trasna.net

Thanksgiving

I like to think that I am thankful everyday. In reality I often fall into the trap of wanting more and not appreciating what I have. I was struck by the scenes on the news of people going out at 4 am and earlier to shop for things they really didn’t need. I try not to be judgemental but I think is is safe to say that the iPod, Zune or a plasma HDTV are not essential to anyone’s survival. But, of course, I may be wrong.

It is at least interesting that after a day of thanksgiving, we as a nation indulge shopping and consuming more and more right up through Christmas. I can’t believe how we have twisted these holidays to be all about us. Not about how thankful we are for what we have or how thankful we are for God’s grace. It is all about us. Damn!

Trasna: New Name->Same Blog

[Update 11/18/2007 12:50 a.m.] The migration is done. For the most part it went well. After setting up the blog I did an export from the old blog using the built in WP export function and then imported into the new blog. It worked well except the links did not come makeit into the new blog. So I’ll have to build them from scratch. I should have just worked directly with the databases. But, live and learn I guess. Anyway, Trasna is ready to go.

I an renaming my blog and will be migrating it to a new domain name. The blog will now be located at trasna.net. Trasna is an Irish word that means a place of crossing or transition. I will continue to post as Musyoka, my Kikamba name. But I wanted a blog title that carries a little bit of a different meaning. Seems like an appropriate name.

First Snow

The first snow had fallen in Syracuse. We experience all 4 very defined seasons in central New York. And I enjoy the change of seasons. Each one has its own unique qualities and its own beauty. Many people like to complain about the weather but I try to enjoy all different kinds of weather. I am glad the snow has arrived.

Ack-No Ack

It is interesting to me how people react based on how I look. Being African-American I may in some ways be overly sensitive to how some people react when they see me. That may be a reason I chose to wear suits even in high school. Now I am in a profession where I have some flexibility in my dress. I choose to wear suits mostly but sometimes I “dress down” to business casual or what I call my street clothes. I find it interesting how people react to me based on how I dress on a given day. I definitely get more smiles and nods and even utterances when I am wearing a suit than when I am not. When I am wearing “street clothes”, even when I smile, nod or utter first, very often my friendly gesture will not be returned.

Growing up in a small city in upstate New York it wasn’t unusual for two people passing each other while walking to be the only ones in that block. I always spoke to the person whether or not I knew them – somehow I felt compelled to be courteous. It never ceased to amaze me when the other person would not speak or even give a passing glance. I cannot for the life of me understand how and why people pass each other without speaking. I am not talking about being in a crowd and trying to speak to everyone you see. But if I am walking down a hallway for example and I am the only other person besides the person approaching me I feel compelled to speak. For as many times as the other person returns the acknowledgment (Ack) there are at least as many that they don’t (No Ack). Sometimes I find it funny (“ha ha” and “curious”) when I see people intentionally looking away because, I guess, they don’t want to have to say hello. Other times it just hurts.

Anyway, enough ranting for today…

Its Comin’ Together

The blog layout is lookin good. The headers are in place and the photogallery is coming together nicely. This K2 theme is really nice. It is very flexible and does just about everything I would want a theme to do. Once I finish uploading photos I’ll work on creating different styles for this K2 theme. In the mean time, please do check out my photogallery. There are still some issues with IE. The sidebar manager doesn’t work in IE but the developers are actively working on that for the 1.0 release. I have to say though, for a pre release, this theme works exceedingly well. I can’t imagine using any other one

Photographs, finally!

I have finally gotten my image gallery back on-line. I am using Gallery 2 and the WPG2 plugin for WordPress integration. There is still some tweaking and some wierdness in the IE browser that I need to figure out. But I am finally ready to upload all of my pictures. Stay tuned!

On being candid, open and honest when blogging

This is an interesting subject for me. Blogs are a place to share information with the world. That being said, if it s a blog about your personal life and thoughts, the question of what and how much to share are questions that must be answered. Before I go much further, let me say that I have no deep dark secrets. I would share almost anything in the right context and to the right people. But the question of what to share with the world is one I frequently ponder. On more that one occassion I have started to write something and have decided not to because I felt really uncomfortable about it or wondered what the repercussions would be in the long term.

I remember reading an article about what not to do in an interview. The audience for this article was professionals who were candidates for fairly high level positions. For the kinds of positions I am talking about there is a fair amount of background research done on candidates which may include some basic web searches. What stood out was the author said some candidates have no idea the blogs they have written would be evaluated. In some instances the writings were the deciding factor in disqualifying a candidate. I have also read some blogs where I could not believe what I was reading. Some of the things people will disclose about their personal lives just amazes me.

So just how candid, open and honest should one be when blogging? I say is you decide to write on a subject and your blog purports to be serious and “real” then candidness, openness, and honesty are a must. Being selective about what is written is a different story. I wouldn’t tell everyone about everything in my life. Some things are too personal and some are just not appropriate to write about. But then there is that gray world of rants. There is a lot of stuff that concern or annoy me and I may want to shout to the world. Some may be about my job, my church, and my friends. But I’ll be careful! Don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

Blogging for me

I have been thinking for some time about blogging. I have created blogs – some hosted on my own site and others hosted on free sights like Blogger and WordPress.com. In every case I have had a specific purpose in mind with hopes to be able to provide insight, clever thoughts, intersting commentary, scholarly writing, and other ways to draw people in to read my blogs. I have come to the conclusion that for me I cannot and have no desire to write with the purpose of drawing people in to read my writings. I am refocusing my intentions and only hope to put some thoughts down that are important to me. Writing for myself is intended to capture my thoughts at that particular moment in time and to help me explore what I am thinking or the provide some information about what interests me at that particular moment.

There are a myriad of things that interest me, that cross my mind, that make me go huh?, and that provoke me to some opinions that tell me a lot about who I am. Many of these things I intend to explore in some depth. Some are trivial, others are very deep and thought provoking (at least to me). So, here we go.

Where does this crap come from?

Every time I look there is a new toolbar stuck in my browser. Google, Ask, Yahoo… I DO NOT WANT THEM so please stop shoving them down my thoat!

Yes, I realize no one reading ths can really do anything about but it feels good to just say something.

Stretch and Yawn

It has been a while since I posted anything here. A combination of lack a lack of inspiration, desire time. But, here we go…