DygiScape

Things are finally starting to roll with my transfer to Northern Virginia. My company is really good about trying to make things run as smooth as possible. I said my goodbyes to my supervisors and my co-workers at my building, and definitely excited to be moving forward with my career.

Second, I am happy that Sarah is able to move too. She means everything to me and we really hit it off. It was rapid, but I suppose spending four days with her and her parents I’ve been induced as family. I am happy that I can take a girl on a date to a NHRA race and she is as content as I am. Just in case you’re wondering we’ve been interested in each other for a while now, and off and on for the past six months. Considering the mechanics of moving and how complex it can be - it will work out for both of us. Maybe not at the same time, but it will.

I’m expected to depart from Tucson sometime next week and get into the flow of things in VA and be reporting in for duty on the 15th or so. My new manager is very flexible and lets the owner of me take control. I appreciate that. The management style I’m accustomed to was strict adherence to time and they tell me what to do. This time around, it operates on a task-basis. She’s also very content with my flexibility thus far and heck, I’m glad she still talks to me from all the E-mails I sent her back and forth. I guess thats the cost of getting someone 2,398 miles away. All is well, I’ll be there, I’ll do well, and I will enjoy what I do.

Personal, Work Personal, virginia, Work

There is someone out there that is special to me. We both know it and won’t act; fearing the loss of a strong friendship. As you can tell, this posting isn’t tech related, so feel free to keep reading my other posts. However, if you want to delve into my over analytical thought process on my personal life, by all means continue.

To give greater context I need to explain a few things otherwise it gets all confusing. Wayyy back, last year Rachel and I really connected and we have each other backs. That has since transpired into, as she puts it, partners in crime. Which is fine by me; she has her significant other and she’s all happy. Nothing pleases me more than seeing a best friend content with their life. Where am I going with this? Rachel and I had/have a strong friendship and hence that was the C-Block within myself. My own internal conflict essentially locked me down from expanding further.

This someone special that I am referring to, is my new partner in crime. She is fun, outgoing, and very straight forward. Although she isn’t as geek as I am (I say that like I’m proud of it…) but she accepts me as I am. Geek or not, its all good. We’ve kind of been hit and miss over the past months where I wanted something more but I fear rejection and as an overanalytical thinker; I really lock down if I see any obstacles like flings, long-term plans, or when I trip over my own metaphors with her. Anyhow, we can be together watch movies and chill and I’ll be completely content to either doing nothing or going out drinking and having a blast.

Recently, my career is definitely moving forward and right now the clutch is down and I’m moving from second to third so to speak. With that in mind, I will be relocating to my company’s base of operations which is 2,398 miles away to the east coast. I’m ready for change, I guess 21 years in the same city can do that to you. This new position is what I love to do and will really let me capitalize on what I want to do with myself professionally. Finally, someone found me, and I took that opportunity. As of now, nothing offical on my move date but I want it soon; really all I want is another week here and off to Joe Manna 2.0.

Opportunities don’t knock on your door. They really don’t. It’s the ones who go out, take risks, accept responsibility, and go out and seek them. This holds true with my career, and well this special someone. This is my moment. Carpe Diem. I do the best everyday to seize the day in one way or another. Why wait for the future? Write it, make it, own it. All this change brings on self reflection and realignment of my life’s goals and with this special someone not too sure. I mean, before I drop that L word, I really need to know and get validation. Not all Owners can be owners all the time. Perhaps it’s just destiny. Perhaps, its just how the cookie crumbles in my life. Who knows. I guess that is my pet peeve is that humans are variable and being someone with so many constants in their life, that is my area to build on.

Well, that’s whats on my mind if any of you bloggers wanted to know. If that isn’t transparent enough; I don’t know what is.

CARPE DIEM.

Geeky, Personal, Work Personal, virginia

I haven’t been posting much on Netscape lately, it’s not that I don’t want to or that I am boycotting it; rather, just the reward aspect of that it had on me. I loved posting everyday numerous interesting articles and being apart of the machine that Calacanis created, but I have the feeling of “eh, why?”. More importantly is the demographics of Netscape users that doesn’t excite me as much.

I don’t mean this in a negative way, but if I wanted to see constant banter of politics or constant flaming - I would just turn on the TV and watch it there. It seems that what an older demographic is interested in is politics, specifically conservative values, and well I find that not exciting. On the other hand you will have a minority of the users post very volitile postings about completely liberal posting and that will cause constant fighting on Netscape.

I was in command of the Netscape Technology section based on my stats and also based on the fact that most of the stories in Tech were posted by me. It seems acceptable to Netscape’s staff (C.K. and Calacanis) that their paid Navigators aren’t necessarily contributing much other than ripping RSS feeds and posting them. That I find annoying. If I wanted ripped RSS feeds, I’d just use a feed reader such as Google reader. Coming back to demographics - not many of NS users care much for Technology, so therefore no real ‘community’ is formed in tech other than me and the NS Navigators.

Other than that, I still like Netscape, and would visit on a daily basis, but I feel overall they didn’t listen to their core users and that hurt them for the short term. Not listening to your users is always short term until others hear of it and have a mass exodus. From a user of netscape I found it almost insulting that Calacanis did not offer their tenured Netscape.com users the classic homepage back. People to this day, STILL rant about it. I know change is here, but not all people are willing to adapt to a newer style of news such as social news. I mean who wants to see their homepage filled with articles like “The terrorists win”, among a plethora of stories about pedophiles. Some people want spoon-fed AP-quality news.

Calacanis responded to the requests by saying that AOL.com has what the users want. It’s obvious many users aren’t satified with that. If anything, dissatisfied with AOL. The homepage is so “busy”, and ideal for repeat users who have taken the time to become accustomed to the website. It’s not for the typical tenured NS users. In case you haven’t used Netscape.com in a while, here’s what it looked like in March 2005:

Netscape.com - March 2005

Now for contrast and comparison is here is the current looking AOL.com and Netscape.com:

I can understand why some users like the classic. I mean, if I dont want things to change I would be upset. In any case, Netscape turned from a static website, to a dynamic news portal, ran by users instead of top news sources.

I shall return to Netscape later, when I’m more interested in posting stories.

‘Scape On…

Geeky internet, OpEd, social news