I hate meta-posts (things like blogging about blogging).  Here comes one anyway.

A few astute readers noticed the sound of silence here: that I neglected this blog for a month now.

Where was I?

In a word: soccer.  Club soccer is in full swing now for my two L kids, with practices four nights a week, team manager duties, and pre-season tournaments every weekend (gone are the good old days when August was still a summer break month).  Family activities and summer reading filled the remaining free hours nicely.  Blog-worthy things continued to happen, but lost was the time in the evenings and weekends to distill and post them.

Where was I?

As I recall, this blog is at least partly about technical problems I encounter and solutions.  Yet absence makes the heart grow forgetful, especially against the backdrop of a (justified) social media pendulum swing.  Leo Laporte’s twitter feed stopped working and no-one noticed.  Frank Ryan drove off a cliff tweeting while driving.  Matt Richtel’s head hurts.  And I didn’t feel so good (about social media) myself.

Many questions answer themselves just by being asked.  Does the entire intertube and Library of Congress need to know what I’m having for dinner?  Ya’ think?  I quickly abandoned Twitter and cut back my Facebook posts because of my low signal-to-noise ratio.  Perhaps it’s just that, in Proverbs 10:19 fashion, as we get older, we “edit ourselves” more (yes, knowledge speaks, wisdom listens).  But, taken in proper measure, there is value in the “reality web.”

For example, I learn about cool things done by far-flung friends.  I get meaningful technology details that never make it to those one page summaries on corporate sites or in glossy print.  Even subtle, simple things like Garmin streams from fellow runners provide balance and motivation.  And when googling for references and fixes, the best ones now typically come from blogs.  Who needs you, Experts Exchange?

Perhaps it’s that debt of gratitude that motivates most.  After gleaning so much helpful information from other blogs and streams, justice demands giving back a little.  And the emails I get in response to even the most unlikely posts help.  So I continue, knowing that WriteStreams sometimes are read.