Sunday, July 15, 2012

One Week (almost) Later...

Sunday, July 15

Continuing my list of things I need to do...

6.) Create a better online portfolio. Any one of several of my designer friends can point me in the right direction for this one.

Well, readers, that little blurb above was actually written July 10th, when I was still semi-intoxicated with my own notions of how I was going to quickly get myself up-to-speed in all this Social Media stuff. One of my goals was to post to this blog every day.

You'll also note that the day I am actually posting my second entry is July 15. A full five (or six, depending on how you slice it) days later.

Harumph!!

As gently noted/commented by my old college buddy Pete Niedbala, daily updates to a blog can be....well, unrealistic. (And Pete, by "old" I only mean that our friendship goes way back, not that you, personally, are an old dude. Not yet. Even though you were a year {two years?} older than I back in our college days. I'm sure you've amended that by now.)

So the dive into Social Media may have been a racing dive, where one hits the water at a shallow angle in order to maintain maximum speed. I think I performed a racing dive, followed almost immediately by a kind of sinking, legs-and-arms akimbo, unsynchronized water ballet/train wreck.

Nevertheless, there is progress to report, and now that I think about it, in quite a few areas.

First of all, I have discovered that my blog is not on Wordpress, but on Blogger, which is not all that surprising given my love for almost all things Google. And this time around I am actually making my entry from my blog's dashboard.

I think I may have a smartphone, an iPhone no less, in my sweaty little hands soon, possibly even later today. Thanks to the generosity of a dear friend.

I joined Twitter and made a first silly tweet, then today actually found something online worth tweeting about. The article, titled You are the creative type, is about how little creative steps can lead to something much larger than the intended creative goal. If you missed the tweet, the article can be found at http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/15/opinion/kelley-creativity/index.html?hpt=hp_t3.

I did not do much on Facebook. I did not even manage to log in every day, one of my easiest (I thought) goals. Gotta do better on that. Did not even so much try a "Log in Through Facebook" link on anything to see what the big thrill would be.

I tried to pin something to my Pinterest account and failed. Really. I mean, geez, how hard can it be? Hard enough to trip me up, apparently. Gotta fix that.

And as long as we're listing stuff in the "Fail" category, I did not get very far into Rule the Web, and I have not gone looking for any Social Media for Dummies book. (Although that may be a little side trip for today, a quick jaunt to Barnes and Noble, just down the street. I really do need to do it, and it will also help, as this blog entry is now, in my avoidance of another project that is literally looming over my head, which I have so far successfully avoided: install a ceiling fan.)

I have an offer from LinkedIn for a free month of premium membership, whatever that is, which I have not acted upon yet, but which I intend to. LinkedIn is sort of a mystery to me. Can anyone tell me, for instance, how large the site is? It seems to me to be a business-oriented Facebook, but... what would you use it for? Is it one of the big ones, not to be neglected in my Social Media swim? I've joined, and connected with a few score others, but I'm not really sure why.

One of the most pleasant surprises so far is hearing from a few people who've actually read my blog. People I haven't heard from in a long, long time; people giving me words of encouragement and support. So nice, thank you!!

And people giving me interesting, useful information. For instance, the link to the article about iGoogle being shut down (November 2013, I believe was the date for that event).

I wish to pause here and thank said folks for taking the time to read this blog. And I am feeling more than a little self-conscious at the moment, thinking, "Why am I wasting these people's time with this blather? Why would anyone read this?" I don't know. I guess it's one of the mysteries of social media I have yet to learn about. I admit, having this little outlet into which to spew my thoughts does in fact give me some motivation to continue to spew. Which is a good thing. I see it as one of those little creative steps mentioned in You are the creative type.


Well, alrighty then. That about concludes today's entry. Time to tackle the ceiling fan. I'll end this entry with a photo of my child in a meadow out in the middle of the forest. Just because I can, and to give you a break from all this blather. Katy and I just got back yesterday from a short camping trip to Latour Demonstration Forest. We stayed at Old Cow Creek Campground, and did, in fact, see some cows, which for Katy may have been the highlight of the trip. :)

2 comments:

Skip said...

Love your writing style. Good to see you moving ahead. I agree with you about Linked In, but a lot of SM takes time to see in proper perspective. You didn't ask, but I see two posts on this blog that could have been several dailies. Don't give up on the daily post idea, but do add more photos, and shorter thoughts. Most of us readers are all ADD now, and SM is part of the reason.

Unknown said...

Hey, you got the good spot! I'll bet Katy had a blast with the water pump.