Rants and Ruminations

According to the Twitter Blog, Twitter has made a change in the way it operates in regards to public replies sent by friends.  In the past users would see replies to from or to friends that are not on your current friend list.  This is called fragmented conversations and is the core to social discovery.  I have met and talked with several people who are on my friends friend list.  It is this possibility that makes Twitter so useful as a social networking tool.  To close this loop in the way it operates will lessen the need for Twitter in social applications and relegate it to no better than email or text messaging.  Mostly non-existant in social applications but really only useful for direct communications or message broadcasting to an opt-in user base.

I hope Twitter re-evaluates its stance on fragmented conversations.  I have become a HUGE fan of the service and would likely have to abandon it as a social tool if the need is not there.

• New workout plan starts today. Running M, W, F and strength training T, Th, S. Need to adjust diet but that’s gonna be harder. #
• There is a reason I haven’t run in 15+ years. After that first run…I just remembered what it is! That SUCKS! #
• Pulling my hair out working over a #Drupal theme. Hardest part of the whole CMS! #
• RIP: Dom DeLuise. Sad sad sad. That dude was GOLD. The world is officially a little less cool. #
• I don’t know why I get so much more design work done after 11 pm than I do before 5pm. I’m all backwards. #
• Another run in the books. Who knew that trying to get a little healthier would give you a heart attack? #
• Busy making some custom C25K mp3’s. We all need more Metallica when we go running! #
• Hanging at 41 West in downtown Fredonia if anyone wants to join us. #
• Taking a walk with @jennblount to the home and garden show… #

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On working from home:

I have been doing a good amount of webdesign and social marketing from home lately.  But, for some reason, I never really had a dedicated area in which to work.  It’s not that I didn’t have the space.  I have two extra bedrooms in my house that were available to use.  I just never thought that having that spot to dedicate to work would make that much of a difference.  I was working in my living room and was being fairly productive.  Well, this past weekend the wife and I remodeled our smaller spare room into an office for me.  What an absolute difference it has made.  Just to be able to go in there and shut the door and not have to deal with the normal distractions of life.  It also allows me to keep “regular” office hours.  This has been huge for me and allowed me to really focus my efforts and plan my projects and billable appropriately.  So, for all you people who work from home.  Get yourself a dedicated space to do your work that is mostly free from distractions and you will see your productivity improve almost immediately!

On losing a little weight:

I decided it was time for me to get dedicated about getting a little healthier and shed a few pounds that have overstayed their welcome.  The plan is 3-fold: an interval training running program 3 days a week, strength training on the bowflex the other three days, and adjust the way I have been eating.  The last part, for me, is going to be especially hard.  I have the curse of absolutely loving food.  Not necessarily eating but I love the taste of well prepared food.  Being an addictive personality to begin with I tend to overdo the amount of good, tasty food that I eat.  It doesn’t help at all that I love to cook and try to make new dishes with unique flavor combinations.  The key to this was going to be eating smaller portions more often. Normally I eat, maybe, twice a day and I would eat a healthy portion of grub.  Now I am trying to eat 5 times a day and to target certain types od food for certain meals.  For example I want to make sure and have some protien for breakfast. I also need to add a snack (fruit) between breakfast and lunch, a sensible lunch (grilled chicken sandwich or grilled chicken salad here), another fruit snack, and a reasonably sized dinner.  One helping only.

So far so good this week on the food end.  I am doing it and I am full all of the time.  So we’ll see if I have the discipline to keep it up.  The running is a whole other story!  That is HARD.  I’m gonna keep it up but it isn’t going to be easy!

I know it will bore the people that actually read this blog but I am gonna keep updating progress here just to keep myself focused and on target.

I don’t know how I could even look myself in the mirror and consider myself a man if I didn’t weigh in with picks for Super Bowl 43.  For some reason I am really less than enthused about this year’s big game.  I would actually like to see both teams lose but since that can’t happen, let’s see what it will take for each team to win.

For Pittsburgh to win

• The DB’s must keep Boldin and Fitzgerald in front of them and limit the YAC yards those guys get.
• Warner must feel as much pressure as possible which should make him make stupid mistakes and take advantage of his fumble-itis.
• The running game needs to show up.  Arizona is too capable of scoring quickly.  Long, sustained drives are imperative.
• TE’s need to have a big day and keep the chains moving.

For Arizona to win

• Put pressure on Big Ben but keep him contained.  He will kill you if you let him run around and buy time.
• James needs to have a good day to keep the defense from swallowing up Boldin and Fitzgerald.
• Break Hines Ward’s leg.
• Break it again.
• This game will be decided by the offensive and defensive lines of Arizona.  If they show up and play well the Cards have a real chance.

Final Prediction: Pittsburgh 24-14

Every so often there is software that you stumble across or your friends tell you about that fills such a need that you don’t know how you made do without it. The Earth shifts on it axis, the Heavens open up to you, lollipops and unicorns fall from the sky!  That is exactly how I felt after Richard told me about Digsby.   In a nutshell, Digsby puts all your IM, Email, and Social Networking access and monitoring all in one spot.  No more logging into 967 different websites to update your status and check messages.

Instant Messaging
Nothing new in the functionality here.  There are several programs that will allow you to run all your IM accounts from one spot.  It has the capabilities of checking your AOL, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and Facebook Chat accounts at once.  Strangely it does not check Myspace chat but, more than likely, that is because the Myspace API is not available for public consumption.

Email
Digsby will also check all the email accounts you set up and notify you of new messages.  If you use server storage email accounts like Gmail or Hotmail then you can send, delete, reply to or otherwise manage your account right from the Digsby console.

Social Networking
Here is where Digsby stands out from everyone else.  You can add your Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts to Digsby.   This gives you the ability to check all your messages and notifications as well as update all your statuses from one location.  You also get live notifications whenever your friends do anything to their accounts.

Overall
This has been a real time saver for me. Now, granted, after I installed Digsby I have set this blog, my Facebook, and my Twitter accounts to all play nicely together so I only update my Twitter and it updates everything else from there. But that is another post. :^)

The only complaint I have is that when you add several accounts to it the User Interface can become a bit clunky and convoluted. A small price to pay, I say.