Wikipedia states that Marin County, California, has, according to the 2000 census, the highest per capita income in the country and the third highest mean personal income. (Yeah. I don’t exactly know the difference either.) I’m not sure whether or not these data hold true in 2008. Whatever our actual rank, however, there’s no denying that I now live in one of the wealthiest places on earth. (Of course, you can’t count Dubai.) And, the abundant natural beauty of Oregon notwithstanding, it’s likely I now live in about the most gorgeous place I’ve ever been.

 

One of the facts of life here is that everything costs more. Sometimes a lot more. When I moved to Marin in July 2007, I was a victim of extreme sticker shock. My rent here is 250% of my last place in Oregon. (Of course, the view from my patio is incredible.) I still often cringe when I check out at the grocery store. And it’s been my experience that restaurant eating is outrageous.

 

Another element of life in Marin is that you don’t really see that many homeless people. When you take a trip into the city, of course, that’s a whole different story. But here...they’re largely invisible.

 

However, as I mentioned in my last essay, times are changing. Even here, evidence of the current economic crisis exists. At an intersection in the northern part of the county yesterday, I saw a man standing, with his dog, holding a sign that said “FORECLOSED. EVICTED.” (Along with some other smaller print that I could not read.) As I was driving, passing by him at the corner, I handed him some cash...something I admit: I do not normally do.

 

I filled up my car with gas yesterday, too. Now, because I live so very close to work, and don’t do that much other driving these days, I fill up only once about every three or four weeks. Two fill-ups ago, I paid $4.51/gallon. Yesterday, I paid $2.11. Yes, I filled up my tank for less that 50% of what it cost me in early October.

 

I also saw a front-page article in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday which reported the state’s unemployment rate had risen to 8.2% in October, up from 7.7% in September and 5.7% in October 2007. Here in the Bay Area things are not quite as bad, with the unemployment rate for San Francisco at 6.0% and in Marin County, 4.9%.

 

Of course, what the stock market has done to my plans for retirement has been incredibly emotional to deal with. It was going to be tough enough anyway...now...who knows? “Retirement” may forever remain only a vague theoretical construct in my life.

 

Still, I know I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know: we’re in deep economic doo-doo in this county. And it’s going to take herculean efforts to dig our way out. I have faith that our new leadership, coming into office on January 20, is up to the task. In the meantime, I fear things are probably going to get a lot worse before they get better.

 

It’s been three full years since my first blog entry on Thanksgiving Day 2005. As I reflect on the Thanksgiving holiday coming up this week, I’m thankful for the supportive people in my life (including my new Twitter “friends”), that my health continues to improve (there’s evidence of getting stronger and stronger every week), that I remain employed, and that I live in such a blessedly beautiful part of the world.

 

Finally, during this holiday week, special love and hugs go out to Browyn & Corey, Grace & Kaleb, Tobin & Tanya, Ryan & Colby, Anne & Pete. And to my soul-mate in Portland; you know who you are.

 

It seems strange to admit at this point, but, with regard to my enthusiasm for the candidacy of Barak Obama in the 2008 presidential race, I was actually a “late comer.” It was in February 2007 that I first made some observations here about the Democratic candidate field, praising John Edwards for both his honesty and his astute policy messages (after an appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher). And, right up until the time he dropped out of the race, during the California primary in February of this year, Edwards was my guy.

I happen to have mailed in my California primary ballot the same day Edwards abruptly withdrew. So, that’s how I spent that particular vote. After that happened, I had to go shopping for another Democrat to support...but the decision, for me, was a no-brainer. Who was really left at that time that had any viability? Well, Hillary and Barak. And Hillary wasn’t really an option. She just wasn’t. Plus, I had been watching Obama during the entire campaign; he had been impressing me more and more, with everything he said (in that endless stream of early debates) and in every primary victory.

 

What did I see in Barak Obama, the guy with the funny name? Well, a true leader. Someone, like Edwards, I believed I could trust. Someone with whom I shared the same basic realities about, and aspirations for, the nation. Someone who could bring about real, and desperately needed, change.

 

I just knew he was going to be our next president. And I felt great about that. What a difference he could make for us! What a healthy, delightful and delicious contrast he would be to “W”!

 

From the time of the California primary to the late-summer conventions, I became more and more of a political junkie and an Obama enthusiast. In addition to the “fake news” updates I got every night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I began watching a lot of MSNBC’s coverage of the campaign. Keith Olbermann became a favorite. And, then, they gave Rachel Maddow her own hour adjoining Olbermann. Wow, two hours a night on MSNBC and a half hour on Comedy Central. I couldn’t get enough!

 

I watched all four nights of both nominating conventions. Not exactly the high drama those events used to be, but I was thrilled with Obama’s pick of Joe Biden and the massively-attended acceptance speech outdoors in Denver. And I was appalled at things like Rudy Giuliani’s rambling, inflammatory speech and McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin. (A “laugh-out-loud choice,” commented Rachel Maddow immediately.)

 

Then, there was the remainder of the campaign: several weeks of surprise after surprise, including an economy that was increasingly going down the toilet and one sadly-idiotic remark after another from Palin. I watched the four debates, and “hacked” my way through all of them. I sent out many, many tweets, in real time, during those events and even had one appear on national television on the Current Network.

 

Finally, finally, came election day. And night. I had voted by mail two weeks earlier, so no line-standing for me. Alas, I had to be on campus that night to work, but was able to follow a lot of the early coverage on MSNBC, live, online, in my office. The early returns had me wondering. Kentucky went to McCain right off. Well, no surprise: except I had a difficult time imagining anyone voting for McCain/Palin!

 

In the end, of course, everything turned out just fine. Obama was declared the projected victor while I was in a classroom, away from the coverage. But I made it home in time to see McCain’s concession speech. And, finally, saw in him a candidate I could respect.

 

The scene in Grant Park was amazing, as was Obama’s victory speech. We’re going to be having a different kind of national identity from now on, I’m guessing. And it’s about time! Our eight-year nightmare with Bush is about over. America. Has. Awakened. (!)

 

Soundtrack Suggestion

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.

(“The Times They Are A-Changin’” – Bob Dylan)

Having a parent die is certainly an event that leads to some serious thinking about one's mortality. And thoughts about simply aging keep emerging: prompted by other, much-more-subtle incidents as well.

To wit: I've had another encounter with the whole "senior discount" thing!

As you might recall, a couple of years ago I talked about the kid at the Subway shop who asked if I wanted the senior discount. (I said: no thank you very much.) Then, last year, I had another, similar experience at Noah's Bagels when one of the employees simply rang me up with the senior discount.

Well, this whole issue has been raised again at Noah's.

Last weekend, one of the employees who had been automatically giving me the discount, said that the manager now indicates that they can only do so when the customer asks. I said, "OK." But I knew that I would have a difficult time actually going there. It's one thing to be extended the courtesy. And another entirely to have to ask for it. (Which, of course, is something the management would know.)

Monday morning, I tried it out. Another employee rang me up and, at the end of the transaction, I requested the senior discount. He had rung me up for months without it and, when he raised one eyebrow, I explained, "one of the other folks told me this weekend that I could ask for it."

First, he rang it up. Then, he said, "could I see your ID please?"

I wasn't entirely sure I had heard him right. I replied, "huh?"

He repeated it. I had heard him correctly. Stunned, I started to reach for my wallet, whereupon he said, "just kidding."

I said, "oh, very funny."

But it wasn't. I was reluctant to do this in the first place. Then, the first time I ask, I am "kiddingly" harassed.

 
I won't be doing that again, anytime soon at least.

So, I guess I'll have to reinstate that portion of my "aging-gracefully" policy which says: tell no one of your "senior" status.

Soundtrack Suggestion

Will it go round in circles
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky
Will it go round in circles
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky

("Will It Go Round In Circles" - Billy Preston)

I found myself, during the last week, once more trying to explain the phenomenon of Twitter. For as many times as I've tried to describe what it means to have a Twitter account, to be engaged in that kind of online activity (and the corresponding concepts of "tweets," "followers," and "following"), I was met yet again with blank stares and a "what's the point?" kind of attitude.

In response to such overt skepticism, or even contempt, I tried to make the point that the entire experience is mostly beyond words: that you really have to try it out for awhile to "get it." My attempts to communicate what "digital intimacy" and "ambient awareness" are all about have been largely unsuccessful. I guess it's a little like trying to explain any relationship - or any new technology. If you haven't been there or tried it, this new something (whatever it is, the totally unfamiliar), and you have no other life experience to compare it to...well, then, the whole thing sounds rather bizarre.

In addition to the words I just listed above, there seem to be other, equally-unfamiliar terms dominating the lexicon in this area. One new one to me was the phrase "social media." This keeps coming up over and over, and there are a quite a number of individuals on Twitter who claim to be social media "experts" or "consultants." Huh?

So, I had to do some research. Wikipedia informs us that social media

• are primarily Internet-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences.
• can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few. Examples of social media applications are Google Groups (reference, social networking), Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Facebook (social networking), Youmeo (social network aggregation), Last.fm (personal music), YouTube (social networking and video sharing), Avatars United (social networking), Second Life (virtual reality), Flickr (photo sharing), and Twitter (social networking and microblogging).

I guess what all this means is that the ubiquitous opportunities we have for interaction with other human beings via the internet, and the technologies associated with such contact are, in sum, lumped into the term "social media." It stands to reason that we'd now have developed an entire subset of individuals who specialize in facilitating such contact and are involved in the concomitant technologies.

Given all this, it would seem that I have been heavily involved in social media for years now [namely email, the Google photo-groups I belong to, instant messaging (including text-messaging via phone), this blog, Flickr, Facebook, Match.com, LinkedIn, and most recently, Twitter]. I just didn't know it.

And in terms of my biography, this all makes total sense. When it comes to new technologies and ways of communicating, I remember that, at first, I was pretty mystified, back in the 1980s, with the concept of the "personal computer." Even though I'd been programming on mainframes since the early 70s, I thought: a computer at home? Really?

But then I met the Apple IIe, and more specifically the program called "VisiCalc." From the moment I started playing around with magic of that spreadsheet software, I was pretty much hooked. Then, the true moment of personal-computer conversion came the first time I laid my hands on a Macintosh (sometime within the first year of its existence). As I fooled around with the graphics capabilities of the machine, the WYSIWYG interface, and the ease of use of the mouse, I was enthralled. My reaction was I have to have one of these. The Mac Plus was way beyond my financial means at the time, but I wasn't to be denied. Just one week later (after refinancing my car), I owned a Macintosh. All it took was the exposure and a little familiarity: and that little box with a tiny screen started to change my life. The Mac Plus was likely the real genesis of my metamorphosis into TechnoMonk.

However, in the present day, for years I had resisted the idea of the social networking sites. Weren't MySpace and Facebook primarily for angst-ridden teenagers and college kids struggling to find connection? What did these kinds of internet destinations have to do with me, anyway?

However, as I have described earlier, I finally, this last summer, tried Facebook. And, because of the "status update" feature there, I was led to Twitter. Through Twitter, I have now developed a sense of being part of an online community. I have generated an awareness of this collection of individuals, some of whom I "know" better than others - either because of the frequency of their posts or how they use their allotted 140 characters to communicate their lives. And, since I have developed a number of "followers," they must be getting some kind of a sense of me. As of today, I follow over 90 people and there are over 60 individuals who receive my regular, periodic updates...with a number of them already having commented on my entries, either publicly or privately. Apparently some of them, at least, are paying attention to me and my life. So far, the experience with Twitter has been much more interactive and satisfying that my three years of blogging have been.

I had envisioned this blog would attract a few followers, and it has. A very few. (Who are you, oh person in Oman?) However, only a small percentage of you who check-in here interact with me in any meaningful way (at least through the blog). My expectations, in that regard, have not been met. This website does allow me a place to publish these little essays I feel compelled to produce, though. And, for that reason, I anticipate I'll remain a blogger, even though more and more of my energy will go into the microblogging activity of Twitter.

(Final note: For another person's perspective on the appeal of Twitter, and the decline of the weblog, read the recent online Wired Magazine article by Paul Boutin entitled "Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004.")

The entire world seems to be in a falling-apart mode right now…despite the news of the day, today, that the stock market has rallied dramatically. My work life, this semester, has been quite emotionally exhausting. The economy is one big gut-check experience after another. And it’s beyond belief that Sarah Palin is using rhetoric so inflammatory that it’s feeling like an old-time lynch mob is about to form.

Now, it the midst of all the election, economic and work frenzy, comes word that I need to head back to the Midwest for Dad’s funeral.

Soundtrack Suggestion 

It don’t come easy,
You know it don’t come easy.
It don’t come easy,
You know it don’t come easy…

(“It Don’t Come Easy– Ringo Starr)