Whoa! Was That a Hiatus?

Not sure how that happened — a blog gets published at least one per month for more than 7 years, then takes a 6-month hiatus.

I'm happy to report that there's no dramatic or dangerous set of events that have led to this blog running silent for all spring and all summer. If anything is the root cause of Sauntering going without a voice, it's the combination of a wonder-if-this-is-sustainable pace at work combined with becoming the father of two kids.

I'm negatively correlated with blogging!

This task remains rewarding, and I hope to return to it with greater gusto soon.

Yet Another Sign that the Economy is in Dire Straits

The number of people arriving at this blog after searching for something like Find Velveeta in Grocery Store has skyrocketed since the start of the year.

11/10/04: Find the Velveeta

You Can Take It With You

Last week, Blogger – the Google-owned entity that runs blogspot.com – announced an enlightened feature. Writers can now export their blogs in toto. As a result, bloggers can easily backup their writing or move their blogs to a different location, hosted by different vendors.

Such a feature is unfortunately rare for Web 2.0 applications, even as they grow into maturity. (One might ask, Where is the export button for Facebook?)

The addition of this feature settles a lingering doubt that I've had while I add to this blog: What should come of all this writing if Blogger decided one day to suddenly close its doors? Now that I can easily export and backup the entire blog, I have one less worry.

Thanks, Blogger.

Kids These Days

I like blogging (yesterday's social media), but like Garfield, I find aspects of the current generation of social media – namely, Facebook & Twitter – to be baffling.

I have a Facebook profile, for despite its many faults, it's a great way of keeping a persistent contact list updated by your contacts. They change their email addresses, etc. so you don't have to.

The problem with Facebook is that it infantilizes adults. No, I don't want to be a zombie, or a pirate, or learn what Smurf I am, or play fake Scrabble with you. I'm 31. I have a baby. It just ain't worth my time.

Twitter's another matter entirely. I created a Twitter account for this blog weeks ago, but never bothered to update it because, well, Twitter is pointless. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that broadcasts your status to people who care. This is a gigantic waste of time & attention.

Steph apparently discovered Twittering this morning. Her initial reaction sums up my feelings almost exactly:

Sauntering Welcomes Garfield

Garfield – previously our Resident Scientist – has agreed to join us as a blogger, bringing our number to four. We're thrilled to have a non-lawyer voice here at Sauntering and we look forward to his contributions.


Recognize these four guys? Yep, that's the Bayeux Tapestry.

And Then There Were Three

A big Sauntering welcome for Amos, who has agreed to link up with Colin & me in this little corner of the interwebsuperinfohighway. Amos's interests include long walks on the beach, justice and the American Way.

Yes, you've seen this picture before.

Big Changes @ Sauntering: Welcome, Colin!

According to the folks who run Blogger, this post is the 725^th since I started working on this project back in August 2003. Sauntering has changed little during the intervening 43 months, and the time for change has arrived.

Over the next few months, a few people will join me at Sauntering, the result of which will be to turn this blog into a little more of a community and a little less of a monologue.

Today, I'm excited to welcome Colin to Sauntering. Colin's provided the grist for many posts to Sauntering over the past year and a half, and I've been thinking about asking him to join me in this project for almost the same length of time. I'm glad he's decided to join up. I know we're all going to love his stuff.

Internet, You Are Terrific

Some curious soul visited my blog recently, searching for "ear swabbing habit." Sadly, I was no help at all.

I just wish I coulda been there for you, Visitor #16,141. Good luck, fellow traveler.

Like Yoda Said, There is Another

Citizens,

Law school keeps you busy. Busy, as in the bags under my eyes look like they've been drawn in eyeliner busy (see adjacent self portrait). That said, I have time for exactly one extracurricular activity. In my case, this activity is ACS, or American Constitution Society (for the sake of simplicity, just think anti-Federalist Society).

Over the past few weeks, I've been working on a redesign of the Columbia ACS blog, which I've just posted. Part of my job with this organization is to give it a bloggy voice. I'm going to shoot for an amalgam of Sauntering + Jon Stewart + Constitutional Interpretation. We'll see how it goes.

Lots of the stuff that I'll be posting to the Columbia ACS blog would make it to Sauntering anyway, so I'll cross post it here.

It all kinda gets going next week, so get ready for WWAHD? — What Would Alexander Hamilton Do? — a survey of the founding fathers where we explore their stance on the Miers nomination.

Cheers,
Andy

Sauntering is 1 Year Old

This week is Sauntering’s one year anniversary, and I’ll take this opportunity to share a couple thoughts on what I feel like I’ve learned during this great year:

• On Writing
  
  Although regular writing’s therapeutic qualities came as no surprise, I’ve been surprised how quickly my attention has solidified around core topics, politics especially.
  
  Even though Sauntering’s daily audience rarely reaches double digits, the idea of audience nicely counterbalances the occasionally caustic quality of my unfettered opinion. In my cocktail party discourse, I’ve often closed ears by overstating my case – I hope that exercising some restraint in the written word enables me to similarly temper my real world dialogue.



• On Visitors: Mark Saul
  
  Starting mid-January, I signed up for Site Meter – a website usage tracker that keeps general track of what people are looking at on Sauntering and occasionally what they’re searching for when they arrive at Sauntering. (BTW, I don’t password-protect these stats, so you’re welcome to check them out as well by click on the Site Meter icon in the right column or clicking here.)
  
  By far, the most frequently searched item I’ve ever blogged was my brief comment on September 23, 2003 regarding media coverage of the untimely death of venture capitalist Mark Saul. At the time, I was distressed by how his shocking end was covered in VentureWire, coverage that I considered gossipy at best and mean-spirited at worst. Since September, at least once a week someone has arrived at my website after searching for Mark Saul Sofitel (where he died), Mark Saul Obituary, or some such term.
  
  I don’t know why people search for Mark in this way, but I’ve imagined why.
  
  Back in January 2003, my wife’s great-uncle suddenly passed away. As he had recently become an aficionado of all things computer, I googled him to see if his writing or thoughts were online anywhere. I smiled when I saw him asking a few introductory questions on some decidedly techie Linux/BSD bulletin boards. I felt this last image of Uncle Dave was a fitting online remembrance of him – a man excited to learn new things well into life’s twilight.
  
  I think people google Mark for the same reason. To the extent that any of us has a real world identity out there online – an identity someone can google – each of us might imagine that this identity will be frozen when we die. I feel like those people looking for Mark look for this last image. Sadly, today’s web promises no lasting chronicle of any of our lives – a sad fact that only Brewster Kahle seems interested in remedying. Newspaper web pages come and go, disk space is recycled, the web has no memory. (How about diverting some of the Library of Congress’s budget to Archive.org so that we can chronicle the web even as it changes before our eyes?)
  
  I hope that those who care deeply for Mark draw some comfort from knowing that people still think about Mark and that people still ask (via search) about Mark.



• On Visitors: The Self-Google
  
  On a lighter note, I’m amused by how much people Google themselves.
  
  From time-to-time, I mention people’s full names: a photographer’s credit here, an article writer’s name there. Since I almost never mention the same name twice, these references are effectively buried in the search results for these people’s names, appearing on page 30, etc.
  
  Since would-be searchers are still clicking through on these hard-to-find links, I’ve determined that either these searchers are performing a CIA-level background check on these once-mentioned minor celebrities... or that the minor celebrities themselves are undertaking a bit of a self-investigation, clicking on any link that bears their moniker.



• In Closing…
  
  All in all, it’s been a joy.
  
  In the last year, I’ve convinced a handful of my friends to become bloggers, and they seem to enjoy it as much as I do. Although a few people have indicted this style of writing as nothing more than a daily vanity, I encourage you to consider regular writing.
  
  From one vantage, the case can be made that regular writing makes you a better writer, even if the only feedback comes from your internal critic. From another vantage, regular writing lets you get those thoughts out there, to see if you think what you think you think and to leave evidence to your family and friends that you’re alive and thinking.

A Break with Tradition

Generally, I only blog news tidbits when I feel like I can connect the dots -- juxtaposing something online and current with supporting pieces of information.

Rarely is a piece of news so interesting, so compelling, that I simply say, "Look at this," and link to the article sans comment.

Well... Look at this:

Richard Simmons cited for slapping man