It’s now common knowledge my position at SOU will be eliminated on Nov. 4th. I’ve got some housekeeping chores to take care of, but as my “notification letter” states I’m not required to maintain regular office hours, so I’ll avail myself of the interwebs as much as feasible to close out my accounts as it were.

At this moment I ask the question “what’s next?” with, for me, an incredibly positive attitude. The changes in the web world over the past year have been wholly unpalatable and i’m glad to have the opportunity to extricate myself.

In the wider world news of late has all focused on a nebulous terrorist threat against any number of soft targets overseas. Here’s a tip for would-be terrorists: take Facebook down for 24 hours. If Klaatu came to Earth today he wouldn’t shut off the electricity to make the earth stand still, he’d make FB, Youtube, Twitter and Pinterest go dark.

I understand the intoxicating pull of being connected to others via technology and i can easily see how certain personality types flourish in such an environment. But for me this recent explosion of “social media” has become just another party I want to leave. A great moment in The Blair Witch Project was when one of the ill-fated guys observes, “I think i know why you’re always looking through the video camera; it’s kinda like reality, but not quite.” The same is true of social media, and, what’s worse, social media has morphed into just another sales channel and I want no part of that aspect.

Enough grousing, here are my latest Hipstamatics from Mt. Lassen National Park, a seriously beautiful place that’s only about 3 hours from where I live.

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