Gone … but not forgotten

Perhaps a better way of phrasing it would be “Archived … but not forgotten”?  Who knows?

Anyway, in many ways, I don’t think I’ve got past being 14 years old in at least one way.  Like the teenager that I was, I like to know what people are saying about me!  So, in my Tweetdeck and Hootsuite instances, I keep an ongoing search for “dougpete” and “dougpete.wordpress.com”.  It goes to the old (now) adage of keeping an eye on your social media presence.

For the most part, it’s a current thing.  Conversations with people, inclusions with other people, the posting of a blog post, the retweeting of a blog post, and that’s about it.  For the most part, the content life is about 24 hours.  Social media is fickle.  A good conversation lasts an hour, maybe a day if you’re lucky and then people move on.  For many, me included, that’s what keeps it fresh and relevant.

I don’t dwell on it; usually it’s just a skim down those columns to see if there’s anything that has at least spiked someone’s interest.  I keep thinking of an election platform “What can you do and what have you done lately?”

But I got a bit of a surprise this morning when a post from three years and a day ago was tweeted out.

Artemis Papert and Brian Silverman présentent le mariage entre programmation et art. Inspirant! remix2017 https://t.co/MEoblhQ2bs

— Aventuriers (@31PetitePatrie) September 30, 2017

The context?  The Twitter message made reference to this post from my blog.  “Introducing Artemis Papert and Brian Silverman“.  At the time, I was a co-chair of the Bring IT, Together Conference.  The other co-chair (Cyndie Jacobs) and I had made a conscience effort of letting the world know (or at least those wise enough to read my blog) know about the great things that had been assembled in the conference for Ontario Educators.  In this particular case, Artemis and Brian were going to be an exciting addition to the Minds on Media event.

Now, the particular notion and value of a blog post is to get your thoughts out the moment that you have them.  In my case, my thought of the day is scheduled for 5:00am the next morning.  For the most part, my thoughts strike a note for people on that particular day and then we move on!

On a personal level, my blog is a way to archive my thoughts.  I know that, if I ever thought seriously about something, I have it archived somewhere.  And, it’s not that I remember “where” every post is, but the helpful search routine will find it for me.  For that, I’m so appreciative.  It allows the front of my memory room for more important things of the day.

It’s still a hoot though that someone, somewhere three years later finds my thought or promotion on that day of value.

Blogging didn’t always come easy.  There was a time that I really had to think about it and it might take a few days of organizing and planning in order to create one.  Now, all that it takes is a bit of inspiration and I get the post written.  (spelling, grammar mistakes in all, Lisa and Sheila)

So, it’s all kept there in my blog, on my Flipboard specially written for it, and a few other places like Diigo, Pinterest, and Google Plus.  Things that are a little extra special and recurring like my Interviews, Whatever happened to …,  and This Week in Ontario Edublogs have a special place and are worthy of a link on the side above.  When I need some particular inspiration and a reminder that I have connections with very special people, I revisit those myself.

For this cool Sunday morning, that reference to a three year and one day old blog post just struck a chord.  I didn’t write it with the thought that a classroom in Quebec might find it helpful but there’s just something special that they did.

I think that, if you’re a blogger, you probably are nodding your head at the moment.  I’ll bet that you have the same experience.  If you’re not a blogger, why not give it a shot and see what you think?  You’re not writing for a particular award or anything but just for yourself and anyone else who happens to stumble on your work.  Oh, and to free up some grey matter so that you don’t have to remember everything.  That lets your mind turn itself loose to the next important thing!

 

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