There are times when I really despise the blogosphere.

• There are a lot of nasty things going on between people that were supposed to be the positive, forward-thinking blog network (that’s b5media and the departure of Duncan Riley. I’m tired just reading the stuff. Google or Technorati it, it’s not hard to find…)
• There’s speculation upon speculation and rumour and it’s all just crap.
• There are a lot of very picky people around making life way too hard for the people that are helping make them quite a lot of money.
• On a personal note, it’s still impossible for me to comment on any of b5media’s websites, including the main one, so I’m just going to give up altogether on it.
• I don’t like VCs
• Blog Network Watch have given up reporting anything going on at the Blue Fish Network. No biggie, but odd.

So I’ve decided that I am not going to read any more metablogs – or blogs about blogging or all the trappings surrounding it – because it’s really just too depressing, and there aren’t enough hours in the day.

I’m going to be spending my blogging life in more niche surroundings where people seem friendlier. And I’m going to spend my spare time discovering faith, playing the piano, spending time with my wife, my cat, and my friends, and just enjoying being alive.

Honestly, I’m vicariously experiencing other people’s stress… and I was almost holding out for a “Duncan Riley World Exclusive” from 1938 Media, but then I thought… stuff it, I just can’t be…, yeah whatever.

Good luck everyone involved. Hope you work something out. I’m tired…

I was reprimanded yesterday for using ‘ipodisation’ in an article I’d written about iPods continuing to dominate the world.

Apparently, according to the one who knows best, “It’s a horrible, fake word”

Granted, it’s not in the English dictionary, but I neither think it’s horrible nor fake. It encompasses a societal trend, and readers know what it means.

At least, they must do, because the Denver Post and Seattle Times, amongst others, have used it—and without quotation marks.

Every now and again I find myself reminiscing about people that I went to school with, or church youth group, or university, or work, or summer community project.

The people I dated (not many), the people I wanted to date (many), the people who wanted to date me (I am guessing not many…)

The people I laughed with, cried with, drank pints of orange juice or beer with, spent lazy summers with, grew up with, prayed with, listened about their latest break-up with, walked their girlfriend home because they were too tired and all the time I… hang on that’s getting way too specific…

The Christmases, the New Years, the weddings, the camping trips, the school trips, the school pranks…

The first kiss, the first break up, the intercontinental relationships, plane trips, train trips, car trips, coach trips, some filled with joy, some with sadness…

And the more I reminisce about one person, the more others pop into my head, until I’m reliving occasions, and then taking time trying to remember all the names, all the places, all the emotions.

And wondering if I’ll ever meet or even talk to some of them again. Even, perhaps, if they’re all still walking the earth, somewhere…

Yes, reminiscing is a real mixed bag. Sometimes I wish I could just click my fingers and be transported to a room with all the people I’ve ever known. Man, that would be interesting.