Begun, The Social Media War Has
Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on with Twitter these days either. Since Musky took over it seems to be going downhill fast(er). Not that it wasn’t kinda a shitshow before he came along and decided he knew best how to run things. Sure, sparky. How’s that going for you?
Even with the increased bullshit I’ve decided to hang in there and not delete my account just yet. Why? I’m not 100% sure. I guess it’s mostly just habit. I’ve been on Twitter since 2007 and I look at pretty much every day. Not saying that’s a good thing, it’s just a thing that happens.
I also don’t want some chode to come along and take the @ChrisU handle. That’s mine you fuckers. I got it on day one (or day three or at the beginning anyway) and I’m going to hold onto it. Keep your grubby paws off.
So even if I stop going to Twitter and disappear from it entirely, I’ll likely just disable my account and not delete it. That way, it won’t fall into the “wrong” hands and I can always go back one day if things improve. But really, at this point, I don’t know exactly what I’ll do.
Meantime, I’m also making accounts at all the other places people seem to be going. Like Hive, for example. Again, why am I doing any of this? And again, I’m not 100% sure. I enjoy some of the interactions I’ve had online so I guess I want to try to find that positive side of it again . . . if that’s even possible anymore.
I am enjoying Mastodon so far. Sure, it’s a bit wonky and the people running it aren’t always great at communication or tolerance for newbs, but I think they’re trying. I know the attitude has put a few people off so far and that’s not great for potential future community interaction. But everyone is getting used to a new platform and a new system with new rules and guidelines, there’s bound to be some growing pains. Let’s hope they don’t last too long.
I’ll probably hang in at Mastodon for the time being as I’m not having much of a problem figuring out how to make it work or talking to people. So far, everyone has been pretty cool. I’ve tried my best to be nice and people seem to respond in kind.
Don’t be an asshole and maybe people won’t be an asshole to you? It’s so crazy an idea it just might work. I just try to be kind and see what happens. It doesn’t always work out, though.
Some people are just giant dicks for no real reason. Shocking, I know. I tend to just block them and move on. You should try it.
As far as other social media sites go, as I said I’m on Hive now and I even took a look at my old Tumblr to see if that was interesting to go back to. Still looking at that one. I’m also on Instagram, Flickr, my other website, Facebook (yes, I know) and a few others I’ve probably forgotten about. And I’m still doing the podcast every week. You should listen to that, It’s fun.
Of course, I still have this blog you’re reading too. It’s been around longer than Twitter and a lot of other social media sites. Since 2004, if you can believe that. Hey, maybe that’s the answer?
Maybe we should all just go back to blogs. Those seemed to work pretty well for me and a bunch of people I know . . . at least for awhile anyway.
If I’m being totally honest (and why not?) I don’t know exactly what to do. You may have guessed that. I’ve also said it a few times already. Keep up.
Like it or not Twitter is a part of my life, for good or bad. It used to be good but I’ve been on it less and less the last couple years and maybe I should just deactivate it and commit 100% to something else like Mastodon? I don’t like the direction Twitter is going and I don’t know if it can be saved at this point.
Or, maybe it’s time for a total break from social media? That probably couldn’t hurt either. Lots of things to think about, anyway.
If you’ve left Twitter, where did you end up? I’m always interested to hear about other people’s experiences.
No matter where you go, always try to be kind. We need that now more than ever.
Note: The title of this point is not my joke. I can’t remember where I saw it so I can’t give credit. Thank you person on the Internet who said it first. Your sacrifice has not been in vain.
Image: Disney / Lucasfilm
Even More Changes
Hello friends. It has been a minute, as it often is. I don’t update here as often as I should and for that I’m profoundly sorry. I really want to, however . . .
I just don’t have that kind of free time anymore, especially now that virtual school is in session again. In short, that’s very time consuming . . . and I’ve only got the one kid. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for those of you who’ve got more than one. Crazy.
That said, I did want to drop in for a few and update you on some recent changes. No, it’s not just that Summer ended and the boy is back in school, it’s more than that. A bit more, at least.
The first is my favorite website, The Flickcast, has finally gotten a much-needed facelift and is looking great. Kudos to to the entire team for getting that up and running. And by the entire team I mean yours truly. As in, I did it all by myself (cue Jamie O’Neal).
I think it looks great. The Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages have also been updated to reflect the new look. As you do.
We’ve also started uploading the podcast to YouTube, although it’s just the audio at this point. No video yet. We are going to start video soon, however, so keep an eye out for that.
I’ve also made some changes to the Ullrich Media website (mostly moving off of Squarespace and onto our own server) so that’s gonna look a bit different and have less content until I get a chance to finish it up. Doing all the work on The Flickcast took a lot of time, so other things were reprioritized in favor if that.
There’s nothing wrong with Squarespace, by the way. They’re great. I just don’t need to be paying them when I already have a server of my own that can handle the content and traffic. Plus, these days I mostly upload photos to Instagram and Flickr (remember that?). So I don’t necessarily need a full portfolio website right now. Just a place to give out a bit of info.
Moving on. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but I’ve been playing a lot of D&D the last year or two, especially during the fun COVID times. Three times a week, currently. I mention this not to reinforce the fact that I’m a nerd. That’s a given and should require no further support of proof.
I mention it to showcase the fact I play on Twitch with a great group every Sunday night starting at 6PM Pacific. If you like D&D and enjoy watching people play it (just like the pros do on Critical Role) you should check out our stream. It’s pretty fun.
I’m sure I’ve got more things to talk about but this is already pretty long, so I think I’ll call it for now. But don’t worry, I’ll be back.
Until then, please get your shots and wear a mask. Don’t be an asshole. That’s not too much to ask, is it? I don’t think so.
Also, keep on being kind to each other. It helps. Thanks.
(Oh, I forgot to mention the above photo is one I took during my recent trip to Colorado and points West. It’s not really supposed to look that way but something happened while shooting and the film was exposed that way. But that’s fine, I think it looks kinda cool).
Some of My Recent Photographs
I’ve decided to eschew digital photography and return to simpler times and shoot film. Yes, film. It’s still around. In fact, it’s around in a pretty big way.
Companies like Kodak and Ilford still make many different kinds of film. Actually, Kodak recently announced the return of the venerable Ektachrome and several other companies are coming out with new film stocks too. Plus, more and more pros, semi-pros and amateurs are shooting film again or trying it out for the first time.
It’s a great time to be a film lover.
No, I won’t be abandoning digital completely. I still scan my film after it’s developed (a process I often do myself) and take the occasional photograph with my Fuji X100T or iPhone. Digital isn’t going anywhere.
But for the last six months or so, I’ve used film pretty much exclusively. Black & White, 35mm film in particular. I just like the way it looks and I like the camera I’m currently using: the Leica M6.
Check out some more examples of my recent work after the break. Of course, that’s one of mine at the top of this post and another one as the header for this site.
For even more, take a look at my Instagram devoted to film photography.
Some New Photos
Took these over the weekend. One more in my “California” series and one just because I thought it was funny. Taken with the iPhone 5 using Instagram.
Ups and Downs
Well, so much for the great “let’s post my Instagram photos to my blog automagically” experiment. If you’ve been following this site the last couple days, you know it went horribly wrong and resulted in lots of the same thing being posted over and over again.
Not good. Made even more not good by the fact that this site is setup to automatically update my Twitter with new posts and that’s set to automatically post to my Facebook. Not good times a hundred thousand.
So, that meant a lot of extraneous posts and a whole slew of bullshit I needed to deal with today in addition to the ever increasing pile I already have allotted to me. But I’m not unhappy.
However, to read this site or my Twitter or Facebook you might get the impression I’m disgruntled, angry or otherwise unhappy. Not at all.
In fact, I’m not disgruntled, rarely angry and thousands of miles away from unhappy. Just ask anyone who knows me well and they’ll tell you. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Welcome back. I tend to go the opposite direction of angry and in most cases, I just keep on being happy. I’m not saying I never feel down or sad, I do. Everyone does. Well, most everyone anyway. Probably not sociopaths. But they’re just weird.
Anyway, the truth is for a vast majority of the time I feel happy and I think life is pretty good. It has some ups and downs, sure, but to me that’s what makes it interesting.
Of course, I say this as an educated, white male living well above the poverty line in a city with great weather, great people and with a lot of opportunities for work, fun and to live life to the fullest. Yes, luck may be a factor too.
However, even with a lot of luck you still need to do something with the opportunities presented to you. You can’t just sit back and expect the world to come to you. It doesn’t work that way and at some point, if you’re still waiting, eventually you’re going to be disappointed.
The trick is to get out there and do something before that happens. That’s why I make sure I’m as busy as possible doing a variety of things that a love. I don’t want to look back later at my life and be an old man filled with regret (apologies to Christopher Nolan for cribbing that line).
That’s what helps me stay happy. It might not work for you but hell, it’s worth a try, right?
Let me know how it goes.
Photo Friday-ish
As you are probably aware, I’m in Las Vegas. Being in Vegas makes one a bit lazy about certain responsibilities. One such responsibility is updating this here website.
I am going to remedy that now. In fact, as I said previously, I’m going to try and post a few photos here on Fridays. Yes, I know it’s Saturday already, no need to write in.
Let’s just pretend it’s Friday for a minute and say I got these posted a couple hours ago, okay? Thanks. You’re a sport.
Also, I don’t know what any of these photos mean. I just took them when the mood struck. Plus, I’m always trying to improve and take photos using pretty much only the iPhone 4S.
Oh, on that subject, I picked up one of those lens attachments today (Friday) for the iPhone 4S. It’s the one from Olloclip. Haven’t had a chance to use it much but will be over the next few days/weeks. Stay tuned for a full report and the resulting photos.
In the meantime, enjoy.
2012 Update: Balance and Taking More Photos
As I’ve said before, I don’t make resolutions. However, for 2012 I decided to at least make some decisions about how I’m going to do things and how I’m going to live my life.
So far, it’s going well. I’ve managed to be more productive and also managed to enjoy some quality time doing as little as possible. I’m well on the way to achieving that balance I was looking for.
Another thing I would like to do more of in 2012 is take photos. With the iPhone 4S it should be very easy. The camera is great and there are several apps that help to make the pics look cooler. One is Instagram, which is what the pic above is.
I highlighted some of those apps and some of my latest photos in an earlier post. Now that 2012 is here, I’m going to be doing more with these apps and trying to take a few photos each day.
I’ve done this experiment before (taking a photo a day for thirty days I mean) and it seemed to go well. I will try to make it last longer this time around. We’ll see how it goes.
How’s your 2012 going so far?