More thoughts on privacy and other miscellany

Apparently I'm going to have to avoid Facebook all day and maybe all week. I can't believe the paranoia.

My favorite comment so far came from Emily Rhodes - "[I] might be more sympathetic to those against the Health care bill if any of those people were actually uninsured." Nice.

My NCAA Tournament bracket is wrecked. As are many others. The weekend saw two of my Final Four eliminated from the tournament. I had Kansas in the championship game. Villanova was the other early exitee. I might still have a chance of winning my group, but it will take some craziness. I have UK winning it all, so there's that.

I'm trying to lose weight again. I'm a week in and so far, eh. To be honest, I'm not sure how it's going. I know that I'm staying pretty faithful to my plan. A plan inspired by Alton Brown (of Good Eats).

He did a show a few weeks ago about the "diet" he used to lose 50 pounds. So now it's a smoothie every morning, lots of leafy greens, almonds, fish oil (because I'm not eating oily fish), green tea, and smaller portions. Throw in a good long walk (almost) everyday and that's it.

The walks provide the added benefit of Podcast Time! I spend most of them listening to Fresh Air, This American Life, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me, or, sometimes, The Church of the Resurrection's podcast. Best of all, it pretty much guarantees at least a 45 minute walk. Ah yes, the health benefits of NPR.

The pounds have yet to begin melting away, but I have high hopes. I will start this week keeping a better record of my weight (which was up to around 195). I will of course, in true over-sharer fashion make note of it here. I'm not exactly sure where I started, but today it's 192. I'm shooting for 20 pounds. We'll see.

Speaking of over-sharing, I'm still leaning toward going private. Along with that I'll stop doing Facebook and Twitter notifications. It shouldn't affect your ability to read the blog. It will just give me some control over who can read it. Or at the least I'll know who is reading.

I'm still struggling with the decision. I have a pretty good idea of 85% of who's reading, but it's the other 15% I worry about. Then again, part of me does not want to put a limit on who can read it.

I have 3 basic options. 1) Go private. Invite readers. Potential readers have to request access. Hassle. 2) Do nothing. Keep things the same. Nervousness and stress. 3) Change what I write. change how I write. Write less. Share less. Expose less.

I like that people read this stuff. From what I can tell there are around 10-15 regular readers and another 15-20 occasional readers. I get a certain little thrill watching my hit count go up when I publish a new entry. I feel dirty even typing that, but it's true. I guess it serves as some form of validation.

I like what I write. I like exposing myself. (Yes, I know how it sounds. I laughed. I decided to keep it.) Yes, I share too much at times. But I don't really want to change how I write (other than to improve stylistically).

I guess there is a 4th option: stop writing. I enjoy this way too much for that though. Not going to happen.

That leaves me with only two options: go private or do nothing. For now I'm going to take it private. I'll lose readers. But I'll deal with it.

Let's do this. I'll go private tomorrow. I'll post a couple of times this week then I'll look for feedback. Here's what I need from you.

I will send invites to as many of you as possible. I need email addresses for some. Go to my profile (on the right) and click email and send me your email address. Don't post it in the comments. Remember, everyone on Al Gore's Interwebs can read this right now. I'll send out invites sometime tomorrow.

After a week or so I will ask for feedback on the new system. We'll see how it goes.