Making an /Interests Page
On the first day of #WeblogPoMo2024, I read as many entries as I could find. The one that made the biggest impact was by Chris Burnell about the addition of an /Interests page to personal blogs. I read it during the first part of my lunch break and during the second part I created the page and added it to my blog's navigation at Micro.blog. For today's contribution to the challenge, I'm sharing and expanding on that in hopes of finding some kindred spirits out there.
- Apple technology. I supported Apple computers and devices by the thousands in the public school system, staring with OS 7.6 on LC575s. My first Mac was a Titanium G4 PowerBook dual booting OS 9 and OS X.
- 📷 Photography - I love street photography the most, even if it is nerve wracking at times.
- 🇮🇪 🇬🇧 Northern Ireland, its history and politics. I've been to beautiful Northern Ireland and toured the scenes from The Troubles led by ex-prisoners from the IRA and the UDA along the Falls and Shankhill Roads, scenes of some of the worst sectarian violence of the 30-year struggle. There are still huge walls in Belfast between the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods.
- 🏃♀️Ultrarunning (as a spectator and crew member) My wife is the ultrarunner. She's won races at the distances of 50K, 50 miles, 100K and 100 miles. I'm the one who fills her water bottles, bandages her feet, rubs her back, ignores her tears and pushes her back onto the trail.
- 📺 British police procedurals, like Endeavour and Broadchurch We've made some good ones in the US, but we still can't hold a candle to the Brits. Even as recently as this year, they came out with Criminal Record, and it was awesome.
- 🫏 US Politics from a left-wing, progressive perspective. I am a died in the wool lefty. I don't have room in my life to argue politics. Mine are based on actually giving a shit about people and the folks on the right have politics based on something else entirely.
- 🥾 The Appalachian Trail and the people that hike it. Since completing my own thru-hike with my new bride in 2013, I have been back to the AT many times. I think about retiring near the trail eventually, probably in SW Virginia or Eastern, TN.
- 🌍 Anti-racist activism - I am from the first generation in the south to attend integrated schools for the entirety of my public education. My parents and most of the people who taught me in school were products of the Jim Crow system. I believe racism to be the original sin of this country and I am committed to doing my part to heal the south.
- 🚴 Professional cycling even though it broke my heart a long time ago. It broke my heart when Lance Armstrong was revealed to be the person he actually is. I've cycled across NC from the mountains to the coast four times. I've completed over seventy 100-mile bike rides and managed to ride over 10,000 miles in a calendar year twice.
- 🇺🇳 World War Two and the world it created. I was raised hearing my ' stories of life during World War 2, both on the home front and in Europe where my grandfather served in France and Germany prior to VE Day.
- 📱Productivity Software and other kinds too. I have 416 applications installed on my laptop and you know what? It's not enough. I love evaluating and mastering all kinds of software. My current computer girlfriend is Obsidian, but I'm also in a long-term relationship with Drafts, Keyboard Maestro, Hazel and Things 3.
- 🦜 Parrots and other companion birds. I used to do bird rescue. I tend to just jump into things with both feet. At one time I had over 30 parrots living in two different aviaries in and attached to my home. From the smallest parrotlets to African Greys and Amazons, I had quite the flock, all of them in their second or third home.
- ⚾ Baseball history from before the steroids era. I collected baseball cards as a kid and went to as many minor league games as I could get to. One of the highlights of my childhood was meeting Hall Of Famer Bob Feller and getting Mickey Mantle's autograph. I still like looking at pictures of old games and remembering the stars from the twentieth century.
- 🎶Alt-Country and Bluegrass music - like Uncle Tupelo or Old Crow Medicine Show or even Flatt and Scruggs. One of the side benefits of living in NC is all the good music that comes from here and states nearby. I'm no fan of most of the stuff they make in Nashville these days, but I do love the five basic instruments of about any bluegrass band.
- 🌮 Tacos, definitely tacos - al pastor, carne asada, pollo - I like them all. One of the best things to happen to this country is the food immigrants have introduced here.