So, I re-provisioned my webserver to the latest Linux OS, and I was holding my breath when I was done. You never really know what will happen when you get it back up and running, and if you will be able to import your old blogs. Well, whew, it came up and with a little configuration and tweaking it was up and running as good as new.

*sigh of relief*

I joined yelp.com back in 2006 and to be honest, just joined. I didn’t do much, which is kind of lame in hindsight. However, I have rediscovered Yelp and have been “yelping” a lot in DC now since I arrived. I have become mildly addicted to it, and would totally yelp more if my job didn’t keep me so busy.

Yelp is reviews by users for users. The concept is simple and the value is that you can sort of tell that these are REAL people. Not like some review sites, where you get the feeling they are employees of the company. Here you can see other reviews they have written and make up your mind for yourself. Do yourself a favor, check it out see what you think, take it for a spin, and try not to get addicted.

I suspect like most things, my interest could fade over time. But for right now, I am enjoying yelping.

So I have started to realize that I am becoming addicted to Yelp.  If you have never heard of the website, it is a pretty nifty website here in the States (sorry for those of you in Europe…”No soup for you!”) that allows you rate your favorite stores, shops, restaurants, etc. etc.  What makes the site nice is that you have real people doing reviews, unlike some sites where you wonder if the employees are actually writing the reviews…here you can kind of tell.

Anyway, I digress (I know, I know, I do that a bit).  I was reading some of these people’s reviews on different restaurants in the DC area and I was inspired to want to try new places, new flavors, new experiences.  I want to become an amateur foodie too!  Sure, I can go out all the time and dine out, but that would either leave me poor or a little bigger in the waist.  I wonder if there are “food appreciation” courses out there.

I have a secret confession (well a few people know about it) but the general public does not.  I have been for the past two years managing two separate blogs.  One is here, and I had another one, which was my very first blog that I launched back in 2002.  That blog had gone through different phases, there was a point from 2002 - 2004 when I blogged literally almost every other day on average.

However, in the summer of 2004 I was thinking about looking for a new job and I foolishly blogged about it.  What I didn’t realize was that a small group of coworkers had found my blog, because one day I had accidently sent an email from my email address associated with the site.  Unbeknownst to me they had followed my blog since the beginning of the year and were quite “aware” of my thoughts around everything from work to life.

So let us just say, my manager was one of those people who was reading my blog and found out I was thinking of leaving my job at the time.  After being confronted by him I took down the site for a while and stopped blogging for about 9 months.  I decided to relaunch that site in 2005 and started this one.  This one was geared to everyone, but I was still careful in what I posted.  And the original one was limited to just coworkers who knew the address.  

The posts at each location were different and I was careful to make sure that they didn’t use the same words.  But since then, I have left that company for my new one and it would seem silly to have two blogs.  However, I have learned my lesson and you should NEVER post anything that you don’t want EVERYONE to read.  I know, I know….Duh.  But it was a valuable lesson I learned and thankfully it was not a career de-railer.  It was an awkward conversation with my Manager and Senior Manager at the time though.

Shortly I will be merging the two blogs together and importing all of the posts there to here, and it will truly be a tale of two blogs…

It really blows my mind on how many people have migrated to Facebook. At first I thought it was just going to be a HUGE fad that would eventually die down, but with the functionality of Web 2.0 and their widgets…it seems like Facebook has become the top dog for social networking sites.

The only issue I have with the site is their privacy settings. They are so complex, that sometimes I wonder if I haven’t locked them down tight enough or too tight. But then again, people who use Facebook are really just feeding the voyeur in themselves…

I have great news and bad news. The great news is that I was able to find my pictures that I thought were corrupted on my original CompactFlash card. That is fantastic, because now (when I get off my lazy butt) I can post them to my Flickr account. The bad news is that ImageStation a location I used to host pictures at has closed down its business and I will have to migrate all my photos off of there. I loved that site, because I could send out albums without sharing them to everyone and their mom.

Furthermore, I could limit what albums people could see, which was a cool feature I have not found on other photosharing websites. ImageStation supposedly set up a deal with Shutterfly to help people migrate over, and I guess I can just check it out. I am gonna miss the functionality of ImageStation. *sigh*

A friend of mine just recently told me about this “Second Life.” I know I am just not with it technologically, but I mean how did this not even make a blip on my radar. According to Wikipedia “Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007.” Ok fair enough, it sounds like a multi-user games (i.e., Worlds of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI), but the difference is that those games cost monthly subscriptions and Second Life is free if you get a Basic account.

What really blows my mind is that the environment (I hesitate to call it a game because you don’t win or lose) has it’s own economy, with its own currency Linden Dollars (named after the parent company). Apparently there are companies that have started to open up offices in this virtual environment where you can go to find out more about their company and set up job interviews. Sweden set up an embassy (the only one mind you) in Second Life. Starwood Hotels opened their aloft hotels in Second Life a year before launching in the real world. It is a bit hard for me to get my head around, and makes me seriously wonder the value to the Corporations of having a Second Life presence.

Even more interesting is the concept of micro payments. There are people who are creating animations for avatars and items for sale on Second Life that net them about $1-2 a transaction, in REAL currency (obviously after conversion). According to what I found on the net, some people have been clearing about $20k a year, in addition to their normal job, which I find a bit fascinating. And what startled me the most was that you can visit the Second Life Louvre, which makes me wonder why should I go to Paris this month when I can visit it online.

If you use Second Life, feel free to comment, I’d be curious to get your perceptions. Maybe this weekend I will slip into the environment and poke around, but then again I’d rather just go outside.