissors and trim it all by hand.   Though if he did it would be too long where he started and it would never end.    I think because of that I;ll never be that way.

But here I am protective of my space.  Space that I have intruded upon others for.  Maybe that makes me selfish.  Maybe that makes me a hypocrite.  Possibly though I am just a human being who wants to be left alone.   Whatever it is sometimes I don’t want to deal with it.  At least though I’ve come full circle and I bet half those people whose lawns I did cut across were just like me as a kid.

/shrug.

Personal writing:

• Holy Cross Posting Web Integration Life Caching Nirvana
• Gnome Conduit – Oh How I Hate to Love You
• coComment and Why It’s Important to Your Life Caching Needs
• Slashdot – Not Really Ready For Data Portability
• Bypassing Your Corporate Firewall Filtering or How to Torture The Firewall Admin
• Feedwordpress – De-Duplication Possible?
• Virtualizing Your Training Environment For Quick Restoration With VMware
• The GFQ5 Story About Creeva
• My Great Internet Data Clean-Up
• Why Can’t We Get Past Race and Gender

Links:

• Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/08/08
• Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/09/08
• Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/10/08
• Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/12/08
• Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/13/08
• Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/14/08

Posts on other Web Services:

• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-08
• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-09
• All Consuming: Creeva 02/10/08
• links for 2008-02-11
• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-10
• coComments by Creeva
• All Consuming: Creeva 02/11/08
• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-11
• coComments by Creeva 02/12/08
• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-12
• coComments by Creeva 02/13/08
• Photos from Creeva 02/13/08
• links for 2008-02-14
• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-13
• links for 2008-02-15
• coComments by Creeva 02/14/08
• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-14
• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-15

Personal writing:

• Cleaning up drafts
• Been awhile since I’ve written anything
• NFS – Oh I Hate You
• Internet Protocols That Need To Die – My Top 3
• Upgrading to Hardy Heron
• Still Downloading
• Hardy Heron Upgrade Complete
• Google Needs to Update it’s Gmail Welcome Letter
• Asian Gilrs For Dating – WTF??
• Ashland Humane Society Responds to My Blog Post
• Ashland Humane Society Customer Service Issues Part Tres
• Getting to Know My Sister All Over Again

Links:

• Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/01/08
• Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/02/08
• Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/05/08
• Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/06/08
• Creeva’s Daily Link List 02/07/08

Writings for other blogs:

• Click Through Advertising – The Evil Truth
• A Reader’s Interesting Strategy on Getting Online Adver…
• How To Never Give Advertisers your Social Security Number
• Choosing a Domain Name Can Be Heart Wretching.
• Journey To Get Paid’s Week In Review 02/08/2008

Posts on other Web Services:

• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-04
• Creeva’s Consumption 02/04/08
• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-05
• coComments by Creeva 02/06/08
• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-06
• coComments by Creeva 02/07/08
• All Consuming Creeva 02/07/08
• Flickr Photos from Creeva 02/07/08
• Twitter Updates for 2008-02-07

Perception is reality, but that statement in and of itself can be deep or petty.   To others around us the perception of who we are is truly their reality.   Whether it be because of things we do while being around them, or the actions we perform.  That does not conclusively make us who we are or the reality of our being.

We can assume like you did that the car crash was meant to happen, but that truly was coincidence, but that does not mean their wasn’t truth in the reality that you saw after the fact.     This is the deepness in that statement that exists.

The shallowness is the stereotypes that people around you see you as.  They do not take the time to see who you truly are so they have a warped or partial reality of who you really.   While we can assume that  this is their loss, you are perceiving and inter-acting with them on the same level.  You are then missing out on them as much as they are missing out on you.

Whether this all truly matters goes back to the core statement, perception is reality.   Does your perception of this truly matter?   Does it alter your reality or make your reality seem less then it truly is?   It is your perception, but are you perceiving every part about it that you should.

These ironically are only statements that each individual can make for themselves.   The depth and need of how far perception needs to alter reality or vice versa is something that only the individual can answer.

Some people drop out of reality and interaction of those around them.   Since we no longer perceive them and they live in an altered mental state which warps their perception, do they truly exist?   Is their reality warped beyond any form of interacting with actual reality?

Unfortunately their is never a true answer to reality because it’s all based on perception.

This was my bedroom wall back in high school – one day the summer before my senior year I started by painting my initials on the wall.  It grew over time.   Friends came over they signed the wall, I painted the names of my closest friends and girlfriends of different eras on the wall.  It was a work of art, and epic time of my life.   It was a living diary that shared information with those who entered and those who embraced it.

Every time someone came over something was added or removed from the wall.  It went so far that even some parents signed it.   It was a moment at time which I lived and breathed inside my mural, it was an extension of myself that I didn’t have for years.

When I moved out to go to college my brother inherited my room.   Out when the mural, lost under paint was the soul that previously breathed into that room.  After my brother, two of my sisters inherited that room.  None of them kept up the mural tradition.   Part of me had hoped my siblings would have taken up the torch, either taking their own wall or painting over the areas I had painted and made it their own.

Now it’s a plain painted wall and the pictures above are all that exists of the soul that lies beneath the current paint.

My blog now is my modern mural.  Granted my friends don’t participate here like they did back then, but the blog I think is more ethereal to them as the wall was all those years ago.   It doesn’t give them a chance to leave their mark the way the tangible wall allowed them to exist.   The picture was take a week or two before I left for college.    I lost myself after that.    Lost was my childhood and the friendships I left behind.  Moving on from the past and onto the next stage of my life.    I am myself and no other.    I have parts of myself that have been painted over and will never again emerge.   Still for those that know, part of myself will always shine through because they know what exists beneath paint.

The other day at work I had mentioned my 9th wedding anniversary coming up and of course as per custom my co-workers congratulated me. After the first sentence you are probably wondering what the title has to do with this post. Well let’s get into that.

Coming back from lunch one of my co-workers clarified that I was going to be married for nine years. I confirmed his statement. He then asked me why I where shoes like I’m a high schooler still. For a moment I was taken aback.

Let’s get some things out of the way, this gentleman may not be old enough to be my grandfather, but he is older then my father. He has long hair in a pony tail. probably in in his mid 50′s maybe pushing early 60;s – all in all age doesn’t matter to me much, he is a man like any other.

For a moment I was just dumbfounded. I look down at his feet and he had brown wingtips on, but they were scuffed and aged for a few years. Something with dress shoes that I would never wear anything that beat up out in public for that shoe style. I used to always wear dress shoes when I was consulting, but since I’m in the office all day I wear something more befitting to my work and being on my feet more often then I was when I was consulting.

How do you explain to this gentleman that I value my personal comfort when occasions allow for it then any false bravadoes of style? That generationally the wing tips don’t fit most people in their late 20′s early 30′s like they did twenty to thirty years ago. That fashion slaves no longer need to exist to the level in business that the older generation once believed. Even IBM employees don’t wear suits and ties to work any more.

I left it with that line that they were comfortable and that’s why I wear them. I didn’t add that my dress shoes don’t look like they are falling apart and 4 months past the need a good polishing.

In the end – I don’t understand what that has to do with being married for 9 years.

I assume these would be a more fitting style according to him for a guy married 9 years then the shoes pictured above (the style I normally buy):

Ug.

Anyways I’ve been happily married now for 9 short years and hopefully will stay that way into I’m just a memory in everyone’s eye and someone’s whose thoughts only exist in the archive.org wayback machine.

I love my wife with all of my heart, there are the trials and tribulations that go with any marriage and being the same person for over a decade. However we persevere and go one (though we still argue about copyright law – HEATEDLY). We will manage to get through and stay in blissful debate and wonderful marriage until our dying day.

I will however still wear the shoes I like and not the ones befitting a certain age or social economic structure.