Matthew Gifford » Personal http://www.matthewgifford.com Sun, 01 Jan 2012 08:00:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Happy new year! http://www.matthewgifford.com/2012/01/01/happy-new-year-5/ http://www.matthewgifford.com/2012/01/01/happy-new-year-5/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 08:00:07 +0000 Matt http://www.matthewgifford.com/?p=1927 2011 was a challenging year. But I can’t complain too much. I have much to be grateful for. Two awesome kids. A wonderful wife. My health. A rewarding job.

I don’t know what my specific new year’s resolutions will be as I write this. But I do resolve to make 2012 great.

]]> http://www.matthewgifford.com/2012/01/01/happy-new-year-5/feed/ 0 Why do I keep wasting time on Facebook? http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/12/18/facebook-sucks/ http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/12/18/facebook-sucks/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:59:09 +0000 Matt http://www.matthewgifford.com/?p=1895 [I apologize in advance for the complete lack of polish on this post. I just needed to remind myself why Facebook is an almost complete waste of time (for me).]

Facebook Is Making Us Miserable got me thinking about why I continue to use Facebook. The downsides are easy to list:

  • Reading with little or no benefit
  • Interactions with people you don’t care about
  • Less meaningful interactions with people you do care about
  • Annoyances that I need to filter out of the news stream
  • Trusting your privacy to a company with an ethically-challenged founder

I’m sure you can think of many others.

Then there are the things I feel that I could be doing with my time spent on Facebook:

  • Learning
  • Meeting new people
  • Improving my career
  • Getting healthier and losing weight
Those all seem like pretty important things.
What benefits to Facebook usage can I think of?
  • I can keep up with what my wife writes online
  • I can see what’s going on with the handful of other people on Facebook I care about
  • Anything else? Hmm. Um. No.

So, while there are a couple reasons why I’m not ready to delete my Facebook account, I certainly don’t need to be spending more than a couple minutes per day there.

On a somewhat related note, I’m spending a lot more time logged into IRC these days. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for channels I might be interested in.

]]> http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/12/18/facebook-sucks/feed/ 0 Post-brunch abstract painting http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/10/01/post-brunch-abstract-painting/ http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/10/01/post-brunch-abstract-painting/#comments Sat, 01 Oct 2011 19:39:19 +0000 Matt http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/10/01/post-brunch-abstract-painting/ image

]]> http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/10/01/post-brunch-abstract-painting/feed/ 0 Picking blackberries http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/09/25/picking-blackberries/ http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/09/25/picking-blackberries/#comments Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:28:54 +0000 Matt http://www.matthewgifford.com/?p=1849 DSC_0008 DSC_0010 DSC_0012 DSC_0014 DSC_0016 DSC_0018 DSC_0020 DSC_0022 DSC_0024 DSC_0027 DSC_0031 DSC_0033 DSC_0036 DSC_0038 DSC_0044 DSC_0050 DSC_0056 DSC_0058 DSC_0071 DSC_0073 DSC_0083 DSC_0084 ]]> http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/09/25/picking-blackberries/feed/ 0 Hatch chilies http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/08/28/hatch-chilies/ http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/08/28/hatch-chilies/#comments Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:07:07 +0000 Matt http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/08/28/hatch-chilies/ image

We bought some Hatch chilies from the grocery store yesterday. I’d been meaning to get some for the last few weeks.

This morning I made scrambled eggs with diced chilies and Walla Walla onion and a bit of tomato salsa. Amazing. Kicking myself for not buying some sooner.

]]> http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/08/28/hatch-chilies/feed/ 1 ABC http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/06/22/abc/ http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/06/22/abc/#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2011 02:30:21 +0000 Matt http://www.matthewgifford.com/?p=1830

August can recognize all of the letters at 21 months. Blows me away every time.

We recently added numbers to the mix, which is throwing him off a bit. I think he’ll get it figured out soon enough.

]]> http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/06/22/abc/feed/ 0 Chasing waves on Nye Beach http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/06/01/chasing-waves-on-nye-beach/ http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/06/01/chasing-waves-on-nye-beach/#comments Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:02:29 +0000 Matt http://www.matthewgifford.com/?p=1827 ]]> http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/06/01/chasing-waves-on-nye-beach/feed/ 1 Down to the water http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/05/27/down-to-the-water/ http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/05/27/down-to-the-water/#comments Sat, 28 May 2011 04:06:41 +0000 Matt http://www.matthewgifford.com/?p=1823 ]]> http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/05/27/down-to-the-water/feed/ 0 Newport http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/05/27/newport/ http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/05/27/newport/#comments Sat, 28 May 2011 01:31:00 +0000 Matt http://www.matthewgifford.com/?p=1819 image

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Angela, August, and I went to the beach south of Newport after a good rain. August loves to find pretty rocks and sticks for Mommy.

]]> http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/05/27/newport/feed/ 0 August pushing a cart http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/05/21/august-pushing-a-cart/ http://www.matthewgifford.com/2011/05/21/august-pushing-a-cart/#comments Sun, 22 May 2011 00:43:06 +0000 Matt http://www.matthewgifford.com/?p=1810

My little troublemaker likes to terrorize the grocery store while Angela does the shopping.

No, I don’t usually let him run around with bare feet.

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