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About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
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Blogocentric Formulations
Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
Thanks for stopping by! 
August 31, 2013 at 12:45pm August 31, 2013 at 12:45pm
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Even though it was a busy week (work was hectic and it was my wife's first week of teaching at her new school), I don't think that's anything compared to the stuff on tap for this weekend. It's a long holiday weekend, and even though we're not traveling anywhere, somehow we've managed to book ourselves up with errands and activities.
Today I'm going to a live fantasy football draft with some writer friends. Somewhere along the way, we discovered a mutual interest in fantasy sports (okay, some of us discovered others' interest in fantasy sports and agreed to play in a league together.  ), and now every year we play fantasy football and fantasy baseball, and get together for good company, junk food, and friendly banter during the live drafts before the season. I have to go all the way across the city this afternoon because the guy who's hosting it is in the Valley... but it should be fun.
Since I'm missing our usual Saturday service to go to the draft, I have to go to church either tomorrow morning (most likely) or evening because I volunteered to do a sermon recap for their blog. I sometimes contribute recaps or devotionals or other writing when they need an extra writer, and everyone seems to be out of town for Labor Day, so I volunteered to fill in. Have I mentioned how happy I am that the church we go to offers five weekend services so we can pick and choose which one is most convenient for our schedules? 
And then, of course, there's the part of the weekend that I'm most excited about. At the stroke of midnight tonight, Writing.Com turns thirteen years old!  {e:awe}
The StoryMaster  and The StoryMistress  have done an amazing job pulling together more birthday activities than I've ever seen for this site. I'm personally running two... a horror/dark poetry contest (totally works with the birthday theme, don't you think?  ), and - as far as I know - the site's first ever birthday erotica contest! I thought it would be a good opportunity to jump back into my groups "The Dark Society"  and "Invalid Item" which I haven't had a lot of time to focus on lately. Hopefully this is the start of a more active period for both of them. Oh, and I'm also participating in a birthday activity run by the talented Brooke  , and volunteering to judge a round of a Senior Moderator hosted birthday contest. Did I mention Riot  also recruited me and is trying to fatten me up with a cupcake eating birthday fundraiser? Someone's going to need to host a walk-a-thon to help me burn all these calories after it's all said and done! 
And somewhere along the way, I want to figure out how to participate in the many, many other member-hosted birthday activities. I really need to get back in the writing habit, and I think all the wonderful WdC birthday festivities is the perfect place to do so.
Yep, it's going to be a busy few days!
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Over the past couple weeks, I've been giving a lot of thought to my online presence. In addition to the usual Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, (and of course, Writing.Com), I'm a member of several online communities, most of which - like this one - offer members the ability to create a username and/or handle under which they interact with the community. My original online handle/username was always "ragefire2000" (anyone remember my account from way back then? ), and I changed it to "socalscribe" about four years ago when I realized the angsty username I created in high school didn't suit me anymore. SoCalScribe is the identity I've used with most online sites and services ever since. I like the username and it works for me, as long as I don't move out of Southern California! (I do admit there were three false alarms where I almost had to change it to NorCalScribe, SeattleScribe, and NYSCribe ... but I digress).
Lately, I've been feeling like I've outgrown that identity as a handle. It's fine for a username (don't worry, I'm not changing that again ), but I'm reaching a point in my life where I don't feel the need to hide behind an anonymous online identity. I'm well past the point where "flame wars" and other internet trolling hold any kind of appeal, and it's been several years since I've acted differently online than I do in person. At this point in my life, I am who I am, and there isn't really a reason to hide behind the anonymity of a handle. I have nothing to hide with either my behavior or the things I choose to write and put out there in the world.
At least that's what I've been feeling lately.
So I decided to do a test run with one web community and see how it works. I'm getting rid of the anonymous handle and will start using my real name instead. Not a pseudonym or a different fictional identity (I considered that, but 'Carlos Danger' was already taken ) ... the real name that my parents gave me, that I have printed on my business cards at work, and the name that I respond to when people talk to me in the real world.
I chose Writing.Com for my trial run for two reasons. First, a lot of people know my real name here anyway. I don't do too much to hide it, so I don't think this is going to come as any great shock to many people since a lot of people already refer to me by my real name in private correspondence, forum posts, etc. Second (and more importantly), I've been here a really long time and Writing.Com is like a family to me. It almost feels weirder to have someone say "Hey SoCal!" instead of using my given name, especially when it's a user I've known and interacted with for years.
So as of today, I'm changing my handle to my real name. I'm leaving 'socalscribe' in there for a while so there isn't any confusion, and my actual username will stay the same so there's as little transitional inconvenience as possible. But as of today, the name you see next to that purple suitcase will be my real name.
With that in mind... Hi! I'm Jeff. If we haven't met already, it's nice to meet you.
P.S. I swear this isn't some Senior Moderator power struggle to sway the balance in favor of monosyllabic "J" names (sorry, Joy  and JACE !)
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A couple of weeks ago, I went with a coworker to a networking event at a L.A. Dodgers baseball game... and I have to admit, I really enjoyed myself. The problem is, I'll forever be a San Francisco Giants fan because they're my "home" team where I grew up. Or at least the closest thing to a home team my MLB-less hometown had.
I should back up for a minute and say that there are very few sports teams that I would consider myself a "fan" of. Other than the Giants, the Sacramento Kings, and the San Francisco 49ers being my home teams, I don't really follow sports closely enough to have a long list of favorite franchises. Most of the time I will just catch a game between two teams and decide which one I want to root for at that moment. Lately I've considered myself a fan of the Anaheim Angels (sorry, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim ) just because they're the closest team in proximity to my current home.
However, I've been to two Angels games now (one was against the Giants so that's not really fair to the Halos  ), and while the stadium is beautiful and the games are always fun... I was kind of surprised at the lack of energy the fans had. Sure they cheered for home runs and spectacular plays and all that... but there just didn't seem to be that unbridled passion that true fans have for their favorite team. It felt like most of the fans were in the same place I was... Angel fans by proximity, but not out of any deeper connection to the team.
When I went to the Dodgers game, it was like night and day. The fans cheered like crazy for every single strikeout, base hit, caught fly ball, and ground out. I'm sure a lot of that had to do with the fact that they were playing the Yankees, but there was such a remarkable and fun energy about the game, it brought back memories of the games I used to travel to San Francisco to see with my family when I was younger. If I were pressed to choose, I think I might actually like the Dodgers a little more than the Angels, at least in terms of the game-watching experience.
The only problem is that the Dodgers and the Giants are pretty much mortal enemies. 
So is it possible to like teams with a very contentious history if one is your true home team and one is your current home team? Or is that just asking for trouble? 
Then again, maybe I should go to a Dodgers game when they're not playing someone controversial like the Yankees or the Giants and see if the energy is more like the two Angels games I watched when there's not a historic rivalry there.
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Tonight my wife and I are getting caught up on our So You Think You Can Dance viewing, for which we're several weeks behind. It did get me thinking, though, how many television shows I have a tendency to watch this way. Rather than tuning in every week and watching one episode every seven days, I tend to set my DVR to record a bunch of stuff and then I'll get caught up during a binge-watching session over the course of a weekend. There are very few shows that I watch as they air each week, and I almost always save up serialized shows (the aggravating ones that end on a cliffhanger every week) so that I can have the next episode at the ready once the last episode has left me hanging.
I used to watch HBO shows like this all the time; back when we didn't get premium channels in our cable package, it was because I actually couldn't watch them until they became available on Netflix, Amazon Instant, or DVD boxed set. But even now that we have those channels available, I still like to save up my watching of House of Lies or Game of Thrones until I can see them all in quick succession.
Does anyone else do this, or are most people still on the "I have to watch it every week" schedule?
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The The StoryMaster and The StoryMistress have a remarkable way of always managing to surprise us with new and exciting things. Usually it's some kind of a site update, or an announcement of a cool new contest or challenge that's up and running. But every so often, they surprise us in a much more personal way. The first time was way back in March 2008 when I logged in one morning and realized that the color of my portfolio case had changed from black to yellow. (I was driving and checking my email from the road at the time, so to say that the promotion caught me off guard would be an understatement!) The second time was in April 2010 when my wife and I were on vacation in Paris. We were standing in line for the Eiffel Tower, about to get on the elevators to ascend to the top, and I briefly checked my email and found that my portfolio case had again changed, this time from yellow to blue.
The third time was last night, when I found out my portfolio case had changed color once again from blue to purple. (Thankfully I was sitting on the couch at the time and not involved in any extreme activities like driving or world travel. ). With the promotion comes a whole lot of responsibility that I'm just starting to be able to wrap my brain around, but even at these early stages of my tenure as a Senior Moderator, it's incredibly humbling and gratifying to know that the time I've spent on this site has earned that kind of trust from the staff.
I'm absolutely thrilled with my delightful new case color, and even more thrilled at the prospect of continuing to be a part of the Writing.Com community for many, many years to come.
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© Copyright 2025 Jeff (UN: jeff at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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