Social Media: The Real Pull

2010.05.29

I find it amusing that in the last three years, Facebook has convinced people to divulge every piece of personal information – details like birthdays, spouse names and birth places, thing that we’re told not to share – in hopes of engaging in some fabulous social experiment with our high school friends. A few years into this great social experiment, and it’s finally got people concerned this faceless, multi-billion dollar corporation might be using their innocently volunteered blood types, child photos and family records for advertising purposes.

“When I listed my favorite Acapello groups, sports teams, bank routing and account numbers, the names of all my family members and how to build a dirty bomb from a home pregnancy test, I never though any of it would be used to target me with advertising! How sick!”

So Facebook now has to pump the breaks. Their head guy Mark Zuckerberg does a mea culpa and says they’ll make it easier to share less. But then, he expresses the Facebook anthem once again, that the core of this social media movement is people’s urge to share more info with the world, and that this core drive is what makes social media work, not secrecy.

This is quaint. I’m sure there’s a segment of the internet, fearless next-gener’s that don’t mind telling all their deepest to Google, Twitter and the wayback machine, but let’s be honest about what really makes Facebook work.

Continue reading “Social Media: The Real Pull” »

I Heart Dad

2010.05.21

For most of my childhood, my Dad was just a stubborn, cantankerous, honorable, indesctructible hulk. Built large by 30 years of handling massive, cast iron machinery, George F. Kovats was always larger than most men, the kind you don’t aggrivate in a bar (unless you were an officer, packing a gun, or both). In my early adulthood, he started showing his mortality. It was bound to happen – he was born 1934, I was born 44 years later.

Dad was born a serious man, and by 50 most of his youthful personality traits were shadowed by the tough exterior of career machinist. There wasn’t a lot of running around the park with our Dad; if he didn’t lack the energy, he lacked the disposition. Though he’s had plenty of moments of “kibitzing” around the house, he generally wasn’t playful. We’ve always known him better as the disciplinarian – or as I addressed him during my military life, “The First Sergeant.”

Continue reading “I Heart Dad” »

I ran.

2010.05.15

Prologue…

(feel free to skip)
I was a husky kid. Didn’t take to sports much, ate big meals, and was sort of over sized kid most my childhood – height and weight. So it wasn’t until I was 11 before I ran more than 1 block without stopping. Several years later, I ran more than a mile for the first time to enter the Marine Corp “poolie” program. Bootcamp is where I discovered that I’m not too bad at running, and my time in Arizona pushed me to the furthest limits I’d ever seen on the trail. 6 miles was a normal day, 4 was short. Our farewell PT with SSgt Pulling was 11 miles – and we had no idea which turn or stretch would be our last the entire way.

After the military, I just used running to balance out my beer drinking. Casual smoking made it tougher for 6 years, but that didn’t hold me back during drill weekends with the Naval Reserve in Ft. Meade. Some days I’d light up a cigarette as soon as I stepped off the track.

These days, as an out of shape father and proud overweight American…

…I don’t take much to running with regularity. My time is precious: morning routine, kids, work, dinner, kids, kids, bedtime routine, XBox / beer / DVR, sleep… repeat. The best efficiency experts in the world couldn’t wedge more into this schedule – it’s airtight! However, my hat is off to anyone that maintains a healthy exercise regimen. It’s downright admirable – moderately, but nevertheless worth admiration. Different strokes for different folks, right?

Continue reading “I ran.” »