On Facebook, Revisited

If you look down at the lower right hand corner of the blog, you’ll notice something new. No, somebody hasn’t hacked into my blog account...that’s really my mug in that box that says “Facebook.” 

You read that correctly. I have joined the 21st century and now have a Facebook page.  

The story behind this, however, is not too surprising. 

At the outset, let me state that while I am not anti-social, I am a bit of a recluse. I like my music, my books and lead a somewhat quiet and contemplative life. (I’ve said before that I am my father’s child.) I dislike being in huge crowds for long periods of time. (Attending Barbershop Internationals and most LEGO conventions are the exceptions, however.) By and large, working online has been fairly healthy for me. In fact, working online as I do is one of the reasons I didn’t want a Facebook page. I spend enough time behind the keyboard of my trusty Mac, between work and school. (Just ask Deena.) In fact, I get more information and entertainment off the web and my trusty Mac and iPod than I do off the radio and TV. 

As a result, I like to keep my private life...well, private. I know who my friends are, and generally where and how they are. If I want or need to talk to them (or they to me), there’s a thing called a phone. We can call and talk to each other.

However, because I have moved a lot over the last 30 odd years or so, I have friends all over creation, some of whom have vanished, others have moved and just not caught up to me yet.

It was two of those friends-one, a friend from high school, and the other a gent who figures rather prominently in my spiritual growth as a Christian-that finally pushed me over the brink. They have Facebook pages, and the only way to reach them was to get one myself and let them know where I am. 

So now I had a choice. Either keep hiding, or get my buns on Facebook. Since I really wanted to reconnect with these people, I broke down and signed up. (Deena never thought I’d have a Mac and an iPod either, so I guess that’s a fair trade.) 

I do want my friends to remain my friends, so I do have the thing locked down pretty tight. And yes, you’ll discover just how reclusive and geeky I can be. I’m okay with that.

And I can see why people spend a lot of time on their pages, and why people get fired for writing bad things about their employers. Fortunately, I like my employer, I love what I do, and have books to read.

Which I think I’m going to go do after posting this. 

Enough for now.

What’s In A Name…

As it turns out, Shakespeare was right.

People ask me why I consider myself an electrogeek, instead of a technogeek. It’s a bit of a long story, so I’ll make it easy for you.

There are two primary differences. A Technogeek usually refers to those who are usually into computers, or digital gadgets generally. That’s cool, and I like looking at all the new toys that come out that we all want to have. The fastest computer, the best and coolest programs, the flashiest cell phones, etc.

An Electrogeek, however, is far more interested in what makes all those toys work. All the chips, resistors, lasers, and so forth that comprise the toys and make them work. We’re also more interested in making them that much better.

For most people, if a flashdrive casing breaks, they’ll put it together long enough to get their stuff of it and on to a new one. Not me—I look at the guts of the thing, marvel at how it was done, then glue the case shut, wrap some electrician’s tape around it…and keep on using it. It still works, and unless you look at it closely, you’d never know it had broken.

Now you’re catching on. The other principal difference is that Electrogeeks fix their toys if something goes wrong. Soldering irons, electrical tape and multimeters are the most used essentials of our toolkits.

I come by these traits honestly. Dad’s an Electrical Engineer; he was always fixing or tweaking something or other out in the shop. We had one of the first computers in our neighborhood; a TRS-80 level 2 (which was a Model 1, with a whopping 12KB of ROM instead of the standard level I 4KB ROM) that was…ummm, modified, shall we say…a bit, by the time Dad got done.

One of my favorite “toys” as a kid was the Science Fair 100 in 1 electronics kit. I built everything I could with it, then started to build things with it (and some spare parts) that I wasn’t supposed to build. Then I raided some of the parts off of it for other projects. (And I’m paying dearly for that now, as I recently bought a second one off Ebay for the vintage parts to fix my kit up again.) I blew the relay out—no mean feat— and had to replace both transistors and a few resistors. (Don’t ask what I was trying to build. You really don’t want to know.)

Why pay some guy to hook up a speaker to the stereo setup in the bedroom? 10’ of 18 gauge speaker wire and the speaker, 15 minutes of my time, and there it is. Wasn’t the first time I’ve hooked up speakers—and won’t be the last, either.

10 years ago, when digital batteries weren’t as good as they are now, I built a battery trap to drain the last bit of juice out of them, so they’d last longer and hold a charge better. (I don’t need to use it now, though—the rechargeables are so much better then they were—but I still have it.)

I could go on, with things like the Realistic DX-150A shortwave radio I had in high school that got better reception than some better, modern units of the day. (I recently reacquired one of those as well, to add to the digital shortwave I currently own.) And before you ask—the first thing I did was take it apart, clean it, and adjust it. Dad would have done the same thing, I’m sure.

Anyway—thanks for asking.

Enough for now.

(posted 3/5/08)

Visiting an old flame...

Sorry I've not written anything lately. I've been visiting an old flame the last few days.

Like many things, the relationship is a little different; we've both aged a bit and there have been some changes. Lots of changes; we're not the youngsters we used to be. But, like old times, there's an awful lot to this relationship, and although we've had our ups and downs, it has always been steady. They've always been there for me when I really needed them, no matter where I've gone.

Oh, there's been some new relationships formed. Nice, shiny, new--up to date, with none of the old baggage that comes with an older, more established relationship. It's a little more than a fling--not the same old stuff, but always coming up with new things to try and seduce me. The old standby has had to adapt to a changing world, and has a few new tricks up the perverbial sleeve.

But every time I go back, it's just like old times, like nothing has changed.

Relax, folks. I'm not discussing a person per se. I'm happily married! And I wouldn't trade my marriage for anything. I have a gem of a wife.

No, I'm talking about...Radio Shack. The original electronics store.

Oh, sure. Best Buy and Fry's have all kinds of fun, neat stuff that uber-electrogeeks like me really enjoy. MP3 players, computers, cell phones...oh, yeah. DVD's, CD's, and flashdrives that hold more and cost less. All designed to make me want to jumpstart the economy, all by my lonesome.

But Radio Shack is where I ultimately head back to. It's always about the parts.

You try to find a breadboard at Best Buy or Circuit City. Sure, Fry's has a lot of parts, but the drive (90 minutes north of where I live) is a bit much when all you need is oddball button cell battery, or that hard to find gizmo. Which, in fact, is what sent me back to my local 'Shack.

Seems the button cell for my PDB (Personal DataBase) finally expired. What was supposed to be a ten minute trip has now been three separate trips, of not less than 20 minutes a shot. Much of it spent looking at stuff I don't really need right now, but would find quite interesting to play with.

Like I said...it's always about the parts. Which they have in abundance, even now. LED's. Resistors and capacitors. Diodes. Potentiomters, meters, switches. Everything that used to fuel my imagination when I was younger. Even the batteries...though you can't just get one AA cell anymore.

The main difference now is that they don't always make their own stuff; they've had to start selling a lot of other people's stuff. Gone are the battery boxes; now they sell batteries like anyone else.

Still--it's nice to know when you really, really need to find something...they usually have it. And I don't have to drive 90 miles to get it.

Enough for now.

(Posted 1/25/08)