A Mini Post

This will be a mini-post today as I experiment with a blog feed to my Facebook page. Now that I've gotten more brave (braver?) about being social, I feel the need to play with all the toys and see what works for me. I have Facebook, and Twitter, and of course, this blog, but all of that is really just testing the public waters. Not public like the bath house, but public as in anyone can be on the Internet now. It's really kind of weird.

I've "met" many people online, and tomorrow I'm going to Los Angeles (hereafter, LA) to meet a few of them in real life. We will be having lunch. A very real, very normal thing to do. It strikes me funny though, that if the Internet did not exist, I wouldn't be doing this. Most of the girls do not live in California even, and one is here from Australia!

Still, it is necessary to make the effort, the attempt to "connect" whether online or in person. It is the same, but different. And that is about as profound as I can manage today. But, like I said, it is only a mini-post, so a mini attempt at Sophist ideals is all that can be expected. I don't know how this will post to Facebook, so if you are my friend and you are wondering why you are getting this, rest assured I will change how it posts if it seems invasive. I think.

Peace,

Jo Taylor

A Few Crazy Days

A few crazy days have flown by, and none of them involved writing. Yikes! Back at it in the morning if I can keep from opening the news and Twitter for a few hours.

Twitter? Moi? Well, yes, moi.

Let me explain.

I've thought the idea of Twitter was interesting, but I couldn't imagine what it might be used for, usefully. I live in Central California and my husband is a firefighter. A Battalion Chief. He goes to wild land fires in the summer. Currently, he is at the Station Fire, a great big monster in the LA area.

We've been doing the "he goes to fires and I stay home and worry" thing for years. We've been doing it for so long that I remember times when he was gone for two weeks and I never heard from him. There were no cell phones! Can you imagine?

It seems like another life when I think back on those days. Now, not only do we have cell phones, but we can text and I can follow the larger scale of things via the Internet and especially - Twitter!

Yes, there is a bunch of blah, blah, blah and repetition, but after you get used to how it goes, you just start to filter out the bull and get to the good stuff. I don't think I'll be one of those people who use it a lot (unless I get published and someone actually cares what I'm doing), but I now have a firm grasp on its value. I get it. I'm rather pleased with myself.

On a serious and sad note, my condolences to the families and brothers/sisters of the two firefighters killed today in the Line of Duty on the Station Fire. Resquiescat in Pace.

Peace,

Jo Taylor