Jam Side Down
Q: Why blog?
A: Mostly to figure out what I think. Obviously I hope that others find the ideas useful. It may also be a mildly dangerous form of therapy, but I’d prefer to think not.
Q: Do you answer email?
A: I welcome email sent here, but I don’t usually have time to offer a thoughtful response. I have a day job, a family, a blog, and a dog – so I although I will read your email, I won’t usually respond. This reflects my schedule and priorities not the content of your message. I treat your email as confidential.
Q: Dude, your posts are too freakin’ long. Ever consider Twitter?
I don’t tweet, although my account does push links to blog posts. Likewise, I live without much Facebook or LinkedIn and feel no ill side effects. Compared to tweets, my posts are long but compared to chapters in a book, they are short. Since a good post can summarize 90% of the fresh thinking that goes into many chapter, you might try looking at my posts as short chapters instead of long tweets.
Q: Why don’t you allow comments or advertising?
A: I used to allow comments, but it was too much work. Some comments were smart, but the noise to signal ratio was very high. I had to delete a lot of spam and edit stuff that was offensive, irrelevant, incoherent, or dumb. The blog seems to provoke plenty of discussion elsewhere around the Internet and I don’t have to do the janitorial work. I don’t allow ads because this is not a commercial venture. It produces no revenue of any kind, which helps me justify borrowing as many photos as I do.
Q: What’s your political affiliation?
A: Like Will Rogers, I am a member of no organized political party; I’m a Democrat most of the time. I thought that John Kerry was a poor nominee, but I voted for him. I supported Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor of California. I admire both Hyde Park and Oyster Bay Roosevelts, Tony Blair, the better side of Bill Clinton when you could find it, and Joe Lieberman before he went nuts. I was honored to serve in the Clinton/Gore administration and think that Clinton did a good job, except for those times when he lied, over-triangulated, and avoided tough decisions — and there were too many of those. I deeply dislike dynasties, and would have voted against Bush II for no other reason in 2000 and would have voted against Clinton II for no other reason in 2008. (Distant cousins from opposite parties don’t count, so the Roosevelts were OK).
Q: I noticed that some of your posts change over time. I thought bloggers didn’t do that.
I often update the current post. I write at night, on airplanes, and at other odd moments. When something is more or less finished, I post it. If I later notice mistakes, inelegant wording, or incomplete ideas, I just fix them. So today’s version may be slightly better than yesterday’s.
Q: Why the random use of bold jam-colored type?
A tribute to Herb Caen and a way to liven things up. And some people tell me they only read the jam.
Q: Do you have rights to all these photos you use and long excerpts you cite?
No, I don’t. This is a non-commercial, non-revenue blog, and I excerpt and use photos in the spirit of publicizing them. Nobody has ever objected, but if I have used your content in a way that troubles you at all, send me an email and I will take it down.
