Catchup / What photo sharing?

Well, it seems I haven't posted a blog update in four months. Then again, probably not too many people saw that blogpost, or any of my blogposts, so what does it matter. But I feel myself wanting to share more than I already do through twitter, facebook, and what the really cool kids glean off of my friendfeed page. Mostly I like to write about what I'm doing. If you look back at my "journals" from high school and before, they are mostly consumed with what type of writing utensil I am deploying. So this is no different. Here is the question: What photo sharing software should I use on a regular basis. Till now I have used a customer ithompson.com domain, my .mac web page (wow...photos back to 2005) which is now iphoto galleries), flikr, picasa (oh how I wish you worked better), and begrudgingly posted a few shots on facebook. It seems like the photog type folks use flikr, and I am tempted to go with that option. But I love the ease of just editing within iphoto and drag and dropping some photos into a gallery to have them pop up on the web. As I indicated above, I do love how picasa integrates itself onto my desktop, and finds photos, etc., but it caused my internet to lock up every frikken time. And if I'm going to be forced to export photos to upload 'em, I'll just go with flikr. So, any suggestions are helpful. In the meantime, I'll keep posting wherever I'm going to post, and letting folks know in a haphazard way. First up, my last trip to China.

Shomer Shabbos

I think the time has come to start observing Shabbat again. It has been a long time since I practiced Judaism in more than a cursory way, but I'm going to take my mom's example and turn religion to my own use. The phone rang this morning (Saturday) with a business call. Ordinarily I would pick up the phone and get right into it. Today I decided to stay on the couch with my son, and continue watching Monster's Inc. I felt some anxiety about this, until I went and checked my messages, but if I actually turn off the phone (gasp) then I wouldn't even know I had a message. Of course that won't stem the tide of emails, or keep my other cell phone from ringing, but I think it will be a good start.

For many years I have worked 24/7, with no "defined" time off. Sure, I take my share of leisure time, but it is subject to interruption at any time. I know this has been hard on my family, as well as on me. So, from now on, starting at sunset on Friday night and ending at sunset on Saturday night, I am going to institute my own version of Shabbat. No working, unless it is something I love to do. So, I don't count writing this post, or reading a tech book I want to read, or whatever else I choose to do. But nothing I "have" to to. We shall see how this works out.

For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, here is a quote from The Big Lebowski, courtesy of IMDB. I have redacted the cursing.

Walter Sobchak: I told those [bleeps] down at the league office a thousand times that I don't roll on Shabbos!
Donny: What's Shabbos?
Walter Sobchak: Saturday, Donny, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means that I don't work, I don't get in a car, I don't [bleeping] ride in a car, I don't pick up the phone, I don't turn on the oven, and I sure as [bleep]
[shouts]
Walter Sobchak: don't [bleeping] roll! Shomer shabbos!
The Dude: Walter...
Walter Sobchak: Shomer [bleeping] shabbos.

Amazon's database of my stuff

Permanent link to my Amazon collection of books. I'm using it as a starting point. Taking suggestions for book collection database (before I finally create the one I invented in my head in 1983).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/ays?view=_cat_agg_all&viewType=thicklist&asin=&viewShared=0&targetCustomerId=A3BY7ZUBW2P76P&searchTerms=&sortCol=dateAcquired&sortDir=desc

Synchronicity or Unconscous Selection? (notes)

I have noticed some synchronicity in some of the media I have been consuming. Themes and memes overlapping and repeating. Even a common tone of voice in some cases. As I thought about this just a little bit it occurred to me that this is natural, since I am the one choosing the books and movies and television I take in. But sometimes I feel certain things jumped in my path, rather than me seeking them out.

Rather than going back to the beginning, I'm going to start with the most recent. I'm going to use this as a working document, so perhaps I shall yank it back to draft status. Perhaps not.

I'm watching Wall E as I type this post. My son Jake is not happy about me not watching the screen, so I'll get this started and come back. Wall E, with its theme of survivors of an apocalypse, comes fresh on the heels of my viewing of I Am Legend, with Will Smith. And that, followed my reading of Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank, which followed When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth, and Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow. Most recently, I read Eat the Document: A Novel, by Dana Spiota.

Hopefully on my next revision or next post I will begin to make some sense of the shared zeitgeist I feel from these disparate sources.

An Ode to Winter in Vermont

I'm back home in Los Angeles and am as happy as a pig in the mire. I had a great time in Vermont. Wonderful to visit with family. I will post more soon, but wanted to get these two photos up. This is for all the friends who visited Vermont with me over the years. Though it was wintry and cold when I was there in December/January, it was beautiful too. I don't know that I ever watched the sunset before when in Vermont, but you can believe I'll be watching in the future. On the left is the hill leading to Grandma Thompson's back 40. The other photo is the sunset as seen out the window of what is now the mudroom and was the woodshed.