Skip to content

Thinking of shutting down my blog.

This blog has barely been used in the last couple years. Before that it was a pretty lackluster effort, just serving as a place for me to jot down things for google to find. Theoretically I think of something every couple weeks that I want to write a few paragraphs about, that would theoretically only take half an hour, and would theoretically find a small but consistent and perhaps growing audience.

But that never happens. I just can’t get myself to write. Maybe I’m sick of all the opinions and voices already out there. Maybe I don’t see myself as someone who can commit to writting down an idea, because it always might change the next day. Maybe I just don’t have time.

The thing is, I love blogs, and the creation and writing culture that has developed in the second half of this decade.  I subscribe to a lot of things out there and ingest them daily. Technical writing, thougths about life, art, politics. There are good people out there writing good stuff. I used to want to be someone who participated in that culture — who put his thoughts and ideas out there and gained the respect and attention of other people whom I respect.

I used to love creating. I put a lot of energy into my documentary for a couple years, but never figured out what I wanted to do with it, and never had the time or resources to tie it all together. I worked on Lyceum for a couple year, and it was a positive and constructive part of my career, but at the same time I was never able to get it anywhere near its full potential. Perhaps I’ve become burned out on creation, ironically at the same time as the rest of the world accepted it as a cultural norm and expectation (in a beautiful and powerful way).

What are your thoughts, dear reader? Who’s out there reading this, and why are you subscribed to my blog? Should I blog here more, about technology, media, and culture, like I thought I would when I started it in 2004? Should I shut it down, pour my energy into Twitter, and start a Tumblr? Should I go live in a hut in the woods with nothing but a yoga mat and a 3G iPad?

Share

Posted in general.

12 comments

By John – July 3, 2010

How to make the health care bill better

Many of you reading this probably support the health care bill in the House today. You probably will also agree with me that it could be better. It’s major “doing bad” flaw is that it will introduce lots of restrictions to to abortion access. It’s major “not doing enough” flaw… well, there are many… but the easiest way it can be made dramatically better is if it included a competitive government-operated health insurance provider (the “public option”).

So, what can you, dear reader, do to make this bill better?

It’s been shown that a majority of senators support a public option. Tell Senator Michael Bennet to introduce a Public Option ammendment in the Senate.

Sadly, I think the horrible language about abortion is going to make it into the bill. But the ACLU has a letter generator to communicate your grievances to your representatives.

Share

Posted in general.

1 comment

By John – March 21, 2010

The iPad’s Name

When I found out that Apple’s tablet was called the iPad, I thought it was a funny name, and probably a poor choice, and immediately made a few iMaxi jokes to assorted friends.

I knew it was juvenile humor, and lots of words mean lots of things — but still, it was honestly the first thing I thought of when I heard the name.

I figured I would get over it. Then the extraordinary Sarah Haskins tweeted this:

iPad is a funny name, but not as funny as the word Period! Which means menstruation and the end of a sentence and sometimes a unit of time!

And it made me think more about the issue, and I tweeted this:

@sarah_haskins somehow iPad is different. iPhone, it’s a phone! iPod… wtf is a pod? who cares! iPad… not emotional. it’s an object.

@sarah_haskins do you say “pad” to refer to “pad of paper” nearly as often as you say “pad” to refer to something in your purse?

@sarah_haskins Therefore, it is funny.

To which she responded:

@johnjoseph I haven’t carried or talked about pads since I was 12. And yes. I do say “pad of paper” and “padlock” and “pad thai”

And this is actually the point I am making — you don’t say “pad” to refer to a padlock or to pad thai. I responded:

@sarah_haskins Great, now whenever I eat Pad Thai I am going to think of it as Are You There God, it’s Me, Margaret Thai. Thanks.

@sarah_haskins anyway, my extremely important point was, do you ever say “pad” to refer to a pad of paper? Or do you say “pad of paper”?

To which she responded:

@johnjoseph I just say pad, because I assume context will inform the listener whether I am holding a pen b/c I want paper or a menstrual pad

[hahahaha, I ♥ Sarah Haskins.]

Okay, so, really that’s the reason why you can theoretically always use any homograph for a brand. “Pad” really sticks out to me because it it is so rarely used standalone to mean anything other than a feminine hygiene product. I don’t know, maybe some people say “Can you bring 5 pads to the conference room for the meeting?” all the time when referring to pads of paper (which is presumably the concept which Apple intends to invoke with the name iPad). But somehow that usage seems very odd and uncommon to me.

Where else is “pad” used? Keypad… signature pad… ink pad… landing pad… I cannot think of a single usage where it is used standalone, other than for sanitary napkins. But of course, I’m writing a blog post to make this point, so I might be inclined to not think very hard about counter examples.

So I ask you, dear reader:

  1. Does it seem weird to refer to a pad of paper as a pad?
  2. Can you think of any other cases where we say “pad” by itself to refer to something?

Share

Posted in general.

Tagged with .

12 comments

By John – January 30, 2010

Close