Welcome everyone to my new blog. This will replace the daily email updates I’ve been sending to friends and family for the last four years. I’m a blog newbie but at least have got the basics constructed, including the photos.
You can all vote on which of my "pre-beard" photos you prefer, the one of mom and myself at Christmas 2007, just a few days before I started growing the beard. Or the one I have on my Profile page which was taken December 29, 2007 at the Uptown Parthenon. I prefer the one with Mom. This pic captured her with a very demure and charming Mona Lisa smile which I find very appealing. I think the other pic is good too, I just like the other better as I’d like people seeing me with my Mom. I think this might have a certain "plus" factor that will help with the social networking. But I’ll let all of you vote. I intend to use only one or the other.
As I stated in my farewell email, I’m still trying to figure out the nuances of this blog business and am also constructing a Facebook page which is even more confusing. Friends tell me that Facebook can be used as a blog too, but I haven’t been able to figure that out. Facebook strikes me as being a snapshot, a way of introducing yourself to the world, but an introduction that is only good for a given point in time. A blog is more of a running dialogue, allows to include a brief introduction about yourself, but the main purpose being a dialogue rather than a mere profile. I can’t find anything on Facebook that allows you to do a stream of entries, only to update the info that’s already there, replacing the old info. This is not what I want.
There’s another critical issue, that of privacy. One thing that is clear is that blogs are not private. The whole world can see them so you have to be careful what you put in there. I’ve read that both blogs and Facebook pages have been used by employers to fire people (or not hire if you’re applying) and that information you put on your page can get you into trouble with people you don’t even know. So I’m not yet sure what to make of all this yet. I might have to be careful about what I write in my film reviews and on my commentaries on current events and finance. I would imagine it’s possible for someone to even find offense in my piano musings, especially when I sing the praises of Fazioli and am critical of Steinway’s marketing.
Of course, it’s possible to make a blog private but it’s not nearly as simple as people think. In order for the blog to be private, I have to designate it as such, include in my settings the email addresses of only those people who would have authorized access, and then in order to get such access, each of you would have to get your own account. So if it’s private, the only way for you to read the blog is to register for your own account on Blogger.com, and then sign in to access mine. When it’s public, you need only click on the link I send and my blog is right there. Facebook is even worse. You can’t view any Facebook page without having a free Facebook account of your own. So even if I send you the link, it won’t do you any good unless and until you sign up. I find this awfully intrusive and don’t see a lot of people doing it.
So, for now, for convenience sake, the blog will be public. We’ll see how it goes. I doubt it will ever develop into a problem. But I guess I still have to be sensitive to the reality that anything particularly personal or private will still have to go out as an email rather than a blog post.
How does that sound to everyone? That’s it for this first entry. As the saying goes, I’ll be seeing you all in the funny papers.
Mike
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