knobee

If I ever do pick up the blogging habit on a more regular basis, I’ve now got DISQUS for comments.  The wider adopter that it has, the better it will be.

The web takes up a lot of my time.  I’m not sure if I would classify it as a passion, or a hobby, or an addiction, but I’m on a lot.  I check my RSS feeds through my Netvibes homepage, check my email with Thunderbird (3 different google IMAP accounts), check in on things at work with Logmein, and recently I spend a big chunk of time at FriendFeed.  This would all be fine and dandy, but doing one of those other things will most certainly point to new things that I’ll discover and need to check.  About 30 minutes ago, I added blogger Louis Gray to my feeds (someone who I wish I discovered earlier, because he has a lot of great things to say).  I added Louis because I follow him on the aforementioned FriendFeed, and doing so adds to my cycle of things to check. I don’t consider that a bad thing or a burden, but know it will take up more of that valuable time.

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Image by Jess and Colin via Flickr

My wife and daughter are currently in Japan.  I miss them horribly, so I’m not sure how rational these thoughts are, but it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have them.

I’m fantasizing about quitting my job, moving to Japan, and trying to make a living as a niche blogger.  Sure, I’d have to find my niche (using being an American in Japan as a start) and work on my writing skills, but I don’t think the idea is completely “crazy.”  My wife and I would reverse roles as the main “breadwinner,” but she has a law degree and could easily eclipse my current salary in a few years, leaving me to spend quality time with our daughter and honing my “craft.”

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I’ve become quite addicted to FriendFeed lately, making it the first and the last thing I do each day, and at several opportune times in between.  While I initially used it to find new and interesting things, ala Digg, Mixx or Google Reader, I’ve recently seen the potential for networking.  Sure, there are other “social networks” that you can say give you the same opportunity to meet with people and interact, but FriendFeed (henceforth in this post to be called “FF”) does something different.  You begin to see your interests aligning with someone else, whether it’s their comments on the posts of others, or simply what they post.  Since they’re not only posting directly to FF, but their OTHER social network environments as well, you begin to see the whole picture of who someone may be.

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Entertainment is changing.  It’s all online and in bite-sized chunks of 30 second clips and videos.  Sure, there is the exception, the odd site that shows full-length programming, but much like everything, entertainment is becoming “smaller.”  The obvious example is YouTube, but extends to small snippets of stories (RSS), email and a little thing called Twitter.  Advertisers have had the luxury of a full 30 seconds to show you their product and convince you that you needed it, or a full page print ad that grabbed your attention.  This, however, is the past.  There is the obvious need for change when the entertainment ITSELF is only 30 seconds and the print is but a few lines of text, with maybe a picture.

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Online video is great, sites like YouTube and Hulu can bring hours of entertainment and enjoyment to millions each day, but there is one segment of Americans who do not (can not) enjoy them — those who are deaf.

If you want an INSTANT audience for a new online video site, make one with captioning.

Sometimes you just need to start over and reinvert yourself (or you blog).  The release of Wordpress 2.5 seemed to be the perfect opportunity to do so.