The Problem with Social Networks

Monday, March 23rd, 2009 @ 11:18am

Ever since the dawn of social networks, I have always been hesitant to join the fray. When Facebook first came about, I resisted for as long as possible to join in. Eventually I saw some value in Facebook, and finally created an account. A similar situation occurred with Twitter, but I was able to some value in using Twitter and hesitantly tagged along.

Social networking does have some value and purpose, but one of the things that concerns me greatly is how easily information is released, and the questionable privacy loss that occurs when information is placed in the social network’s hand. It begs the question, “How safe is my information?” One of the key reasons why I host my own blog is because I feel it is very important that I hold the key to my information and decide how and when information is released. When I allow my information to be handled by someone else, I lose that privilege and stand a great risk to my privacy. Even still while I control the information on this blog, I am still very cautious in what personal information I post since the information is available freely to anyone.

This is why I try to limit the amount of information that is available on social networking, and I highly recommend others to do the same. I feel some sense of humanity is lost since so much information is available so freely and released with no regards of the consequences. I must admit, I do not have anything to hide but rather feel that certain freedoms of an individual are being violated or forgotten in this age of freely available information.

I don’t have anything against social networks outside of that, and I find both Facebook and Twitter to be great tools for communication and keeping in contact with people. My word of caution is just be careful in the information is released, because they’re no guarantee that the information will remain safe.

Nightmares

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 @ 12:06am

The same goes the one where you're wrestling the Green Ranger in the swimming pool full of Crisco.  You guys all have that dream, right?  It's not just me.  Right?

I know I still have this happen on occasion… and I’ve only been out of school for two years! I have a feeling this is the exact dream I will experience tonight.

Corruption

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 @ 11:05am

What if...?

The politics of Alabama are a messy business, especially in Birmingham. Over the past couple of years we’ve had to deal with antics of Larry Langford and the corruption of the two-year college system. And of course that’s not even really considering beyond that including Siegelman and Scrushy. It’s a really scary thought to think what could have happened had these people not been caught and unsupervised.

It’s additionally frustrating as often times the costs of these scandals and corruption are passed on to the taxpayers. For example, when we first moved in to our Townhome here in Birmingham four years ago, our water bill was often in the $20 range. Now four years later, it’s spiked up to nearly $80 a month due to the increased sewer bond rate with no real end in sight.

It’s a frightening world we live in today with this economy and the ongoing scandals, but I think it also goes to show where your foundations are in by how you react in these times. Luke 6:43-49 is the perfect parable describing the above situation, and is almost laughable in how well it matches the outcome of everything. 43-45 talks about how you will know a man by his fruit, and a bad tree will not produce good fruit, and neither will a good tree produce bad fruit.

46-49 goes on to talk about having a firm foundation, and how going through times of trouble really begins to tear at you and show what kind of foundation you are really standing on. Just something to think about and ponder on as the rest of the world attempts to instill fear and panic.

I know I’m not a perfect person, and I do worry from time to time. But I also know that having that firm foundation will allow me to weather the storms of life and it’s encouraging to know that there is something for me to stand on, even if everything else around me collapses.

Can You Hear This?

Saturday, March 7th, 2009 @ 1:11pm

I got the idea from Noise Addicts, but I was curious about my range of hearing. I’ve had my fair share of ear infections and surgeries, so it’s likely that my hearing has been affected by such. The typical range for humans is between 20Hz and 20,000Hz. Thankfully, my range is still up there pretty well, as I can faintly detect the 19,000Hz range.

How much can you still hear?

Captchas

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 @ 1:30pm

Unfortunately with the way technology is advancing these days, captchas are a necessary evil when anonymous user input on a site is implemented. On my old blog, I used captchas for anonymous comments to reduce the spam I was getting, but I figure when moving to a new location I could get away with no captchas. Unfortunately, this utopia only lasted for 4 weeks before I started to get spam comments on my blog, so I am now forced to implement captchas for anonymous comments again. If you don’t like captchas you can register a username so you never have to worry about it, otherwise you will need to enter a captcha for every anonymous comment you make. Sorry!

Snow Day!

Sunday, March 1st, 2009 @ 10:47pm

The streak has finally been broken. After nearly 9 years without any measurable snow amount in Birmingham, we finally got a significant snow event – in March no less! Here are some of my favorite photos, and of course the ones that aren’t listed can always be found on my flickr account.

My car was covered early in the morning. Not that I could drive it anyway…

Snow Car 2

A quick view down the street.

Acton Park

This was in front of the pool patio.

Yard

A dead cactus, which for some reason I found amusing…

Dying of Thirst

There is a path that goes down into the woods behind our community, and the walk was just amazing!

Walk in the Woods

I was trying to be all “artsy”, but was having focus issues at the same time.

Walk in the Woods

Defensive Car

Thursday, February 26th, 2009 @ 8:54am

I wish my car could do this…

Explosion

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 @ 7:04pm

Prickly City by Scott Stantis

My head wouldn’t explode if I ever misplaced my iPhone, but I would sure go into a panic.

Weekend Update

Saturday, February 21st, 2009 @ 4:04pm

I found out something this morning that was quite unusual. My allergies have been bothering me the past day or so with a lot of congestion giving me a sore throat. After a Google search for quick remedies, I found out that cayenne peppers are apparently good for sore throats, who would’ve guessed it? Needless to say, I tried adding some cayenne pepper along with honey in my tea, and sure enough 90% of the soreness went away. I would’ve had no idea that a hot pepper would have medical healing applications.

I also went out to buy Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon for my DS since I need some entertainment during my short downtime in this coming week, and was surprised to see an old friend of mine working at GameStop back from my old church; so we were able to catch up for a few minutes.

But keep me in your thoughts this coming week. I’m finally having my hardware in my shoulder removed this week, and I hope I have a somewhat quick recovery. I wanted to go ahead and get it done before all of the summer activities kick in so I’ll have some recoup time.

Moving?

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 @ 10:54am

I have a confession to make. I’ve fallen in love with the mid-west. There’s something about the vast open country that is so appealing to me. Sure, the southeast has its perks but is nothing compared to places like Colorado, Wyoming, and Washington.

But this brings me to something else that I’ve considered for the past month or so. Considering how dead the market here in Birmingham is for what I want to do, I have even more incentive to considering moving to another part of the country to help improve my opportunities. Aside from my church and family, there really isn’t much incentive for me to stay in Birmingham any longer and maybe a change in environment is really what I need to help push things along in my life.

For many years, I’ve had a set of goals that I wanted to reach by the time I was 25. That time is quickly approaching and I’m hardly any closer to those goals than I was 5 years ago. I’m clearly at a stalemate where I am at right now, and unless something new happens here in the next couple of months I am going to seriously start considering a new location. I still have plenty of time to come to a final decision, as my lease does not end until mid-August.

There’s still a lot of time for things to happen here, but I’m tired of sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting for some magical event to happen.