Greetings & Salutations

Greetings & Salutations

                I’m a social media newbie.  As someone who used to pride themselves on keeping up with the latest that computer technology had to offer, I’m surprisingly behind-the-times on anything that transpired after 2004 or so.  A whole lot happened in that year – new house, new job, new child.  Pretty much all the stressors that your doctor asks you about when diagnosing you for stress-related conditions.  As a result, I kind of went into a shell and didn’t start poking my head out to get the lay of this new land I found myself in until a couple of years ago.  In the meantime, a lot happened in the world of computers.  YouTube happened.  Pirating music files went out of vogue now that you can pretty much stream anything you want anytime you want without the security risks inherent in peer-to-peer file sharing.  Myspace happened, and then shrank into an internet backwater as Facebook gobbled up its market share.  Twitter happened.  IPhones happened.  IPads happened.  And before I knew it, I was way, way, way behind in all things techie and cool.  I was suddenly an ostrich with its head stuck firmly in the silicon sand, completely oblivious of how the internet, once confined to those blocky desktop consoles in the form of static web pages, was now a highly dynamic social network accessible in the palms of our hands.

                So last year I began venturing out into this strange new world and activated a Facebook page.  And then badly misused it.  I made contact with about 3 – 4 friends and then tried to use it as a blog, not recognizing it for the dynamic social network it really is.  I was all but ready to give up on it about two months ago until a long forgotten friend from high school managed to spot me on it and then opened up my world to dozens and dozens of past friends and acquaintances who, through example, showed me what Facebook is all about and the proper way to use it.  Facebook is not about 6 page entries ruminating on how Cheap Trick is underrated or how Turbo is a long misunderstood Judas Priest classic.  No Facebook is about short, pithy entries, clever factoids and takes on the latest news stories.  And while that is fun and I’m enjoying it immensely now that I’ve finally caught “the clue bus”, it’s not really what I ventured back into the internet looking for.

                I do want to write those 6 page entries and ruminate at length on all things both trivial and vitally important.  You see I number amongst that throng of millions known as “failed writers”, and if there is one things failed writers love, it’s the illusion of having an audience for what you write.  So I went back into social media thinking that if I maintained a page of some kind, it would motivate me to write for it, and who knows, maybe someday I may write something of merit.  If nothing else, it would scratch that writing itch that doesn’t go away simply because you didn’t succeed in writing as a career, and posting it on the internet, at the very least, preserves that tantalizing hope that, lo, someone might actually read it someday.  At this point in my life, that is my humble aspiration, and I realize after my failed Facebook experiment that what I really need to do is have a blog.  I know, I know, I’m a good decade late on catching the “blog train” when it left the station, but from what I can see, it’s still a vital force on the internet and, if nothing else, is the source of most of my favorite reading material on the web (do people still refer to it as “the web"?).

                So that brings me to my “Thinker of Thoughts” page.  I’m not sure of the title, and I may end up changing it someday, but for now, this will be the repository of all things that tumble through my head that I think are meritorious enough to commit in some way, shape or form, to writing.  Naturally my first entries are going to be those grimy but (at least to me) loveably misguided Facebook entries that populated my page before I had, well, “friends”.  Over the months I wrote them, seemingly of their own accord, they sorted themselves into different “types” of entries that I’m going to stick with here for the time being.  The meatiest of the entries will be those entitled “Running Thoughts”, which are essays developed from the musings I inevitably engage in during those interminable hours I spend on the elliptical machine every week at the gym.  I’ve noticed that most of my early “Running Thoughts” deal with musical subjects, which I suppose is not surprising since I’m usually plugged into my earbuds listening to music while at the gym.  However, it is not my intention for “Running Thoughts” to be a strictly musical column and I hope to branch out into other subjects in the near future.  Entries of a shorter nature include “Words from People Way Smarter than Me”, where I share, and sometimes expound briefly, on words of wisdom I find from sources outside of myself.  The sources from which I pull “Words” will vary widely, ranging anywhere from the Dalai Lama to David Lee Roth.  “Inexplicable Things on the Internet I Find to Be Funny” is exactly what it sounds like, usually a photo or short web comic that strikes me funny in a profound or strange way.  Sprinkled in between will be movie, TV and book review (mostly the latter) where I’ll endeavor to share my critical thoughts and feelings about those various forays into pop culture.

                As I go, I hope to come up with other kinds of installments, hopefully unique and a little bit different from the majority of things you might find on the internet, and Lord only knows where I’ll end up.  Right now I’m working on a few “Running Thoughts” that deal with my recent surprising experience reconnecting with old friends on Facebook, and a re-evaluation of my long standing views on David Lee Roth (I know, another musical entry), so entries on those should be coming shortly.

                Otherwise, I hope you enjoy, or at least find the contents of this blog to be mildly amusing.  Or at least not banal.  I’ll take a verdict of “not banal” - that would be a small victory to start out with. 

                For now, I hope you enjoy.  More (and better) stuff to follow . . .