The Places have Changed

 
When Elon Musk announced that he was going to buy Twitter, I quit. Just like that. I figured the site would become a shit-show and, from what I read, my feelings are justified. We'll see. As an alternative,

I have moved to Mastodon. You can find me at @breedlov@mastodon.sdf.org. I'm still evaluating the site, but, so far, it has to be preferable to the new Twitter under Elon. It seems to me that social media sites starting with "T" -- Twitter, Truth Social -- are sinking deeply into the right-wing radical swamp. DEFINITELY not places that I want to hang.

Will Mastodon be a place where I will want to hang for long? We'll see as I spend more time there.

Coronavirus: Where are you?

I'm at home. Where you should be, by the way. (OK, this isn't really my house, just an illustration.) Except for walking around the neighborhood, it's about the extent of my travels since this whole thing began. But, physical location not what I mean.

I'm retired, so I spend my days around the house anyway. But many of you are either laid off or working from home. I feel bad for those of you who are laid off and I wish you the best. For those of you working from home, keep up the good work. What I'm interested here is where are you online? Are you watching television, listening to the radio, streaming -- how are you coping with being at home and avoiding contact with other people, at least physically?

I grew up as an only child and am pretty much an introvert, so this isn't as bad as it might be for those of you who get a lot of social contact regularly. I did work for over 50 years and breaking the habit of not going into work starting in January with a bit jarring, but the isolation of this coronavirus situation is adding to that feeling even for me.

I find myself in several "places". Let me first say that I'm physically in Sacramento, CA, USA. But, electronically, I'm all over the world. I text my grown kids and my wife is still going to work during the day, but I do see her at night. I check up on my neighbors and call friends a bit more often, but generally I find myself around the house alone. Yard work and other chores occupy some time and I walk around the neighborhood for exercise and just to get away. But I spend much of my other time online. Here are just a few "places" I find myself, with my comments.

Regular "Places"

Here are some of my regular places. I guess you can say I'm a news junkie. I like to get perspectives from a number of sources around the world.

Feedly

I like this RSS application. I use Feedly as a replacement for the morning newspaper. I have several sources from across the world. I find it interesting to see news and commentary from other countries. I also like the fact that I can configure the app to show me stories in chronological order and skip the order that some algorithm thinks I should see. As I have said many times before, I really don't care what's popular or trending. I will decide what's important for me and view that. Lay things out in order and let me choose what to read.

Facebook

Yeah, I know, I'm an old guy. But, I'm here. Again, I set things up to show the latest posts and read the things I want to read, not some things arranged by some AI. I also post most comments here. Facebook allows for more options when commenting and stating my feelings about stories. I will also place things from Feedly here with my thoughts.

Twitter

I do a quick scan of the latest tweets especially when there is breaking news. The usual latest order rather than what someone else thinks is important to me. I tend to follow most of the same news sources that I find on the other services, but I also follow local politicians and thinkers from various points of view. I sometimes check Tweetdeck during breaking stories. However, if you put in #coronavirus, the posts fly by so fast that you can't really make sense of them. The same thing has happened with other breaking news. I tend to keep my home source, Sacramento, Northern California, and Boise. These are places I'm interested in and it helps me see what people are saying in and about these areas.

SmartNews

I have this on my phone an tablet. It allows me to pick up some additional sources without having to have them constantly in my news feed on either Facebook or Twitter. I generally look at this once a day to see if there's anything else that I might be missing. There generally isn't anything, but, like I said, I'm a bit of a junkie.

GoComics

When I got a regular physical newspaper, I read the comics every day. This site gives me the same experience. You can select specific comments to follow so that you see the ones that make you laugh and ease the day. I follow mostly the old classics, but I do follow at least one political cartoonist.

Sometimes I find something to post to Facebook. Lately, it has been the political cartoons because of things going on with the whole virus situation.

I find that I need this comic break each day. It's something like meditation to keep me away from all the bad news that comes through websites and news feeds.

Reddit

I have had a Reddit account for many years. I have spent little time there, but have recently started to check it daily. I'm looking for any odd information and, especially for something humorous to lighten the day. I find that one must keep their sense of humor in these times. I look for light things, but, steer clear of anything mean or malicious which might be posted.

Other "Places"

I also have other places that I occasionally. For example, I have an Instagram account, but I really don't spend a lot of time there. I don't take selfies and have little to post there. I also have a LinkedIn account. But, since I have retired, I only visit that place every week or so. I really am not looking for a job as I'm sure you can understand.

Just in case it seems that I spend my whole day in these "places", now that I walk, ride the stationary bike, bicycle outside, read books, work around the house, take care of the yard, and, yes, even watch television. As much as possible, I try to maintain my regular life. I am a lot more cautious and don't go to stores or drive to other communities to work as I used to. But, I find the routine calming and the exercise beneficial.

I wish you all the best.

Where will You Watch TV and Niue’s?

Now that the streaming wars are starting, where will you watch and how much are you willing to spend? One estimate that I read said that users will have to spend a minimum of $70/month to view what they see now.

It it worth it to you or should some other model be adopted? More on this later from me. What do you think?

The Buy Shit Channel

I like to look at news and social media in the morning. This take the place of reading the newspaper for me. But in doing so, I have come to the realization that many of the “channels” which purport to give you news on trends and technology are really “buy shit” channels.

They often just post PR from manufacturers and sellers without adding anything to them. I’m sure they are getting commissions for anything sold when you click on the links in the articles.

So, I’m wondering that they are really up to. Are they just trying to get us to buy more shit we don’t need in order to impress people we don’t really like? I think so.

Makes me want to just curl up on a corner and not look at anything at times. I think I’ll put down the tablet and go for a walk.

On-Call, something I will NOT miss in retirement

I'm sitting here listening to a network maintenance call after hours. Being on-call is DEFINITELY something I will not miss in retirement. After I retire, I look forward to being able to stay up late, get up late, and not be interrupted by a phone call in the middle of the night.

For the 22 years I have been at the California ISO, I have been on-call. Sometimes for weeks at a time. Luckily our on-call rotations are generally not a problem as we don't get calls. But, the very fact that we are on call causes some consternation as you are always expecting a call. And, while you are on call, there are things that you can't do and, you have to respond within an SLA to a call.

So, my personal on-call will start on 1-Jan-2020, but, hopefully, it will only be for fun.

Retirement: Where do I go online?

Retirement is coming:

• 45 calendar days
• 22 work days

and I'm looking at my online presence. I'm wondering where I should stay and where I should be after retirement and what sort of presence I should maintain.

It's interesting after nearly 56 years of employment what adjustments should be made. I have been several places because of my employment and other places because of my non-work life.

At a minimum, I will need to change my status from employed to retired. I imagine there are other things which will have to be changed, including things I am "following". Many of these are related with my job and will probably not be relevant to my retired life. I also imagine I will be adding things as I get involved in them.

Then there are places which I wonder if I should be involved at all. For example, LinkedIn which is concerned with getting a new job. I will not be looking for that, hopefully, unless something goes really wrong with our finances. I know, right now, that I am actively pruning things which seem irrelevant to my next phase and may even drop my membership completely.

More as I get further along in the process.

Hey, Google! Want me on a Chromebook?

Google,

If you want me on a Chromebook, provide an application like OneNote. It's as simple as that. Make the application as useful and easy to use and I might actually switch.