The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

It’s Not About Reusable Content

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The digital resume rolled out across my screen accompanied by a droning noise someone said was supposed to be color commentary about what I was seeing.

Instead of generating interest, it worked as an alternative to Ambien and I began to wish for another 198 ounces of coffee or a baseball bat to the head.

Had I done a better job of maintaining a poker face I would have fooled the people with me into thinking I was paying attention and not fighting to stay awake.

But I didn’t and I was fighting to find toothpicks for the eyelids.

Eventually, they asked me what was bothering me and I gave a blunter answer than I intended about being bored to death.

“Skills are nice but you have to do something with them otherwise they just look pretty.”

We bounced a few more comments back and forth and they asked me what made me an expert.

“I am not saying I am an expert but there was a time when people paid me to produce content and to provide a marketing plan. Those skills get rusty but they don’t disappear.”


It’s Not About Reusable Content

The conversation made me realize that a few things have changed in the decades since I graduated from college.

Talked with my own progeny about their college experience and pushed the importance of producing good content that demonstrates an understanding of the topic and application as needed.

“It is not about reusable content, it is about showing you know what you are talking about. Do that first and then you can look at how and if to reuse the material.”

The folks at the office got the same sort of advice/comment as the kids did. It isn’t and wasn’t me trying to B.S. anyone into this particular idea because it is bedrock to me.

If you want to tie it into blogging it fits in as the need to make sure you are not boring yourself with whatever you write.

Because if you are bored there is a pretty damn good chance the reader will be bored too.

Find the angle of interest and run with it. Can’t please everyone and don’t need to, but you have to capture some.

Some is enough.

Also in reference to blogging, there are moments where it is advantageous to reuse content. I have done it multiple times where.

Might do it again quite soon.

New readers come by and old ones who haven’t read certain posts might appreciate it.

There is a balance, not that I necessarily know where it is or use it, but I think about it…sometimes.

How Often Do We Need To Post?

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I put the question mark at the end of the headline for the sole purpose of attracting attention as I think more people will come visit than if I don’t use it.

Been blogging for about 19 years now and if I am not mistaken been at this particular location since about 2010.

I imported most of what was written elsewhere so this serves as a pretty good collection of things I have written but it is still incomplete.

Don’t write here as often I as I used to but it is very important to me for multiple reasons and it is absolutely the first self-hosted blog I ever had.

Since I got into the game earlier than many and built up a decent reader base I don’t have to post every day to maintain traffic but there is no doubt it is nothing close to what it once was.

That is ok with me and I am not sure if I could get it back to that level even if I wanted to. It is not because of an inability to push multiple times a day or even daily because if I wanted to it would be easy.

But because there are 10 million other distractions now.

When I started there wasn’t any competition from Twitter, Facebook, Medium, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok or so many other content providers and news sources.

Comment sections were wildly active and if you put a little effort into engaging with others online you could build your own community.

It is much harder to do that now, though not impossible.

news typewritten on white paper
Photo by Markus Winkler on Pexels.com

The Answer Is:

The answer for me is to post as often as it feels comfortable, reasonable and important.

I write here less than before because of time constraints and focus on other things and because some things get different coverage than they do elsewhere.

There is nothing I couldn’t cover in these other places because semi-anonymity means recognizing that some people know I am not Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent in real life.

Not all of them would recognize me on the street but they know me and plenty who know me in the important ways do too.

Writing is a profession, hobby and tool for my sanity. Sometimes it is nice to blow off steam and mull over thoughts and feelings in print in a place where I am less likely to be challenged and questioned.

Not afraid to be challenged or questioned on almost anything but if I am writing it down here chances are it is because I am working on something.

If I want or need someone to know my thoughts and feelings you can be assured I will find them and make sure they know it.

You can’t do what I do and be shy.

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Anyhoo, the real purpose of this post is tied to the headline and that is to say you ought to post as often as it serves the purpose of your blog.

If you are interested in building a community, acting as a brand ambassador and or anything related you probably need to be consistent.

Or at least consistent enough that your target audience knows how often to visit to receive new content.

BTW that Golda Meir quote is a personal favorite and a reminder to myself that no matter how good I think I am not everyone will see me that way.

Blogging brought that to the forefront to me because I have seen some very popular blogs that I thought had awful content.

Used to make me crazy to see some of them do so much better when I knew my work was better. Might have some typos and errors in it but it wasn’t riddled with crap.

But I learned that sometimes there are other things and some had it where I didn’t. Just part of life.

 

When Civility Is No Longer Warranted

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The man told me it is ok to agree to disagree and I said he was dead wrong.

Why?

Because he told me Sandy Hook was fake and spouted three other ridiculous conspiracy theories.

“There is a moment when civility is no longer warranted and it starts now. I will not let you push offensive knowledge that isn’t based upon fact or rational thought as if we are having a simple disagreement.

This is not you and I debating whether you can put ketchup on a hot dog or if chunky is better than creamy.

If you believe Sandy Hook is fake, that the earth is flat and that nothing happened on January 6th you are delusional and in need of help.”

They pushed back and said I had been taken in by propaganda.

I refused to listen and said it was convenient to say that anything you dislike is fake and anything you agree with is factual.

“Toddlers do that. I am ok with two and three-year-olds figuring out what is real. That doesn’t extend to adults who push the lies you are trying to.

It is not only offensive it is dangerous to let idiotic claptrap be pushed out as having some sort of science or peer-reviewed support when no such thing exists.

There are some things upon which there is no room for disagreement and this is one of them.”

The Joy Of Packing

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The joy of packing for a trip you don’t really want to go on but know is necessary is never the same as packing for the one you can’t wait for.

No surprises or shock is derived from this less than profound insight. Heck, you can label this as mild whining about something I could get out of but won’t.

This needs to be done and as I have taught my children so shall I act. Jumping on it sooner than later gets it out of the way so that I can focus my energy and attention on what I want to do.

Still, I’ll grant myself five minutes to complain about it.

I had the option of flying which in concept would reduce the amount of travel time by a significant amount but I decided not to roll the dice on that one.

Why?

Because during the Summer of 2022, at least the beginning part, the airlines are short-staffed and it is causing issues with flight delays and cancellations.

So I am putting in for windshield time knowing it will cause more wear and tear on me but I’ll better control of when I come and go.

Let’s hope the roads remain clear because that could blow this whole idea up.

If nothing else I’ll get plenty of time to listen to some of the books I downloaded from Audible and catch up on some of the interviews Howard Stern has conducted that I haven’t listened to yet.

And who knows, maybe I’ll find a bag of money or some buried treasure during my adventure and get to retire.

 

Unexpected Guests

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Sometimes our cyberhomes receive unexpected guests and we celebrate their arrival because their presence adds to the overall experience.

Sadly the converse is true and sometimes we receive guests we prefer not spend time with us.

There are steps we can take to help encourage them to haunt a different home but they are not always as effective as we might like.

The latter is where things are at so I am thinking about borrowing SQ’s giant black purse so that I can provide both digital and physical motivation to go.

But then again might not have to do so given that some visitors have provided more details than they might wish.

Funny how you can point out time spent on frivolity instead of work and suddenly get people whipped into shape.

Pressure and motivation come in multiple forms. 😉

That Time When Almost Everyone Got Covid

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One day the story of that time when almost everyone got Covid will be told and when it does we’ll be sure to laugh heartily at how ridiculous it all was…but not today.

We’ll tell you about how the family flew in to celebrate my daughter’s high school celebration and how wearing masks and being fully vaccinated didn’t work as well as we hoped it would.

Given the current climate I’ll stress I am a believer in science and medicine and a proponent of getting vaccinated. Some failures are going to happen upon occasion and I would still argue in favor of smart preventative measures.

Anyhoo, a couple of days after the graduation my daughter’s mom came down with Covid. She was fully vaccinated, including the boosters and wearing a mask…go figure.

A day after that I came down with a fever and a scratchy throat so per instruction from my doc I went to urgent care and they checked me out for Covid and strep throat.

I tested negative for both. Hell, I tested negative for Covid a couple of times afterward so it seems I never had it or maybe I am just one of those people it didn’t register with.

Took me about 18 hours to shake whatever I had which is pretty standard for what happens when I get one of my twice-a-year colds.

But the real concern were the multiple senior citizens who flew out, some of whom are immunocompromised as well as in the aforementioned demographic.

As of today only one of the four got sick and it indeed was Covid but it appears decent genes and some meds have mostly taken care of the illness.

Still it made for some dicey moments and extended several trips beyond where they were supposed to be.


What To Do & How To Do What

Given all of the fun I have been in insolation for a while now more out of an abundance of caution than anything else.

It created more than a little stress because I never felt particularly ill and there was always concern about how to best help the visitors, especially my mother who didn’t rent a car and was sort of stuck at the hotel.

Fortunately, the grandkids are at an age where they can drive and given they all tested negative were able to spend time with grandma.

Although that helped give me peace of mind there was still a nagging question about what to do and how to best do it.

Wasn’t going to panic but also wanted to be prudent.

Given ages, history and life experience I know that life can turn on a dime and that any time I see them it could be the last time.

When it came to my mom I looked at genetics a bit, had a couple of conversations and talked it out with her.

She is still almost 20 years younger than her both her parents were when they died. Overall she has a pretty good bill of health and her doc didn’t have issue with her traveling on the graduation circuit.

That added some comfort, especially given her attitude. She doesn’t want to miss out on these opportunities because even with good health/genes her age makes it clear there is a clock.

So some of this is/was a calculated risk.

I didn’t hug her goodbye and I was a good 15 feet away when I said “I’ll try to see you later this summer.”

If you ask me my gut feeling on it all I will tell you I feel good about it and that I expect to see her again. She felt fine when she left and fine when she landed so I am going with that.

Won’t say that I haven’t kept my fingers crossed and hoped not to be proven wrong about anything.

Won’t say that it hasn’t been extra stressful for reasons both obvious and less so either.

But I am looking forward to the day when this is just one more funny story.

Especially given the last three weeks included plumbing issues, a car accident and an assortment of other irritants in addition to this last set of nonsense.

Kids asked me why so much has to happen at one time and I told them it is because life doesn’t care.

“You get what you get however you get it and then you just roll with it. Manage it as best you can and try not to let it make you crazy.”

I think it is pretty good advice, I ought to tell it to myself again because there are days…