Curse & Blessing…. Blessing & Curse

Blessing & Curse
BobLee
February15/ 2016

Since Day One of this website back in that other century -…. if you want to feel really old – Barack Obama was teaching at Univ Chicago Law School and community organizing…. Lebron James was a freshman in high school …. and “DickieTheCluelessAD” was in Year 3 of having no clue whatsoever what was going on in UNC Athletics….

For this Entire Century…. I have labored under (1) a “Curse” and (2) a “Blessing”.

Curse or Blessing

“The Curse” is that a very high % of the readership / viewership of this website are of the Baby Boomer faction of the American population. That translates into “over 50”. In many cases “waaaaay over 50”. Being of THAT persuasion their (your) primary skill set often does not include mastery of the “cyber arts”. Computer Fear

“Cyber arts” means achieving a comfortable symbiosis with that screen you are looking at right now…. and that keyboard below that screen. I really don’t think anyone, even “Albert” and “MaryLynn”, actually uses Wite-Out to correct misspellings, but I could be wrong.

It is a cross I shall forever bear that some of you will never enjoy all the offerings of this website.  But, alas, ’tis true.  I can’t be at your monitor to say CLICK HERE…. and you say WOW.

When a writer and his audience are both totally dependent upon a medium that neither understands “how it works”, their relationship is forever imperiled. Imagine being in a large rubber raft in the middle of the North Atlantic with several 1,000s people…. and NONE of us know how to swim. That’s us.

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“The Blessing” I labor under is that “a very high % of you are of the Baby Boomer faction of the American population”. Yes…. our relationship is “a double-edged sword”.boomers

That we share generational experiences means I can use words / phrases such as Ponderosa…. Dirty Dan Wells…. Eddie Haskell…. D-Day…. “Monica”…. Dudley Bradley/Clyde The Glide…. “the shoestring play”….. et al; and not have to provide lengthy explanations.  I realize some of you have never figured out “TGU”. That’s a whole other issue.

That my millennial daughter – Kid – remembered Shavlik Randolph but has no clue who “Pistol Pete” is/was reminded me how much easier it is to converse with generational equals. I was impressed Kid knew who Shavlik was, as “Sports” is not her favorite Jeopardy category AT ALL. She was the only human being in St Louis who did not watch David Freese “go yard” in Game Six of the 2011 Series.

If I had to try to write for a Millennial audience I would be lonelier than the Maytag Repairman. “Those people” might be compu-savvy but they ain’t never heard of Fred & Ethel Mertz. Given the choice…. I will ALWAYS choose You Guys & Gals. …. Millennial board monkeys are, of course, The Absolute Worst of The Worst.

You and I are who we are and that’s a good thing…. and between us is all this very scary stuff called “a computer” and the Internet…. and Twitter…. and Facebook…. and ISPs…. and browsers…. and “refresh”….. and “scroll bars”….. and smartphones / pads / laptops / desktops…. ad infinitum.  Aaaaiieeee!

Earlier this week I asked Blondie if Snapchat was something I needed to know about. I thought maybe it was Kim & Kanye’s pet ferret. She assured me I don’t need to know about Snapchat.  If you are curious – Snapchat is a social media gizmo that Jr Hi girls in Fresno use to send nekkid selfies to dirty old oil sheiks in Qatar. OUCH!

Ye Olde Website looks a little different. You hadn’t noticed? Why doesn’t that surprise me? ….. The old IMAX screen up-top containing the latest incredibly insightful column has been reduced in size. It’s still pretty big but not nearly “as big”.

By that picture being smaller, what you see on your screen includes more stuff…. i.e. recent columns you might have missed. We learned that some of you are not into “scrolling down” and never knew about all the cool stuff waiting for you below that Great Big Picture. All those incredibly entertaining Quirky News bits. WOW…. Who Knew?

A longtime and very valued BobLee disciple told me recently that he just found the Quirky News section…. and how excited he was to find all that extra stuff. DUH! See above re: “The Curse”.

When you see a CLICK HERE prompt at the bottom of a column – JUST DO IT. …. and have your grandchildren explain “scrolling”. It’s quite easy once you get the hang of it.

In the hierarchy of “platforms”….. Desktops are the largest….. followed by Laptops…. then Pads ….. then Smartphones. Both BobLeeSays and AgentPierceSaid are “compatible” with all four. That’s very important in today’s techno-world. But, alas, a small smartphone screen can’t show everything that a large desktop screen can. It’s all there but requires more manuvering to find it. When you say you can’t find something on the website, it’s usually when you are using an itty bitty smartphone screen.

OK…. enough narrative. Here’s what I need you to do:

1. Put the following TWO email addresses (e-addresses) in your Contacts RIGHT NOW. It will really help you (1) receive ALERTS of new BL columns and (2) make you an all-around better human being. … [email protected] and [email protected] ….. add BOTH addresses. Do it RIGHT NOW then come back here.Twitter

2. IF you currently use Twitter…. the verb being “you tweet” …. then add BobLee Says to your Twitter list. If you don’t “tweet” then don’t bother. Getting our Tweets about new columns is another way to be sure you never miss one.

3. IF you currently use FACEBOOK…. then LIKE BobLeeSays…. and FRIEND BobLee Says. If you don’t “do Facebook” don’t bother. Again…. another fail-safe to be sure you learn about every new column.

4. Add BobLeeSays to your Favorite Bookmarks…. and make “checking BobLee” an every day habit. THAT is the best way to never miss anything.

5. There is a thingy called RSS.  Not too many folks use that. It automatically tells you when a website is updated. If you use that and it works, keep using it.

We have an accumulated data base of over 5,000 names/addresses but even the best data base program only reaches MAYBE 30% of the addresses in the system. We use a very good program that average about 45%. Adding those two e-addresses up there in #1 to your Contacts will help A LOT.

We usually add new Quirky News bits every day…. at least every other day. They are BobLee’s comments about a current news story…. and include the news story. The ones involving “My Buddy Art” are easily identified and can be avoided if you so choose.

The difference between a Quirky and a IIC (Incredibly Insightful Column) is that an IIC is totally BobLee’s opinions. Sometimes a Quirky will be elevated to IIC status as with the recent Peyton Manning piece. We make up these hard/fast rules as we go along.

In Conclusion:
if 20% of you do all those five things THAT would be AWESOME.
If 50% of you do two of the five, that’s pretty good too.

If 75% of you do at least ONE of’em….
I win $1.00 from AveryTheSuperTech who doesn’t think any of you will bother.  🙁

Curses and Blessings ….. Blessings and Curses

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