Wordless Wednesday 04/18
*Will the snow ever end? That is almost 15" of snow that fell over the course of 48hrs this past weekend (April 2018, Minnesota)*
4am wake up to fly again. Will be sad to leave this weather, I feel like it is actually Spring here.
📍TownePlace Suites by Marriott Raleigh CaryWeston Parkway, Cary
Airport seems eerily quiet tonight…
“Bandwidth” by Eliot Peper
Bandwidth by Eliot Peper (@EliotPeper) is definitely another page turner by one of my favorite authors.
*I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy to read but I also bought the Kindle version as well so needless to say it is definitely worth picking up as I still bought my own copy 🤷♂️. *
Bandwidth wastes no time from the first page dropping you right into the action as it captivates your imagination of a world not that far into the future. You will quickly figure out that the main character Dag Calhoon, a lobbyist representing high-powered tech and energy executives, starts questioning the world he has been helping create. In this world, every person has a “feed” (like social media) that is always in people’s minds and is integral to how the world works. As the story evolves, Dag stumbles upon a group of activists that have hijacked people’s feeds in order to sway public options and global markets. He eventually is faced with big decisions as he tries to figure out what is right/wrong and whom to trust.
I would say Eliot has done a good job in changing the types of books I have been custom to over the past couple of years. Where three years ago I would have said I read more Mystery or Action-Adventure and typically would have stayed away from Sci-fi type books. This book (like some of his others) is not what I would consider your typical Sci-fi books but more “near-term sci-fi” as it seems more within reach in the next decade.
The Future feels closer than you think these days
Even though this is a future-looking book, with everything in the news these days around political, environmental, and social media control issues it almost seems closer than you think. This book has them all and intertwines them into a great page-turning novel. As always with Eliot’s books, this is a very fast-paced story with a lot of twists and turns to make you really think. Not to mention the precision of detail he puts into describing the situations, buildings, food, and drinks that paints a perfect picture of what you should be seeing. Finally, I appreciated the short chapters as I always find myself with interrupting children when finally find time to sit down and read.
I really can’t recommend this book enough and as always don’t want to give too much of it away. So I would suggest you go pick up a copy today!
To make sure you don’t miss out on his next books and sequel to Bandwith titled Borderless, be sure to follow him on Twitter (@EliotPeper) and subscribe to his newsletter from his website (http://www.eliotpeper.com/).
As I mentioned I have read some of Eliot’s books before and wrote about them so if you are interested to check out some of his other books go for it as you won’t be disappointed! Here are a couple: True Blue (A Short Story), Neon Fever Dream, Uncommon Stock: Power Play and Uncommon Stock: Exit Strategy.
Thirty-Seven
Wow is it really that time again? Time to end another year and start the next.
It really seems strange to say goodbye to 36 and hello to 37. I think saying 37 seems so odd to me as it is that much closer to 40 and 30 seems so long ago.
This past year was one of the big ups and big downs. The family road trip that we took from Minnesota to Maine last summer was a huge success and the kids had a blast. In fact, the fear of the 26-hour car ride was very eventless as there wasn’t much complaining by the kids (or parents) at all on the way out or the 2-day trek back. Our family is definitely ready to hit the road again and are making plans for a West Coast trip in 2019.
This past year I did do a good job of slowing my own busy schedule down in a couple of areas (Slowing Down to Redirect). I am going to continue to focus on this going forward as I want to challenge myself in the time I spend in various side/volunteer projects and make sure I am getting out of it what I would expect.
However, this year brought on more sadness as 13-year-old Yorkshire Terrier PJ passed away and now for the first time in 14 years, we don’t have any pets in the house. It feels very quiet and I do miss having a four-legged friend following me around from time to time but I am not ready to get another one yet.
Additionally, not long after that, I had to say goodbye to my Grandma as well. It is not the first death I have ever had to deal with but it was one of the firsts where I actually went to see her days before and tell her goodbye in person. When the person is completely coherent and knows she is waiting for the time, it makes it that much more surreal when you take a step back. There is always things you wish you would have done with the person or talked to the person about before that point but it give you one last chance to say something to them that you know they are hearing and responding to you about.
Right after both of those sad events, I pretty much boarded a plane and had to spend two weeks in Germany on a work trip. I felt bad leaving my wife and kids for so long but it was an experience that I really enjoyed and can’t wait to take my wife to Germany in the future. Almost all of the trip was work-related but over the weekend I spent my time in Cologne which was amazing. It is mind-blowing how much history can be in one city and how far back some of the buildings (and ruins under the city) date. My last whole week in Germany was spent working in our Berlin office, that also was also very interesting as there is so much history in that city from WWI, WWII and the Berlin Wall. In fact, it was interesting just talking to the people at my company that lived through the time the wall was up and how it affected their families.
Towards the end of 2017 and into the start of 2018, my new word that will carry me through is focus. I guess you could say year 37 will be the year of focusing… On what you ask? Nothing particular and everything :)
I am looking forward to what 37 will now bring to me I know there will probably be new adventures and changes of some sort. Describing it as the year of focus will definitely mean that certain things will need to change as I am focusing in on various areas of my life that are most important to me. As always some changes will be quick and others will be a long game approach but setting the steps today for later down the road.
I look forward to checking in next year…
Wordless Wednesday 03/07
Beautifully lit Gothic architecture (Cologne Cathedral, Germany - February 2018)
Let’s go Wild! #mnwild
Time to head home after a quick stop in Amsterdam
So much history here in Berlin, I have had fun quickly seeing the sites in the city but finally time to leave.
Blogging Meetup - Year 2 Project Check-in
Year 2 has come and gone… As I am excited to see another year of people using the Blogging Meetup, I hold back a little bit as I know I have been very distanced from it in the last year as I was working to prioritize various extra projects in my life last year.
Look back at Year 2
My thoughts haven’t changed though as I really enjoy this little side project and I intend to keep it around. In fact, as of today, we have 450 people registered on the site. That is up 67 from last year where we had 383 users on the site. Maybe when we hit 500 we should have an online party :)! Now only because I am a numbers guru I want to show you the stats of the last two years by month. As you can see it is trending down and in about August last year it started declining faster. In fact, February this year looks like it will only be about half of last year.
Peeling back the Numbers
I didn’t need to dig into the site stats to produce the chart above as I already had an idea of what the results were going to be. If you have looked at the site a couple of times in the last months it is mostly the same handful of people posting over and over. Not that there is nothing wrong with that as I am glad people are using it as established and it seems like there is another handful of users that look at the site on a daily basis. However, I still find it troubling that there is less engagement on the site than I hoped there would have been. Though for that problem of engagement, I hold myself accountable for a good portion of the blame as I know that there need to be more “things” (e.g., prompts, events, topic discussions) or things to get people engaged in the site. In fact, over the past year, I slowly had forgotten to keep up with the Like, Follow, Share Monday prompts. I think that generated good engagement for readers and hopefully gave some bloggers a nice bump in stats are people were going to check out their site.
On the positive side of things, I was happy to finally finish the Members post page which is really just an RSS feed from all members sites. However, on the flip side, I am not sure if people have found it useful or worthwhile. Some of that is I am not able to get any stats from it so unsure if links are being clicked on or not.
Next Steps
So that brings me to today where I have been neglecting this site and trying to figure out what to do next. I would love to get feedback from anyone on what they think should be done with this site. Nothing is a bad idea as I still think a Blogging Community makes sense but maybe this implementation/version of it isn’t working anymore. Maybe the site needs to be more like a BuddyPress that can be more conversational, or forum-based like Discussion Board, or maybe even just a big Slack group.
In the short term, however, I am going to figure out a way to kick off the like follow share again but maybe I will try to incorporate it with the RSS feeds from members' sites in order to get people looking at something that is newly posted. Over the next several months I am going to really take a hard look at the Blogging Meetup and see where this site should be taken. I am going to hope for feedback from the community as I don’t want to just make this decision alone.
Summary
Year two was still a good year for the Blogging Meetup as people were still using the site as it was originally intended. However, during the beginning of year 3, it is time to figure out what the next chapter of this site is going to look like to make sure it is still meaningful to everyone going forward.
What do you think the next year of the Blogging Meetup should look like? Would you like to help it grow?
Good Morning Berlin.. #sunrise #travel #germany
I had some great tour guides while I was in Cologne. In just my short time there I felt like I learned a lot and really enjoyed Lucy and Hajo’s company as well.
Good Morning Cologne from the top of the Dom. First one to the top today of the 533 steps! ð #kölnerdom #germany #travel
Looking good at night Kölner Dom
Thinking about and missing these two great pups today as it is # NationalPetDay
Waiting for the next flight today.. or is it tomorrow already ð #flying
See you later MSP.. #flying #travel
