I put the below New Year Resolution on my Waterdog Journal Facebook page the other day.
Thought I would give fair warning to those that somehow subscribe to new posts.
Over the holidays, with a few extra days off, I’ll probably start going through my FB page to find the things that I should have been putting up here all along.
For those that have subscribed to this place via email, you shouldn’t notice anything, I can check something off to not send out a notice. For those that do everything through smart phones, you might be out of luck. I don’t have a smart phone and don’t know how they work. I have no clue how you all subscribe to anything and I’m pretty sure I don’t have any way of not sending out a notice of a new post at that point.
So, basically, you’re out of luck. Might get a little annoying for you, but then, what else would be new.
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New Year Resolution
I never make them, but for the past couple of years I’ve wondered why I put things up here on this Facebook page and not my blog. Then I could just put a link up here to the blog.
Pictures and words I put up here would easily be a nice short post on my blog.
The reasoning behind this is that I’ve always hated Facebook and don’t trust it, but it is simple to use. Main reason for not liking FB is that I don’t own what I put here. I’m just renting space and they basically own my data. I learned a long time ago to not trust people with my data. They’ll eventually fuck you over and poof, it’s gone.
The control freak in me also likes to have complete control over details. I really have none here. FB does whatever it feels like and half the time I can’t find something that I KNOW I put up here a year or so ago. On my site, piece of cake, I know how to access everything with no real effort on my part.
But I keep defaulting to laziness and simple to use. Time to end that. I have a feeling a lot of people will not make the simple click and go look at a link I put up, that’s their choice, but it’s time to cut the FB cord a bit.
Along with that I have a photo site that has been waiting in the wings for a few years and my ChicagoNow blog has been sitting idle for a couple of years. I might expand my New Year Resolution to those two sites and see what happens.
I also have a forum I basically shut down a couple of years ago. Been looking at that wondering what to do with it, but I can’t help feel that forums have gone the way of the dinosaurs.
RK Henderson
20 Dec 2015Basically agree with everything here. I also have the multiple platform problem; it’s taken me forever to come up with an effective policy for what to post on Twitter, what to post on FB, and what to blog. And of course there are all the other platforms I’m supposed to be on (Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest…) As soon as I get on _those_, I’ll have to redo the whole policy again. And like you, Im not a smartphone guy; whole ‘nother thing, that I’m having to learn about now to optimise my blog for readers.
I’m beginning to think what we really need is an old-school newsletter, mimeo’d in fuzzy blue ink, with a staple in the corner.
Either way, see ya on the other side, Ken!
Robin
Rusty Ring: Reflections of an Old-Timey Hermit
Ken G
21 Dec 2015Back when I was a fishing guide and writing for a couple of local outdoors mags, I was heavily involved on the local forums. When I stopped guiding, I slowly walked away from the forums.
FB and the blog is really all I have. I’ve watched people play with Twitter and have decided it’s just not for me. The others, I don’t know. Maybe Flickr cause of the photos. Time doesn’t allow me to spread myself too thin.
As for mimeo… never did matter what was printed, I looked forward to that wonderful smell.
Have a couple of great holidays Robin. With a few days off coming, I think I’m going to sleep through one of them.
Walt
21 Dec 2015Hey Ken, I hear ya. Feel free to annoy me any way you like, I don’t mind. I don’t trust FB, don’t own a smartphone (hell, I’ve disliked that medium ever since Don VanVliet, the great captain of my RR ship, called the telephone the “plastic-horned devil.” I still like blogging, the control I have over it and the way I can keep a low profile by using it.
Also, I’m with you and Robin on the subject of mimeos. I enjoyed self-producing an anti-establishment rag called The Stone & Sling in the late 80s. Used to crank out a hundred copies of each issue by hand and distribute them in the mail and by surreptitious drop-offs at critical junctures of local society. Got more written responses that way than I do in the blogoshere.
Good luck with it all, and enjoy some holiday leisure!
Ken G
21 Dec 2015I hear ya Walt. I don’t know how many times I’ve seriously considered throwing my phone out the window as I cruise along at 70 mph on I-88. I watch my daughters using their Twitter accounts and my brain goes dead with all the chatter and I’m not even involved.
There was something more enjoyable waiting for snail mail. Magazines you knew were going to show up. Setting aside the time to read them. Now I can go look them up online whenever I want, but I must not want to. I don’t bother reading those same magazines online. Something about the feel of paper on hands that I still enjoy.
Doesn’t help that I’ve used computers for work for the past 25 years. You’d think I would be used to digital print by now.
Holiday leisure indeed. Wish I had a trout stream in the area. I’d give it some serious thought. Smallies are starting to go to sleep a bit for the winter.
RK Henderson
21 Dec 2015Dittos to all. I really miss magazines and newspapers. Just can’t read stuff like that on my computer (to say nothing of a cell phone; don’t understand the attraction of that _at all_.) And speaking of mimeo, I became a teacher at the very end of the mimeo era; have vivid memories of turning that crank (kerchunk-kerchunk-kerchunk) and being up to my elbows in dry cleaning fluid. (Same stuff that makes mimeo print. No idea what the chemistry is that produced that coincidence, but I distinctly remember having to unscrew the cap on the machine’s tank and upend that big square gallon-sized can, like I was refueling a generator.)
I like the Internet a lot, but it never replaced real media. Too bad we can’t seem to have both.
Robin
Rusty Ring: Reflections of an Old-Timey Hermit.
Ken G
22 Dec 2015When I think of all the chemical compounds used and played with as a kid and into early adulthood, it amazes me that I’ve lived as long as I have Robin. I think most of them have been banned.
Howard Levett
22 Dec 2015Well, I’ll throw my 2 cents in. I’m reminded of a song, The things we do for love. Don’t remember who sang it but I’ve about had all the love I can stand. You keep posting here and they will come. Merry Christmas Ken G. and family!
Ken G
22 Dec 2015Thanks Howard, now that song will be stuck in my head for the rest of the night. Not sure that’s a good thing.
Part of it is to simplify my life even just a little bit more. We’ll see if that works.
Merry Christmas to you and yours too Howard.
Justin Carfagnini
24 Dec 2015That wouldn’t annoy me at all. I am the opposite. I often forget to share my blog posts on FB or other platforms, and do so days, weeks, and sometimes months later. As the time goes by, I find myself using FB less and less. Just sharing a random video or post that I come across in my very short time browsing my feed. I just shared a blog post on Twitter just now, because, of your post. Ha.
Good luck with your resolution, I look forward to what I’ve been missing out on seeing and reading. Merry Christmas to you and your family, Ken.
Ken G
24 Dec 2015It has to become a habit Justin. Put up a post, copy/paste the link over to FB or Twitter or wherever. Only takes a few seconds.
I’ll still use FB for my usual asinine commentary, but I had been putting up some good photo’s and words there. That has to stop.
Maybe I’ll just go ahead and annoy people and not shut off the notices.
Happy Holidays to you and yours too Justin.