Month: January 2005

Rafe Colburn: “It’s hard for me not to be cynical about Iraq these days.”

Like Rafe points out, a part of me wants to see Bush fail. I understand that if Bush fails, it is not good for Iraq and it is not good for America. Call me selfish, but at this point I care more about America than I care about Iraq. Bush has pushed our country to a point where I fear only bad things can happen, and continue to happen until we have a huge change in our government’s approach towards foreign policy. I sometimes think the biggest problem in America is that most Americans don’t understand the long-term impact of Bush’s decisions. They don’t realize that privatizing Social Security is just a way to put more money in the pockets of the already-rich. They do not realize that the billions of dollars we are spending in Iraq is not money we actually have; it is money our government is borrowing. While I do want Bush to succeed in Iraq, a part of me also wants him to fail.

At some point in the not-too-distant future our country will experience a huge wake-up call; personally it think it will be the collapse of the housing market with millions of people defaulting on their mortgages. This possibility combined with high oil prices, gas-guzzling forms of transportation and the increase in prices for food will push us into something much like the Great Depression of the 1930s. After the majority of Americans have struggled for a few years, they will eject our current (corrupt) government — either through mass impeachments, assassinations or some form of economic civil war where the two sides are the rich vs. the poor. The poor vastly outnumber the rich, but the rich control the government so the two sides could be the people vs. the government, and since the government contols the military, we might be looking at some kind of police state if things get too out of hand. It might sound far-fetched, but it’s certainly one possibility for the future of America.

Update: Seymour Hersh gave a speech last month that should scare the crap out of anyone who thinks the Bush administration has a firm grip on what’s going on in Iraq.

Posted by Cameron Barrett at January 26, 2005 03:16 PM

The new service from Google that lets you search for automated transcriptions of what’s on TV is very fascinating. Wondering how much our media worlds are converging (colliding?) I did a search for “blog” and the results are quite surprising.

Posted by Cameron Barrett at January 25, 2005 06:38 PM

Hey there everybody. Sorry for the long absence. My life has changed so much in the past 6 months that I have neglected my other life: this one, the life of Cameron Barrett online, i.e. CamWorld. I used to feel guilty about not updating my blog, but these days I just don’t care. My blog no longer represents the same thing as it used to.

To some I’ve mentioned that I feel like I’ve lost focus, which is partially true. Once upon a time, my blog was my life. It was my focus. It gave me the things I was missing in my offline life and I am very grateful for that. It helped shape me into the person I am today.

Had it not been for my blog I would never have stayed in the Internet industry as long as I have. Had it not been for my blog I would never have met so many cool and wonderful people around the world who shared with me their lives and their stories. Had it not been for my blog I never would have met my wonderful girlfriend, Bonnie. My blog taught me that it was socially acceptable to meet people online and then in real life. A few years ago I posted a funny personals ad on the New York Craigslist. It quickly was voted to the Best of Craigslist and I have remained hidden behind that anonymity ever since. At the end of last summer I reposted the same ad and Bonnie replied. After 5 dates, Bonnie broke up with me and I was crushed. A full month passed and we got back together after realizing there was a reason we kept replying to each other’s emails. Next month we move into our first apartment together, a fantastic two-bedroom condo in Park Slope.

My professional life is going well. On top of a pile of freelance work I’m wrapping up, I’ve struck a deal with a small advertising agency in SoHo to share office space and Internet access. This at least gets me out of the house and back into an office environment where I can be more focused than I am when at home.

I have no idea what I want to do with CamWorld. I’m working on an idea that will turn it into a more professional blog to promote my business, but I’m not sure if that’s the right thing to do. CamWorld is the brand that people know, so one option would be to re-brand CamWorld. Another is to point all CamWorld traffic to my business site. A third is to just leave CamWorld alone and keep it separate from my business and portfolio. Clearly, I need to give these options more thought.

I think I’m skipping SXSW this year, but am considering going to the Drupal Conference in Belgium next month. I’m working on my own conference idea for later this summer and will announce it when I have more details worked out.

I’m starting to use Flickr more often and have posted some of my Bahamas vacation photos from last week. I’ve got about 1000 more photos from the past 5 years to upload and organize. Congrats to Stewart and team for making such a great web app.

Posted by Cameron Barrett at January 23, 2005 08:24 PM