More Thoughts About Legacy

Sites like Tumblr, WordPress, and others offer anyone who has a computer the opportunity to create a very unique and personal history. Presumably this history could exist for all time (obviously it won’t, but it’s fun to think of it that way). One reason I am trying to write a personal blog on a regular basis is to create such a history both for myself and my kids. I hate to write with paper and I doubt I could ever keep a traditional paper journal for long, but a personal blog seems to be interesting enough that I might stick with it. 

For Christmas this past year I registered my kids names as domain names. Thankfully they were all available. My oldest is only 9, but she is a very good writer for her age and loves to read. She has had her own email address on gmail for more than a year and she has become fluent dealing with email communications. For her in particular, I thought it would be fun for her to write some blogs from time to time. How fascinating will it be when she is 20 or 30 to look back at her thoughts at this age? 

Like generations past, my generation still relies on family stories and photos to better understand our history. We rely on our parents to tell stories of our childhood. I wonder if my children will be part of the leading edge generation that will have digital histories of their childhood and other family histories. When I think about it, I would love to see better pictures and blog posts from my grandparents or great grandparents. My grandparents have told me about Pearl Harbor, but it would have been so amazing to be able to read a blog from that day to know exactly what they were feeling and what was happening in our town and our country. I imagine there are many blog posts out there about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. My daughter was born shortly after those attacks and really doesn’t know anything about them. When the time comes I hope to be able to use the internet to help paint a clear and accurate story for her that is very different from the way we are used to learning (mostly in textbooks or movies). 

So my thought here is simple. Blogging is simple, it’s free, and it may outlive you. Consider opening an account on Tumblr or WordPress and start creating your legacy online. If you are comfortable with it, think about having your kids start their own blog. Approach it as something fun and interesting. Try to make an entry once a week (or more). After a year or so, go back over your posts and look at how you felt about things or ponder all that has happened in your life in such a short time. Life seems to fly by at the speed of light and there are so many things that get overlooked or forgotten. Consider the possibility that family members that you will never meet will one day read your words. What would you say to them? What would you like them to know about you and their other family members? What would you like them to know about current events or other topics that interest you?  

Social Media Brings Many More Questions Than Answers

I saw two very interesting tweets today, both from the same person and both seemingly funny at first glance. One tweet mentioned the individual’s boss and how she was acting like a bi&*$. The other stated that this person had called in sick to work. First I laughed, then I got thinking and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that these two tweets bring up several questions.

• What if the boss sees these tweets? Being called names is not flattering and the possibility of an employee skipping out on work is equally troubling. 
• What kind of judgment does this person have?  I don’t know about their judgement, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are ignorant of the fact that their boss would have easy access to these tweets.
• What about the legacy this person is leaving behind?  Is this something to be proud of? Is this something they want their next (potential) employer to see? Is this something they would want their children or loved one’s to read?

Of course this is a workplace scenario, but as we are moving our thoughts and interactions into the social media space, we need to start thinking about how we are creating these open records of our lives. Not only are these records open, but they are potentially going to be available forever. It’s possible that you will be long dead and people will have access to information you have left behind online. 

People need to start thinking today about their online postings and interactions. While it may seem like a good idea at the moment, do you really want a potential employer looking at your tweets where you are bashing your current boss or coworkers? Would your current boss like to see messages like the ones I mention?

The internet is likely the most powerful tool ever created. With that great power comes great responsibility. Take some time and think about what you are doing online and what effect it can have on your job, your family, and your legacy. 

Life hack websites

For the past month or so I’ve been combing the internet for ‘life hack websites’. These are sites that purport to offer all kinds of advice about anything and everything to help make your life better. Advice almost any conceivable subject from health and fitness to finances to relationship advice. I’ve visited about 50 different websites and although there is some great content out there, I’ve noticed that most sites contain content that seems to be regurgitated for similar sources. It reminds me of copying a friend’s term paper in high school, but changing a few words so the teacher doesn’t noticed that you copied it. 

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this. Quite the opposite. What has intrigued me so much is the fact that there are so many websites that seem to offer roughly the same content and that many of them seem to be making some kind of money. Of course this is an assumption based on advertising that I see on the pages as well as affiliate links and the like. 

Why does this intrigue me? I have approached blogging and setting up websites thinking that I had to provide the best, most original content to stand out. Seeing all these life hack sites forces me to question my assumption. Clearly there are many people chasing the same niche. Undoubtedly they are experiencing various levels of success, but I am starting to think that being number 1 is a worthy goal, but not necessarily the only goal. There may be value in being number 50. 

Again I don’t know if number 50 is really making any money, or if they are just doing it for fun. Either way, looking at this niche has made me question how and why websites (or blogs) are successful. Perhaps there is as much art as science involved here. 

As a side note, my favorite site remains lifehacker.com. It’s pretty simple and straightforward but I find that many of the items are different than I see on other sites. In addition, the topics are much more diverse ranging. For example, right now on lifehacker.com there is an article about LED lighting on your deck and there is one about managing your finances (in addition to many others). Not all the articles are relevant to my life, but I like the diversity and while I know there articles that can be found on other sites, there seems to be less regurgitation on lifehacker than on other sites. 

How can anyone take such a bad photo?

I decided it was finally time to post an actual photo of myself on my blog and facebook and all that good stuff. I must have taken a dozen pictures, each worse than the one before it. How is that possible?  It’s like having my drivers license photo taken over and over. 

In this picture it almost likes I have gas or some other abdominal problem. As I thought about posting this picture, it occurred to me that I’ve never seen a picture of myself that I like. Maybe I have an unrealistic ideal of myself that leads me to believe that I am far more handsome that I actually am. Whatever the case – these pictures make me cringe. 

But I notice that everyone has pictures with their accounts. So I had to pick the lesser of two evils. Do I look stupid because I don’t have any picture, or do I just have a stupid-looking picture? I guess the picture won.

I suppose I really need to try and get a better picture. Eventually there should be one picture that accidentally makes me looks like the handsome stud that I know is lurking inside. 

Back at it

Due to technical and health problems, I haven’t posted anything for a while. I’m back, ready to get with it again. I’m busy working on a new idea – a website filled with contend related to salami. I’m going to pick a salami each week, then do several small videos about it. I’ll also put up some written content about the history of salami and other relevant information.

Salami is kind of a silly idea, but I think it will be fun. I need to get my feet wet with all this web technology. Many moons ago I built websites from scratch. I taught myself HTML and studied useability to make decent looking websites. But that was then – now the web is different. Videos, RSS, blogs. There are so many things a website can offer today that simply weren’t possible just a few years ago. Amazing.

So salami is my reintroduction to the internet. It scares the pants off me. I’m also very excited. I took some practice videos today and I spent a couple hours reading about salami. I also visited www.volpifoods.com, an artisan salami maker in St Louis. Their Rose Salami, Recipe No 7 will be the first salami I sample.

I love to eat. In the past year I’ve retooled my diet to cut out fat, sugar and most processed foods. Building a website based on salami is a little odd, but I certainly won’t be inhaling large quantities of it, so I think I’ll be fine.

Sat Night

We did our annual gingerbread house decorating today. It’s a fun tradition that the kids really enjoy. Good excuse to buy lots of junk at Wegmans.

I’m no closer to beginning the development of my passion. I believe at the moment I’m overwhelmed by the whole thing. My mind has raced ahead and is flooded with ideas. I need to get control and go step by step and move forward. I’m very eager to get something running asap.

Someone I work with was killed in the intersection outside the building 2 days ago. I wasn’t really friends with her, but we always said hi and she always seemed pleasant enough. I believe she had a husband and at least 1 child. Hard to imagine something like that happening any time, let alone the week before Christmas. I made doubly sure to tell each of the kids I loved them when I put them to bed tonight.

One week till Christmas

Christmas is 1 week away – hard to believe. I have spent considerable time looking into my other passions – fitness and drumming, to see if there is something in there that I can latch on to. Nothing yet, but the ideas are churning.

I’m thinking about changing my theme on tumblr. I’m not sure I like this one – it’s a little spartan.

Hopefully over the weekend I’ll get to try a video blog. I’m learning a lot every day.

Random thoughts

I’m blogging from my Ipod touch. Not the ideal way to do this, but it’s easier than I thought.

I’m still pondering my passion. The drumming and fitness/wellness are obvious. Late last night I had the strange thought that I might like to do a vacuum blog – like the kind you use to clean your floors. I don’t know why, but I love to vacuum. It runs in the family. I’ve been thinking all day that it would be fun to blog about vacuums. Most review sites aren’t very helpful. It sounds corny, but to me it sounds fun. But I’m not ready to jump on that one yet.

On a lighter note, it’s finally snowing. We have a few inches already with a few more expected overnight. It would be great to have a white Christmas next week.

Before the end of the week I plan to try a video blog. Never done it, not sure what I’m doing, but I won’t learn until I try.

Blog the 2nd

My second blog. I promised myself I’d do one at least once every day, no matter what, just to get in the habit. I spent my (limited) free time today pondering my passions and how to apply them to the emerging online community.

In broad terms, I am passionate about technology, fitness, and drumming. I can’t take on all 3 at once, but all three get me fired up. I have to pick a place to start and resist my urge to tackle everything all at once. At the moment I’m leaning towards something fitness/wellness related. For a while I was a personal trainer and I witnessed first hand how even small changes can have a tremendous effect on people’s lives. I truly believe people have nothing unless they have their health. I’ll have to keep thinking about that one.

With Christmas a little over a week away, the kids are jumping off the walls already. Tonight it started snowing – those big beautiful, fluffy flakes. Maybe we’ll have a white Christmas after all.

Pete’s First Blog

They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, so I imagine the journey onto the internet begins (for me) with one blog. This is it.

Recently I purchased Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, Crush It. I was up until 3am reading it! I was amazed by his message about building a brand and doing something about which you are passionate. I am inspired to follow his advice and find my passion and act on it.

I just registered my domain name, peterfountain.com, although I do not have a host yet. I was surprised to find it available as there is a famous jazz musician named Pete Fountain. Apparently he only wanted petefountain.com and was nice enough to leave peterfountain.com for me. Thanks Pete!

I am still sorting out my passion and how I will begin to build my brand online. I have many ideas swimming around in my head and I am working hard to sort them out. Registering my domain name and starting this blog are my first steps. I plan to add some video blogs and other tidbits. My hope is to chronicle my journey so that my family and friends will have a meaningful record to reflect on someday. How cool would it be for my great grandkids (or their kids) to be able to follow my blogs and and tweets and facebook posts and many other yet to be invented technologies? They will be able to watch this part of my life unfold at the click of a mouse, or the touch of a screen. How very different than the grainy black and white photo’s I look at now that chronicle my grandparent’s years.

So off I go.