Draft Blogger has added fonts. There should be 40 now. I can't wait to try 'em out. I love fonts. I've forgotten how many I've loaded onto my computer, but I've always wished we had more choices online. This will go a long way to rectify that.
~~~o0o~~~
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Nerd is Just a Label
I posted this on my comic book blog and thought it might reach the audience it's really intended for here, because people who read my comic blog already agree with the points.
I started answering Sally's post, In Defense of Nerds, then realized it was long enough to be a post. So, here it is.
The thing is you don't have to be a nerd to be obsessive about something. Just look at the guys at football games who shave their heads to form their favorite team's logo.
Most people are probably a fan of something and are well versed on that something to the point that they know the little details.
They might be nerds and geeks who are into such things as Star Trek, Star Wars, comic books, math, etc. They might be oh so classy as to be film buffs or wine connoisseurs, or everyday folks who are sports buffs. They might collect fine art or be into photos, or they might simply like to visit museums every chance they get.
They might be folks who make sure to record their favorite tv shows if they won't be home to watch them, or be into music that they never miss their favorite bands in concert. They might collect autographs or coins or stamps or things with hearts on them or motorcycles. They might be birdwatchers or crafters. They might knit or crochet or make model airplanes and/or spaceships and know everything there is to know about their crafts.
They might make LEGO sculptures or they might be religious about running or jogging. Maybe martial arts is their thing. They could be foodies who like to either read everything about food or they might cook every chance they get, trying every new recipe that catches their interest.
Or perhaps theater is their thing. Or they paint or sculpt. Maybe it's a game of touch football every weekend with their buds, or maybe it's dressing up for a night of dancing a few times a week.
Maybe they're hooked on reality tv or think Mad Men is absolute must viewing. Or maybe it's books. Maybe they've read every book by their favorite authors and drive booksellers or librarians crazy until the next release by those same authors.
It doesn't matter what their "thing" is. It matters that they have a "thing." If I learned anything from my father is that having hobbies pays off beyond the core of the hobby. It pays off in friendship and social interactions. My father is in his mid-80s and while most of his friends from his youth have much dwindled in number, he has many friends in their 50s and 60s and 70s who will likely be around longer than he, so he's guaranteed to have friends for the rest of his life.
He's also managed to stay busy, busier in retirement than when he was working, and that includes all the doctor's visits older people have that younger ones don't. He collects stamps and autographs and he's a space buff. In fact, it was because he wanted to watch the new "space show" called Star Trek when it premiered that I became a lifelong Trekker. So now he goes to lectures given by astronauts and ex-astronauts and NASA employees, and attends functions where he can mingle with people who share his interests. And he's far from what anyone would call a nerd, now, or back when he was young.
Most people do most things in moderation. But there's usually something they obsess about that isn't family. It's not true for everyone, and maybe the folks who do everything in moderation are better rounded than we obsessives, but that doesn't make them better than us or vice versa. It just makes us different and interesting in our own way.
So, instead of putting someone down for their quirky interests or labeling them nerds or geeks as a way of dismissing them and their interests, why not engage them in conversation? You might learn something ... interesting.
Just call me a nerd, and proud of it! :)
~~~o0o~~~
I started answering Sally's post, In Defense of Nerds, then realized it was long enough to be a post. So, here it is.
The thing is you don't have to be a nerd to be obsessive about something. Just look at the guys at football games who shave their heads to form their favorite team's logo.
Most people are probably a fan of something and are well versed on that something to the point that they know the little details.
They might be nerds and geeks who are into such things as Star Trek, Star Wars, comic books, math, etc. They might be oh so classy as to be film buffs or wine connoisseurs, or everyday folks who are sports buffs. They might collect fine art or be into photos, or they might simply like to visit museums every chance they get.
They might be folks who make sure to record their favorite tv shows if they won't be home to watch them, or be into music that they never miss their favorite bands in concert. They might collect autographs or coins or stamps or things with hearts on them or motorcycles. They might be birdwatchers or crafters. They might knit or crochet or make model airplanes and/or spaceships and know everything there is to know about their crafts.
They might make LEGO sculptures or they might be religious about running or jogging. Maybe martial arts is their thing. They could be foodies who like to either read everything about food or they might cook every chance they get, trying every new recipe that catches their interest.
Or perhaps theater is their thing. Or they paint or sculpt. Maybe it's a game of touch football every weekend with their buds, or maybe it's dressing up for a night of dancing a few times a week.
Maybe they're hooked on reality tv or think Mad Men is absolute must viewing. Or maybe it's books. Maybe they've read every book by their favorite authors and drive booksellers or librarians crazy until the next release by those same authors.
It doesn't matter what their "thing" is. It matters that they have a "thing." If I learned anything from my father is that having hobbies pays off beyond the core of the hobby. It pays off in friendship and social interactions. My father is in his mid-80s and while most of his friends from his youth have much dwindled in number, he has many friends in their 50s and 60s and 70s who will likely be around longer than he, so he's guaranteed to have friends for the rest of his life.
He's also managed to stay busy, busier in retirement than when he was working, and that includes all the doctor's visits older people have that younger ones don't. He collects stamps and autographs and he's a space buff. In fact, it was because he wanted to watch the new "space show" called Star Trek when it premiered that I became a lifelong Trekker. So now he goes to lectures given by astronauts and ex-astronauts and NASA employees, and attends functions where he can mingle with people who share his interests. And he's far from what anyone would call a nerd, now, or back when he was young.
Most people do most things in moderation. But there's usually something they obsess about that isn't family. It's not true for everyone, and maybe the folks who do everything in moderation are better rounded than we obsessives, but that doesn't make them better than us or vice versa. It just makes us different and interesting in our own way.
So, instead of putting someone down for their quirky interests or labeling them nerds or geeks as a way of dismissing them and their interests, why not engage them in conversation? You might learn something ... interesting.
Just call me a nerd, and proud of it! :)
~~~o0o~~~
Friday, November 05, 2010
Yammer Yadda Yadda
So, we're trying Yammer at work. Yammer's is a social network for the workplace, designed for co-workers to communicate the way people at large communicate with sites like Facebook and Twitter. Only people with my work email's domain, for instance, could join my work's Yammer network. How useful it is depends on the workplace and the participants, I'd imagine. I'll be interested in seeing how it works in a library setting. I don't see it as much use for people who work in reasonably close proximity to each other, but it could be helpful for people working out of different locations. If anything interesting develops from this, I'll report on it here, in the most generic terms, as usual.
~~~o0o~~~
~~~o0o~~~
The Blog Service that Cried Wolf
So, I get an email today from Bloglines that started thusly:
See, I spent many hours at the end of September, I think it was, comparing my Google Reader feeds with my Bloglines feeds to make sure I had everything in GReader. Then, they extended the deadline for discontinuing Bloglines, so I got a bit lazy and only yesterday started working on redoing my blogrolls on my blogs. I did one for Cyber Chocolate yesterday, adding feeds manually into the Blogger template gadget for blog feeds because my first attempt to do it importing folders from GReader didn't work all that well. I ended up dropping feeds not updated in months and in some cases, a year or longer.
So now it's Google Reader that's mostly up-to-date (I need to check a few more of the feed folders I have there) and my Bloglines subs that are much out-of-date and I really don't want to have to check all of them. I can access GReader from iGoogle and don't need to log into another site, so sorry, Bloglines, I won't be using you.
Though I am interested in seeing what enhancements you come up with, for reporting purposes only, of course.
I wonder how many other Bloglines users have also moved on and I wonder how many will return.
It's a shame. Bloglines was one of the first sites I used, dating back to my early weeks as a blogger and blog reader. We had a great time together, and I miss it, but I can't go through redoing my feeds again. I'm betting on Google Reader sticking around.
In other news, I started a Tumblr. If you're inclined, you can find it here: Random Shelly. My first 8 url choices were in use, and I resisted trying iwastoolatetogetagoodurl. Thus, randomshelly.tumblr.com.
~~~o0o~~~
"We have some exciting news to share about the Bloglines service!And my response is "Say what?" Because 1) I hadn't heard that, and 2) it's too late.
"As you may have heard, Ask.com (http://ask.com/) has entered into an agreement with MerchantCircle (http://www.merchantcircle.com/) who has agreed to keep Bloglines up and running. Stay tuned over the coming months as MerchantCircle works to improve the Bloglines service by creating a richer and more local user experience."
See, I spent many hours at the end of September, I think it was, comparing my Google Reader feeds with my Bloglines feeds to make sure I had everything in GReader. Then, they extended the deadline for discontinuing Bloglines, so I got a bit lazy and only yesterday started working on redoing my blogrolls on my blogs. I did one for Cyber Chocolate yesterday, adding feeds manually into the Blogger template gadget for blog feeds because my first attempt to do it importing folders from GReader didn't work all that well. I ended up dropping feeds not updated in months and in some cases, a year or longer.
So now it's Google Reader that's mostly up-to-date (I need to check a few more of the feed folders I have there) and my Bloglines subs that are much out-of-date and I really don't want to have to check all of them. I can access GReader from iGoogle and don't need to log into another site, so sorry, Bloglines, I won't be using you.
Though I am interested in seeing what enhancements you come up with, for reporting purposes only, of course.
I wonder how many other Bloglines users have also moved on and I wonder how many will return.
It's a shame. Bloglines was one of the first sites I used, dating back to my early weeks as a blogger and blog reader. We had a great time together, and I miss it, but I can't go through redoing my feeds again. I'm betting on Google Reader sticking around.
In other news, I started a Tumblr. If you're inclined, you can find it here: Random Shelly. My first 8 url choices were in use, and I resisted trying iwastoolatetogetagoodurl. Thus, randomshelly.tumblr.com.
~~~o0o~~~
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