Because Brian tagged me...

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

My site launched on 31 December 1995. Even way back then, I was trying to add something to the site weekly. Thankfully, my impassioned defenses of the Bob Dole for President campaign didn't survive my various server moves. Blogging when it became a thing was a natural transition.

What platform are you using to manage your blog, and why do you use it?

I've been using the Pelican Static Site Generator since about 2015. My primary reason is security and cost. HTML pages never need security patches. Since the site is static, it costs me about $1.50 a month to host.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

I started with Grey Matter around 2000 or 2001. Then moved to Blogger, Movable Type, WordPress, Anchor CMS, Drupal, and finally Pelican.

How do you write your posts?

I write in a text editor, then cut and paste into the LanguageTool online editor for that sweet AI grammar checking. Then I cut-and-paste back into ReText, update with Markdown as needed, and save. Then I run Pelican, and rsync the output directory with the web server.

Now that I've written that all out, it seems overly complicated. I might work on that.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

It varies. I don't have any routine with a specific time to write. I write when I have something to write about.

Do you normally publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit?

I publish immediately. Then see a typo I missed and publish again. LanguageTool is a 2025 addition to the workflow, so we will see if it cuts down on the typos.

What's your favorite post on your blog?

That's like asking about my favorite child. I have attempted to create a "Best Of" page on several occasions. There is still no "Best Of" page on the blog. This one is probably the one I share most often. This one might be the most important post I've written. Trigger warning on both for cancer.

Any future plans for the blog?

The blog is essentially unchanged since 2018. It works the way I want. I don't have any plans for major changes.

Who will participate next?

I'm going to tag Jason and Andreas

Someone made this point on Mastodon this week, and I thought it was an excellent point. I think what most of us want is a social network, but social networks don't scale to billion-dollar corporations, so what we keep ending up with is social media.

A social network is semi-private. It's you and the people you admit to your network. Another way to think about it is that your social network is the people in your phone contacts. It's the people you'd want to hear from if they happen to be in town. It's the people you'd want to know about if you both happen to be in the same airport at the same time. Not only that, but it's probably 10% of your Twitter or Bluesky or Mastodon contacts, plus the people you know in real life.

Facebook started out as a social network. But that limited growth, and now it is a Nazi training app. I think the turning point is when any app starts to show you content that up did not specifically ask for. When that happens, the app has jumped the shark. It's social media, not your social network.

I don't think there is a functional social networking app right now. Ev Williams, of Blogger, Medium, and Twitter fame, has something new called Mozi, which is an attempt to do social networking correctly. Did he learn from his mistakes at Twitter? I guess we will see. It's iPhone only currently, but his Medium post has me intrigued, and I'm on the wait list for the Android App.

But I also keep thinking that the last thing any of us need is another app. It seems like Mozi as he is describing it could easily be a feature that comes with your phone. The contacts are all there. RSS and SMS are already there. Actually, now that I think about it, if I'm right in that what most of us want is a social network and not social media, there is a huge dollar opportunity sitting here for Apple and the other phone manufacturers. If they provided the basic contact management features we want out of a social network, it could represent the first real opportunity we have to take a serious bite out of Facebook.

That is actually an exciting thought.

This blog post composed while listening to Axe:20 Years from Home (1977-1997)

This is an ongoing series in which I dig into the dustier corners of my MP3 folder.

David Cook - Analog Heart
David Cook - David Cook

David Cook won the 2007 season of American Idol. Analog Heart is his indie album released pre-Idol. David Cook is his big label release after he won American Idol. The songs sound very similar, with the post-Idol release being more polished with higher production values. Personally, I prefer the rawer sound on the indie release. Nobody will ever be able to accuse Cook of selling out though. This early 21st century pop-grunge sound is very clearly his thing. He was making it as a struggling artist pre-Idol, and he made the same music when he had a million dollar budget. He left the big label in 2012 and has gone back to indie since. I hope he banked a couple of million from the post Idol run is happily living a comfy life making the music he wants.

Note: 2007 Idol is the only season I ever actually cared who won. Cook is a fraternity brother, so I wanted to see him win.

Fall Back Into Me (Analog Heart)

declaration (David Cook)

This is an ongoing series in which I dig into the dustier corners of my MP3 folder.

Bree Sharp - A Cheap and Evil Girl

Holy carp is this record good, and it's a debut at that. It was released in 1999, and I'm sure I bought it because of the cult hit "David Duchovny." But Bree was not a one hit wonder. Every song on this record is an incredibly catchy, folk-pop-rock tune. Several of the songs arguably fall in the punk camp. I have no idea why I've been skipping over it for years. That will change, effective immediately.

The album isn't on Google Music. This is the music video for David Duchovny.

And America, from a subsequent live album.

This is also an example of why you should buy music kids. You'll own it, for life.

Verdict: Back in heavy rotation, immediately.

Just saving this here, as I don't trust any social media site to not delete stuff for no reason.

![LinkedIn screenshot][https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/images/lipost.png)

I will almost certainly regret naming this recurring post Sunday links. However, one of the links is an essay is on optimism, so let's roll with it.

The New Scientist Editor Sumit Paul-Choudhury, on the power of optimism, even in the face of something as tragic as his wife's from cancer.

I think this article comparing the constant fight in nature between predators and prey (foxes and rabbits in the example) to the issues between billionaires and the working class in spot on. The billionaires have taken too big a piece of the pie, and they are due for a population crash. Hopefully sooner, much sooner, than later.

A First Hand Account of Homelessness in America was making the rounds last month, but is well worth reading if you missed it then. The gap between middle class and homeless is much narrower than most of us want to admit.

Rambles.net is amazing. Over 17,000 reviews and articles in a circa 2004 design. It appears to be managed entirely by updating HTML pages. I don't see any sign of a CMS, and I can't find an RSS feed. It's a Web 1.0 time capsule.

The Cone Parade is a delightfully silly local NYD tradition.

Hunter shoots bear. Bear falls out of tree and lands on guy's friend, killing him.

This drone footage following the route to the summit of Everest is gorgeous. As I watched it I kept thinking...that doesn't look so tough. Click here for my Kickstarter to fund my summit attempt on Everest.

I hope the first real week of 2025 is a good one for everybody.

1. Remove the app from your phone. You can still access via a web browser if you really want too, but it's a pretty bad experience in a mobile browser and that will naturally reduce the time you spend there on your phone. This will also double your battery life as all that tracking that Facebook does kills your battery.

2. Appify the desktop experience. Open Facebook on Chrome and find the install feature in the menu. This will create an entry in your menu that says Facebook, which when used, will open Facebook in a dedicated Chrome instance that has the address bar, bookmarks, etc. all hidden. The only thing you'll be able to so in that window is Facebook. When done, close the app. Not having it in an open tab in your browser staring at you all the time will naturally reduce the time you spend there. Out of sight, out of mind, works.

That's it. It isn't rocket science. People that "can't" cut back on Facebook simply don't want to cut back on Facebook. Deleting FB would be ideal, but for many of us it isn't practical, as it has become the place we keep in touch with people we care about.

This is an ongoing series in which I dig into the dark corners of my MP3 folder and revisit some long neglected music.

Bonnie Bishop - Things I Know
Bonnie Bishop - Free

I actually own two albums by Bonnie Bishop, and we saw her play live for about 50 people at a coffee shop in Ashland, VA in 2012ish. She was Country-Folk / Americana with some bluesy vibes back when I was following her. I'm not sure why she fell off my radar. Her most recent records from 2016 on have more of a soul-pop flavor to them, and in clicking into the most played tunes off the more recent records nothing grabbed me like her earlier stuff did.

However, she won a songwriting Grammy in 2013 when Bonnie Raitt recorded "Not Cause I Wanted To," a song she cowrote. She also apparently got tired of the musician gig and took a break to go to grad school and get her Master's in Creative Writing, before getting pulled back into the industry.

The recorded version of my favorite tune from her isn't on YouTube Music, all I can find is this live video. which is still damn good.

Virginia

Also check out The Best Songs Come From Broken Hearts

Verdict: I absolutely need to get the two albums I own back into regular rotation. Her more recent stuff doesn't grab me the same way though.

There are 293 top level folders in my Music folder on my desktop PC. That represents 293 different artists. Many of them have not been played in years. Over the course of however many months this takes, or until I get distracted and completely forget about this exercise (the more likely outcome), I'm going to revisit these lost gems to determine if they should be getting more love from my MP3 player, or if they are being ignored for good reason.

One issue I'm not sure about is how to organize this effort. I do not want to do one artist per post, as that'll create too many individual posts. I could just edit this post and change the date, which I think will put it back in the RSS feed as new. Would that be annoying?

I could also track this on a page, but pages are where content goes to die on a blog.

I don't think I need a definitive answer today. If you have an opinion hit the reply link. In the meantime, on to the first entry.

American Bang: American Bang

Released in 2010, this self-titled debut by Nashville based American Bang is a real banger. I see it described online both as Southern Rock and Hard Rock, but I don't agree with either. It's Hard Southern Alternative, maybe? The lack of easy classification probably had something to do with the short lifespan of the band. It was the only release by the band, which broke up after it's release. Three of the member went on to form The Cadillac Three and they appear to still be active today. The lead singer Jaren Johnston has written nine #1 hits for artists including Keith Urban, so I have to assume he doing just fine in the music world.

The album is fantastic though, not a single filler track on it.

Wild and Young
Rewind

Verdict: It's a keeper.