why i get an F- in social media February 14, 2009
Posted by brandon in : ramblings , add a commentsitting here at the DMV gives me a chance to finish up some blog material I started awhile ago.
I try to pretend to be a social media nut, but I tend to fail epicly. I just don’t understand how some of you have the time to keep up with everything. I realize all the time, that I’ve completely abandoned Twitter for days at a time. My flickr hasn’t seen an update in 5 months. I can’t stand facebook. You get the idea?
I can’t seem to remember how all of you kids always remember to take pics of everything and update a zillion sites a day, 555 times. I wish I could. I wish I had the discipline to always carry my camera. Always record things. Keep the inrernet in the loop. Maybe this could be a fresh start.
Let’s see how long this lasts.
here’s where i geek out about my car February 12, 2009
Posted by brandon in : ramblings , add a commentnow, i know that no one actually reads my blog. and those of you who do, couldn’t care less where i’ve been this past week. but i feel like i owe the internet an apology. last week was supposed to be the ‘relaunch’ of my blog! and two posts in, i fizzled out. but i feel that if, given the chance to explain…. those 25 or so of you unique visitors i get a day will understand.
this saturday i bought a car. there. thats my excuse for being a recluse all week. and not just any car. a 1997 TURBO mitsubishi eclipse! alright now for the real story.
i’ve been searching for months for a good condition turbo eclipse 1997-1999. They are my favorite car. I’ve already owned one, and will probably never own anything else. Last Friday I found one…. 600 miles away in San Jose, CA. So, deciding for once to have some fun, i called up a friend, booked two tickets to San Jose and said lets go! Let the record show that the drive to vegas from San Jose is nothing but a straight boring line with nothing at all to look at for 8 hours. [i'll go into detail one day about the trip]
That ate up my saturday, and i’ve spent every waking minute since then working on it. I’ve stripped off my Intercooler, exhaust, turbo timer, and a million other mods from my old eclipse and installed them on my new eclipse. Aside from my stereo and subs, i think I am finally done. My hands are all forms of cut up, i have spent days out in the cold rain, but it was so worth it.
So there. That’s my lame excuse. I hope the internets will forgive me. And i’ll be back tomorrow with some real material [hopefully]
my dog February 4, 2009
Posted by brandon in : me , add a commentlast night i finally bonded with my dog.
to take a couple steps back…. a couple of months ago, jessica decided it would be a great idea to go out and get a puppy. a chihahua puppy. knowing that i am deathly allergic to dogs. if i come within 50 feet of a dog, my allergies kick into overdrive, and then cause my asthma to come out of nowhere and attempt to kill me. it gets really bad. and i mean really bad.
so for the past couple of months, i ‘take care’ of our dog, but i don’t enjoy it at all. all she seems to do is get her hair everywhere, jump all over me, and generally make me miserable. i lost count of how many times i daydreamed of punting her through a couple of goal posts.
tonight, with jessica at school and dylan at his grandparent’s, it was me and our dog. alone. we started out with our usual staring at each other hating each other’s guts. this lasted for an hour or so…. i decided to get up and take her out. she actually went to the bathroom on her first trip outside. i was amazed. on the way back in she went and stood at her food and water bowls. this prompted me to grumble, then get her some fresh food and water. while she ate, i realized how nice the weather outside was, so i threw a shirt and some shoes on. almost as if she could read my mind, she met me at the door. together, we went for a jog around the block.
after our short jog [which served to remind me how out of shape i am], we came back and played a little bit of fetch and i spent a bit of time trying some more to train her to sit. we spent the last hour before bedtime sitting together at my computer. today had the perfect combination of my allergies not bothering me, my patience for the dog lasting longer than normal, and the puppy behaving better than normal. thanks to this random trifecta i finally started to bond a little with our dog and her a little with me. while i feel these days will probably be few and far between, knowing that they do exist, makes it all worth it
[and as i save this post, i turn around to find that she has gone to the bathroom on my living room carpet!]
my blogging rebirth February 3, 2009
Posted by brandon in : me , add a commentlooking all the way back to my first blog post here at TOGNB [July 2008], i find its time to apologize to the internet for 7 [off and on] months of crap from me. I wanted to blog, but I had no direction, inspiration, creativity, or self control. My social internet self was trying to branch off into 10 different directions and projects. Today marks the day I reel them all in, and keep them in, until they are ready to hatch.
Yesterday I finally got around to purchasing Wil Wheaton’s audiobook, “The Happiest Days Of Our Lives.” I believe it clocks in around 3.5 hours. I listened to the entire thing today. In one sitting. I laughed. I cried. I laughed again. I spent hours just drifting off into nostalgic memories of growing up. It was so great, that I am immediately purchasing his other writings and audiobooks. And for a mere $19 bucks [and NO DRM], i highly recommend you give it a listen: http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/
I don’t have any possible way of explaining the connection between the two, but somehow it has re-energized me about my blog. I spent the last few months trying to find funny things to post and digg and spam everywhere I could, instead of writing honest, interesting material. I realized its not about how many people i can trick into reading my blogs, its about the memories and ideas that come with the mental process of putting the everyday moments of my life into print. This blog is about me, and the things that matter most to me
[I've already made a few important changes to the layout and functionality of TOGNB, and i'll get around to the rest soon. Comments require registration, I'll get a good subscription link up soon and some much better categories soon]
