It's funny how the internet can turn "doing nothing" into producing "something". Sort of like high-tech whittling, I suppose.
So, there I was, spending my Easter weekend trying to do as little as possible, when in an idle net-moment, I started on a chain of links and posts and feeds and stuff which finally led to the feeling I had actually done something (note -- I haven't said something of value, just "something"). Damn! I just wanted to do nothing!
Reading some tech news, I saw the line about Leo Laporte leaving Twitter and going to Jaiku. I kind of like Twitter -- it's interesting to leave a little trail of yourself, taking note of the ordinary parts of life we might otherwise forget. I also liked the idea of seeing the ordinary things others around the world are up to -- a small reminder of our connectedness and of how small the globe has become.
Anyway, having heard about Jaiku, I surfed off to see what it had to offer. Well, for a start, it just looked a bit nicer. Then I saw the comments, and realised it was much more social than Twitter. Next, I played with the feeds, and realised there was a way to create a slightly more comprehensive trail of net-litter. That's what really got me going...I came back to my vox site, and made a bit more of it. I tripped over to my tumblr log and posted a few small things. Finally, I put some work into another neglected blog and suddenly I felt like I was using rather than playing with a bunch of technologies.
I used to feel a bit guilty that I kept registering/creating accounts and sites, but never did much with them. Guilty only in that I so often read great content on others' sites, but despite having the capability, I couldn't come up with even a few little things for my own sites. Now, after one productive day of nothing I can see that what could work for me is being able to compartmentalise the content a bit. Each site has it's uses: a small curio goes on the tumblelog, a short lifenote goes on Jaiku, a longer rant goes here, and so on.
Here goes nothing!