For me Fry’s electronics is like a geek Disneyland!

That’s all good and fine you say, but what is the big deal about getting my Son a care package? Wel, for starters this is the first time we will be able to send him something more than a letter. When I was in the army (for a short time) no one ever sent me a care package. Did it upset me? Not really. At the time being in the army upset me. My choice was poor, and it changed the course of my life.

So at Fry’s I picked up three movies for his PSP 3000. Awesome stuff for an awesome guy! I also got him some ‘parentally suggested’ stuff. Portable Kleenex pouches, some q-tips and chap-stick!  Now I have to find a box to put it all in, and then head out to the post office and mail it. My wife and I discussed sending him condoms (my suggestion), but she said they probably have them available to the troops…. in thinking about it, I don’t want to encourage him to loose his focus on training, the job he picked has a very high wash-out rate.

I also went looking at Fry’s for a TV for him.  He had his mother ship out his xbox-360 and he needs something to connect to it to play his games.  And of course eventually watch the news and programs on it.  He doesn’t have cable where he is at, but he can sign up for wi-fi based internet connectivity (that’s 40 bucks a month).  So next month after he gets paid we’ll shop for a laptop for him. He told me that he wished that I was there helping him make some choices, I told him that I could help him from afar and we could get his stuff shipped to him from anywhere.

The only thing I am concerned about is him losing his stuff. He lives in a dorm room, but he said that he could lock his TV up in his locker – no problem.  We’ll see how it all goes, I’m sure I’ll post something about it if something bad happens.

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to come up with decent, interesting materials. Allowing someone to spam comment my postings is the last thing I want to allow.  They get exposure, and greater importance on google because of their comments.  Their site address gets associated with my site… it’s like gorilla backlinking…

I used to think that if you got lots of spam comments, then at least people were looking at your site. This is true to an extent. My wife’s blog http://livinginramona.com gets 20 to 30 spam comments per day. Most are pretty ridiculous. Most come from Russia, and other countries in that region and are pushing porn. And then there are the other ones that are trying to get the web operator to sign up for SEO services to improve your google ranking – think of it as viagra for your web site…. oh yes, they are also pushing viagra!

Oh the things that you never see from behind the scenes of a blog web site. Pretty annoying, but it’s worth puting up with if you enjoy publishing your own blog.

The whole thing kind of creeped me out, and sent me off thinking about how our online “connected” lives don’t always keep up with the real thing. Now the web sites that this lady had were all offline or taken over by other people, repurposed… But just like her, that part of her life was removed, deleted… Basically buried just like she was. But here was Plaxo humming along, asking me if I wanted to send her an e-card, or some online present.

To be honest, she and I didn’t end our working relationship on a good note. So this intrusion of her back into my life just brought up lots of memories of the difficulties that we had experienced. I never wished ill of her, but I didn’t wind up liking her.

This got me to thinking. What should happen to all our fingerprints (so to speak) that we leave on services like Facebook, twitter, or google plus? Not to mention our business web sites, personal web sites that we own (for example this site)? Should there be some kind of procedure that would allow our loved ones to dispose, archive, or continue on with our sites/profiles? Honestly I wouldn’t want to saddle my loved ones with running the sites I have. Where do all my business connections on linked in go? Recently a coworker where I work died of a massive heart attack. It was shocking, and mind numbing. How long do they keep his information at work? Who owns it? The family, or the company?

Jus something I have been thinking about. I will probably return to this topic one day, but today I just wanted to see where the stream of consciousness would take me.

Here is a definition of networking that I just looked up through google: via – http://reference.yourdictionary.com/word-definitions/definition-of-networking.html

And a definition of social, looked up right after networking: found here – http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social

social (ˈsəʊʃəl)
— adj
1.	living or preferring to live in a community rather than alone
2.	denoting or relating to human society or any of its subdivisions
3.	of, relating to, or characteristic of the experience, behaviour,and interaction of persons forming groups
4.	relating to or having the purpose of promoting companionship,communal activities, etc: a social club

When you have no physical presence with the people you are socializing with, you are missing a key and important point. To socialize it takes presence, it takes contact. Without it, you might as well be locked up inside a box.

So, to my point, to have a healthy social life, you must go out and interface directly with those in your network. Computers are great, they can open doors, help those who have problems initiating relationships. But once you get the door open, go through and be present for the experience!

Just don’t hide, or think just because you trade what is really an anonymous series of messages with people you never see you are being social… Get out, experience life, and share those experiences.

It’s Photography. A number of years ago I had purchased a nice SLR digital camera from Nikon. When I purchased it I intended to use it in my web design business, and I did. It worked great.

Now I’m not doing as much web design on the side that I had in the past so I’m not using it as much. Being that we moved to a very pretty part of San Diego County around a year ago, I thought that I could start taking some pictures of the area I live in. It’s a rather beautiful place… if you are familiar with La Jolla (no, it’s not like La Jolla, not at the beach by a long shot!) San Diego Country Estates could be considered the La Jolla of East San Diego County. All the homes here are custom built, and most all have 1/2 acre of land that they occupy.

So, the other great thing about this area is it is surrounded by the Cleveland National Forest, so what’s here is what’s here… not likely to be building more homes. Although about 5 miles from the house they are planning to build another 100 homes. That’s the most they have planned, and I doubt that without some major infrastructure improvements will we see more than that built.

I’ve been going through some of the pictures that I had taken in the past and I found some pictures of plants and flowers that I took while on my wife and my honeymoon in San Francisco/Napa/Santa Rosa. I have set up a gallery, and you are invited to review them… The official opening of my Gallery Showing starts when you click the link to the site! Most of the pictures are from two places. The home of a famous botanist Luther Burbank, which had been turned into a museum, and the botanical gardens at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Enter the Gallery here. 

You will need to provide your own snacks and drinks. I expect to continue to populate the Gallery and maybe play with my images in Photoshop to get some amazing pieces of art.

Thanks for your participation!