There’s quite the discussion about link-style posts such as these on blogs these days. I don’t have a whole lot to contribute other than the fact that my blog is focused on and around things that interest me. If, like this style of post, are links that I am currently digging or find interesting, I don’t have a problem sharing them. I’ve seen arguments about longevity and posts such as these how they don’t get the traffic over the long haul or bring crazy amounts of search results but that’s not necessarily what my personal blog is for. Sure, having more visitors is nice, but it wouldn’t be that hard to ramp up traffic by just writing about a few specific topics to garner it. The problem is, is that at that point I’ve flipped the script and write/post for you (or whatever audience I’m chasing) instead of me, no thanks.
Chris has moved his link sharing to Twitter and other social media outlets which is great. I have no way of knowing this for sure, but my gut feeling is that my Twitter audience and my audience here aren’t quite the same. When I share links on Twitter that I don’t share here, often times it’s because I feel they’re poignant for that audience. Inversely, there are links I see on Twitter that I’m not sure my audience here has been exposed to yet; I like having the ability to craft and share those and support with context or application as needed.
I’ve got some 500+ posts worth history here and much of the old stuff doesn’t get touched. I’m okay with that. By writing/posting stuff that I’m currently into, it’s created – if nothing else – a place where I can go back and see where I was at certain periods of time; yes, even the link posts. It helps me to see how my interests have changed and hopefully how I’ve grown over time; to me, that’s much more important than some long-tail search traffic.
In short, do what you feel works best for you and your goals. I love the fact that we’ve all got tools to self-publish and we all utilize them differently. If all of us were Gruber’s then there’d be no fresh content to share. If all of us were long-form writers and there were no Kottke’s or Gruber’s, I’m guessing we’d all have a very limited exposure to what everyone else is doing or writing.
Everybody seems to have an opinion on Lance Armstrong this week so I figured I’d throw mine around as well. Here are the following random thoughts I’ve had in the last week or so surrounding the news of his confession. Nothing ground-breaking and in no particular order:
We’re currently a society obsessed with a man who rode a bike for a living. Let that sink in for a second. Now take a step back and remember where it should rank in the grand scheme of things.
We should know this by now but we are a society who loves to build up, tear down, and then build up again [see: Woods, Tiger]. Currently Lance is in tear down mode and after the interview is posted on Thursday, we will begin the process of allowing him to climb to darling-status once again.
Lance was a dummy for taking performance enhancing drugs. Lance was not alone in this endeavor; we turned a blind eye to this fact throughout the entire heyday of this sport. The lives of those who took them will probably be shortened because of it, and if they’re not, there’s a good chance they end up in a situation where they wish it would have been.
You are a dummy if you allowed yourself or your kids to idolize a guy because he could ride a bike really fast for really long distances. Enjoying sports and rooting for athletes is all good & fun but make sure you teach them to value better things.
If Lance has lost any money in this whole banana parade*, it won’t be long until he makes it back. He will write a tell all book and sadly many of you will buy it.
So there you have it, a brain dump of five things that have gone through my head most likely while I was showering. That’s potentially creepy and unnecessary knowledge but at least you know I’m back to showering.
*I just coined and trademarked the term banana parade. I have no idea what it means but it makes me giggle when I think about what it would actually look like. Feel free to use as needed.
And not to be outdone, how about the vest under the sport coat? Be careful though, this would require a thin vest and a jacket with room to accommodate. Otherwise you’ll end up with a visual of some extra pounds… unless you’re going for that sort of look.
This one is for my wife and could have also been titled, ‘haters gonna hate.’
Yesterday, I woke to temps below 40F (which is borderline arctic for me) but wanted to make sure I was dressed properly for worship. I do not have a large overcoat (for a number of reasons but none relevant to the story) and so I donned a brown sport coat and then layered that with a orange-over-navy vest to stay warm. Almost immediately I was called to the carpet by my lovely bride about my questionable decision but I went ahead and powered through with the look.
Once we made it to the church building, I was greeted by a friend’s wife who, without prompt, mentioned she was actually digging the look. Later, with my wife in tow, I asked her to repeat it so that my wife could hear her thoughts and that I wasn’t completely delusional about my fashion choices. Instead of confirming her original statement, my wife’s friend offered up the thought that it was something she had never seen before but stopped short of mentioning her affinity towards it. Go figure.
With one other conversation had about it on Sunday, I decided it my responsibility to take it to the Internets to see how far off base I actually am on my thinking that this is an acceptable look.
I used to run a semi-regular post that I called 6th Day around here that was a Friday wrap-up of Internet things I’d stumbled across or liked throughout the week. Not sure what the significance of the title was but I’m bringing it back for at least one week. I think I’m going to resurrect the concept and kill the name – although I don’t have a good replacement name for it.
Without further ado…
Gregory’s iPhone Contract – This might be the best thing to make the rounds in the last week or two, a contract that we should all consider assigning to ourselves as well.
The updated online digs of Chris Bowler – I’ve had a redesign in my head for a while that looks quite similar to what Chris just launched. I am now faced with the decision to either go back to the drawing board or just succumb to stealing his code.
