Why the change?

Well, three main reasons: 1) WP.com’s feature set is now close enough to on-par with the self-hosted/”full”/.org version that it’s not a sacrifice to make the change (the last time I checked, a year or so ago, that wasn’t the case…), as a result, 2) It’s simpler & easier to keep things running when I don’t have to worry about security, patches, upgrades, etc… I’ve gotten to a point where I just don’t have the time or the inclination to do the “sysadmin” hobby at that level anymore, and 3) It’s cheaper, as I won’t have to worry about re-upping with the hosting provider.

I’m still working out some of the kinks, which is taking a bit longer than in the past, mainly because of a lack of time to dedicate to things like squaring away RSS feeds and the like; but, at least I have the DNS all switched over, along with having successfully migrated all of the content. Now I just need to write new content…

I’ll get right on that.

-ghp

Back just before the start of the year, I started getting more involved in Facebook, and that siphoned no small amount of my time & attention away from writing things in longer form here.

Now, within the past month or so, I’ve started to get more into Twitter (@glenpiper). This has, much to my surprise I must admit, siphoned off even more time & attention away from blogging. Frankly, Twitter has even siphoned time & attention away from FB.

I didn’t think that Twitter would turn out to be as interesting to me as it has. Nor did I think it would actually end up being useful, as evidenced by my late & somewhat reluctant entry into the arena. That said, I’m actually very surprised at how useful Twitter has turned out to be for me. I’ve had to wrestle with how to use it productively (something that I’m still doing, btw), but as a tool for social, personal, and professional interaction, as well as for entertainment and information, Twitter has proven to be far more useful than I ever thought possible.

What I’m struggling with the most now, though, is this: How do I strike the proper balance between the (for me) purely social space that is FB, the social/informational/whatever microblogging space that is Twitter, and the still useful and necessary longer form thinking space that is traditional blogging?

The biggest downcheck I’ve found in FB & Twitter (again, for me) is this: it is so approachable in its immediacy that it’s all too tempting & easy to fall into shallow patterns of thinking & reacting, while giving short shrift to more contemplative & thoroughly considered, longer form, thinking & writing.

The grind of daily life is such that the reactive forms of interaction are more gratifying, at least instantly, and thus more (for lack of a better word) doable. The downside, though, is that they bring with them the accumulation of a not-insignificant latent angst, as one is exposed to the unrelentingly high-paced, yet shallow-in-presentation, Twitter stream.

Aside from the micro- vs. regular blogging question, another issue that’s crossed my mind is that of audience. For the most part, I think there’s a majority of my audience that follows me in two or all three of the spaces. If I had to guess, however, I’d wager that more folks will see what I blurt out via Twitter. Then again, I also know that there are some folks who only see what I do if it shows up on FB. The good thing is that I’ve figured out how to get what I do here, in the long-form “regular” blog” to show up in the other two spaces, either as a “note” (FB), or as an announcement w/a link (Twitter). I could very well be over-, and thus out-, thinking myself on this particular question/issue…

Ultimately, I guess, it’s about finding the right balance for me. It doesn’t help, in some ways, to see that there are some folks out there who are doing a far better job of pumping out content in all three spaces, particularly in the long-form space (’cause *that’s* where reps are made, don’cha know, along with Issues, Etc. Blog of the Week selections, right Frank? Besides, I fancy myself as erudite and able to churn out well-turned phrases as any in the Lutheran blogosphere — A man can have his conceits, can’t he? As the great bard Axl Rose opined, “I’ve worked to hard for my illusions just to throw them all away.” But I digress…). I guess I’ll just keep grinding away as best I can – not everyone can be as prolific as McCain…

-ghp

It’s not so much that I’m against anonymous comments (although I do prefer names to be associated with opinions), it’s more that I think it’s a pretty cool plugin because it allows accounts/userids/passwords that folks already have to be leveraged in another place/way. We’ll see how it works out…

-ghp

It’s not that I don’t care or don’t want to write/have things to say; I’m just having trouble, as trite as it sounds, finding and believing in my voice. (yikes, I can’t believe I just used that phraseology…)

Life can just generally wear you down sometimes…

-ghp

Powered by Jott

I’m back on Twitter (Hi, Jane!), mainly out of a single pragmatic reason — I think it’ll make posting quick, micro-blog entries from my Blackberry & Netvibes startpage much easier. I have installed a Twitter plugin for WordPress, that facilitates the quick-n-easy type of posting that I envision will make posting more of a regular thing. Sometimes, I get hung up on overthinking (again, shocking, I know…) what I want to post, and end up posting nothing. A little stream-of-consciousness might not be a bad thing. And Twitter’s 140 character limit seems like it might just fit the bill for getting me focused & on topic for bite-sized pieces of information. We’ll see…

Where I’m really a bit more ambivalent, though, is with Facebook. Online social networking in general, really, is an interesting topic for me, given that “real”/”meatspace” networking isn’t always my cup of tea, me being a largely antisocial introvert and all. That all said, I’ve been doing a little more on Facebook for some reason. I can’t really say why, ’cause I don’t know. I’ve “friended” a few folks who were really close friends in college, and it’s been interesting to see what they’ve made available. Voyeuristic curiosity is always fun to indulge once in a while. ;^)

But perhaps more interesting has been the “friending” of folks from high school. Since graduating from high school, I’ve had very little contact with anyone. I went to college with one girl, but haven’t seen her since we graduated from college. A handful of times over the past 23 years, I’ve run into someone, but nothing too terribly significant (minus one obvious exception during the first two years of college, that shall go without further mention, thankyouverymuch…). Another exception is going on now, where the older sister (she was two years ahead of us) of someone I went to school with for most of grade school & all of high school goes to the same church that we do. In fact, our daughters are in the same class in school.

In all, though, it’s probably been better that I’ve not had much of any contact with folks, because I’m generally better off when I stay focused on the present/future. If/when I focus on the past too much, I tend to get too maudlin, and obsess about what I did wrong and/or what I could have done differently. The Facebook thing also has me potentially wondering about what people thought about me back then, and what they might think about me now. Granted, I know that’s not entirely rational — I mean, I know I’m not that important or significant, and I never was. But you still worry about things, even when you have a really good life. Adolescence is that significant a time in one’s formation. And for the most part, I really did like high school as I was going through it. Some relationship stuff that happened in the years right after it have intensified my insecurities (and, Lord knows, don’t we all have those about that time anyway…).

So what’s my point? I don’t know. I guess that I’m trying something outside my comfort zone, just to see how it works out. Hopefully I’m mature enough to keep it from blowing up in my face.

-ghp

Not only have I changed the theme, but the impending arrival of WordPress 2.7 got me to re-evaluate my hosting requirements, such that I’ve changed hosts (moving from Precision Effect to Eleven2), rolled out two new domains, implemented the latest Release Candidate of WP 2.7, and done it pretty darned quick (as these things usually go, anyway…).

Why? Well, that’s going to be the subject of upcoming posts.

-ghp

Anyway, as to why I’ve not been posting? It’s not because I’ve not had a whole lot of ideas bouncing around in my head. And I’ve certainly been reading a whole lot of good stuff at other folks’ blogs. And goodness knows I’d sure like to be cool like Frank (who’s been on fire lately – pun fully intended!) & snag an Issues, Etc. Blog of the Week award (talk about a selfishly lame reason for blogging!)

No, I’m gonna fall back on the old reliable “real life” (with a bit of laziness) excuse. It’s been busy, especially at work. This Fall semester has been particularly hectic for some reason, and it’s been exacerbated by the fact that I’m teaching a class for the first time, in addition to my “day job”. It’s only an online class, but it’s still presented a challenge to find the proper balance to get all the work done of managing the course in the online space, along with getting all of the grading & such done. It does help in some ways, however, that my day job is managing the staff that support the systems like the online course management system. Sometimes the cross-over has helped, sometimes it’s hindered; mostly it’s helped. I better figure it out, though, since I’m doing it again next semester…

Anyway, that’s why I haven’t been posting what I feel like is my usual/preferred mix of theology & pop-culture, with a bit of technology & other good stuff thrown in for good measure. I don’t want to struggle too much with the “why blog?” question, and I have lately. I’ve been over thinking it a little bit, perhaps worrying a bit too much about my “audience”, as I am wont to do from time to time. I’ve been doing this for just over 4 years now, and I think there are actually some folks who’ve been reading it for almost that long (if so, God bless you for your perseverance and good taste…). I think I’ve been pretty consistent, in that I try to write what interests me more than what I think people (i.e., a “targeted audience” so as to build numbers) want to read. If I target anyone, I guess, I target bigsis, because I crave her approval, and I would like to think that I can always entertain and keep her interested. Beyond that, I guess I wouldn’t want to say/write anything to get me in trouble with my beloved, now that she’s reading , and I wouldn’t want to write anything that would cause me grief at work.

Enough introspective time in the confessional. It’s time to go watch some TV. Heroes beckons…

-ghp