death

How I’d Remember Me If I Died

As I get older and attend more funerals, I often think about what people would say, do, or think of me when I die. While I hope those who I’ve met in life remember me in a positive light, I don’t blame them if they don’t. Since no one knows me better than me, I figured I’d write my own (possible) obituary.

Fake Maybe Real Obituary

Jeffrey L. Chandler was a man who sincerely loved his family and did anything he could to help them. He had a big heart and cared for those that were close to him. He would often donate money or pay for food and gas for a relative even if it didn’t make sense financially. If you asked him a question, he gave you an honest answer.

To some, he’s most remembered for telling it like he saw it. Sometimes, he could be an asshole, but even if the words hurt, you knew that’s how he felt. Jeff often told people that he got in more trouble telling the truth rather than make stuff up. This bothered him a lot since he was told as a young boy to tell the truth instead of telling a lie. He found out that in reality, telling a lie is sometimes better than being honest.

He wasn’t much into beer for a long time, but discovered Fatheads Bumbleberry and became a fan of several different beers. He loved the outdoors and preferred to work from an Adirondack chair while occasionally catching a glimpse at a hummingbird.

He loved his wife dearly as she was likely the only female on earth to put up with him. He didn’t say it enough, but he loved her. Jeff often worked late hours into the night as his wife slept alone. He didn’t do it on purpose, it’s just that he was most productive at night. Although he tried to establish a work day as a normal person, it simply didn’t work.

That’s It

This is a small sample of how I’d remember me if I died. I honestly don’t know how people would react or mourn if I died, but it’s something I’ve asked myself, who doesn’t? After all, when I’m dead, I’ll have no idea what happens.

The Downfall Of Us All

I did what a concerned citizen should do, check on their neighbors during a time of need. In this instance, the neighbor was over an hour an a half away (driving) and it was a week or two since anyone had heard from the individual. I pick up a colleague on the way there so I don’t have to go through the experience alone.

When we arrive, we try our best to announce our presence by knocking on every window, door, and yelling out who we were to the individual, since she would know who we were. The reason why we were at her property is because others who are far away were worried about her safety and health but had no chance of reaching her.

Phone calls lead to instant voice mails which indicate the phone is dead or turned off. Once people arrive on the scene, they discover that the doors and windows are locked and blinds are configured to block light into the home.  We knock on every window announcing our presence with no response.

Eventually, the County sheriff shows up and after speaking to the son on the phone, he’s granted permission for forced entry. However, the female inside could be armed with a shotgun. Two concerned friends agree to pay for the windows or the door to be broken into to ensure that the person inside is safe.

We discover a door that isn’t readily secure but is blocked by a couch with stuff piled onto it. It’s difficult to move the couch, but with the help of three men, the couch is able to be moved to the point of entering the household. After yelling out that we’re here to help and to just give us a sign of life go unanswered, we begin a search of the home.

After using leverage to move the door a few inches, an officer moves into the home. We unlock the the front door to allow a secondary officer and witness into the home. Unfortunately, the person we feared to be deceased is confirmed to be deceased by at least a few days.

Everything about this story is unfortunate. Whether it’s the people discovering the body or the victim involved, it’s a tragic story of death. Being independent is cool and such but in some instances, it can be a recipe for disaster. In my opinion, this was the latter.

Blogs – A Lifestream Of Links

It wasn’t too long ago when my poll asking if blogging was dying concluded with an astounding NO. BookTwo.org recently published an article highlighting a change that is taking place within the blogosphere.

I’ve noticed a trend in longtime bloggers, which I’m certainly a part of. Blogging less, linking more, generally winding down the straight blog in favour of a more distributed presence via Twitter, Delicious, videoblog apps like Seesmic. Some of these may be fed through the blog, like Booktwo’s RSS links, but it’s all getting a bit bitty. “I think RSS is one of the main reasons for this (perceived) decline in blogging. We don’t visit each others’ sites, so it’s less obvious when the frequency declines. As more small social apps like Twitter, and larger ones like Facebook, increase their reach, we don’t need blogs as our home pages either.

“It’s good to have a place to put these things, thoughts, articles &c. But I think it’s time, and I think it’s happening, that the delivery mechanism was stripped down. RSS might be the answer: people are starting to have ‘lifefeeds’ more and more, which aggregate everything they’re doing.

Unfortunately, BookTwo is on to something. What’s also interesting to note, is that this article falls in line with Steve Spaldings take on where blogging is heading.

Microblogging will be the critical change in the way we write in Web 3.0. Imagine a world where your mobile phone, your email, and you television could all produce feedback that could easily be pushed to any or all blogging platforms. If you take a picture from your smart-phone, it would be automatically tagged, bagged and forwarded to your “lifestream”. If you rated a television show that you were watching, your review would be forwarded into the stream.

This is the type of seamless integration that will finally bring the concept of blogging to the masses. Posts will become shorter and more topical, the world of rehashing the meme will be replaced by one where life and news generation go hand in hand. Blogging won’t be a hobby reserved for internet enthusiasts, but a past time for the MySpace generation.

Of course, the allure of any individual blog would be much more limited. As the popularity of micro-blogging explodes, more and more basically “unreadable” blog will start to populate the blogosphere. It’s not hard to imagine a world where the vast majority of your posts amount to, “stuck in traffic, ugh…”

That last sentence in Steves take on blogging is the one that concerns me the most. The last thing I want the blogosphere to turn into is a series of links with little substance. I want to see bloggers continue to write their opinions, reporting on things in their own way, and continue to be the driving force behind new media. I want to continue to see quality content written by someone other than big media properties. Continue to blog and if you need to share links, create a link blog as I illustrated how to do in a previous article.

I don’t want to see everyone’s blog turn into a lifestream of links. Do you?