I have a big box stored under my desk full of nearly-new notebooks. Plain ones, lined ones, leather-bound ones, loose-leaf ones : you name it and I have bought it from a stationers' shop. I have a weakness for new notebooks which probably has its' roots in some deep Freudian malaise ... but it is too early in the morning to examine that kind of thing.
I can't start a new project without acquiring a new notebook : and because I start (and quickly abandon) new projects with the rapidity of a pigeon pecking corn, I have a lot of notebooks with just a few used pages. "Tear out the used pages and re-use the notebook", I can hear you saying (well I can't hear you saying that, not in any real sense, not like I can hear Amy the Dog speaking to me, but you know what I mean), but that never works. It is the newness of the book that attracts rather than the potential of the project. I suppose I am a Marshall McLuhan kind of guy : for me the medium is so often the message.
With the coming of the computer age, little has changed other than the fact that the notebooks have been joined by their digital cousins. I plunge into the world of Facebook, swim a length, pull myself out, dry myself off, and make a bee-line for the Twitter Pool. My new iPad is already full of Apps that can record, systematise, analyse and sanitise almost any thought I may have (indeed, I suspect I have more Apps than thoughts, and as I progress towards serious old age, I will have more Apps than brain-cells).
So when my good Blogging friend John Hayes offered me an invite to sign up for the new Google+ networking system, I jumped at the chance. Who knows, Google+ may be the answer to all my problems, Google+ may help me to speak to the world with a clarity that commands respect. If nothing else, it provides me with an opportunity of getting one up on some chap I might be standing next to at the pub. After he has told me about his prize marrows, or the success of his football team, or the perspicacity of his offspring, I can always turn to him and say, as I gently sip my pint of Black Sheep, "Are you on Google+ yet?"
To the select few within my circle of friends on Google+ I apologise for my fumbling efforts with the system so far : things should get better as I discover what I am doing. To the select many who are not part of my circle of friends, please take pity and be-friend me, I am a lonely old man. To those not on Google+ yet I have but one thing to say to you - losers!
Oh to be part of an exclusive 'set', Alan. I tried to sign up, and was asked to leave my details and wait. After lunch with a friend, earlier this week, I discover that it's by invitation only, until the big roll-out. I'm still waiting...in hope.
ReplyDeleteMartin : An invite is winging its way to you as we speak. If anyone else wants to come on board just let me know (and let me have an e-mail)
ReplyDeletehave yet to join...one more thing for me to check you know...maybe soon enough...
ReplyDeleteI will have to check out this Google+ as Facebook is leaving me rather bored at the moment. But if this summer is any indication of how fast I do things, it'll be next year before I check it out and it'll probably be passe by that time.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm... I've had several invitations to Google+ and I've ignored them. I'm already on Facebook, LinkedIn, and MyLife, I really don't need to be on another social networking site; I have far too many places to check in on every day to add another one.
ReplyDeleteAlan, I am also a collector of notebooks, although a good many of them tend to be the fancier bound journals. I keep different ideas and information in different notebooks and always have at least one with me at all times. I haven't tried Google+, although I hear it's been very well received.
ReplyDeleteNothing like a new notebook to stir the imagination and feel brand new. All the possibilities waiting to reveal themselves! I have had to show some restraint....
ReplyDeletere: Google+. I do not succumb to peer pressure as readily as in the past, but I do thank you for the chuckles....
signed,
Lovable Loser
I was on Facebook for a year, and left because it was a time-sucking bore 90% of the time. I hated having to read through 47 YouTube videos, and "updates" like "I just put my son to bed" before finding something a friend was doing that I really cared about.
ReplyDeleteI'd write more, but truth be told, I think your post may have inspired one of my own!
My initial impression is that Google+ is a much better version of Facebook. Glad to see both you & Martin there!
ReplyDeleteHmmm had a look, looks rather interesting. Not big on Facebook and would like to see it lose some steam, should be fun to watch the battle between the two at least.
ReplyDeleteToo many commitments on my time, I'm afraid, to peruse the halls of yet another virtual reality. As it is I'm cutting back on my on-line presence. Oh to be retired!
ReplyDeleteWho is this Van Bergen chap? Sounds a sensible cove.... if somewhat absent minded.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to check this out, too. I'm not on FB and I don't Tweet; What is the difference between this and Facebook?
ReplyDeleteYeh Im a loser. My old Mac won't let me download it and my PC at work bans everything personal . . .see you on Facebook
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the notebooks. Not sure I can cope with another new network though. ("I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member"...!)
ReplyDeleteWell, for a lonely old man, you sure are a handsome electronically savvy one! :)
ReplyDeleteOne blog is all I can handle! You're a better multitasker than I!
Or maybe I just have more housework to do than you!
lol....
I haven't come across Google+
ReplyDeleteI too am a notebook fanatic which I think came from schooldays ... didn't we all love a new exercise book and didn't we all do our best handwriting on the first few pages?
I am a Facebook member but inane comments are so wearisome I quickly take leave of absence. I don't like being bombarded with links to people I don't know or want to know. I hate crowds at the best of times!
Every fall when the school supplies comes out in stores, I can't resist going up and down the aisles and take a whif of the scent of new notebooks, pencils, etc. There is definitely a smell that emits from them, and I can not resist buying a little notebook, small enough so that it will be full in no time, (or at least till the new supplies comes out the following year....
ReplyDeleteHa! I've landed here (after the fact) because of Martin's recent post, and I'm on Google+ because of our mutual friend, John Hayes. (I've got all three of you in my "Circle".)
ReplyDeleteStill muddling through though. I have been rather self-indulgent with posting a video, a few links and a couple of comments (some of you may have found them entertaining - at least my mother laughed when I said them first to her).
My biggest problem with it all so far is an inability to direct my "people" into the appropriate circle. Thus, I've landed a few acquaintances in the "family circle" and was a struggling to get them out! (All is well now.)
I'm pretty sure I'll persist with it. Like you, Alan, I lean towards the McLuhan angle as well and have scads of those notebooks of which you speak. (No moleskine though - too pricey!)
Kat
Oh my such harsh words to us in the dark. I don't twit either but maybe I should find a way to communicate that will add to my many ways to just write.
ReplyDelete