I have not written anything for a while. I am going to try to get back into it. The problem is that my health is still pretty bad. We will see.
I have another new technology—Mobile Wifi. I got it as an alternative to buying a new cellphone. I first bought a Nokia Internet Tablet on Ebay. I got it for about half price—and it turned out to be in excellent condition. I got a little mifi hotspot for one cent and a 40 dollar per month data plan.
I can make calls on it using Skype. Since my business number is a Skype call-in, that means, essentially, that my mobile number is the same as my business number. I can also do email and unlimited free texting using Google Voice. I can also browse the web and use email. In short, I can do all the fancy stuff without paying a big price. Since I do not use a cell all that often, the limited plan will do fine. I also get free wifi at all Verizon hotspots—mostly hotels and Starbucks. It is generally pretty easy to find a Starbucks in NJ. I tested it at the local Starbucks and it works great.
I just happened to notice that you can embed videos in blogs with Windows Live Writer, the blogging software I use. I am going to use this blog post to test this feature. I looked and it obviously does not work on my website, though it does appear if you go directly to the blog.
I can post a video outside the area where the blog is embedded, at the bottom of the page. Take a look.
I am really enjoying this application. It can be had at the Hootsuite site. It is basically a social media dashboard. I have mine set up so that I can post to my Facebook account, my fan page, my twitter account, a fan page for a client, a client’s twitter account, several other pages I administer and my Linkedin account, all in one place. I can post the same thing on multiple locations. And I can set up posts to be delivered later in the day. It saves me a lot of time logging off and logging on multiple accounts. I really endorse this.
If you work with social media, this is good stuff.
Business is not so good—and it does not help that I am not either. I have been under the weather for several months. I have been concentrating on doing the writing I get paid for and letting everything else go. Oddly enough, I think that was not a good idea. It has in fact only made things worse.
Writing focuses me. It is something I do well and it makes me feel better about myself—and how you feel about yourself is an issue when you have an age-related mood disorder. I am going to update all my personal blogs and pages and try to keep them updated. I might even write some more poetry—like this:
Psalms 5
Somewhere, just before the end,
before spinning randomly myself in the wind
I will wear my earthly colors then,
shades more subtle than green
before spinning I descend
softly back to earth,
slowly in the wind.
I trust to rise again. I trust to rise again. I trust to rise again.
I keep looking at the recorders you can add to Skype to record both audio and video calls. At first, it was just a matter of wanting to record audio interviews to serve as a basis for articles. And then I started thinking about creating and posting recorded video interviews. It is pretty clear that web content is increasingly multimedia.
And, of course, I ran into the same problem I always seem to encounter with new technology. I cannot find an interview with someone knowledgeable about any of my subjects who also uses Skype. I know that the time will come for this, but it may be a while.
I do a lot of phone interviews and I have been experimenting with various ways of recording them. Google Voice provides a useful option, but, unfortunately, it only records incoming calls. In my experience, when you call someone to schedule an interview, they nearly always start saying things that you would like to use for your article. For that reason, I started looking for a way to record calls I make.
My first attempt was buying this microphone that you plug into your ear on one end and a digital recorder on the other. I used it once or twice and the sound quality really sucked. Then I got really strange. I discovered that I could use the podcasting feature on FirstClass software to record Skype phone calls—after messing with the sound settings on the computer. It worked fine, but it took several steps to set it up.
I then discovered that my Digital Wave recorder comes with software that allowed me to record sound directly on my computer—as long as the recorder is plugged in. If I use Skype to make my calls—and I usually do—I can record both incoming and outgoing calls with a couple of mouse clicks. Finally!
I haven’t been able to keep this up for a while. I have been sick, for one thing. Old age is catching up with me. I have also been looking for work—and I guess we all know how hard that is right now. Well, it is particularly hard if you are 63 and not in good health. For the first time in my life, there are things that I just cannot do.
I don’t really have anything that could be called a career. I moved from running residential treatment centers for children and youth to writing to managing social media. I have always had some new direction, something new to do. It saddens me to think that this has to end at some point—and I think that the time has come.
Anyway, I can always have a little fun with my own blog—and I plan to do just that.
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