Tag Archives: Twitter

Writing? Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That!

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It kind of feels like the traditional blog is dying out there on the Internet. With all of the social media formats out there… you are almost wasting your time by stringing together anything longer than 140 characters because most likely it’s not going to get read. 

I’m on a bunch of these social media sites; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, Vine… just to name most the popular ones… and it feels like the attention span for content is getting shorter and shorter. Most likely, I’ve already lost half of you that might have started reading this post. 

It’s all become a popularity contest for who can get the most likes the fastest. Content? Fuck the content. Fuck the thought and fuck the integrity. Just give it a like. Maybe it will go viral and I’ll become Internet-famous. 

I fall into the trap too. Coming up with things to write about or sitting down to type my thoughts and feelings out can really be a lot of effort. And I don’t do it often enough. But when it comes down to writing a post here, it’s not about getting popular. It’s not about getting recognized. It’s not about going viral. It’s about getting my thoughts and feelings out and real. It’s about the process… the journey… and not the result or the destination. In the end, I’m writing for me and not for you. 

Remember The Rathole?

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I’ve had this draft hanging out on my dashboard since July and I figure it’s time to finish it off…

July was a wet month with some torrential downpours. Because of it, I posted to Twitter:

https://twitter.com/#!/jeeprock/status/94508774924103680

I realized that I was dating myself because some people (younger folks) on the Twitter had no idea what The Rathole was!! I had to admit that I was shocked at this because The Rathole was a complete traffic abomination by the end of it’s life and was completely hated by most Edmontonians.

Edmonton’s hated Rathole

At the time of its construction in 1927, The Rathole was lauded from an engineering perspective and was a source of controversy right from the start. The contract for the construction was awarded to a contractor who hadn’t turned in the lowest bid and would ultimately result in legal proceedings.

The Rathole would live for 73 years chock full of traffic jams, semi-trucks driving tall loads into it’s concrete face and flooding with approximately 27,000 cars driving through it, per day, near it’s demise.

In 2000, it was finally demolished and replaced with a fabulous six lane free-flow roadway that would eliminate the traffic horrors in the area. However, for as much of a nightmare The Rathole was, it’s hard to imagine that there would be people who wouldn’t be aware of it’s legacy!

Anyway, for those who are interested… there are a few articles I’ve linked below. I’m also trying out some QR codes so get yourself a QR code reader and get scanning!

Standard General – The Rathole Project

 

 

 

The Edmonton Public Library – A City Called Home

 

 

 

 

 

The Edmonton Public Library – Rathole Infofile

Update: Powerless

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There have been some dark times as of late for The Empire and that’s almost a literal truth. We ran a considerable deficit on our energy billing until our account went well past due and was passed on to the Collections department who promptly interrupted our service.

Living in the dark

Rather than leave us in the dark and the cold, they placed a limiter on our power meter which prevented us from consuming too much electricity. This would prevent us from using any of our major appliances. Which, for the most part, wouldn’t stop us from living our lives… except that we couldn’t use our stove/oven, microwave, dishwasher and our washer/dryer combo.

I mean, it could have been worse. Having absolutely zero power would have been pretty shitty so luckily they only do this during the summer.

Anyway, I’ve been between updates for quite some time. It isn’t that I don’t have anything to write about, it’s just that inspiration hasn’t really taken hold and urged me to write about anything in particular. It seems that I’m not the only one, though:

Former bloggers said they were too busy to write lengthy posts and were uninspired by a lack of readers. Others said they had no interest in creating a blog because social networking did a good enough job keeping them in touch with friends and family.

via Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter – NYTimes.com.

I can understand it, I guess. With sites like Twitter rising in popularity, you can get by with a lot less inspiration than with a standard blog. About 140 characters worth of inspiration, actually. So I guess that’s what is maybe going on with the NJLE site. I mean, even the Queen doesn’t really give a flying fuck what I write about here. She doesn’t even read my uninspired tripe. Whatever. I’ve gotta do what I’ve gotta do.