Long-time readers know that I'm a Mustang man. I have one now, a 1983 GT convertible (oh right, I still have a little story to tell you there!), that I'm working on restoring. V-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. Anyway, my absolute dream would be a 1969 427 Cobra Jet, with a Boss 302 very close behind.
However, right around Christmas, I read that Ford is introducing a brand-spanking-new 5.0 engine, and is putting it into the 2011 Mustang GT!! Read the write-up on the new Mustang here, and read the in-depth details of the new 5.0 engine here. If you're a gearhead at all, and especially if you're a Ford fan, you'll definitely be interested.
Oh, and the new GT is going to be the pace car at this year's Daytona 500! Ford is selling a pace car clone version of the GT, and I must say that I LOVE the paint job. Those red, white, and blue stripes are really cool.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Proper Driving, Lesson 1
The title of today's lesson is "how to merge".
As you approach the flow of traffic, gauge the speed of that flow so that you have an idea of how to match your speed. Take a look ahead to see how much merge area you have. Then take a look down the road to see what cars are coming so you can find an opening in the traffic flow (if necessary). Make sure you turn on your turn signal; other drivers should know that you are about to merge, but use of the turn signal is always just simple courtesy, like saying "Please". Accelerate as you approach the flow of traffic and try to time your acceleration so that you can match your speed to the first available opening in the flow. Once you have matched speed, simply move over into the opening, and voila!
The most important point...NEVER STOP or even slow down while trying to merge, unless you have no other choice. There are elevated entrance ramps here in the OKC area where there is no merge lane and no shoulder, so if you don't have an opening and no one moves over, you must stop or else you hit the barrier. However, this is a rarity. Most entrance ramps have a sizable merge lane, and even if you are unable to match speed or find a convenient opening right away, you can drive a little way down the highway on the shoulder while you are merging. (No self-respecting, competent police officer is going to write you a ticket for this.) Why is this the most important point of this lesson? Because it's much easier to make small speed adjustments, like when you're accelerating to merge, than it is to accelerate to a standard highway speed of 60-70 mph from a dead stop. It's common-sense safety.
Consider the following situation. You are looking to merge to a highway where the speed limit is 65 mph. You approach but don't see an opening, so you stop at the yield sign right at the edge of the highway and look down the road for an opening as cars are whizzing by. You see one, so you go for it...you stomp on the gas and your car jumps out into the opening. Now, let's say that the closest car is about 500 feet away (1/10th of a mile...the equivalent on a busy highway of a HUGE opening). If that car is doing 65 mph, that works out to just over 95 feet per second. that means it's going to cover that the distance to you in about 5 seconds. Now, most cars today can do 0-60 in about 8-9 seconds if they're pushed really hard. (For proof of this, go here and look up your car...then figure it out.) But that means you're not going to be up to speed before he gets to you. So he's going to hit you, or have to hit his brakes (or worse, swerve if he's not paying close attention or if you misjudge his speed or the size of the opening) to keep from hitting you. This will probably make him very angry, increasing the possibility of road rage. It could also cause an accident at worst, or it will create a natural shock-wave traffic jam behind him at best, because he hits his brakes, and people behind him hit their brakes, and...well, you get the idea. (If you think this concept is BS, take a look at this link to see some details on research that has been done into why traffic jams seem to happen for no apparent reason...complete with video evidence.) Also, you're probably doing this on your way to work, which means there are probably other people who want to merge also. When you stop, anyone else on the entrance ramp behind you will also have to stop so they don't hit you. If you have to spend any time waiting for a decent opening, you could have 5-6 cars back up behind you. And all of them will also have to merge from a dead stop now, because you've made them all lose any merging speed they might have had. So you've not only caused one traffic problem, but you have potentially caused 5-6 more, as well.
And all when you could have just shown a little more common sense in merging. So do it the smart way...think ahead, maintain as much speed as you can, and merge firmly but courteously...and NOT FROM A DEAD STOP.
(NOTE: Why did I write all this? Because as I approached an entrance ramp on the way in to work, I witnessed (for about the 30,000th time) someone approaching the highway with moderate traffic flow didn't see a good opening and timidly stopped at the yield sign while they looked and waited for one, when they could have accelerated on the ramp, driven a bit on the wide-open shoulder, waited for me to pass, then moved over into the 300-foot-long space directly behind me. It's obvious that there are still lots of drivers in the world who have driven every day for 20-30 years, yet who still have not learned how to merge safely.)
As you approach the flow of traffic, gauge the speed of that flow so that you have an idea of how to match your speed. Take a look ahead to see how much merge area you have. Then take a look down the road to see what cars are coming so you can find an opening in the traffic flow (if necessary). Make sure you turn on your turn signal; other drivers should know that you are about to merge, but use of the turn signal is always just simple courtesy, like saying "Please". Accelerate as you approach the flow of traffic and try to time your acceleration so that you can match your speed to the first available opening in the flow. Once you have matched speed, simply move over into the opening, and voila!
The most important point...NEVER STOP or even slow down while trying to merge, unless you have no other choice. There are elevated entrance ramps here in the OKC area where there is no merge lane and no shoulder, so if you don't have an opening and no one moves over, you must stop or else you hit the barrier. However, this is a rarity. Most entrance ramps have a sizable merge lane, and even if you are unable to match speed or find a convenient opening right away, you can drive a little way down the highway on the shoulder while you are merging. (No self-respecting, competent police officer is going to write you a ticket for this.) Why is this the most important point of this lesson? Because it's much easier to make small speed adjustments, like when you're accelerating to merge, than it is to accelerate to a standard highway speed of 60-70 mph from a dead stop. It's common-sense safety.
Consider the following situation. You are looking to merge to a highway where the speed limit is 65 mph. You approach but don't see an opening, so you stop at the yield sign right at the edge of the highway and look down the road for an opening as cars are whizzing by. You see one, so you go for it...you stomp on the gas and your car jumps out into the opening. Now, let's say that the closest car is about 500 feet away (1/10th of a mile...the equivalent on a busy highway of a HUGE opening). If that car is doing 65 mph, that works out to just over 95 feet per second. that means it's going to cover that the distance to you in about 5 seconds. Now, most cars today can do 0-60 in about 8-9 seconds if they're pushed really hard. (For proof of this, go here and look up your car...then figure it out.) But that means you're not going to be up to speed before he gets to you. So he's going to hit you, or have to hit his brakes (or worse, swerve if he's not paying close attention or if you misjudge his speed or the size of the opening) to keep from hitting you. This will probably make him very angry, increasing the possibility of road rage. It could also cause an accident at worst, or it will create a natural shock-wave traffic jam behind him at best, because he hits his brakes, and people behind him hit their brakes, and...well, you get the idea. (If you think this concept is BS, take a look at this link to see some details on research that has been done into why traffic jams seem to happen for no apparent reason...complete with video evidence.) Also, you're probably doing this on your way to work, which means there are probably other people who want to merge also. When you stop, anyone else on the entrance ramp behind you will also have to stop so they don't hit you. If you have to spend any time waiting for a decent opening, you could have 5-6 cars back up behind you. And all of them will also have to merge from a dead stop now, because you've made them all lose any merging speed they might have had. So you've not only caused one traffic problem, but you have potentially caused 5-6 more, as well.
And all when you could have just shown a little more common sense in merging. So do it the smart way...think ahead, maintain as much speed as you can, and merge firmly but courteously...and NOT FROM A DEAD STOP.
(NOTE: Why did I write all this? Because as I approached an entrance ramp on the way in to work, I witnessed (for about the 30,000th time) someone approaching the highway with moderate traffic flow didn't see a good opening and timidly stopped at the yield sign while they looked and waited for one, when they could have accelerated on the ramp, driven a bit on the wide-open shoulder, waited for me to pass, then moved over into the 300-foot-long space directly behind me. It's obvious that there are still lots of drivers in the world who have driven every day for 20-30 years, yet who still have not learned how to merge safely.)
Saturday, January 23, 2010
A Word On Kids' Shows
As you may or may not know, I have a boy who is almost three, and a girl who turns one next week. So we watch a lot of kids' programming on TV, and specifically Nick Jr. As a result, I have become quite a connoisseur and have developed my own tastes in this area. There are some shows I really don't like at all, like Dora, Diego, and Wonder Pets. For the first two, I'm just not a fan of the continuing agenda of teaching Spanish to very young children who need to learn English first. For me, it stems from two main arguments:
Wonder Pets is a different issue for me, and it goes back along the same line of the first argument point above. The show has some cute parts and some VERY annoying parts, but I just can't get behind a show for small children that has a main character with a noticeable and pronounced speech impediment that is never addressed. Hit this link to a Google search for what I'm talking about. As someone who knows a little about language development, I know it's not good to present non-standard patterns to small children, because children who are in the midst of learning how to talk are VERY imitative and integrate speech patterns that they hear directly into their own speech (that's just how it's done). If they hear Ming Ming talk like Elmer Fudd, they may end up talking like Elmer Fudd themselves. I'm just not into that. A lot of the show is really cheesy and the writers sometimes try too hard to connect with the parents inevitably watching with their kids (see the Rat Pack/Fiddler Crab On The Roof episode as evidence), but it's not all bad...I love the constant focus on teamwork in solving problems.
There are several great shows though, as well. Yo Gabba Gabba is Owen's favorite. It's also enjoyable for adults, because so many of the references in it are 80s and early 90s pop culture. Mark does drawing lessons; he was an art student, of course, before hitting it big as lead singer of Devo. Biz Markie does Biz's Beat of the Day. There are little snippets of 8-bit pixelated video games, just like we played as kids, and the editing style and music has a definite mid-80s, Great Space Coaster kind of feel. Oswald is also a great show, because it's very low-key and easy-going, a nice change from the high-energy stuff you usually get that gets your kid so wound up you spend three hours bringing them down. Plus, Oswald is voiced by Fred Savage...gotta love that. The Peppa Pig shorts are very funny. Owen also loves Wow Wow Wubbzy, though that's more of a crazy, goofy show. Peep and the Big Wide World is wonderful for small kids, low-key and simple but still very engaging, and it's narrated by Joan Cusack. Finally, Owen enjoys Little Bear very much, which is nice because it's been on quite a while and my older kids watched it, as well.
- Language development -- my kids need to learn English first. The majority of this country speaks English only and/or primarily, and so my kids need to focus on English, not Spanish or Spanglish.
- Culture -- As a linguist, I recognize the strong bond between language and culture. The French recognize it also, and they work very hard to protect their language and its proper use. A culture that cedes its language will not long survive. For some reason, we seem bent on not only permitting, but actively aiding and abetting this in America, as we cede a great deal every day to a language spoken by a very small minority of this country's inhabitants.
Wonder Pets is a different issue for me, and it goes back along the same line of the first argument point above. The show has some cute parts and some VERY annoying parts, but I just can't get behind a show for small children that has a main character with a noticeable and pronounced speech impediment that is never addressed. Hit this link to a Google search for what I'm talking about. As someone who knows a little about language development, I know it's not good to present non-standard patterns to small children, because children who are in the midst of learning how to talk are VERY imitative and integrate speech patterns that they hear directly into their own speech (that's just how it's done). If they hear Ming Ming talk like Elmer Fudd, they may end up talking like Elmer Fudd themselves. I'm just not into that. A lot of the show is really cheesy and the writers sometimes try too hard to connect with the parents inevitably watching with their kids (see the Rat Pack/Fiddler Crab On The Roof episode as evidence), but it's not all bad...I love the constant focus on teamwork in solving problems.
There are several great shows though, as well. Yo Gabba Gabba is Owen's favorite. It's also enjoyable for adults, because so many of the references in it are 80s and early 90s pop culture. Mark does drawing lessons; he was an art student, of course, before hitting it big as lead singer of Devo. Biz Markie does Biz's Beat of the Day. There are little snippets of 8-bit pixelated video games, just like we played as kids, and the editing style and music has a definite mid-80s, Great Space Coaster kind of feel. Oswald is also a great show, because it's very low-key and easy-going, a nice change from the high-energy stuff you usually get that gets your kid so wound up you spend three hours bringing them down. Plus, Oswald is voiced by Fred Savage...gotta love that. The Peppa Pig shorts are very funny. Owen also loves Wow Wow Wubbzy, though that's more of a crazy, goofy show. Peep and the Big Wide World is wonderful for small kids, low-key and simple but still very engaging, and it's narrated by Joan Cusack. Finally, Owen enjoys Little Bear very much, which is nice because it's been on quite a while and my older kids watched it, as well.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Umpiring Update!
Great news for me...I just got off the phone with one of the local HS schedulers. I've already got 22 games across 12 dates, starting on March 9! WOOHOO!!! Considering I haven't called a live pitch in over 10 years, that's not too bad. I'm just pleased to be getting work, and I'm ready to pay whatever dues I have to, to get back in the game. It's going to take some hard work, just like football, but it's gonna be great. There will be plenty of scrimmage work, and the possibility of going to a camp also, so I should be able to get myself back up to speed in time for the season. I need to get on the ball with getting equipment. I have some old mask and plate gear, but I need clothes and new shoes...have to look into that.
The Day's News
Last night was the OSSAA state baseball rules meeting in the OKC area. It was great and really got me stoked for baseball to start. (Well, as Heidi said, I was already stoked, but that got me double-stoked.) As some background for those of you who didn't know me then, I already have 7 years' baseball umpiring experience from my college days. I started the season after I graduated high school and continued right up until I moved to Colorado in 1996. Then I did some in Colorado...though the quality of play was quite a bit lower than I was accustomed to. I had many, many umpiring friends that I worked lots of games with over the course of that time, and I got to reconnect with one last night at the meeting, my best umpiring friend Paul Wright, after 14 years away. That was a wonderful fringe benefit. The meeting itself was good, too...strange to see a lot of the technical changes in the rules that have come about while I was away. Nothing substantial...the strike zone is the same, interference calls, live ball-dead ball, all that...but the game management and player/coach conduct stuff has evolved a bit and will take some getting used to.
I also wanted to mention a not-so-guilty pleasure I've been enjoying the past few months. For you car fanatics out there, you probably already know of the Barrett-Jackson auto auctions. Heidi and I found these several months back on Speed TV, and we usually try to catch some. Heidi likes them because they regularly have her favored 1968 or 1969 Camaros available for sale, so she can drool over her own dream cars like I drool over mine. Plus, the B-J auctions don't only focus on the standard 60s models like the Chevelles, GTOs, Impalas, Mustangs, Firebirds, Super Birds, Super Bees, and Camaros. They also do some very interesting restored oddities, like last night's restored 1951 fire engine that held 30 kids on its benches (and sold for $110,000!!!), or the 1936 school bus of two nights ago. They also routinely have restored NASCAR cars, specialty cars, exotic imports, trucks of all eras, and even VERY old horseless carriages like last night's 1907 model. If you just like looking at well-restored old cars, then the Barrett-Jackson auctions are for you. Heidi and I are going to try to head out to Vegas for the auction scheduled out there during our birthday week in September. (Don't get any ideas. Since it's rare to see any of these cars go for less than $20K and the average price range falls around $40-50K, we won't be buying. Yet.)
Thanks for reading along.
I also wanted to mention a not-so-guilty pleasure I've been enjoying the past few months. For you car fanatics out there, you probably already know of the Barrett-Jackson auto auctions. Heidi and I found these several months back on Speed TV, and we usually try to catch some. Heidi likes them because they regularly have her favored 1968 or 1969 Camaros available for sale, so she can drool over her own dream cars like I drool over mine. Plus, the B-J auctions don't only focus on the standard 60s models like the Chevelles, GTOs, Impalas, Mustangs, Firebirds, Super Birds, Super Bees, and Camaros. They also do some very interesting restored oddities, like last night's restored 1951 fire engine that held 30 kids on its benches (and sold for $110,000!!!), or the 1936 school bus of two nights ago. They also routinely have restored NASCAR cars, specialty cars, exotic imports, trucks of all eras, and even VERY old horseless carriages like last night's 1907 model. If you just like looking at well-restored old cars, then the Barrett-Jackson auctions are for you. Heidi and I are going to try to head out to Vegas for the auction scheduled out there during our birthday week in September. (Don't get any ideas. Since it's rare to see any of these cars go for less than $20K and the average price range falls around $40-50K, we won't be buying. Yet.)
Thanks for reading along.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
I'M BACK!
I'm officially restarting the Daily Okie as of right now. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and I think it's the right time now. I know this might sound silly, but I really was doing some soul-searching on this whole thing when I quit blogging before. I had been doing the Facebook thing, and I was posting somewhat regularly here on the Daily Okie. But what discouraged me was that I had very little response. If blogging and Facebook and Twitter and Myspace are "social media"...well, to be honest, I had very little social interaction from it.
Let me give you an example of the situation I faced. Heidi is on Facebook, and still posts regularly there. She will post a status and within an hour or so she'll have several comments and replies from her many friends. It's usually 4-5 replies, minimum. And this happens for her with just about every status she posts. EVERY STATUS SHE POSTS. Lots of you who are on Facebook know exactly what I'm talking about. Well, for me...I'd post a status, and through the course of the entire day, I might get 1-2 replies. For some of my political posts, I could understand folks not wanting to respond...but even my non-political fun stuff that was designed to have SOMEONE SAY SOMETHING, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, got NADA, ZIP, ZILCH, GORNISCHT, ZERO, NOTHING. And I have never really gotten much in the way of comments on my blog, either. This wasn't as disturbing, but I myself am a social kind of person on the blogs I actually bother to read. I don't read a TON of blogs, but I do comment fairly regularly on those I frequent. I knew I had regular readers to my blog, but I was still not getting much interaction. Web 2.0, in spite of its supposed "friend-ly" nature (if you're pardon the pun), just wasn't friendly to me. I got to wondering if people just weren't that interested. You like to think that people who would call themselves your friend are somewhat interested in what you have to say. I just wasn't feeling that at all. (As a humorous side note, only one person noticed I had shut down my Facebook account, because I had disappeared from his friend list...thanks, Chong!!)
Around the same time, I was getting very busy, with trying to help Heidi deal with the kids, working my regular job, and starting up football officiating so I could make up some of the income we've lost over the past year. So between not getting social interaction in the virtual world and getting busier in the real world, I quit. I quit it all...no more Facebook (I'm not planning to go back to that one any time soon), and no more blogging.
It was very liberating. I didn't feel any pressure to come up with things to blog about. I didn't feel the urge to check my Facebook page. I didn't have to think about being online. I still checked e-mail regularly, and still do, but I didn't waste time sitting on my butt when I could be out doing something real, like playing with the kids or working on the car or making non-virtual money for my family so we could do MORE real things. It was a relief to not worry about how much time I'd spend writing on this thing, even when I had a good idea. Blog posts take a good deal of time to create, because I try to be a good writer and I hate putting up a post that doesn't have good writing. I revise and recheck things usually several times before posting, to make sure a post flows well and is coherent in its ideas. Sometimes I rush, and I end up very unhappy with it. Sometimes I spend a couple of hours on a post and it still doesn't hold up well and I feel like I screwed up the idea or wasted my time. All that was gone, and it was really good.
But after a while, I did miss one thing. The Internet has been wonderful at connecting people with similar interests, as I've discovered in owning Land Rovers, Mustangs, Ramchargers, and Broncos. This is a really good thing, because in the pre-Internet days, you had to somehow find a local club through postings or word-of-mouth or whatever...going where like-minded people were likely to go. Or you'd try to find a magazine that covered what you liked, because there were usually articles or ads or classifieds or the like that would lead you where you needed to go. Today, you sit down open Google/Bing/Ask/Yahoo, type in "Ford Mustang Forums" or "knit one purl two" and get hundreds of results that lead to very valuable resources. I have stay somewhat active on the message boards of the stuff I like, but I wanted to be able to share my own experiences in a way that anyone could find. If you read my archives (or were one of my 3-4 regular readers), you remember how I would talk about my challenges with my kids, or my excitement over my cars, or my thoughts on sports or the Sooners, or whatever. I missed talking about that stuff, sharing my experiences. The forums are OK for asking questions or helping out others, but they're not necessarily as good for talking about that sort of thing, because you can't get too long-winded in forums (so that kind of leaves me out). :-) Heidi is great at listening to me, and she really makes a concerted effort, but she doesn't always understand or appreciate what I'm talking about. And sometimes, God bless her heart, she only cares because I'm the one talking about it. In short, I had things I wanted to talk about, to people who could understand, appreciate, and care about the topic and the information I provided.
So I figured, "hey, the blog is still there. Why don't I just start blogging again?"
However, (as Mom always used to speak it, "HOWEVER COMMA") I am leaving a few things behind for good. I thought a lot about the stuff I want to talk about...because the blog is really mostly about me. Now, I AM a fairly opinionated person at times. I have ideas and thoughts and I want to express them. But what I don't want is to do what so many others do, and do better...be a political pundit. I might have original ideas, and I might enjoy talking politics...but there's already too much of that on the Internet. I am going to work on keeping my opinions to non-political subjects, but most importantly, about STUFF I LIKE. These things include (but are not limited to):
Cars (especially cars I own/have owned, or cars I like)
Mechanical work on cars
Sports and sports officiating
Computers, and especially network and security work
Guns and gun-related things
Blogs and stuff I read
Science and technology
Music
Family and kids
Comedy
Pop culture (my own...ahem..."unique" view of it, of course)
Things I'm doing (like the marathon live-blogging, back in April)
My personal non-political philosophy, though this will mostly be stuff of a practical, applied, non-abstract nature.
and all sorts of other stuff. I want my opinions to be about things that can be fun, goofy, or meaningless. I want my opinions to be meaningful, when they NEED to be meaningful. I want my opinions to be interesting, when someone in need looks for them. My opinions on politics are boring and trite and tiresome. But my opinions on and experiences with cars and sports can be fun, and can also be informative or useful. My opinions and perspectives on my kids are fun (at least for me) and can also be meaningful. I don't just want to be one of those jerks on the Internet who says things and thinks everyone cares about every word.
So I'm going to write again, regularly. I hope every few days at the latest, and I will be talking about all sorts of topics again. And you don't have to comment on my posts, or even read my posts if you don't want to, and I'm OK with that. Maybe someone somewhere will find what I'm saying and it will be of useful interest to them, or meaningful to them, or humorous to them...that's all I am asking now.
So like I said, I'm back, and you're welcome to come along again.
Let me give you an example of the situation I faced. Heidi is on Facebook, and still posts regularly there. She will post a status and within an hour or so she'll have several comments and replies from her many friends. It's usually 4-5 replies, minimum. And this happens for her with just about every status she posts. EVERY STATUS SHE POSTS. Lots of you who are on Facebook know exactly what I'm talking about. Well, for me...I'd post a status, and through the course of the entire day, I might get 1-2 replies. For some of my political posts, I could understand folks not wanting to respond...but even my non-political fun stuff that was designed to have SOMEONE SAY SOMETHING, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, got NADA, ZIP, ZILCH, GORNISCHT, ZERO, NOTHING. And I have never really gotten much in the way of comments on my blog, either. This wasn't as disturbing, but I myself am a social kind of person on the blogs I actually bother to read. I don't read a TON of blogs, but I do comment fairly regularly on those I frequent. I knew I had regular readers to my blog, but I was still not getting much interaction. Web 2.0, in spite of its supposed "friend-ly" nature (if you're pardon the pun), just wasn't friendly to me. I got to wondering if people just weren't that interested. You like to think that people who would call themselves your friend are somewhat interested in what you have to say. I just wasn't feeling that at all. (As a humorous side note, only one person noticed I had shut down my Facebook account, because I had disappeared from his friend list...thanks, Chong!!)
Around the same time, I was getting very busy, with trying to help Heidi deal with the kids, working my regular job, and starting up football officiating so I could make up some of the income we've lost over the past year. So between not getting social interaction in the virtual world and getting busier in the real world, I quit. I quit it all...no more Facebook (I'm not planning to go back to that one any time soon), and no more blogging.
It was very liberating. I didn't feel any pressure to come up with things to blog about. I didn't feel the urge to check my Facebook page. I didn't have to think about being online. I still checked e-mail regularly, and still do, but I didn't waste time sitting on my butt when I could be out doing something real, like playing with the kids or working on the car or making non-virtual money for my family so we could do MORE real things. It was a relief to not worry about how much time I'd spend writing on this thing, even when I had a good idea. Blog posts take a good deal of time to create, because I try to be a good writer and I hate putting up a post that doesn't have good writing. I revise and recheck things usually several times before posting, to make sure a post flows well and is coherent in its ideas. Sometimes I rush, and I end up very unhappy with it. Sometimes I spend a couple of hours on a post and it still doesn't hold up well and I feel like I screwed up the idea or wasted my time. All that was gone, and it was really good.
But after a while, I did miss one thing. The Internet has been wonderful at connecting people with similar interests, as I've discovered in owning Land Rovers, Mustangs, Ramchargers, and Broncos. This is a really good thing, because in the pre-Internet days, you had to somehow find a local club through postings or word-of-mouth or whatever...going where like-minded people were likely to go. Or you'd try to find a magazine that covered what you liked, because there were usually articles or ads or classifieds or the like that would lead you where you needed to go. Today, you sit down open Google/Bing/Ask/Yahoo, type in "Ford Mustang Forums" or "knit one purl two" and get hundreds of results that lead to very valuable resources. I have stay somewhat active on the message boards of the stuff I like, but I wanted to be able to share my own experiences in a way that anyone could find. If you read my archives (or were one of my 3-4 regular readers), you remember how I would talk about my challenges with my kids, or my excitement over my cars, or my thoughts on sports or the Sooners, or whatever. I missed talking about that stuff, sharing my experiences. The forums are OK for asking questions or helping out others, but they're not necessarily as good for talking about that sort of thing, because you can't get too long-winded in forums (so that kind of leaves me out). :-) Heidi is great at listening to me, and she really makes a concerted effort, but she doesn't always understand or appreciate what I'm talking about. And sometimes, God bless her heart, she only cares because I'm the one talking about it. In short, I had things I wanted to talk about, to people who could understand, appreciate, and care about the topic and the information I provided.
So I figured, "hey, the blog is still there. Why don't I just start blogging again?"
However, (as Mom always used to speak it, "HOWEVER COMMA") I am leaving a few things behind for good. I thought a lot about the stuff I want to talk about...because the blog is really mostly about me. Now, I AM a fairly opinionated person at times. I have ideas and thoughts and I want to express them. But what I don't want is to do what so many others do, and do better...be a political pundit. I might have original ideas, and I might enjoy talking politics...but there's already too much of that on the Internet. I am going to work on keeping my opinions to non-political subjects, but most importantly, about STUFF I LIKE. These things include (but are not limited to):
Cars (especially cars I own/have owned, or cars I like)
Mechanical work on cars
Sports and sports officiating
Computers, and especially network and security work
Guns and gun-related things
Blogs and stuff I read
Science and technology
Music
Family and kids
Comedy
Pop culture (my own...ahem..."unique" view of it, of course)
Things I'm doing (like the marathon live-blogging, back in April)
My personal non-political philosophy, though this will mostly be stuff of a practical, applied, non-abstract nature.
and all sorts of other stuff. I want my opinions to be about things that can be fun, goofy, or meaningless. I want my opinions to be meaningful, when they NEED to be meaningful. I want my opinions to be interesting, when someone in need looks for them. My opinions on politics are boring and trite and tiresome. But my opinions on and experiences with cars and sports can be fun, and can also be informative or useful. My opinions and perspectives on my kids are fun (at least for me) and can also be meaningful. I don't just want to be one of those jerks on the Internet who says things and thinks everyone cares about every word.
So I'm going to write again, regularly. I hope every few days at the latest, and I will be talking about all sorts of topics again. And you don't have to comment on my posts, or even read my posts if you don't want to, and I'm OK with that. Maybe someone somewhere will find what I'm saying and it will be of useful interest to them, or meaningful to them, or humorous to them...that's all I am asking now.
So like I said, I'm back, and you're welcome to come along again.
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