Playing around with creating tags that can be read by smart phones. Information on the tool at http://www.microsoft.com/tag/ or go to http://gettag.mobi from your web enabled phone. US only right now. What phones? From the FAQ:

The Microsoft Tag Reader is available for most smartphones and many feature phones. It is available on Windows Mobile, J2ME, iPhone, Blackberry, and Symbian S60 phones. Of course, your phone needs a camera and it must have Internet-access. A detailed list of all supported phones is available and new phones will be added over time.

Links to my vCard online.

Links to my other blog.

If you do a search engine search for something like “decide who to follow on Twitter” you will find that there are lots of opinions out there. And yes, you guessed it, I have my own. :-) Some people will tell you to follow everyone. And yes you can do that. It’s easy enough. For some goals it is a great way to go. I guess. It just still scares me. I’m having trouble with the whole idea of just view it as a river and dip in randomly and you’ll find good things. True but what will I miss?

For me there are a bunch of people who I follow that I really care about (think my brother and his daughter and the people in the group I work in for example). There are other people whose Tweets are just generally so worth it that I don’t want to miss them either. I want to be a part of their conversations. It gets complicated and I have a lot of other things to do besides follow Twitter. I do use Tweetdeck and I have groups to track all replies to me, a group of in real life friends and people not to miss, a group for Education people and a group for everyone. That’s pretty much the order I scan the Tweets. It works and I guess I could auto follow everyone with that but I don’t. Why? Well because I still want to try to read everyone at times. So I have a plan.

1. Do I know them? If I read their blog or know them personally I follow.
2. Read their bio to see if we have things in common. If they are in education or work for a company I’m interested in then I follow. If they are all about search engine optimization I don’t follow. If they are a social networking person/consultant I probably don’t follow unless I know their reputation already. Sorry but I worry about people looking for an easy way to build a reputation based on Twitter followers. No bio is not an automatic nofollow but in that case I need another good reason to follow them.
3. Check out their avatar and website. Not having a web site or a real avatar is not an automatic nofollow but it is something I like to see. A website lets me learn more about them but a lot of people who interest me do not have blogs or web pages.
4. Look at what they Twitter. Are they engaged in conversation? That would be good. Are they saying things that suggest there is more than just casual conversation going on? I do like some casual conversation and engage in it myself. It lets me know that they are real people and not all about the self-promotion. But I like to see some “meat” in the conversation now and again as well.
5. What is the ratio of followers to following? This one can go either way with me. It’s not the pure ratio but the absolute numbers. If they are following 1,999 people and are being followed by 125 I can pretty much count on them to unfollow me soon if I don’t follow them and shortly there after if I do. They are building a following and not really interested in what I have to say. I want Twitter to be a conversation not a broadcast.
6. Who are they following and who is following them. Someone who is following a lot of people I follow, even if they don’t have a lot of followers themselves, is probably someone I want to follow. When they say something I probably want to know about it. Plus it may let me see both sides of more conversations and that is good for learning.
7. What does my gut say? Yeah sometimes I follow or not based on feelings. Occasionally that bits me and I have started following one or two people later based on replies they sent me or someone else I follow. The thing is to be open about rethinking following as time goes on.

In the end I have not hard and fast rules. Somehow with Twitter I don’t think hard and fast rules are the way to go.

BTW if you want to see other lists and strategies check out:

• FOLLOW FAIL: The 10 Reasons I will Not Follow You On Twitter
• How Do You Decide Who to Follow on Twitter?

And of course you can follow me on Twitter (if I fit what you are looking for) at http://twitter.com/alfredtwo

OK it’s a morbid topic and if you don’t want to face it leave now. I on the other hand have no choice but to think about it. I’ve got stuff on my mind and the need to write them down and put them somewhere. Oh and frankly I no patience for euphemisms like “passing away” or what ever. Death is death and dying is dying. So if you have no stomach for plain talk of death you may want to read something else.

I don’t expect to die any time soon and of course I have never done it before. But I’ve lost too many loved ones not to be aware of it. With my own Dad in poor health I worry that I will see it again all too soon. Hopefully not right away but probably not that far away either.

I am not afraid of death. I’m in no hurry to try it out of course but as a Christian I believe as it is written in Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” So I spend more time worrying about those I will leave behind than about myself.

There are two basic ways to die – quickly and slowly. Quickly is probably the best way for the person actually dying. I’ve watched a bunch of people go through slow lingering deaths. Trips in and out of hospitals, gradual failing of body and mind, tests and operations and alls sorts of people poking at parts of the body that would otherwise be none of their business. It’s painful emotionally, physically and in any way one can think of. Falling asleep and never waking up seems so much easier. Well for the person who dies. For the people left behind not much fun.

Both quick and slow deaths are hard on people who stay behind but in different ways. I’ve had several friends die quickly (at least from my point of view) in that I either didn’t know they were sick or they had sudden unexpected deaths. That was hard. There was no closure, no saying goodbye and now time to prepare myself for losing them. On the other hand watching someone be sick a long time and in pain is no great joy either. But in some sense there is closure and a time to reconcile differences, say goodbye and adjust to the future without them.

So perhaps there is no good way to die for all involved. I think I want to go quickly though. It may be harder, initially, for those who are left behind but in the long run I think maybe they will be better off not watching me suffer. I’m pretty sure I’d rather not suffer. And as full of watching suffering as I have been in my live I think that can take a toll on people that they may not be aware of. They may think they want to hold on to every second no matter how much their loved one is going through but at some point I think one wants to see their loved one end their suffering.

The term quality of life means more to me every day. The more I look at it life at any cost and in any condition is not always the best way for everyone.

I don’t mean me – at 55 I do not consider myself near to being old yet. But I’ve been having more experiences with people who are really old the last few years. Being old is not just a matter of age though. Its largely a matter of how the years have been passed. Has there been sickness or injury? Is the mind still working the way it used to work or has their been some degradation? A lot of factors come into play. So when I think of old as in someone is old I think of a big drop in physical and mental ability that is based largely on age and wear and tear on the body.

I’m writing this from a facility that takes care of old people both on a long term residency and a short term rehabilitation capacity. The people who are hear long term are hard for me. They fall asleep at random times even while sitting up. I saw one man with his face in his lunch plate for a short time until someone of the staff noticed. They wander around pretty much aimlessly with little apparent idea of their surroundings. Others are more mentally alert but just as physically unable. It feels like a storage facility in some ways. I could not leave my Dad alone at  this time of his life.

That is not a knock on the staff who all seem both very caring and very competent. It’s not so much a knock on the family of these people as I know from experience how draining it can be to care for a loved one who has diminished capacity (physical, mental or both). People have to make hard choices and sometimes that means different priorities. Different is not always right or wrong but just different.

My wife and I cared for her mother for many years in our home. We’re glad we did it for the quality of her life. But it was not always easy and I can understand not everyone is up to it. In fact watching my Dad (83) struggle to recover from his recent back surgery is really tough for me.

As tough as it is for me its a lot harder on my Dad. He is so used to being so independent for so long that this dependency is painful for him. He’s frustrated by the slow recovery and aware of the struggle his mind and body both are going through. Being away from home makes it all worse because of the unfamiliar surroundings. That’s why I’m here in Texas 1800 miles from home – to be a comfortable familiar face for him. My brother who lives here had surgery of his own and isn’t up to what Dad needs. I’m very happy I could come to help. On Sunday my sister arrives to help and a few days later I go home. We’re all glad their are several of use to share the load. Though honestly at a time like this I wish we all lived closer together to make things easier. But that is life in the modern age I guess.

But I wonder what will my son do? He’s an only child. Poor kid.