© Sharon Kennedy | Dreamstime.com

Trying not to feel too guilty about this month’s continuing violations of the blogger’s prime directive: Thou Shalt Blog Daily!

Guilty, your honor, with an excuse.

It’s not like there haven’t been extraordinary events to write about, in the big world out there, and in the not quite silent interior world each of us populate, eternally alone.

Faithful reader will have noted the personal elements that seem to have cost us our creative rhythm.

Complicated, lately, by the recent edition of MUDGElet No. 3′s 50-inch HD plasma television (if the empty nest had to be invaded, at least there’s an extra dividend!), just in time for the football season and the exciting (for Chicagoans, surprisingly exciting) baseball late and post-season.

Football, especially, on the elderly 13-inch conventional TV that sits on a file cabinet in our home office, pales in comparison. And the only laptop in my possession (two, actually, in my custody) belongs to my employer, and it wouldn’t occur to me to blog on those machines. Inappropriate.

So, it’s a tough call, choosing between blogging and high-definition spectator sport, especially in these personally emotionally draining times, and especially on this Sunday evening when the often frustrating home team Bears are giving the Eagles a fight.

Yes, I’m bemused when not scared silly over the financial meltdown that unrestricted greed and years of cynical neocon regulatory neglect have inflicted on the U.S.’s defenseless citizenry.

Yes, we watched every minute of Friday’s debate, and I’m less than humble to reveal that I pronounced it a draw before hearing or reading that informed evaluation from the pundits. Of course McCain looked strong on foreign policy experience; but Obama more than held his own, and seemed calm and presidential. Tie goes to the challenger.

So, thanks for continuing to stop by. We’re healing, I promise.

It’s it for now, thanks.

–MUDGE‘

© Susy56 | Dreamstime.com

Once again, it’s nearly 9:00pm as I begin to figure out what to say tonight, pretty late for a guy whose alarm goes off at 5:10am, and who lived a full day’s worth already.

The pace and obligations at work are picking up, heading for a crunch. Admittedly, I’ve been coasting a bit, working best, I’ve found after 42 years and counting in the workforce, with do or die deadlines. Well, it’s that time.

Meanwhile, the home front is typically turbulent. Our L.A. daughter is finally (after more than two weeks) home from a hospitalization caused by her continuing battle with Crohn’s disease, a devastating intestinal condition that I have underlying guilt about since it seems to be inherited from my side of the family.

Our youngest, who himself was hospitalized the same day and released two days later, has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, for which, thankfully, there is effective pharmaceutical treatment; unlike, we’ve all been dismayed to learn, my daughter’s Crohn’s; very serious surgery is going to have to be her relief. And, guess what? MUDGElet No. 3′s bipolar disorder? Also from yr (justifiably) humble svt‘s side of the family tree. Oy, the guilt!

He is living here with us (unable as yet to support himself while he recovers from his breakdown), which is a disconcerting alteration in Mrs. MUDGE‘s and my reasonably comfortable empty nest routine, as well as a financial, and emotional burden.

And, speaking of routine, our middle son, and his wife, and our granddog, greet us every day around 6:00am, as their nearby condominium’s one and only bathroom is being rehabbed, and showers before work, for the humans — I do draw the line! — are necessary.

And my dear mother continues to battle her dread disease, acute myeloid leukemia; still living on her own at age 81, but lately causing her family increased anxiety after taking a fall last weekend. That black eye at the top of this post doesn’t do justice to hers.

So that’s why Faithful Reader has seen more than a few of our recycled posts over the past several weeks.

Not for lack of material, however, as the election circus goes into its final stage.

A big election about small things, the man says, and they really must think the electorate is stupid, indeed. Aren’t you tired of that cynicism? That phony outrage? That underqualified stand-in, who is only suitable to be a heartbeat away from Alaska?

This year of all years, it’s time to prove those cynical plutocrats and plutocrat wannabe’s, those religious extremists and science deniers; those manufacturers on a moments notice of flagrantly artificial outrage: it’s time to prove that it’s not their country any longer.

This nation belongs to people who still believe in the promise that 300 years of nation building have cultivated, and 40 years of “conservative” wrong-headedness have blighted. The promise of justice for all, not just white male plutocrats; the promise for a woman’s right to choose what’s best for her reproductive health; the promise for fairly paid employment, with affordable benefits (including quality health care) for anyone, from anywhere, who cares to work for it. This is what’s at risk and at stake.

We, the moderates, the progressives, the gays and Jews and women, we must vote to reclaim our country.

If you’re not registered: do so!

If you know someone who’s not registered: get them to town hall immediately!

When it’s your turn to cast your ballot, remember the 300 years of promise (mainly) delivered, and the 40 years of cynical, Swift-boating blight that must be flushed away.

And remind your neighbors and friends to do the same. Drive them to the polling place if you have to!

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

© Carbouval | Dreamstime.com

In a serious creative slump here folks, battered by events as we are, but hey, recycling is IN, right?

We’re all about doing the right thing here at Left-Handed Complement, and in that spirit we’re recycling some of yr (justifiably) humble svt‘s favorite electrons. And, with nearly 470 fresh daily posts in the past 16+ months, the recycling process has an exceptionally rich vein to mine.

I hereby stop apologizing for observing the prime directive of blogging: Thou Shalt Blog Daily!

And, I’m guessing that most of you weren’t here nine months ago. As one of my favorite paper publications used to say as they flogged unsold back issues: “If you haven’t read it yet, it’s new for you!”

Blast from the Past!

A post we really, really loved to write, and read, and re-read…

From last fall, originally posted in two sections, November 7-8, 2007, and titled “mm187-8: Blogging — NSFW?”

MUDGE’S Musings

From the first, hesitant attempts at this newfangled hobby-thing called blogging, MUDGE has been very concerned about how any employee’s blog would be received by his specific employer.

We’ve tried to err on the side of… circumspection. Thus, the pseudonym, both for this writer, and for the occasional references to that employer in basically general, not to speak of generic terms: HCA, the Heart of Corporate America.

There’s bad and good to pseudonomity [did we just coin a new term? or just misspell an old one?].

The bad: as MUDGE, I lack a certain amount of credibility, especially when I write on the topic of web conferencing, one that I would like to be perceived as owning some expertise.

The good: as of this writing, I still have a job at HCA.

Which brings us to the cautionary tale of John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods. You might remember the story: during a turbulent acquisition of Whole Foods competitor Wild Oats, Mackey was exposed as having blogged anonymously, denigrating Wild Oats management and talking up his own company’s stock.

So one guesses that Mackey violated protocol: one supposes that it’s okay to do the above as a third party, unaffiliated with either entity, but it’s entirely too self-serving to do so when one is the CEO of one of the principals in the transaction.

And of course, Mackey violated the first rule of miscreancy [did we just coin a new term? or just misspell an old one?]: don’t get caught.

Whole Foods to restrict online postings by execs after CEO brouhaha

They’re not supposed to post to blogs, message boards and other forums without approval

Heather Havenstein

November 07, 2007 (Computerworld) — After its CEO got caught bashing competitors and talking up his company’s stock in anonymous Internet forum posts, Whole Foods Market Inc. late last week changed its corporate conduct policy to ban company leaders from posting anything online about the company.

John Mackey, chairman and CEO of Whole Foods, came under fire in July after eight years of anonymous posts on Yahoo bulletin boards were cited by the Federal Trade Commission in a lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit, filed in June, sought to prevent Whole Foods from acquiring competitor Wild Oats Markets Inc. because the FTC contended that the deal would be anticompetitive.

And so we get to the heart of the matter: is there a place for blogging about a specific corporation? Is it appropriate for employees of that corporation to blog about it?

[Please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

Whole Foods to restrict online postings by execs after CEO brouhaha

Some companies think not, at least Whole Foods’ board thinks that its top employees should refrain.

Some companies aren’t so skittish (of course, their CEOs have not gotten caught!). We’ll explore this issue further next time.

BTW, for those not tuned in to the latest in blogosphere shortcuts: NSFW — not suitable for work. Usually used in the context of articles or blog posts containing what might be construed as racy photographs of young women.

___________________________________________________________

Last post, we began to tackle the topic of work-related blogging. As constant reader will recall, the hook was the news that John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, was taken to task by his board of directors for the blogging he did anonymously this summer while the FTC was reviewing Whole Foods’ takeover of Wild Oats, a competitor. Computerworld reported that top officers of Whole Foods are no longer permitted to post to discussion boards, blog, etc.

MUDGE‘s take on this issue: as constant reader can tell, MUDGE is not my real name; nor is HCA [short for Heart of Corporate America] the true name of my employer. Pseudonymity of these two elements [another version of the previous creative coinage] seems preferable to not, from a career longevity point of view. Or perhaps MUDGE is simply paranoid.

So, what’s more to say? Well, Whole Foods stubbed its organic tofu over this issue, very publicly. Is this a unanimous trend among the stalwart global enterprises based (presently) in the U.S.?

There are few global enterprises more ginormous than International Business Machines, IBM.

And IBM employees blog. In fact, they are encouraged to blog. In fact they are so proud of the fact that employees are encouraged to blog that in one presentation on collaboration tools for which your intrepid reporter was present, the statistics: 375,000 employees world-wide; 53,000 blogs, internal and external; 27,000 of which were currently active (as of 90 days ago) were flourished with pride.

Personal aside: Always wanted to work for those guys. Never felt I had the horsepower or the credentials or (at the time) nearly enough white shirts. Sigh.

Envy aside, IBM’s collaboration software entity, Lotus, is now promoting a series of products bundled under the banner, Lotus Connections, containing a myriad of tools promising to enable employee empowerment, and this year’s “i”-word, innovation, through collaboration. And one of those enabling tools: Blogs.

Understand that this foray into “social software” is no small casual fancy. During the three-day seminar for Lotus premium customers in Boston this past August, I attended more than a few presentations promoting Connections.

And, even in non-related programs, many of the Lotus and parent IBM speakers referenced their own public blogs.

From the promotional website:

Blogs help you connect with people – within and outside your enterprise.

They help you build communities of shared interest.

They give each person in the enterprise a voice.

Because blogging is as natural as writing an email to a group, one can share his thoughts and solicit feedback without worrying about filling up everyone’s inbox.

Blogs help you communicate with your peers or colleagues and nourish innovation.

Very empowering. For MUDGE‘s very buttoned down employer, very unlikely.

I’m absolutely certain that many of my fellow employees (there are tens of thousands world-wide) have blogs, perhaps under their own names or more likely, pseudonymously. No way to tell, really. MUDGE knows for certain of only one of his colleagues who knows of his own specific activities here. A matter of paranoia, and trust.

I have the strong feeling that, when offered sweetheart deals for adopting, or even piloting Lotus Connections, my masters at HCA will have (or, already have had) no trouble politely refusing.

As with many of their global peers, they’re all for innovation. Indeed, without innovation, my employer would eventually cease to exist.

But the John Mackey Whole Foods example speaks thunderously to the dangers of the untrammeled communication offered by social software. That kind of innovation my employer, among many others, might well eschew.

Would be refreshing though, wouldn’t it?

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

As I write this, mid-day Monday, 01-September 2008 U.S. Central Daylight Time, the good people at WordPress.com report that Left-Handed Complement is responsible for a total 514 posts (this will be the 515th when posted), 1,007 comments (admittedly, many self-generated), and a total of 20,226 views.

Now, I understand tht many bloggers are accustomed to 20,226 views in a month, or week, or day, or even every hour. We arrived at this number in about 16 months of everyday blogging, and I’m actually quite astonished that so many have found their way to this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere©.

Much of this traffic, which has been increasing over the past several months, can be credited to the churn created by BlogExplosion.com, with whom I am an all too willing co-conspirator.

But some I prefer to believe has been drawn by merit, as evidenced in our recent inclusion in the Carnival of the Liberals #72, which Faithful Reader should check out if you haven’t yet — good writing abounds.

Thanks, readers, both faithful and new, for coming along on the ride. We’ll keep at it regardless, it’s an addiction after all, but this pesky blogging jones is definitely more rewarding as readership grows, and quality comments increase.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

MUDGE’s Musings

Recognition is tonic.

Yes, yr (justifiably) humble svt is happy to announce that a recent post, “mm454: It’s going to take a liberal quantity of BOLD” has been chosen as an entry in the latest Carnival of the Liberals #72, hosted this time around at one of my favorite blogs, and a longstanding member of the L-HC blogroll, Jason Buckley’s Washington Interns Gone Bad.

Thanks, Jason, I’m grateful, and while I am indeed justifiably humble most of the time, tonight I’m darned proud. I really liked that post, and I’m glad it made the cut.

Check out the Carnival — good reading in a variety of styles and points of view.

And be sure to bookmark WIGB. It’s worth making it a regular habit.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

© Susy56 | Dreamstime.com

MUDGE’s Musings

Sometimes, you just have to admit defeat.

Or, perhaps, you just need to take a breather.

Tonight is a night that calls out for a break.

No sooner does one of our children get out of a suburban Chicago hospital, than another is admitted to a suburban Los Angeles one. Serious and painful, but, thankfully, not life threatening.

But, it’s beating us up, all of these health issues, especially when they don’t allow us to nurse our own mental and physical aches and pains.

So it’s shell-shocked times here at Casa MUDGE.

But, we’ll answer the bell for the next round.

That’s what adults do.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

© D | Dreamstime.com

MUDGE’s Musings

As I begin it’s near the nominal end of a summer Saturday; normally I might have had the opportunity to create some kind of post much earlier, but today was not normal, but that’s acceptable. Today was a beautiful day, and it had very little to do with the weather.

Disposed of the usual Saturday morning errand, grocery shopping, in reasonable fashion although closer to noon, having slept in somewhat later than is common.

Picked up MUDGElet No. 3 at his studio in his grandmother’s basement, took him to lunch at a sandwich shop on the way north to my favorite annual outdoor art fair. Mrs. MUDGE had determined that she was going to pass on the opportunity, due to the 90/90 (degrees Fahrenheit/percent humidity) weather, and the dire state of our discretionary art budget, and I was glad of the company.

We didn’t spend a long time there, but he especially enjoyed our stroll up and down one small section of what usually is a sprawling affair spread across several suburban downtown streets and parking areas.

Distressed economy note: fewer exhibitors, and many fewer members of the visual art loving public today (in previous years this particular event has been wall-to-wall people), but those in attendance appeared to be having a good time.

So we headed back south after about an hour, and I dropped him off back at his studio and returned home, only to be happily surprised to find MUDGElet No. 2, and the lovely MUDGElet No. 2A, and our granddog the terrified (where men in general, and this man in particular are concerned) beagle.

Now, we’ve seen a lot of both of them (they do live nearby, I am grateful to report) this week, as they have been making use of our showers while their one and only bathroom is being rehabbed.

But, this visit was due to a neighborhood power failure, and they came over to see us, and oh, yeah, to cool off (90/90), and yeah, to shower.

But, it was fun seeing them, and they joined us for dinner, together with the J___’s, our friends of the absolute longest standing as a couple, having double dated with the future Mrs. MUDGE and yr (justifiably) humble svt before our respective marriages some 38 years ago — but who’s counting?

And just before the meal we were joined by MUDGElet No. 3, who is living with us these days, and it made for a delightfully crowded table.

So the blogging hours have been impaired.

Today, addiction or not, I didn’t miss them, really.

Family and old friends — doesn’t get much better than that.

Having a granddog who doesn’t scamper away when I raise an eyebrow in her direction: That just might be perfection.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

… and not much to say about it.

Worked on location at the beginning of it, and reasonably productively from home at the end. The middle, was smiling and grim, institutional and emotional.

And we, and our man-child, remain on a tightrope.

Some days, the blogger’s prime directive, Thou Shalt Blog Daily!, is best observed very simply, and with brevity.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

© Jcyoung | Dreamstime.com

MUDGE’s Musings

… or so I’ve been told.

Worked from home today, finished up at about 4:30pm, left shortly thereafter for the first evening of an action packed family reunion weekend for my wife’s mother’s family.

Four generations gathered (age range: 5 cuddly months to 87 spry years); most live locally (a phenomenon of my wife’s close knit family), several flew in from Houston and Philadelphia, and we missed our own representatives of Generation 3 and 4 who are celebrating a family reunion of their own in Hawaii this week.

But it was a goodly crowd of nearly 30, enjoying food and drink at a local (for some) sports bar (watched Ken Griffey, Jr. get his first hit and RBI in his first at bat in a White Sox uniform, thank you very much), and then a brisk game of miniature golf played indoors under black light (its location in a popular strip mall makes it seem like a make-out palace for 15-year-olds, but I’m an old curmudgeon). Fun for all ages.

And, here it is after 11:00pm, and while the political and technological world didn’t cease spinning today, yr (justifiably) humble svt is ready to fold his cards and call it a long day, in a long week.

So, in the spirit of daily blogging, I submit this edition. Sorry, they can’t all be bold.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

Summer Saturday. Errands, and more errands. Chores. When’s the week start, so I can relax?

A DVD matinée. Very little time to blog. Ouch.

So, back into the archives yet again.

I console myself by guessing that most of you weren’t here nine months ago. As one of my favorite paper publications used to say: “If you haven’t read it yet, it’s new for you!”

Blast from the Past!

A post we really, really loved to write, and read, and re-read…

From last fall, and always in season, originally posted October 11, 2007, and originally titled “mm167: Writer’s Diarrhea.”

MUDGE’S Musings

… is the opposite of writer’s block, right?

So another blog about blogging. Why bother? Take two Imodium and call me in the morning.

There’s never a lack of news and features to write about. Although, today…

There are frequently referenced topics in this space that could stand another post, MUDGE: web conferencing, our latest profession.

Or, the odd current interest (some of you must feel) in UAVs: unmanned aerial vehicles or, robot aircraft.

Or, politics: impeachment (first Cheney, then Bush); Michael Bloomberg; this horribly mismanaged war.

Or, air travel, probably our most popular topic (thanks, Patrick Smith [who actually noticed and commented on one of our several references to his wonderful column -- talk about finding a plankton in the Pacific]!).

Or, technology, especially One Laptop Per Child, a wonderful initiative deserving of everyone’s support.

But not today.

Spent spare time today reading about blogs and blogging. As I evaluate my efforts according to some of the experts, I give myself a grade of B+. Ignoring the experts, who probably would hold their noses and call L-HC a D+.

Because, of course, there are so few readers. And of course, there’s no monetization going on (just as well, since there are so few readers). So, why bother?

It doesn’t take much reflection to realize that the millions of bloggers out there are primarily, with some gaudy exceptions, keeping personal journals. A custom, and habit, recently revived from the eighteenth and 19th centuries.

The difference is that what used to be kept locked up in a desk or closet is now published to the world in a technological tour de force unprecedented in history. And no quill pens, ink wells and blotters required.

Quantitatively, even with billions of potential readers out there, most of the millions of blogs and bloggers will go unnoticed.

Qualitatively, most of us deserve the lack of notice.

But, this newly awakened urge to write, for most of us, is probably not about notice. It’s about expression.

After scores of years passively accepting written and broadcast news and entertainment, we’re once again entertaining ourselves, by writing.

And our diaries, no longer locked away in desk drawers, hang out as strings of electronic plankton just waiting for an admiring public to suck them in through the baleen called Firefox.

For most of us a few people pop in occasionally, and once in a while a small fraction of those take the trouble to comment about what they’ve read.

Thanks for noticing!

And, thanks, also, to the experts, whose blogs about blogging make for interesting reading.

A few who made an impression (in no particular sequence), a couple of whom have today earned a spot in the L-HC blogroll :

• Performancing
• BloggingTips
• Successful Blog
• ProBlogger
• Copyblogger
• Circular Communication

Any of these are worthy of some time and attention, should you be interested in improving your game, or joining this phenomenon of the Naughts: the electronic diary.

And yes, I’m an easy grader. The B+ is because I enjoy reading what I write.

A hobby that gives one pleasure (and prevents one’s brains leaking out due to any exposure to “Are you smarter than a fifth grader?”) seems like a worthy end in itself, regardless of its infinitesimal interest outside this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere©.

And if this hobby fills a few moments of a few intrepid readers’ spare time, sparing them from “CSI Omaha,” how bad can it be?

Not bad at all. B+ for sure.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

© Duncan De young | Dreamstime.com

MUDGE’s Musings

Spent the day writing.

Spent the last 90 minutes trolling the ‘Sphere for good topics with which  yr (justifiably) humble svt could wax heroic with strong opinions and typically pithy bons mots.

But when it came time to pull one of them up and start waxing and pithing, I found myself out of steam.

Because I spent the day writing. That pesky day job that pays (many of) the bills.

Writing a draft communication to three separate communities regarding our team’s upcoming (that light at the end of the tunnel might be an onrushing train) upgrade to the web conferencing application we support.

It was a challenge, about 17 pages (no big type! no pictures!) all told between the three documents, although there was much duplication and paraphrasing between them.

So, no glass half full, or glass half empty conversations tonight.

This glass is done.

Check back here next time, because first thing tomorrow I’m headed to the wordsmith station for a fill up. Hope I can afford today’s high priced blend.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

Spotted a couple of references (most recently and indirectly at Arts & Letters Daily) to a most thought-provoking article in the Atlantic Monthly by Nicholas Carr, regarding the perhaps crippling effect of Internet use on the intellect.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

What the Internet is doing to our brains

by Nicholas Carr |  July/August 2008 Atlantic Monthly

“Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?” So the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous and weirdly poignant scene toward the end of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Bowman, having nearly been sent to a deep-space death by the malfunctioning machine, is calmly, coldly disconnecting the memory circuits that control its artificial brain. “Dave, my mind is going,” HAL says, forlornly. “I can feel it. I can feel it.”

I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

So I’ve noticed through the years that my ability, or even interest, to focus for extended lengths of time on a book had diminished. I have attributed this mostly to the natural effects of my alacritously advancing age. But maybe there’s more going on.

I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets—reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link. (Unlike footnotes, to which they’re sometimes likened, hyperlinks don’t merely point to related works; they propel you toward them.)

Carr goes on to point to researchers who are just beginning to take note of this phenomenon.

But it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking—perhaps even a new sense of the self. “We are not only what we read,” says Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University and the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. “We are how we read.”

And, on the Internet, how we read is definitely different. As Carr describes it, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”

[Please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

So this change in the way he thinks that Carr noted, and that I reluctantly need to acknowledge in myself, is not the first time it’s occurred in human history. The good news? Our brains are not locked down into fixed ways of doing business. The not so good news? Our ability to focus attention on any subject may have become undermined by the tsunami of data in which we daily willingly drown ourselves.

Carr quotes Marshall McLuhan, the influential media analyst of the sixties. Television viewing, of course, and probably radio listening before it, radically changed people’s daily habits and the ways they took in (and probably, processed) information, and McLuhan was on top of that. We’ve had a short attention span for news since the television age began. Not for nothing has the term “20-second sound bite” become an outcome, and thus a tactic in political campaigns.

Thus our cultural short attention span predates the Internet by nearly 50 years.

I’ve got a stack of seven or eight books in my “read soonest” pile, including Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland, so eagerly awaited since our mutual friend touted it prepublication in early March.

It is just simply embarrassing to me that it took several months to read and return to a patient work colleague (“don’t worry, you’re the only one here I ever can speak to about history and politics, so there’s no next person on the borrowing list”) the borrowed The Coldest Winter, David Halberstam’s brilliant, last history of the Korean War.

In some ways, then, it is rather heartening to learn that I am not the only person who, long accustomed to voracious book reading, has changed habits in favor of Internet activity.

For one, this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere© itself is a tremendous, if psychically rewarding, time suck. Not only the writing, editing, and publishing, for which I devote considerable care and attention.

Also, it’s the daily pre-writing cruising among news and blogs and other ‘Net resources for inspiration and ideas. Not to mention the toiling in the vineyards of the various traffic building sites, BlogExplosion and FuelMyBlog and BlogCatalog and my newbie, BlogSoldiers.

Then there’s the simple recreational surfing that has generally replaced recreational television in my waking hours, as well as, guiltily the subject of today’s post, sitting in a plushly comfortable chair, as opposed to the more ascetic and business-like swivel chair in front of my PC, reading “legacy” books and publications.

So, my attention deficit is not necessarily due to physical changes caused by aging, although that may be part of it: I reluctantly acknowledge embarking on my seventh decade (let us be clear: I did not reluctantly embark — consider the alternative!) at the beginning of this year. Nicholas Carr, and the others he sought out for his article (and, I suppose, for his newly published book from which this material is most certainly drawn), think our brains are changing due to the way we take in information.

So be it.

Would I give up Google, Netvibes, Pageflakes, Yahoo! (well, I did long since, on merit), email (all six personal accounts!) and the rest of it?

Not a chance.

Will I embrace my newly acknowledged attention deficit? Without hesitation. I am a creature of the 21st Century Internet. I can find any arcane fact in mere seconds; I can view a 360° photograph of most any U.S. address; I can read the latest thoughts of a well-spoken mommy-blogger in Singapore; I can catch up instantly on the latest tragedy from Zimbabwe or Sichuan.

My world view may not have the depth of knowledge it might have had previously; but it is so very much the better for its magnificent breadth.

No, Google does not make me stupid. I think differently (thanks, Mr. Carr for helping me understand this), not less. Mr. Carr’s hardbound scuba diver covers a few hundred cubic feet of ocean; his and my Internet jet-ski navigates the planet.

I’ll happily take that trade-off.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

This nanocorner of the ‘Sphere© averages roughly 50 hits a day. As reading L-HC indicates that faithful reader indubitably has exquisitely refined taste, I’m not unhappy with that number, exactly. It’s about 50 more people than ever read whatever I might have written before taking up blogging.

Today, 96 hits.

Wow, did my latest post, on web conferencing, hit a nerve?

Not exactly.

50 people clicked on a link from last August, a story about Barack Obama. And I have WordPress.com to thank.

It seems recently they added a delightful feature when one publishes a post: Possibly related posts: (automatically generated) wherein the system pulls out three or four stories that share a tag or category with the article just posted. It’s a handy resource, one small example of the feature-rich service that WordPress.com provides (in my case, nearly cost-free) to nearly 3.5million blogs.

Turns out that FoxNews.com, of all sites, is the source of today’s doubled traffic.

They happen to be hosted on WordPress.com. Now, that’s an interesting fact in itself. One would think that a large global organization such as Rupert Murdoch’s would have the resources to host its own blog. But I suppose they know a better mousetrap when they see one (I certainly do!), and thus let WordPress.com do the heavy lifting.

Today, FoxNews.com ran a story about an incumbent Republican candidate for senator in Oregon who is running an advertisement “touting his ties to the Senate’s most liberal member,” Barack Obama. And guess whose post from last August, “Barack Obama’s Republican edge” did WordPress.com include in its automatically generated “possibly related posts?”

Now, one has to wonder about those 50 people. I imagine they clicked away in mere microseconds when they realized what sort of blog they innocently encountered. Certainly not quite the political approach they’re accustomed to if they’re Fox News devotees.

I must say, that WordPress.com sent me to the Fox News site for the first time; I never, ever watch their cable news station. Unlikely that I’ll be back any time soon, mirroring I’m certain the instincts of those 50 lost souls who found themselves in such foreign territory.

So, the synergy of the Internet strikes one yet again. In the same way a Republican in a liberal state reaches out to independently minded voters by invoking this year’s favorite Democratic Senator, folks reading a blog run by one of the most cynically illiberal news organizations on the planet are directed here, a site most un-illiberal, if I may coin such a doubly-negative, aspirational characterization. Go figure.

50 Fox News readers. Glad I had my clean underwear on.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

As I start to write this post, it’s 8:56pmCDT, pretty late to begin a project on a Monday night.

Mondays. (Or, I guess Sundays. If you observe the Sabbath on a Saturday). (Or, I guess Saturdays. If you observe the Sabbath on a Friday).

Any way you look at it, the first day of the work week is the tough one. The alarm clock, which if one is fortunate, stayed off for the entire weekend, resumes working its mischief on schedule, in Mr. & Mrs. MUDGE‘s distressing case, at 5:10am. That’s a hurtful note, indeed.

So, an advantage of beginning the day with the roosters, is that one has the capacity to end the day reasonably early. And, as is typical, the nine-hour workday, and the two-hour round trip commute still had me home and ready to hit the ‘Sphere at a very reasonable hour.

But there were responsibilities that had prior call on my precious blogging time tonight. Spent the past 2-1/2 hours reconciling bank accounts and paying my various creditors and other mid-month obligations, something I might have done when fresher yesterday, had my good friends at Comcast cooperated and left me with a connection I could depend upon while accessing my on-line banking resources.

By the time service had restored itself just as mysteriously as it had gone away, two lengthy waits in customer service jail plus an hour or two later, the impetus to do the responsible thing had seeped away, restored in full tonight, thankfully.

Now, faced with limited access to blogging resources (suitable computer, software [see the Blogging Process Hall of Fame in the sidebar], and most of all, time) yr (justifiably) humble svt has arrived at two tactics to honor the blogger’s prime directive: Thou Shalt Blog Daily!

My most often called upon tactic is to pull out a gem (subjective, I know) from the lengthy archives of Left-Handed Complement (well, there are 14 actual months with posts!), package it up as a Blast from the Past! and consider myself as having honored my obligation.

In pursuit of that, I actually have prepared and set aside some prepackaged “inventory,” already formatted, categorized and tagged, which simply need to be converted from draft to published, the work of a few minutes, thanks to the excellent facilities of WordPress.com.

It’s an answer, but feels like cheating somehow. But, this is my avocation, after all. I just hate it when business, professional and personal obligations get in the way of my blog!

Tactic two is what you’re reading. Just riffing on the condition I’m in. Rather be writing and commenting about the political, the technological or the wondrous world of Enterprise 2.0. But that takes organization. Organization takes energy. And energy has been dissipated sending off treasure to keep Casa MUDGE afloat for another half a month.

But, I find myself rather bemused and somewhat pleased that stream of consciousness riffing is, apparently, possible at this late hour and depleted energy level; whether it’s worth reading or not, faithful reader, I leave in your hands.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

BTW: My Comcast rant struck a nerve, and actually elicited comments: unusual and therefore most precious in this space. Please click on the commenters’ links to see what they’re about. Each different, and eloquent, in totally different ways. I love the ‘Sphere!

Roxy: Thanks for the kind words, and the vote. My record is appalling in Battles of the Blogs at BlogExplosion, and I actually won today. I’m sure your vote tipped it in.

Faith: I appreciate your comments; I guess misery does love company! At least you heard from that mythical public affairs guy that supposedly monitors the ‘Sphere looking for bad press. Anything good happen?

Doctor Chip: Very colorful, not to say adult, writing, as always! Thanks for stopping by and taking the trouble to reach out.

The Family MUDGE is happily celebrating the graduation of our youngest scholar with a party that will have taken prep time and cleanup time and party time, leaving no blogging time. So, as one must blog daily, we present the following in fulfillment of the obligation.

There’s most read, and then there’s favorite. This is a post which yr (justifiably) humble svt is, regrettably, but not regretfully, not at all humble about.

Blast from the Past!

A post we really, really loved to write, and read, and re-read…

From last summer, originally posted September 9, 2007, and originally titled “Process, again”.

MUDGE’S Musings

Couple of months ago, we wrote about the process of blogging, as we understood it after about 2½ months of consistent posting.

Not sure that understanding has increased, although the consistency has remained. At least in frequency, if not quality.

The quality thing can always be improved.

Received a modest number of hits in the past four months; averages about 16 per day, day in and out. A couple of times about 90. A bunch of times, a loyal few. Some of the early weeks — totaled 20.

Thanks, loyal few!

Where do those statistics come from, you may wonder? From our weblog host, WordPress.com.

What a terrific organization! Hosting at this site is free. Support has been superlative.

Two examples: Recently registered at a site that promised to promote this blog. (Early days yet and the jury is still out — so a more complete mention will wait for a future process episode.)

L-HC was rejected. Why? They reported that L-HC was not interpreted correctly due to a bug (go figure!) in Internet Explorer v6. We never saw it, because we run v7 at the CurmudgeonDungeon (say that 10 times quickly!).

At work next day, pulled up the site on the office PC (something we try not to do because we’re not at all sure that freedom of expression in a blogging context exists there) to verify the issue; sure enough, the sidebar contents fell to the very bottom of the lengthy page. A very ugly look.

So, I contacted WordPress support. Got a prompt answer: Yes, it’s a bug in IE6, usually caused by graphic elements of excessive width in the main panel. Maximum such width for our theme, Contempt (wonderfully appropriate for a curmudgeon — and one of WordPress’ most popular themes) was stated as 460 pixels.

Thus, I needed to go back into the bowels of history to find the offending post(s). A big task, that took some time to get to (this is supposed to be a hobby, right?).

Finally, a couple of weeks later got around to rooting around in the past, a job made reasonably easy by WordPress and a member of MUDGE’s Blogging Process Hall of Fame, Windows Live Writer.

Found a couple of potential offending graphics, resized them with an ancient, paid for version of Paint Shop Pro, and all seemed okay in IE6. Reapplied to the promotion site, was accepted this time, and am gradually figuring out what makes that site tick.

But the point: the rapid response from WordPress support, considering that their census of blogs they host is up substantially from last reported on 21-July-2007:

Take a look at today’s stat:

A 20% increase in 50 days!

And yet, got an answer within hours to my query.

Last weekend, WordPress was experiencing some kind of problem, because several posts did not land cleanly. The result, a lack of synchronization between Windows Live Writer and the blog on WordPress. Thought it was me.

Sent off a query. Got a response within hours seeking further information. Replied with a clarification of the incident, and received a response to the reply within a very short time, promising some research.

Received another response shortly, admitting a WordPress.com server timing issue, since repaired, and all has been well since.

The point is not that they had an issue on their side. The point is, with nearly 1.5million sites, they still could respond so promptly, courteously and effectively.

Thus we proudly announce an update to MUDGE’s Blogging Process Hall of Fame:

WordPress.com has vaulted to the top of MUDGE’s list, not to make any less of numbers two and three, used to great effect every post.

And, the price for the entire suite is right: $0.00. Can’t beat that!

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE