Blogging, Pictures, Videos, and more...
It seems that finding a centralized online location to keep one's digital life is harder than it used to be. I used to have a simple 'blog' (though I hate that word) on LiveJournal. Now and then I'd upload a picture to my Gallery on cmarcera.org and that was it. Today there's blogging, a plethora of pictures from events, a video here and there, and then the shorter 'bloglets' in the form of Facebook statuses and tweets. When did it all get so complicated?
While it's been ages since I've posted on LJ, I regularly miss the fact that I do. I could post things as Facebook Notes, but I actually don't like the fact that they're privatized. Yes, there are all sorts of points of view and political reasons why everyone needs to lock down their privacy and protect their image, but I publicly posted what was on my mind for YEARS and it was never a problem. So why should it be now? I wouldn't defame anyone, post information setting me up for identity theft, or say anything I wouldn't say to a person in public. So what's the big deal? Maybe there's a bigger picture I don't see.
Anyway, this really is about finding a solution for pictures and videos online. I want to resurrect cmarcera.org and get back to posting blog/picture/video updates, but it feels so pointless when the monster that is Facebook has commandeered our online lives with it's friendly #3B5998 logo and entirely-too-convenient integration of the lives of all your 'friends'. It's likely the second largest evil data farm with a friendly face, to Google. I want to break free, but don't know what direction to go. If you don't upload your pictures to Facebook and tag your friends in it, how will they know about them? It's so sad that that's even a consideration now, but it more or less is. Why should I invest in online data storage, setting up a gallery, paying for bandwidth, and maintaining it all when it's in it's own closed little ecosystem that people probably won't bother to visit because it's "not on Facebook"? Wow, this is turning into quite the rant about Facebook; must refocus...
Options? I could continue to rely on Facebook and upload pictures and videos there but there's no guarantee Facebook will exist next year or even stay free forever. So unless you kept your originals or everything, then what? I could upload pictures to Flickr and videos to YouTube, but the same issue exists there and then I have two separate services to manage. I miss the days when things were simple and I just uploaded pictures to the gallery on cmarcera.org, which is also an option (Drupal + a cheap data backend like Amazon S3, etc), but is hard to justify.
So how's life? Life is good. I wish I posted more (or at all, actually). I don't even know where to start. Let's see... I'm 30, still working at the same place I always have, living in the same area with an amazing girl who has managed to put up with me for almost 3 years now, and I'm still a geek who likes bluegrass music. So guess not much has changed. Then again, posting here hasn't ever really been about what's changed, but my thoughts and views on whatever is happening. My 'goldfish' memory has made posting on LJ over the years such a treasured resource to my own life. Sad, I know. I can post about where I am now and what's going on at any point of my life; it's recounting what happened between those posts that I've always found important. With that, I am going to try to pick up some of this several-year-slack and get back to posting things (whether it's on LJ or somewhere else, TBD).
Also, my vocabulary seems to have taken a hit since the days when I posted regularly. Who knew you needed to regularly exercise your brain in the ways of writing to keep it sharp.
While it's been ages since I've posted on LJ, I regularly miss the fact that I do. I could post things as Facebook Notes, but I actually don't like the fact that they're privatized. Yes, there are all sorts of points of view and political reasons why everyone needs to lock down their privacy and protect their image, but I publicly posted what was on my mind for YEARS and it was never a problem. So why should it be now? I wouldn't defame anyone, post information setting me up for identity theft, or say anything I wouldn't say to a person in public. So what's the big deal? Maybe there's a bigger picture I don't see.
Anyway, this really is about finding a solution for pictures and videos online. I want to resurrect cmarcera.org and get back to posting blog/picture/video updates, but it feels so pointless when the monster that is Facebook has commandeered our online lives with it's friendly #3B5998 logo and entirely-too-convenient integration of the lives of all your 'friends'. It's likely the second largest evil data farm with a friendly face, to Google. I want to break free, but don't know what direction to go. If you don't upload your pictures to Facebook and tag your friends in it, how will they know about them? It's so sad that that's even a consideration now, but it more or less is. Why should I invest in online data storage, setting up a gallery, paying for bandwidth, and maintaining it all when it's in it's own closed little ecosystem that people probably won't bother to visit because it's "not on Facebook"? Wow, this is turning into quite the rant about Facebook; must refocus...
Options? I could continue to rely on Facebook and upload pictures and videos there but there's no guarantee Facebook will exist next year or even stay free forever. So unless you kept your originals or everything, then what? I could upload pictures to Flickr and videos to YouTube, but the same issue exists there and then I have two separate services to manage. I miss the days when things were simple and I just uploaded pictures to the gallery on cmarcera.org, which is also an option (Drupal + a cheap data backend like Amazon S3, etc), but is hard to justify.
So how's life? Life is good. I wish I posted more (or at all, actually). I don't even know where to start. Let's see... I'm 30, still working at the same place I always have, living in the same area with an amazing girl who has managed to put up with me for almost 3 years now, and I'm still a geek who likes bluegrass music. So guess not much has changed. Then again, posting here hasn't ever really been about what's changed, but my thoughts and views on whatever is happening. My 'goldfish' memory has made posting on LJ over the years such a treasured resource to my own life. Sad, I know. I can post about where I am now and what's going on at any point of my life; it's recounting what happened between those posts that I've always found important. With that, I am going to try to pick up some of this several-year-slack and get back to posting things (whether it's on LJ or somewhere else, TBD).
Also, my vocabulary seems to have taken a hit since the days when I posted regularly. Who knew you needed to regularly exercise your brain in the ways of writing to keep it sharp.