Welcome to the Tech-n-Stuff Advice Column

I've been thinking about giving an advice column a go. Since I call my blog Tech-n-Stuff, I figured I'd offer advice on a wide variety of topics, anything from standard tech support (of a general nature) to writing, to presentations (academic and business), to relationships and sex. I'll pick a few questions out of any that are submitted and answer or expound upon them. All questions will be handled as anonymous, meaning I won't reveal your identifying details in answering the question. I reserve the right to select the questions I answer out of all those submitted, this means your question might not be answered publicly. I reserve the right to answer some questions privately as my choice. If you would like to submit a question to be answered privately, you must specify "private answer only" when submitting the question. Failure to do so means it might be answered publicly. Finally, I reserve the right to group questions by topic and answer them in that fashion rather than answering them in the order they were submitted.

How to submit a question:

Send all questions to technstuffblogadvice@gmail.com

If you're going to lie, lie about something nonverifiable

So, I tweeted about this earlier but figured I'd expand on the idea. Recently, a customer created a service ticket saying that she was unable to make or receive calls, nor could she send or receive text messages. Many techs would just leap into troubleshooting mode with such a service ticket. I leapt into verification mode. I pulled up the customer's call log and saw multiple calls daily, anywhere from 10-20 incoming and outgoing calls every day for the past several days, including the day she created the service ticket. I also checked the text log and saw multiple incoming and outgoing text messages for the past several days, including the day she submitted the service ticket. There was nothing wrong with the phone, at least not so far as calling or texting. In another instance, a customer said she used her phone for work and she wasn't able to receive calls from her customers. Again, I went into verification mode. In this case, I called the customer. She answered. On a phone that supposedly didn't work, she answered. We had a conversation for several minutes. I could hear her. She could hear me. There was nothing wrong with her phone.

I realize there are instances when you feel you must lie to tech support or customer service in order to get what you want to get. Please don't lie about something that is verifiable. If the tech can pull up an activity log and see what happened and when it happened, your lie will be revealed. Better yet, don't lie at all. Just ask for what you want and state why you believe it's justified for you to receive it. Don't undermine your credibility, because if you will lie about something that is verifiable, you will lie about other things. We're more likely to help if you're believable.

I charge my friends for computer repairs

I guess the title says it all. I charge my friends for my professional services. These services include computer repair, appliance repair, and writing/editing services. If we're friends and I'm doing something for you that I would ordinarily do in the course of my professional life, you're going to pay for it. I can hear the objections now, but I'll explain why I charge my friends and why you should charge your friends as well.

Your time is worth money. On your personal time, you would like to do personal things, yes? There's a phrase I use often, "busman's holiday." A "busman's holiday" is doing something during your recreational time that you would ordinarily do in the course of your job. If you normally drive people around as your job but you find yourself driving people around on your day off, you're having a busman's holiday. If you spend your day troubleshooting computers, the last thing you want to do away from work is to spend time troubleshooting a computer. If a friend is asking you to troubleshoot their computer, you should be paid for it.

Paying for your services sets them apart as a business. If you're giving your friend the benefit of your professional services for free, they're not going to value your services or your time. They will not believe the product of your work is valuable. They will have no qualms about requesting your services in the middle of the night or at the last minute. They will have no qualms about linking unrelated problems to the problem you helped them resolve. They will ask for your professional services in awkwardly personal moments when you would not want to talk business. By charging for your services, you will set them apart as being your business relationship with your friend. They will know you're not free and they should treat their request for help as they would any other request for professional services for anyone else in your line of business. You're doing them a favor because you are their friend, but they are getting the benefit of being friends with a professional.

You don't have to charge your full rate. This is the "favor" part of the friendship. It's perfectly fine to offer a deep discount to a friend. If you want to give them a 50% discount, or even a 90% discount, you should, as a friend. It's fine to charge them for the cost of materials plus a few dollars for your labor. It's fine to barter your professional services for an equivalent of their professional services. You should let them know you're giving them a substantial discount as a courtesy of your friendship and you will give them the same service you would give to anyone else who pays for your services. Don't feel guilty about the terms of the transaction. Do let them know the value of your work. You are their friend, but you are giving them professional services. Your professional services are not free.

I don't marathon shows anymore...

At some point I decided I don't marathon shows anymore. It was fun, for a while, but it largely left me feeling empty. Watching an entire series in a day or across the span of a weekend just isn't satisfying. Even if I have that much free time, I just can't justify doing nothing but watching a show. Maybe it's because my style of watching a show means that I'm WATCHING a show. I'm not washing dishes while the show plays in the background. I'm not filling out paperwork and glancing at the screen from time to time. I'm not playing a game on my phone and catching the show in the corner of my eye. When I'm watching a show, I'm exclusively watching a show. This means marathoning a show left absolutely nothing else done. I also find that I prefer to talk about individual episodes of a show after watching them. When you're chugging down the whole gallon of milk at one time you can't have a meaningful discussion of the third sip. I like having something to look forward to. If I'm watching an episode per night of the hot new show on Netflix, I have something to look forward to each night, getting through the day becomes its own little reward. When you marathon the entire series the only thing you can look forward to is the next season, which won't be out until probably next year around this time. Slow down. Are you racing against someone or are you only cheating yourself out of truly enjoying a show?

It's Not Just Cops

Why do we place such reverence on cops when they are killed in the line of duty? Believe it or not, being a law enforcement officer isn't the most dangerous occupation in the US. In fact, it isn't even in the top 10. It's all the way down there at number 18 on the list of deaths per 100,000. Do you know who has the most dangerous job? Fishers. More fishers are killed annually on the job than any other occupation. Does the news media memorialize fishers who are killed on the job? Nope. Coming in at fifth place on the list are garbage and recyclables collectors. I know what you're saying, "Police officers put on the uniform every day and they don't know if they're coming home at the end of their shift. They take an oath to do what others won't." Guess what? Garbage collectors get dressed every day, do a job most of us wouldn't want to do, and far greater numbers of them don't come home than police officers. At tenth place on the list are electrical power line workers. These people work hard to make sure you have the electricity to do everything you need to do, and they are far more likely to be killed on the job than law enforcement officers. In 15th place on the list are appliance repair technicians. These folks fix your broken freezers, ovens, microwaves, and such, and they are more likely to be killed on the job than law enforcement officers. Finally, coming in below law enforcement officers in 21st place, we have taxi drivers, who seem to get a lot of attention when they get killed on the job too. So why do we memorialize some workers who are killed on the job but not others? Why do we say some workers deal with "acceptable risk" on the job while other deaths are "terrible tragedies"? Why don't we treat occupational deaths equally?

Invisible Black People

When I was a teenager, my mom told me on many occasions that my white friends would eventually pretend not to know me in public. She would often talk about how it would happen to her. For the longest time, the town I grew up in only had 2 grocery stores, so anybody in town who went grocery shopping had a 50/50 chance of going to the store you were shopping in. My mom would say her white coworkers who were so warm and friendly in the workplace would completely ignore her if they saw her at the grocery store or any other business around town. She was nonexistent as far as they were concerned. It also only happened with white coworkers. Her black coworkers would stop for a chat, or at least make eye contact and smile.

Flash forward a few decades and I can definitely confirm the wisdom imparted by my mother from my own observations. I'll be the first to admit that I'm terrible at remembering names, but I have a mind like a steel trap when it comes to remembering faces. If I've seen you before, I know I've seen you before. On many occasions, I have encountered white coworkers and former coworkers in public spaces and they have utterly ignored me. One incident I will always remember happened at the movie theater. For a little backstory, I had worked with one particular coworker on a special project for about 6 weeks. We worked together, in the same room, just a couple of feet from each other, every day for 8-10 hours for 6 weeks. We talked, as people who are in such close proximity will do. So, to make a long story short, she had no reason to not recognize me when she saw me in line at the movie theater about 18 months later. Yet, there we stood, mere feet from each other, and she pretended not to know me. I tried to make eye contact with her so I could at least offer a smile. Nope. I was the invisible black guy. Another instance happened with a high school classmate. I ran into her in the aisle at the grocery store in my hometown. Her mom was friends with my mom and her dad was friends with my dad. I recognized her immediately since we had just seen each other at our class reunion a year earlier. At the grocery store, however, I was just some black stranger to be ignored.

After seeing this situation play out in my life in many instances, it's my hypothesis that, at least in public, we become invisible black people. It's not that we're being consciously ignored, because that would require recognition that we are actually there. Instead, it's that we don't even register as being there. In being not white, we become a part of the background. I think part of the white person's brain says black people are an unknown, making eye contact might trigger them, acting friendly might trigger them, so the best thing is to not see them and certainly not interact with them. That same black person they see every day at work becomes background noise at the store.

I know some will say race has nothing to do with it. I might buy that, but I've seen white people recognize each other in public spaces all the time, even in cases where it's been decades since they've seen each other. One person might make eye contact with the other and then step over to say, "Hey, I don't mean to disturb you, but are you so-and-so from such-a-place?" I saw one recently where someone in her 20s recognized someone who used to babysit her. So you can't convince me these things don't happen.

Trust me, the black people who are being ignored know they're being ignored.

Ad-Free TV is a Pipe Dream in the US

Lately, I've been doing some thinking (and table-napkin math) regarding ad-free streaming TV programming. The average 1-hour TV show costs about $2 million per episode to produce. While there are some outliers, such as Game of Thrones that cost as much as $8 million per episode, we're going to start small. To pay for that average show's production costs alone with subscriber money, it would cost about 70¢ per subscriber, assuming we can get an average audience size of 2.8 million viewers per episode. For the sake of our thought experiment, we're going to assume a season of the show will consist of 13 episodes. In addition to the production costs of the show, we also need to fund distribution (servers and bandwidth) as well as advertising. We're not going to be able to get 2.8 million viewers per episode if we don't have an ad campaign, at least for the first season. Let's triple our per-episode estimate to $2.10 to cover production, distribution, and advertising. That leaves us with one season of one show at a subscription cost of $2.10 per episode, for a grand total of $27.30. How many new shows will you watch in a year? We'll assume 5 new shows. Assuming the same costs for production, distribution, and advertising, that means we'll have to be willing to pay $136.50 per year for 5 new shows.

What about older shows? The dirty little secret of TV production is that shows get more expensive to produce as time goes on because salaries increase. Actors demand more money when they sign new contracts. The show that costs $2 million for the first season might cost $3 million for the second season. Audiences tend to get smaller for subsequent seasons on most shows. The 2.8 million who watched each episode of the first season might fall to 2.5 million for the second season. For the older shows that are still in production, let's assume $2.60 per subscriber per episode to cover production, distribution, and advertising. How many older, in-production shows are you going to watch each year? If we assume 5 shows, that means we'd be paying $169 per year for those shows.

Now, let's toss in some older shows that are no longer in production. We can eliminate the production cost but we'd still have to pay for distribution and maybe a tiny bit for advertising. For the sake of argument, we'll say 25¢ per episode per subscriber. Assuming 5 older, out-of-production shows for the year, that's $16.25. All of this leaves us with an ad-free streaming entertainment package of $321.75 for a year, or $26.81 per month.

Most people watch far more TV than that.

For our fledgling ad-free streaming network we're also going to need development money. For every show that makes it into production, many more don't make it past the pilot stage. Fresh ideas cost money. That money is going to have to come from subscribers.

I'm not saying ad-free streaming TV isn't possible, I'm just saying there are financial considerations. If we want the same production values as we've gotten used to, we're going to have to pay. Visual effects cost money. Sets cost money. Location shooting costs money. Actors cost money. Servers and bandwidth cost money. Advertising costs money. Disney will be able to do it because they can merchandise the hell out of their franchises. Most others will struggle and fail.

MeWe versus Pluspora: A Refugee Story

Now that the dust has settled and Google+ resides in the graveyard of Google products, I can take a moment to assess some differences between the two landing sites I've been lurking on, MeWe and Pluspora.

I'll be honest with you, at first, I hated MeWe. Politics aside, I hated the eye-candy aspect of it. As a site, it seemed to really focus on looking good, and that just rubbed me the wrong way. Pluspora, on the other hand, was ugly. The layout was clunky. It lacked the ability to edit posts. With some tweaks to the style sheets, both sites became much easier to use. The multi-column layout is much better for me than the native format. It's still not possible to edit posts on Pluspora, but I can live with it.

Each site stands on its own in a different way. If I want to read scholarly material that will make me think, I can find it on Pluspora. Pluspora contributors write their own well-researched pieces as well as links to quality material found elsewhere. MeWe contributors appear to only post lighter fare. Pluspora is a hearty stew. MeWe is a flaky pastry. On neither platform have I found the back-and-forth conversation in the discussion threads that used to happen with great frequency on G+. People don't seem to know how open they should be on these other platforms. Can they be themselves or should they only be a version of themselves? At the same time, I can't help but think there's a lot of sidebar conversation going on, out of the mainstream, that we're all missing out on. In the end, it's left me feeling constrained. I share interesting links with my wife, instead of sharing them to the public on other platforms. I have interesting conversations with my wife, instead of having them with you, my readers and friends. I'm feeling a lot less social.

Fashion Trends and Social Signals

It's funny how different fashion trends can be used as social signals. I just read a fashion article that talked about how the trend of the bare male ankle seemed to be going away for this fashion season. Honestly, it's been a long time since I kept up with fashion trends. I remember the bare ankle becoming a thing during the 1980s (when I was in high school and college) but I was unaware of its ebb and flow since then. I do definitely recall how my parents absolutely hated the bare ankle trend. For their generation, wearing shoes without socks signaled that you were poor, that you couldn't afford socks. I got many lectures about not making the family look bad because I was keeping up with the trend of not wearing socks with my casual shoes. My parents also did not understand the trend of ripped jeans or faded jeans. For their generation, faded or ripped jeans signaled poverty. My mom actually felt sorry for the kids who wore ripped jeans to school until I explained that it was a fashion choice. What once was a sign of poverty became a sign of cutting-edge fashion sense. At this moment we seem to be moving from bare ankles back to socks, so have we decided it's time to spend more money on the clothing budget to differentiate the fashionable from the broke?

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: What's my name?

After that tragic kidnapping and death a few weeks ago of the young woman who thought she was getting into her Uber (but it was a total stranger's car) there has been a movement for rideshare passengers to ask their driver, "What's my name?" From a driver's perspective, this is absolutely the wrong thing to be doing. Let me explain why.

As a rideshare passenger, you have several pieces of information that you can use to identify me. You get my photo. You get my name. You get the make, model, and color of my car. You get my tag number. You also get the ability to call or text me in the rideshare app itself. Depending on how you want to count it, that's about 7 different ways you can identify me as your driver. Do you know what I get? In most cases, I only get a name. It's often not even your legal name. Most passengers never bother to include a selfie in their rider profile. So, I get a name.

Why should I give you, a total stranger, the one piece of information I have for identifying my next passenger? You could be a scam artist looking to get a free ride on someone else's dime. Once I give you my passenger's name, what is there to stop you from claiming to be that person as you step into my car? No, asking the driver for your name is boneheaded security. Use the tools that you have in the app to identify the correct car and driver. There are many cars that look alike. Don't just verify the make, model, and color. Verify the tag. If you still have doubts, use the app to call your driver. If the person answering the phone isn't the person whose car you're about to enter, that person is not your driver. Expect your driver to ask for your name and confirm your destination. Once all the security stuff has been taken care of, hop in and enjoy the ride.

No Traffic but Twitter

So it appears the demise of Google+ killed traffic to my blog. My only external traffic source has been Twitter. I guess my original thoughts about cross-posting to Twitter were correct. I'm not sure why people on MeWe and Pluspora aren't clicking through to the blog, but they certainly aren't. Somehow G+ provided much better visibility.

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: Relationship Troubles

Not every ride goes smoothly.

I recently picked up a passenger from an auto repair shop. She had dropped off her car for service and needed a ride to (what I learned was) her boyfriend's house. When I got to the shop, she was not ready for pickup. She was still finalizing things with the shop. I should have just canceled the ride and driven off at that point, but I'm a nice guy and I waited. When she was ready, she told me she needed to get some things from her car since she would be without it for a while. I expected her to get a couple of things but she got enough stuff to fill my trunk and half of my back seat. We finally got underway and I saw it was going to be a long drive. A few minutes into the drive she pulled her phone out of her bag and asked if I had a USB-C charger. She said she only had 2% battery left, so I let her use my charging cable. Everything was fine for about 20 minutes while she held her phone, just letting it charge. After a while, she powered it up and began flipping through various apps, keeping conversation to a minimum, and I'm just driving and chiming in with a few comments when necessary.

Suddenly, she explodes.

Her boyfriend, the one I'm taking her (and all of her stuff) to see has a status update on Facebook indicating that he is now in a relationship with someone who isn't her. OMG. She flips the switch into a highly-agitated mode and I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to need to pull the car over and put her out. She calls him on the phone and he answers. She's yelling, pounding the dashboard, and kicking the floorboard of my car. She's telling him that she has never cheated on him and why would he dare do something like this knowing that she's coming to see him. The conversation goes on for a bit longer and I'm wondering about the legal consequences of kicking her out and just driving off with her stuff. All of a sudden, she drops the bomb.

She uses the n-word.

I just about slammed on my brakes right then. She told him, "I didn't fuck that nigger, he just kissed me on the forehead, you moron. We've been friends since the 8th grade." We were less than 5 minutes away from the destination. I'm gripping the steering wheel running mental calculations on potential outcomes of this drive. She's continuing to go off on him and he hangs up on her. She calls him right back and he answers. She tells him she's only a few minutes away. Just as I'm thinking this is not going to end well, we arrive and he's not home. We sit in front of his place for a little bit, she chews him out for not being home, and then she tells me to drive her to a gas station we passed a few minutes earlier and to drop her off there. By that point, I was more than ready to have her out of my car, so I drove to the gas station. I asked if she was sure she wanted me to drop her off and she told me she'd make arrangements with a friend to get home. She unloaded her things.

I left.

Please don't involve your Uber driver in your relationship drama.

Looking at the Numbers

In looking at the traffic sources for those reading my blog, it appears about 76% of my traffic comes from Google+, about 12% comes from Twitter, and about 5% comes from Facebook. There's no noticeable traffic from Pluspora or MeWe. Maybe people are waiting until G+ goes away or maybe this is telling me I should focus on cross-posting to Twitter and Facebook and ignore Pluspora and MeWe.

Socially Acceptable

The other day, a friend asked if applying deodorant in a public space was socially acceptable and the consensus was that it was definitely socially unacceptable. We have deemed certain things to be acceptable in public spaces but others are not. Just as applying deodorant in public is unacceptable, using nail clippers in public is also greatly frowned upon. Filing your nails in public is generally acceptable, but digging dirt from under your nails is not. Grooming your hair with your fingers is acceptable, but using a comb or brush on your hair in public is not. In the US, using a toothpick to remove food from between your teeth in public is greatly frowned upon, but in many other cultures, it is acceptable to do so. Applying lotion to your hands in public is acceptable, but applying lotion to your face is not. Flossing your teeth in public is highly unacceptable. So how do we decide that certain elements of personal care and grooming are acceptable in public spaces but others are not? Why are there certain circumstances when normally unacceptable behaviors are fully acceptable? 

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: One Thing You Should Never Do

I was sitting here thinking about things you should never do as a rideshare rider. I'll release that list soon, but for now, I wanted to address one thing that will get your ride canceled if you're dealing with a seasoned driver. New drivers might overlook it, but seasoned drivers will cancel your ride in a heartbeat if this circumstance arises. First, I'll lay the groundwork.

When you hail a ride using the Uber or Lyft app and a driver accepts the ride request, the driver is given 5 minutes to get underway to your pickup spot. If the driver is not underway, they will receive a nastygram telling them to get underway or cancel the ride request. Why would the driver be given 5 minutes? The main reason is that the driver might not be driving at that moment. They could be pumping gas. They could be eating a meal. They could be sitting at home watching the latest episode of their favorite show. In any case, they have 5 minutes to be in the vehicle and moving.

So what's the one thing you could do as a passenger that will get your ride canceled? Contact the driver to ask if they are on the way. Yes, I know you really want to get to where you're going, but if you call or text the driver within that 5-minute window to ask if they are on the way, a seasoned driver will most likely cancel the ride. Why? For a seasoned driver, knowing that you're already on edge about leaving for your destination means you're probably not going to tip and you're probably not going to give the driver a 5-star rating. Calling or texting to ask if they're on the way signals that you're "that passenger" they do not want to have to deal with.

What should you do? Wait the full 5 minutes after your ride request has been accepted. If the app still does not show the driver to be any closer to you, go ahead and contact the driver. You might not get a response. If we're driving, we're not supposed to talk on the phone or respond to a text. Wait a few minutes. A good driver will find a way to pull over safely to call or text you. Assume that isn't possible and keep looking at the app. If you still see no progress toward your destination, cancel the ride yourself. Yes, you will pay a cancellation fee but you will be able to hail another driver. If you do hear back from your driver, nicely explain that the app doesn't show them moving in your direction, so you just wanted to make sure they were on the way. Sometimes the app glitches and doesn't show movement. The driver should explain what's going on and how soon they will be at the pickup spot. As always, make sure you've chosen a good pickup location and that you're clearly visible when the driver arrives.

Paying for Convenience

I don't think some people grasp the concept of paying for convenience. I read recently that someone was "upset" that their $8 food delivery order ended up being $15 when fees and tip were added. To my way of thinking, that's just the cost of convenience. By paying $15 they're paying for the convenience of being able to stay at home or at work doing whatever it is that they're doing and not having to go out in presentable clothing, go out in who knows what kind of weather, go out and wait in line, and drive all the way back to home or work. All of that convenience is worth the $15 on an $8 order. The company facilitating your delivery deserves to make a profit. The person making that delivery deserves to make a decent wage for doing so as well. A $2-$3 delivery fee is just not going to cut it. If you don't think the convenience is worth the extra $7 then go out and get your own damn food.

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: Ride-sharing vs. Ride-Hailing

Most of the time, people refer to services such as Uber and Lyft as "ride-sharing" services. This is actually a misnomer, but one that both companies would probably like to encourage. In actuality, they are "ride-hailing" services. There is a difference. In the early days, both Uber and Lyft were ride-sharing services. They paired drivers who were going to a specific destination with passengers who also wanted to go to the same destination. They would share the ride to that destination. Ride-sharing is nice, but it can only go so far. How do you serve someone who wants to go someplace but there are no drivers who are already going there? That's where ride-hailing comes in. Functioning much like a regular taxi service, ride-hailing services allow passengers who want to go to specific destinations to find drivers who will take them there, no matter whether that destination is the local drug store or Aunt Martha's house. There are a few companies out there that still do ride-sharing but they are tiny in comparison to Uber or Lyft. Many operate on a carpool model to make it more financially feasible for the driver. It's like nails on a chalkboard for me to hear people refer to Uber and Lyft as ride-sharing services but even I will slip up and do it just so people know what I'm talking about.

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: Who Needs a Location Anyway?

It should go without saying, but some things just need to be said. If you're using a ride-hailing service such as Uber or Lyft, in spite of your privacy concerns, you need to turn your location service on. Your driver needs to know where to pick you up. When you request a ride, your options are to use your current location, use an address, or use a landmark. If you choose to use your current location and you don't have location services turn on for your phone, sometimes the app will use your most recent known location instead of your current location. This happens most often when your phone has been turned off or was in airplane mode before you hail the ride. If your last known location was 50 miles from your actual location, a driver at your last known location will be pinged to go to your former location instead of to your current location. That driver will likely arrive, find that you're not there, wait a few minutes, and cancel the trip. You will have to pay a cancellation fee. When you open the ride-hailing app, make certain the dot is located at your current position, not where you were some time ago.

A great feature of both the Uber and Lyft apps is being able to indicate exactly where you want to be picked up. Most people ignore this and just use their current location or an address, but you can be much more specific by moving the map pin to the pickup spot. Let's say you're in an office building that has an east entrance and a south entrance. You would rather be picked up at the south entrance. Move the map pin to the south entrance. Your driver will know to arrive on that side instead of the east side. This also works great for apartment complexes with multiple buildings. If you only use the address, the driver will not know which building to drive to. If you move the map pin to your building, the driver will know exactly where to go.

If you use a landmark as your pickup spot, move the map pointer to indicate where you will be in relation to the landmark. Keep an eye on the driver's progress and make sure you're in a clearly-visible location when the driver arrives.

Holding up your end of the conversation

I've always felt it's the responsibility of the person who initiates contact via text or IM to hold up their end of the conversation. If I say "Hi" it's only going to be when I've set aside enough time to actually have a conversation with you. I don't expect you to be free. I have no idea what you're doing when I make contact. If you're busy, just say you're busy. If you initiate contact with me, however, I don't expect it to take 30 minutes between each response. That tells me that you are not free and should contact me later when you are free. Am I weird?

Discovery Notes

I was thinking last night about Star Trek: Discovery. Some fans have said it's not real Star Trek because although it's set 10 years prior to TOS, the look and feel of the show are significantly different from that 1960s edition. As we have seen over the past few years, amateur productions of Star Trek, such as Star Trek Continues can capture the look and feel of the original show on a small budget. If you watch an episode you will think you're right back in the 1960s in terms of the production design, camera angles, and effects. According to Variety magazine, CBS gave Star Trek: Discovery a budget of $8.5 million per episode, making it one of their most expensive shows.  For those who say the show should have captured the visual look and feel of the original series, where should they have spent $8.5 million per episode? If you can't update the sets, the uniforms, or the props, where should the money have gone? What would you have spent the money on?

Lack of Content

One of the main complaints I've seen from multiple people in regards to the various platforms we've been migrating to as Google+ winds down is lack of content. Indeed, it's one of my own complaints. There isn't much content, and what is there is oft-repeated. We're stuck in a bubble universe. On MeWe, for example, I have about 80 contacts. I see a lot of posts from a handful of people and nothing from most people. On Pluspora I have about 200 contacts, and I see a lot of posts from a handful of people and absolutely nothing from most people. All in all, this does not surprise me. Less than 5% of people generate content on any given day. That means if you come to social media to see new material to interact with, you're just not going to get that with a few hundred people. You need to follow thousands of people in order to have volume and variety. Of course, not everyone wants volume and variety. Some people just want to see a dozen or so posts from close friends and that's it. For those who don't want that, we need to step it up and generate more content.

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: How to Be the Perfect Passenger

It's not that hard to be a good rideshare passenger. I'll give you the basics.

Whether you're using Uber, Lyft, or some other rideshare app, before hailing your first driver, take some time to get familiar with the app. Complete your rider profile. Be sure to include your preferred name and add a recent photo of yourself. A lot of riders don't add a photo but trust me, it helps. As drivers, we want to make sure we're picking up the correct person.

Now you're ready to summon a car. Don't do it. Are you truly ready? Are you fully dressed? Do you have everything you need to bring with you on the ride? Have you paid your bill at the restaurant? Do not hail a ride until you are completely ready. While everyone thinks it might be 20-30 minutes (or more) before a car can get to you, the nearest driver might only be 5 minutes away. You want to be ready to go when the driver arrives. Don't be that passenger who tells the driver you need a few minutes to get yourself together before you can leave.

Let's pause for a moment and get personal. Your driver is operating a car as a business. You will be one of many passengers for the day. If you're a smoker, please put out your cigarette before the driver arrives. Do not wear clothes that reek of smoke (or anything else). Do not wear a lot of perfume or cologne. Do not do any personal grooming while in the car. Don't bring mud or dirt into the driver's car. Don't be an asshole.

The car is on the way. If the weather is decent and your surroundings are safe, you should be standing outside and you should be clearly visible when the driver arrives. If you're standing outside, the driver knows they're in the right spot. If you can't stand outside, be ready to go outside the moment the driver arrives. If you're not outside within a few minutes, the driver can cancel the ride and collect a cancellation fee. In addition, if you're not outside when the driver arrives, be prepared to receive a call or text from the driver. The call or text will come from a number you don't recognize. If you don't respond, the driver will cancel the ride and drive away.

Most drivers will want to confirm your identity and destination before unlocking the doors to let you in. Just introduce yourself and say where you're going. The driver wants to know if they're picking up the right person and heading to the right destination.

Now you face a choice, will you sit in the front or the back? I'll be perfectly honest with you. Most drivers would prefer you to sit in the back. They won't tell you to sit in the back, but you'll make them much happier if you sit in the back. Sitting in the front puts you in the driver's space. It also impairs the driver's view when looking to the right. The driver won't look to the right as often as they normally would because they don't want to appear to be getting all up in your business.

Should you talk or remain quiet? That's entirely up to you. Some drivers would prefer to have a conversation, others would prefer to drive in silence. If you would rather ride in silence, just let the driver know or put some earbuds in.

If your ride has a stop along the way, remember that you only have 5 minutes per stop according to company policy. After 5 minutes your driver can end the ride and drive away, leaving you to summon another car to take you to your destination. Uber and Lyft do not pay well enough for drivers to wait for you. If you're going to ask a driver to wait more than 5 minutes, a generous tip is highly advised. I'm not talking a couple of dollars if you catch my drift.

Stops should be set up within the app. It's considered bad form to ask the driver to make a stop that isn't set up in the app. If it's set up in the app, we're getting paid properly for it and the company knows why we stopped there. If it's not set up in the app, we're getting screwed when it comes to our pay and the company doesn't know why we made the stop. "Do you mind if we stop at the gas station up there?" Yes, we mind if you don't add it in the app. Take a few seconds and add the stop in the app, please.

Speaking of rides with stops along the way, when you leave the vehicle, take everything with you. Drivers frown upon items being left in the car intentionally. We refer to those as "anchors" because you're trying to keep us from ending the ride and leaving by weighing us down with your personal items. Most drivers are savvy to "anchors" and will end the ride and drive off with your stuff. Good luck tracking them down to get it back.

If you genuinely forget and leave an item in the car after the trip your driver can report it as a found item. You will be charged at least $15 and will be contacted by the company to make arrangements for the return of your item. Low-value items such as phone charging cables will probably not be reported as found items. High-value items such as phones and wallets will generally be reported as found items.

Once you get back to the car from your stop, if you have lots of items with you, ask if you can put them in the backseat or whether you should put them in the trunk.

Don't eat or drink in the vehicle. We're talking mess and odor, folks. The driver's car is not your personal car and it's not your living room. Do not make a mess.

If you are intoxicated and feel like you might barf, let the driver know. Most of us carry barf bags. Do not try to open the door or lower the window without warning the driver. If you barf and make a mess, you will be charged for the cleanup fee (up to $250) and could be banned from using the rideshare service in the future. 

As you approach your final destination, let the driver know if you'd like to be dropped off in a specific spot. It might not be possible for the driver to park the car, especially at concert venues and such. In such instances, the driver will get you as close as practical and let you out so they can turn the car around and leave. If you're going to give the driver a cash tip, please have the money ready before the vehicle stops. If you're going to leave a tip in the app, just do it. Never tell the driver you'll tip in the app. We know that when most passengers say they'll tip in the app, they usually don't tip at all.

When the ride ends, get out. Quickly. The end of the ride is not the time to become chatty. Unless it's your driver's final ride of the day, they want to get out of there and pick up another passenger as soon as possible. Thank the driver, grab all of your stuff (including any trash), and get out. It's been real, but your driver is ready to go.

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: 3 Stars & You're Out

It's a little-known secret of the major US rideshare companies, Uber and Lyft, but it's super-easy to make sure you're not paired with a particular driver (or passenger) again. All it takes is to rate them 3 stars or fewer. That's right, what most of us would consider "average" they consider as "I never want to be paired with this person again." As a driver, I can rate a passenger as 3 stars and I never have to worry about being paired with that passenger again. (I've only done this once.) Even if I'm the closest driver to them and I'm headed in the direction they want to go, I won't be paired with them again. I've only had one passenger give me a 3-star rating and I have no idea what I did wrong during their ride. Unfortunately, comments are not required with ratings from passengers, so if no comments are left, drivers have no way of knowing what happened. As a driver, if I rate anyone as 4 stars or fewer, I have to indicate why the ride was less than perfect.

In the case of the 3-star rating that I gave, the low rating had nothing to do with the passenger but had everything to do with her husband. I had picked up the passenger twice before and never had any issue with her. She was polite and friendly. On the third ride, however, her husband came with her and he was quite drunk and belligerent. Most couples will sit in the back together, or the man will sit in the front by me while the woman sits in the back. On this ride, the wife sat in the front and the husband sat in the back. He went on the attack the moment he got in the car, belittling her and mumbling about my driving. When we reached the first stop on their trip, I canceled the rest of the ride, gave the 3-star rating, and drove off. I explained to the wife that I was canceling the trip and they would need to hail another driver to take them the rest of the way. The wife apologized for her husband's behavior, but I never wanted to be paired with her again at the risk of being paired with him again.

Many drivers will not pick up passengers rated below 4.8, figuring passengers with low ratings have done something to deserve it. Since ratings are averages, it doesn't take much to drop from a perfect 5.0 and it can be difficult to rebuild a good rating after receiving a few low ratings. I think one of my future posts will be tips on how to be the perfect passenger. Until then, happy journeys to you.

1-Star Reviews

What's up with 1-star reviews over minor issues? As a society, we seem to have lost our sense of nuance. Things are either absolutely great (5-star review) or absolutely horrible (1-star review) with nothing in between. Let's say you go to a restaurant for breakfast and order an omelet. You order a triple-cheese omelet but they bring you a single-cheese omelet. It's still tasty, but it's not what you ordered. They offer to make it right for you but you just ask for the ticket to be adjusted for the price difference and go ahead and eat the whole thing. Later, you give them a 1-star review over the fact that they got your order wrong. Seriously? Why would you give them a 1-star review for an order they offered to correct and you ate the whole thing? To my way of thinking such a situation might garner a 4-star review. There was nothing else objectionable about the restaurant, they promptly offered to correct their mistake, they did correct the pricing, and the omelet was tasty enough to finish. I would only give a 1-star review if they didn't acknowledge their mistake, didn't offer to make it right, overcharged me, gave me dirty silverware, and the omelet was inedible. My 1-star review would be a warning to other customers that this restaurant isn't worth your time and will likely make you sick.

We now have companies that tell their employees that anything less than a 5-star review is a problem. This was the case for my last job. If I received 4 stars or fewer on any customer review I had to have a talk with my manager about what went wrong. Often, nothing went wrong. I gave great service, but the customer was upset over having to take off the entire day for the service call, or upset because the part to fix their appliance wasn't available locally and would need to be ordered. I would get a low review although I had done my job fully. If the average of my reviews for the week dropped below a 3.5 I'd be written up. If the average was below a 3.5 for the month, I'd be fired. A single 1-star review could sink the weekly average. A handful of 1-star reviews in the month would easily get someone fired.

There are some 1-star situations but they should be exceptionally rare, reserved for those times when something has gone horribly, unforgivably wrong. Likewise, there should be few 5-star situations. Most honest reviews should be 2-4 stars because most experiences are either slightly below average, average, or slightly above average. A 1-star review over a minor problem doesn't help anyone and just makes you look like an asshole. Your 1-star review might even cost someone a job over something that wasn't their fault.

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: Your Tardiness Is Not My Fault

I recently had a passenger get upset with me because she was 10 minutes late getting to her destination. It wasn't my fault, however. When she requested a ride I was 5 minutes from her location. She had 2 stops programmed for the trip because she wanted to pick up some food along the way to her final destination. We reached the restaurant she had chosen and they took a really long time getting her order prepared. I didn't time the wait for her food, but it was at least 10-15 minutes before the order was ready. We left from there and drove straight to her final stop in the middle of rush hour traffic. When we reached the street her final stop was on, I asked which house we were going to because house numbers weren't clearly visible. She pointed to a house, and following the line of her finger, I stopped at the house I thought she had indicated. She finally looked up from her phone and said we weren't at the right house and we should have been at the house next door. She opened the door and began getting out. I told her I could drive her to the house next door and she said she was already late anyway and walked off in a huff with her food. The fact that we were 10 minutes late wasn't my fault. She should have requested a ride earlier to build in more time to get her food and for traffic. It's not fair to smart off to the driver when the tardiness is your own fault. Plan better.

As a rule of thumb, for trips of under an hour, double the time estimate when using a ridesharing service. So if it would normally take you 15 minutes to drive there in your own car, you should hail your Uber/Lyft at least 30 minutes before you need to be there. If you're requesting additional stops along the way it's safe to add at least 10 minutes per stop. Add a few more minutes if rush hour traffic is expected. In essence, allow enough time for things to go wrong. Don't blame the driver when you didn't plan appropriately.

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: Don't Judge the Tip by the Rider

In the service industry we often try to judge what kind of customer we're dealing with. When tipping is involved, it's tempting to size up the customer in regards to the amount of the tip you might reasonably expect to receive. Assumptions are often invalid. As an Uber/Lyft driver, I have received large tips from passengers I didn't expect to tip at all and I've received no tip at all from passengers who could have easily afforded a large tip. I recently gave a long ride to a passenger who is easily one of the wealthiest men in the entire state. He gave less than a 10% tip. I recently gave a short ride to a woman who needed a lift to work because her car wouldn't start. She gave a 50% tip on the ride. They say black people don't tip. Not true. They say young women don't tip. Not true. There are patterns but there aren't absolutes. Some drivers ask for tips or have signs posted in their cars requesting tips. Some drivers have tip jars. I don't use any of those. If you tip, you tip. If you don't, you don't. I'm not going to mention tipping during the ride. If you ask about tipping, however, I will explain how to do it through the app or let you know you can tip in cash. I try to not size up passengers by the tip they might give, and I don't give better or worse service to passengers based on their perceived ability to tip. You get the same ride, regardless.

Why am I on MeWe?

Yes, I have an account on MeWe. Yes, I know about the white nationalists, libertarians, and racists who call it home. I also know of a great many people I've come to know on G+ over the last 8 years who have migrated their as their new home. My presence there is so I can remain in contact with these people. Unfortunately, there isn't a single place G+ refugees have moved to. We're scattering all over for various reasons. My own new home will be my blog, but I will be crossposting to other platforms such as MeWe, Pluspora, Twitter, and to a lesser extent, Facebook. I can't force people to follow my blog, but I can make it easier for them to find my content by crossposting to platforms they might also use. As such, I'm on MeWe. If you're there, you'll see links to my content from time to time. I might also comment on your posts. You can also find me on Pluspora, Twitter, and Facebook and I will be more than happy to engage with you on those platforms as well.

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: We Reserve the Right

While I'm glad more people are using rideshare services such as Lyft and Uber, especially in place of driving while intoxicated, I do have to point out that your Uber/Lyft driver reserves the right to kick you out of the vehicle at his or her discretion. If the driver believes you are behaving or speaking inappropriately, your ride may end rather abruptly. If necessary, the driver will summon the police to assist with getting you out of the vehicle. Paying for your ride doesn't give you a license to make a mess, behave inappropriately, or insult the driver. Your ride may also end abruptly if you take too long at any stop along the way. A quick stop is fine, but a stop to buy groceries for the week is asking too much. If you do need to buy groceries for the week, plan on hailing another driver when you're done. We reserve the right to end the ride at your stop and leaving personal items in the car to "anchor" the driver is uncool.

Easy Credit

My father has often told me he remembers the days when standard auto loans were for 24 months. He remembers when loan terms were stretched to 36 months. These days, standard auto loans are for 60, 72, and even 84 months. In the housing market, prior to the economic collapse of 2008, it became easier and easier to get a mortgage loan. Credit standards were greatly lowered. It was possible to get loans for 150% of your income. Why did we all get easy credit? Some would say the banks got greedy, and that may be part of it, but the major reason credit got easier is because worker pay has not increased markedly over the last 45 years or so. When factored for inflation, worker pay stagnated in the early 1970s. At the same time, we switched over from an economy driven by our manufacturing exports to one driven by consumer spending. Consumers can't spend if they don't have money. Employers weren't raising pay so banks had to extend easier credit terms. By not addressing employer pay, we're not addressing the real problems with the US economy. Concentrating the wealth at the top is screwing us all over in more ways than one.

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: Front or Back Seat?

When you hop into a rideshare vehicle, should you sit in the front or back seat? Opinions vary, but if it's one person or a couple, I greatly prefer the passenger(s) to sit in the back seat. I prefer to reserve the front seat for third/fourth or tall passengers. Having a total stranger sitting directly beside me limits my visibility. I find myself less likely to look to my right, either to look out of the window or to look at the passenger-side mirror when a passenger is sitting beside me, especially a female passenger. I don't want to see what the passenger is looking at on their phone. I don't want to see how they're dressed. I don't want to look them straight in the face if they're talking to me. For me, when the passenger sits in the back it makes our relationship transactional, as it should be.

Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: To Perch Or Drive?

There are essentially two strategies rideshare drivers use to maximize their time. Some drivers will perch, while other drivers will hunt. Each strategy has advantages and disadvantages. Perching is the practice of finding a good spot to park and wait for ride requests (pings) to come in. A good spot might be a parking lot in the central business district, or near a busy shopping center, or near a large movie theater. The chances that someone might need a ride from such spots are fairly good. A perching driver isn't wasting fuel by driving around without a passenger. A hunting driver stays in motion, driving through the central business district, driving past busy shopping centers, and driving past apartment complexes and condos. The hunting driver is trying to catch passengers who would likely be missed by perching drivers by being in the right place at the right time.

Which strategy works best? It's hotly debated among drivers. Some drivers hate wasting fuel by going on the hunt. They would rather find a good location, park, and wait however long it takes for a ride request to come through. Other drivers would rather take their chances with being in the right place at the right time to pounce on ride requests. Perching drivers will have different places to perch depending on the time of day or local events. Hunting drivers will drive through areas during times when ride requests are likely.

One driver gets up every morning at 4:30, gets dressed, and goes out to sit in his car at 5AM. He sits there for 15 minutes waiting on a ping. If he doesn't get a ping within 15 minutes he goes back in his house and works on household chores until he gets a ping. Once he gets a ping, he stays out for the rest of the day driving from perch to perch to handle ride requests as they come in. He ends his day around 5PM and goes home. Another driver starts his day at 5AM by driving through the suburbs hoping to catch riders who need a ride into the city. Once he gets a ride he takes them into the city and then drives back out into the suburbs to catch the next fare. He's constantly on the move as long as he's meeting his goal of making $25 per hour. When he's no longer meeting his goal, he goes home. In the afternoon he drives into the city and begins to ferry riders out into the suburbs, continuing to go back and forth until he's no longer making $25 per hour.

Some drivers combine perching and hunting. That's generally how I work. Once I'm dressed for the day, I log into the rideshare apps. I stay home, however, until I get my first ping. That first ping is usually someone who lives within 5 minutes of home. After I drop them off at their destination, I will go on the hunt for a few minutes, driving through areas where I know people might need a ride. If I don't get anything quickly, I find a place to perch. I like to perch in places where I'm close to areas that might need service but I'm also in a place where a parked car with someone sitting inside it isn't going to draw unwanted attention. My perches are often shopping centers, large gas stations, and movie theater parking lots. Once I get settled into my perch, I start a timer and I will remain parked there until I get a ride request or my timer expires. When the timer expires, I go on the hunt again until I reach my next perch. It seems to be a strategy that generally works. My area doesn't have a dense enough population to make full-time hunting worthwhile yet it is spread out too much to warrant full-time perching either.

Netflix Recommendation: Pine Gap

If you're looking for a well-written whodunit, Pine Gap on Netflix is a winner. Pine Gap tells the story of a joint US/Australian electronic intelligence monitoring facility located near Alice Springs, Australia. The facility monitors electronic communications for both governments so half the staff works for the US and the other half for Australia. In addition to world events, they are also dealing with internal conflicts and mysteries. Someone has been leaking intelligence from the facility to the media and it's a race to find out who has been doing it at the risk of starting a nuclear war with China.

Farewell Google+

My Google+ journey began on 9 July 2011 with my first post. I had received my invitation to join a few days earlier but had been busy with my sister's funeral and other necessities of offline life. I recognized the potential of G+ for being a home of long-form posts. I have always been a creator of content. I began in 2006 on a site called Newsvine writing mostly opinion pieces about the news of the day. As Newsvine declined (long story), I moved to Twitter, which was not the place for me to be. I don't express my thoughts in fewer than 140 characters, such as the limit was at the time. I don't think in tidy little snippets. I write long pieces.

Although I had a Facebook account, I hardly used it. I quickly determined Facebook was not the place for me to spend much time. Most of the people I followed there were high school classmates and family members and I just couldn't be myself with them. Well, I could be a version of myself, but I couldn't be my true self. I was content to check in with Facebook every month or two to see what was going on, but I could not and would not contribute original content to the site.

In Google+ I found a site based on following people for the ideas they expressed, not for how you knew them in the real world. It wasn't necessary to know someone in the real world in order to follow them based on the fact that they presented ideas I liked. It was possible to follow each other based on shared interests, not real world affiliations. It was possible to put people in circles and post content directly to them based on those circles. Google+ was never the Facebook-killer. It was the best Facebook alternative.

The writing was on the wall quite some time ago that Google no longer cared about Google+. Development had ground to a halt. Marketing had ground to a halt. Participation by brands slowed down. Google+ could have been a contender, but for various reasons, it checked out of the fight after the second round.

I will miss the community of G+ more than anything. I'm one of the few people who routinely hit the limit of following 5,000 people. On any given day I could see posts from people on a wide range of topics. In the course of my time on G+ I had amassed over 10,000 followers. On any given day I would have direct interaction with 50-100 people through comments on my posts. Over the years I've met several G+ users in the real world and had a great time with them. As G+ winds down over the next couple of months, we'll all scatter to the winds. There is no single platform everyone will be moving to and connections will certainly be lost. Many of us have dropped breadcrumbs so others can find us, but this isn't my first rodeo. I know I will lose contact with 90% of the people I follow and who follow me.

Google+ was a fun ride. It has lasted 8 years and about 43,000 posts for me. My new home will be here, on my blog. I can't promise daily posts, but I will post as often as possible on whatever seems worthy. If you see me around elsewhere (Facebook, Pluspora, MeWe, YouMe, and Twitter) say hi, but stop by the blog for original content.

It's been real.

8 Times Doctor Who Violated Its Own Canon

8 times Doctor Who violated its own canon

Making the Move

I have removed Google+ commenting from my blog and will be making additional changes to get away from the G+ integration. Instead of a mixed bag of G+ comments and native comments, all comments will be native to the blog.

What is Star Trek?

Over the years I've heard many people proclaim many iterations of Star Trek to not be Star Trek. It has even gone so far as to proclaim certain individual episodes of particular series as specifically not Star Trek. As an example, some have said "The City on the Edge of Forever" in TOS is a great episode of science fiction but it is not Star Trek. My particular bias is that they are all Star Trek in some way or another, so I'm not equipped to argue what is or is not Star Trek about any particular episode or movie. I watch them for the entertainment value and character exploration. I do have my biases as to which episodes, series, or movies I like or dislike but that is in terms of writing, character development, or acting.

One of the chief complaints I've heard to define Star Trek is that true Star Trek is always optimistic. I would argue this is a false notion. There are plenty of episodes in TOS that are not optimistic. There are episodes which, if you sit back and think about it, present a pretty awful reality. Optimism wasn't always the key feature of TNG either, most definitely not DS9, and not of VOY either. Some of those episodes were bleak, if not for our heroes but for the folks they encountered.

Another argument I've heard to define Star Trek is that it's about exploration. That, too, is a false notion. Not every episode of TOS was about exploration. Some were personal stories about one or more of the characters. Some were about war. Some were merely space westerns. With the TNG era shows, some episodes were just holodeck adventures. Exploration did not define Star Trek.

I've also heard some say Star Trek is supposed to be lighthearted and fun. No. Have those people actually sat through an entire season? Most episodes of TOS were neither lighthearted nor fun. There was some comedy in there but those episodes were few. The same can be said of the TNG era shows. Each season gave us a few fun episodes but most were not played for laughs. Ditto ENT and DSC. Star Trek cannot be defined as lighthearted and fun.

Some have said Star Trek is family fare. No way. TOS pushed as many limits as they possibly could in regards to story and wardrobe. The Standards and Practices department rode their asses about some of the stuff they tried to get away with on the show. They tried hard to not be family fare, but the network kept the reins pulled tight. The TNG-era shows pushed as many boundaries as they could as syndicated shows. Star Trek was not meant to be family fare, they were forced to color within the lines by the S&P bean-pushers.

What it comes down to is that certain iterations of Star Trek are, or are not Star Trek depending on the goalpost that you wish to move in order to define Star Trek. For some people, only the original series is Star Trek. Nothing else qualifies. For some people, TNG is Star Trek but not DS9. For some people, VOY is absolutely not Star Trek. For many people, TOS and the TNG-era shows are fine but ENT isn't Star Trek. For some people, most of the other series are Star Trek but not DSC. It all gets so confusing.

I'm not one to be a gatekeeper. I'm not going to say who is, or is not, a fan of Star Trek. I will say if you don't like certain iterations of the franchise, you should be able to clearly articulate what you don't like and consider that some of the things you voice in that regard could be hiding in plain sight in the iterations of Star Trek that you do like.

Just a Reminder

Until I decide to settle in elsewhere, I'll be using my blog more when G+ shuts down. I will cross-post to Twitter, MeWe, YouMe, and Pluspora, but the original content will be on this blog. I will soon shut down G+ comments on my blog so all comments will live here only. For other ways to contact me, I would recommend texting (ask for my number if you don't already have it), Facebook Messenger (ugh, but I'm there) or Hangouts. I know it's unlikely that even a large fraction of the people who follow me on G+ will continue to follow me elsewhere, but I'll try to leave as many breadcrumbs as possible.

Hollywood Endings

Have you ever noticed how most movie and TV show phone conversations never end in a socially-appropriate manner? Most of us were taught by some authority figure regarding how to answer the phone. I remember it actually being a unit in my elementary school. The teacher brought out dummy phones and we had mock phone conversations, rehearsing how to answer and how to end a phone call. Later in life, business etiquette lessons stressed how to conduct business phone conversations. In any case, just hanging up on someone was considered rude. Both parties were supposed to verbally indicate that the conversation was over, perhaps by rehashing the main points, thanking the other person for their time, or providing a friendly farewell. Most movie and TV show conversations end with none of this. Someone just hangs up. Is this lazy writing or do Hollywood writers think this is how most phone conversations really end? It wouldn't be the first time Hollywood writers habitually got something wrong about phone calls. If you remember from the 90s, you rarely saw Caller ID used in a movie or TV show. At the time, most landline phones in Hollywood were unlisted, so Hollywood writers didn't use Caller ID in their personal lives. Watch almost any movie or TV show from the era and they'll refer to "tracing the call" to discover the phone number in situations where an average Joe would just look at the Caller ID. Do folks in Hollywood just hang up on people to end their phone calls?

Home Turf

The more I think about where I'm going to end up as G+ winds down, the more I'm convinced I'm going to take a step back, way back, from social media. I've been wandering around in the realm of social media since 2006. I have primarily been a content creator. I greatly enjoy writing. I enjoy scouring the web for newsworthy material. I enjoy sharing my opinion on newsworthy material. I enjoy meeting new people and having a good conversation with them. I enjoy being able to be authentic. G+ provided me with all of this, and no other platform I've tested has come close to replacing it. I don't like the idea of rebuilding, and as I see people scatter to different platforms I see rebuilding as being the major project. I've met a lot of wonderful people thanks to G+ over the years but I think it's time to wrap it up.

Since the announcement that G+ was ending, I've looked at Pluspora*, Facebook, MeWe, and Twitter as possible replacements for what I like to do online. All have been found lacking in one way or another. Pluspora* is clunky and I'm not going to sideload a mobile app to be able to use it through an app on my phone. I worry about its longevity since it is privately-supported. Facebook, dear god no. Although my Facebook activity has increased, I just can't use it for what I like to do. MeWe has too much eye-candy for me. I don't want pretty. The neo-Nazi fan base also troubles me. I also get to much contact spam from that platform. I just can't go with Twitter. Although it's an easy platform to which I can post links, it is not a platform I can use for conversations. Threads are too hard to keep together and follow. I'm just not a hashtagger.

That leaves me with my own blog, which you are reading now. Until someone convinces me I should be elsewhere, I'll be here, doing things my own way. If you wish to follow me, I'll post links to this blog everywhere before I shut things down elsewhere. My contact information remains the same. My email address is a matter of public record. My phone number is accessible for most people, with texts being greatly preferred over calls. I can also be reached on Hangouts and Facebook Messenger.

In my migration plan, I will continue to post to G+ but will move more of my posting activity to my blog. When I decide to flip the switch on G+, all of my activity will be on my blog, with links occasionally shared to other platforms. I don't plan to have conversations on other platforms, but anything is possible. As I stated at the beginning, I'm taking a step back. I'm not going away.