Wild.er

The Sink from Evan Wilder on Vimeo.

This is what happens after dinner.  It’s a race to clean the sink and floors before bed time.

It had already been a quiet six months on my blog when I read Paul Boutin’s story in the front of Wired magazine saying that people writing blogs should stop it already.  He says that nobody is going to noice your blog amidst the millions and that your friends will get your updates on web sites like Facebook, Flickr or Twitter.

Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.   

 His ideas about why blogging is wasting time struck me and it felt freeing to allow myself to imagine ending the blog project and pull that plug.  Had I not been reading the story in bed I may have gotten up and sent the pixels that make up this web site off into oblivion.  The next morning it was time for breakfast and going to work so there wasn’t time to kill the blog.  Rather than acting on my impulse, I waited long enough that I finally came across Andrew Sullivan’s essay Why I Blog in The Atlantic and I may get back into it.   I re-read the essay tonight and his description of what blogging is and how it is so different for writers to be so exposed and honest is what stands out:

You have to express yourself now, while your emotions roil, while your temper flares, while your humor lasts. You can try to hide yourself from real scrutiny, and the exposure it demands, but it’s hard. And that’s what makes blogging as a form stand out: it is rich in personality. The faux intimacy of the Web experience, the closeness of the e-mail and the instant message, seeps through. You feel as if you know bloggers as they go through their lives, experience the same things you are experiencing, and share the moment.      

   It is this intimacy and immediate expression that is so fun to read and also to create.  I want to show you about how exciting it is to be out on the street the night of the presidental election.   I want to show you pictures of the mountains of dishes that I get to wash in our tiny kitchen.  I want to explore how to live in a city studio apartment as a newly married couple.  I want to show you interesting photographs of friends in the neighborhood.  I want to talk about interesting ideas raised in some of my favorite publications.  And I want to do it all freely and happily.Even if I enjoy reading blogs immensely I’m going to make an effort to share a little more.  Hopefully it’ll be fun for all of us.

With jet fuel prices as high as they are, shopping for airplane tickets to visit the Melancon family this winter has been frustrating.  Since we started looking in October the prices have been out of reach and I was wondering if I could ever afford the trip.  Finally, this weekend the prices dropped and we made a purchase today.   I was tracking prices with Farecast and as you can see from the fare history chart, now is a perfect time to buy!

We’re looking forward to seeing family and friends in December! 

I learned in December that I still love playing the piano.   I hadn’t played in years but the many feet of snow outside inspired me to sit in the warm basement and remember how to play.  Since then I’ve been thinking more about it and recently a few piano playing friends pointed me in this direction for buying a digital piano:

• Pianos need all 88 keys.
• Pianos need to make beautiful music and must handle 32 notes polyphony.
• Pianos need weighted keys.

I’ve started to narrow my search for the brands and models that I want to try.  If you have any extra digital pianos around the house you no longer play or if you have recommendations (and I know family members and friends who play are reading this) please let me know.

• This story about train congestion in Chicago caught my ear since the town my paternal grandparents lived in may become overrun over by four times as many trains as it gets today.   A company called Canadian National wants to bypass the gridlock in downtown Chicago by using lesser used tracks outside of the city.  I’m sure I would be hearing about this from my grandparents if they were still living.  Since they are not you need to know about this.
  Plan To Unsnarl Chicago Rail Hits Snags In Suburbs [National Public Radio]

• You know I love eating at Chipotle but I didn’t know that the restaurant purchased food from local growers when possible.  That makes the burrito bowls that much more delicious.
  Local Growers Help Companies Cut Costs [Marketplace]

Tonight I called Social Security and found out that I needed additional facts before I could get the information requested.  The phone rep told me they are open until 7 PM Pacific time and that I could call back before then.  It was only through the bounty of being married and our phone from a different time zone that I was able to trick the phone system into providing customer service.

I compiled the requested info and called back at 7:20 PM Eastern Time (4:20 PM Pacific time) only to hear an automated message saying that the office is closed for the day.  What?!  While it was after 7 on the east coast it was not 7 PM yet on the west coast.

Not to be deterred, I tried to beat the system.  My wife Amanda has a phone number from Colorado so I dialed with her phone and got right into the phone system and through to a representative.  Apparently the office wasn’t closed if you live in Colorado but it is closed if you live in DC.

Next time you need to reach an office with a fancy automated system shielding you from real people, keep this trick in mind.