A sense of things at the moment
I do these every so often.
Social Media
I still check Twitter and Facebook fairly regularly. I don't read Twitter as close as I used to. Alot of it is out of the same idle moment filling that would have been satiated by mindless channel surfing a decade or more ago. Real world conversation rules more or less apply in the space now, and they are about as interesting as such short/brief conversations with casual acquaintances are too.
Facebook has made an interesting turn in the last few monts, killing off the organic reach of Pages. For corps, it's largely pay to play now, or if not pay to play, then pay to be seen.
The Web
This week celebrated the anniversary of Google Reader announcing it's shutdown. I've been using Newsblur for the majority of the past year in it's place. Newsblur has been a good replacement, and the beat goes on as it were.
There hasn't been much change other than the Reader switch to my web activities. Reddit seems like the largest disrupter to the format, but Reddit hasn't captured my interest much and only check it from time to time for some very niche things.
The Media
Streaming still feels like it's picking up steam. Since Christmas we've had the Xbox One, and it's a pretty great streaming box too. Cable feels archaic at this point, yet saddly the Cable DVR is still the easiest way to hold onto and watch current recent past shows. Not everything is always available on the various streaming services reliably back more than a few weeks. Plus the DVR still let's you fast forward through commercials which Hulu does not.
Cable News is completely worthless now. There's plenty of news on the internet now though so CNN, MSNBC and Fox being beneath relevant isn't any great loss at this point.
Devices
My goodfriend loaned me his Google Glass at the end of last month. I did a write up on my experience with it on the 6th. I'm glad I got to try it, but it has left a tech anticipation hole. Having wron the Glass there's not much else I'm really anticipating playing with.
Oculus Rift seems the leading wow contender. But while I'm bullish on the eventual prospects of the space, I imagine the first generation of the device will largely be a Wii-like novelty. Long term, it should be pretty revolutionary though (assuming one can wear it for a period of time without getting a headache.)
After having played with Google Glass, I am interested in seeing if Google comes out with a Google Now/Google Glass OS type smartwatch. Pebble just updated to 2.0 and is killer for notifications, but I continue to be very interested in seeing what a Google Now/Glass type experience on Galaxy Gear type hardware would be like.
I got an improved replacement stylus pen for the Dell Venue Pro 8 inch Windows tablet a week ago. Not perfect, but close enough now. Very nice device. iPad has deservedly-so had the tablet space locked up for a while for people's casual computing needs. Windows now has some nice cheap devices out there for the minority of users that need or want more traditional productivity apps in the format.
I'm still enjoying the 3D printer. There are some interesting devices on the horizon in the space coming this year, but nothing at a terribly mass audience adoption pricepoint.
Laptops
My workplace is finally making the final push to more or less a 99.9% switch to laptops. Later in the game then many places, but it's a very large office and ships of size take awhile to turn. It's been interesting to see how that conversion to laptops has changed different behaviors.
Meetings have taken on a very different nature, and having large groups of people all with their own little laptop worlds to occupy them even when they are physically present with one another has presented interesting new dynamics. Many meetings almost take on a study group type dynamic, less about discussing an agenda and more about co-locating for a time around a shared topic.
Next month, my workplace will move to a brand new office completely designed and built from the ground up around this new (for us) paradigm, and It'll be very interesting to see how the proliferation of those laptops and open workstations function in a massive space specific designed with them in mind.
Games
We've had the Xbox One for a few months now. Neat device. A very solitary device though. Not really enough games for two people to play at the same time-- in the same room. Gaming apparently is something you now do in your own living room with other people over the net who are in their own living rooms. Maybe if consoles were more like laptops they'd encourage more people to co-locate and play in the same space. That doesn't look to be the case anytime soon though as the 3 majors seem bigger and more grounded/connected to home networks and fixed place living room use than ever.
Weather
Six months of absolute intense winter, we've had a couple singular days here and there where it gets above freezing, but for the last couple months a day in the mid twenties with some sun, like today, is about as nice as it's usually gotten.
Comics and fandom
I've been largely checked out of comics for the past 5 months or more. I read an occasional issue of something here or there, but lately not more than a handful of issues in a month, if that. DC, my preferred superhero publisher has just been unreadable for an older fan like me since their new 52 reboot a couple years back.
As to the rest of it, Long Tail problems abound, many people read many different things, but even people who like similar things may be experiencing different stories at radically different points or in different order. Watching Doctor Who or Sherlock several years ago is very different from the experience of watching it for the first time right now. It's not the hipster "I was watching it before it was cool" effect, although there can be some of that-- but different stories work differently in different contexts and effect you differently if you see them at the time they came out or after watching/reading things that were after/inspired by them. Time and a story's place in it has a weight and moving stories and their consumption around in time, changes subtle things about their experience.
It's not enough now just to seek out people who are fans of the same things you are. What is not enough. When and "How far into" are now equally connecting questions for shared fandom.
People, careers and jobs
The laptop rant in the Devices section above skewed off into a workplace discussion more or less, so jump up there if you're just hitting topics that strike your interest in this TLDR post.
I haven't been swirling around too many people related concepts in my head lately. Perhaps something in a future post about Positivity and it's downsides, but nothing really fully formed on that.
I've also been swirling around ideas about "Millenials" hitting their 30s and what that's going to mean over the next 5 to 7 years. I'm also sortof wondering if the generational boxes and monikers might be done with, or at least lose most of their utility, after that generation.
Do things get too individual and do tribes get too randomly constructed and sorted more on family/interests/workplaces/environs/economics than age ranges going forward? Sure High School and College has a certain amount of similarity for people of the same age. But after those closely homogenized experiences, do things just randomize too much now? Do what people/marketers think of as "generations" over the last 100 years or so-- going forward do those touch points lack consistency now, for a "generational" grouping to have much real relevance? Or do you start to think about people less in terms of when they were born and more in terms of the situations they are in? Those situations will still have an age component, but it'll likely be a longer sliding bracket or vastly non centered venn diagram circles than how it's been thought of for the last half dozen decades or so.
This model is a little pricer and a little more sturdy.
I did a marathon 3D printing session today. Four stepper motor covers for my Dad, who is using them to convert a lathe to CNC.
Saturday Jenn and I popped into the Grand Rapids Toy Show. There are a couple of them a year. It's a small venue, but worth dropping by, especially since it's only a couple streets south of us.
And I also printed a 
