seattlejo.com

Its important to me that I don’t hide aspects of my personal life from those around me. Its one of the reasons that  I like having an open work place and I like being able to share new ideals with my friends. After all, I know that some lifestyles just arent common here in Seattle, and I hope through exposure that  people will be willing to support me in my alternative life style. I’m not sying that people have to participate, just accept me for who I am and realize that it enriches me and enhances me.
My alternative lifestyle?

I am Christian.

In Seattle, in my social circle, this makes me a minority. My friends tend to be Pagan , Agnostic or Atheists.  The fact that I am  polyamorous is no big deal. The fact that I am Christian is what gives them cause to pause.  I get more questions from the poly community on my Christianity, then I do from my Church on my Polyness.  It seems counter intuitive. After all, those in the poly community are used to tolerance and acceptance of other lifestyles right ? And Christians are used to being middle of the road , conservative and intolerant right? Funny  how that  hasn’t mirrored my experience.

So while I thought I’d spend time defending my lifestyle to my friends,  its not the battle I thought I would be facing.

Havent we been here before? Rembember Themestream or The Vines? 

Search for pay per click publishing, and there is a chance that I’ll appear in your search results ranting.
No need to go look right now, because I’ve got a brand new rant for 2006.

What is pay per click publishing?
Pay per click publishing is publishing work on a page where in return for a  number of  page views you receive a sum. A page view may be determined by a simple tracker, or by more sophisticated algorithms using article ranking and rating in determining how much change your article earns you.
Change. In the past it’s been equated to penny per 100 views.

What makes it evil?
Nothing makes it evil.
What makes it unattractive is the lack of editorial guidance, the low payout, and the ability to encourage bad writing.
The rank and ratings are the only editorial board.  People only rate good writing high right? Not from my experience.  While there is a subset of the population who will rate realistically, they are combated by those who believe that any effort should receive recognition, those who’s mothers taught them to say nothing if the couldn’t say anything nice. Lastly there are the reciprocators. These are communities, groups, networks and friendship circles all set up to help each other reach greater article rankings and more page views. Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

The empowerment of new writers is touching. "Anyone can be an author/writer/storyteller/expert" Sure anyone can churn out the written word, but should they be paid for it?  I’m all for writers having new outlets, I just think pay per click publishing is a bad one.  Look at the Fanfic * community for example, another prime outlet for new writers. Writers in Fanfic face some pretty tough critics, with fellow writers correcting cannon, grammar and logic
issues. Pay per click publishing does none of this, instead rewarding bad writing with pennies per click.

Why don’t I like it?
Other then the issues stated above, I think that pay per click publishing is unsustainable. Remember Themestream? About.com? The Vines?  Themestream and The Vines died a death all while owing money to writers. About still exists but the program is quite different then it used to be. Even Salon with its professional writers couldn’t generate enough clicks on their site, and had it implement a "paid subscription / day pass"  to either get money from their readers or advertising revenue.

I was a member at Themestream. I was staff at the Vines before they wilted. I’m a member at the new Pay Per Click publishing site "Gather" I’m shaking my head as history repeats itself at Gather. I just can’t imagine how they will be successful. You earn more points through page views, article ranking, and friend invitation and so on. Anyone else been spammed with group invitations from people they had never heard of?

Anyway, I’ve not published anything on Gather yet. Don’t know if I will. I’ve been enjoying sharing my reviews on YELP, and my rants here. Why add to it?
However if you feel the need to pay me "per click" my tip jar is always open.

*ignoring the household rule of "We write fanfic but we don’t read fanfic"

I’ve not been posting and have not been back to Church since the 29th. The Mexican Market fundraiser was busy and kept me very involved in church that weekend. I took a week off and now find myself immersed in the day to day life that goes on here, not that I didnt have a stack of reading. Not that I didnt finish two books by Brian McLaren

I just havent had much to say.

I waled back into church a little over  a year ago. I found a warm welcoming community, that took me in. Its a group that has welcomed me as a questioning Christian, and encouraged me to get involved. . I’m greatful for that, and I’m sure I’ll have more to say shortly. Its just a brief dry spell as I’ve been letting other commitments in my life overwealm the time I have set aside for church.

For those of us in the Seattle Area, Friday was Bike to Work Day, as sponsered by corporate conglomerate Starbucks. I got up early and was out of the house at 6:15 to bike down to the office for the second time in a week.  Stopped over by Greenlake at the tent set up. Got a free water bottle, a baby clif bar and a free bus ticket (?).  I then finished the ride into the office through Ravenna, to the U district.

It’s funny, I remember biking a lot as a kid. I remember biking around with Dan on my folks Tandem, I remember biking most anywhere I wanted to go, what I dont remember is being so tired after a ride. My rides in in the morning are one thing, the rides home on the other hand are kicking my butt. I’m taking a bus part way home and finishing the route.

Folks like Jim Carson get a standing ovation for their ability to tackle 19 miles. I figure its just out of shapeness that will go away gradually, but wow its really tough!

The funniest thing about being at the bike in station Friday morning was realizing how much of a beginner I am.  I didnt have nifty padded shorts nor a jersey from some nifty race. I walked around like a mortal in normal shoes.

On the other hand, when riding away from the bike station,  I wondered if this gear must affect common sense, because not a single person who rode with me down that way (and a number of them passed me ) used hand signals.

Sitting at my desk tonight I have music going, a laptop in front of me, books scattered around me and a kitten curled up sleeping behind me.  I have two browsers open seven tabs on average between the two, two mail programs and so much more.

Tonight I am flittering between social networking sites and productivity sites, between blogs and journals.

I have accounts at

• 6 degrees
• MySpace
• Friendster
• Multiply
• Orkut
• LiveJournal
• Blogger
• Classmates
• Typepad
• PolyMatchMaker
• OkCupid

Of these accounts I consider the following items actually active and regularly maintain them.

• LiveJournal (only one of the four I have are active, not counting communities)
• Typepad (3 blogs all considered active)
• Classmates (login every 6 months or so)
• Meetup. (I maintain 2 meetups and attend none)

All of these have special purposes and I choose to promote a few over the others.

Livejournal is  close to a diary, though  over the past year its become more of a public communication tool and a private diary then the public diary it used to be.

Seattlejo.com is a classic blog. My take on the world, shared with you. Arent you lucky

Seattlejo/cooking is about…. Cooking! And eating, and recipes and all sorts of food related things.

Seattlejo/jubliee is about church, my take on Christianity and my church in general. Yes I am Christian, and in Seattle in Poly. No these things are not automatically contrary to each other.

Classmates Has done less for me then my blog has. I’m amused that I can link to my father and cousin on classmates. My blog here actually put me into contact with someone I’d been looking for.

I maintain logins at a couple of other social networking sites designed to put poly people in touch with other poly people.

The rest of the social networking sites are just time wasters for me. I have the same handful of friends at each and find that I use none of them.

Friendster, Orkut, Mutliply, its all the same thing isnt it? MySpace reminds me of my Geocities days. Yet I maintain all these different sites, with the same identity at each, available for those who wish to find me and available for "Poking" "Wooing" or "Smiling"

But really, when do you give up? When  is there just too much going on , too much stimuli that you save I give up!

Modest Change on 43 Folders Talks about this in Cancel Something. "The important thing is to find at least one thing that’s become a noise generator, time sink, or attention sieve, and be rid of it. So really take one of those stimuli and remove it. Easier said then done though. I’m pondering my little list above and wondering where I really want to remove myself from.