Huh? What Happened to 2017?

Oops. It appears I forgot to offer up a 2017 post hereabouts. So be it.

So, a year late and at the very end of the eighth month of 2018, here's an update. I reread that 2016 post. Picking up from there: I did finally get over that stomach malady. What was it? No-one knows, no doctor.  Not my PCP, not the gastric specialist, not a soul.

BUT: a good many friends told me that they, or someone from all of  they knew or were related to, had suffered the same exact symptoms. For one the cause was white wine. Another, Cilantro. But for most: no clue, no definitive tests, same deal with all sorts of meds that did nothing.

And then it just vanished, went away, as if nothing had happened.

That might seem like the good news.  But no, that isn't.  The good news from all of that, months that it took, losing my voice due to one (or more?) of the meds (voice came back, thanks to excellent medical care here in NYC) as I reported in 2016, my PCP referred me to an endocrinologist.

He put me on a plan, on meds, an A to Z program.  I've shed loads and loads of weight.  My appetite is way down.  My desire for food is way down. I'm 5 belt loops down from when I started.

A good thing.

There's more, but that's enough for now.

OH! ONE MORE THING. In May of this year a set of regulations went into effect, known at the GDPR. That's in effect throughout the European Union, and it effects all businesses that touch individuals living in the EU, even if those businesses are outside of the EU.  Like here in the USA.  Non-compliance with the GDPR can be very costly. The GDPR is all about personal data, protecting it, putting it back in the hands of the individual, and giving the value of personal media back to the owners of that data.  Your personal data belongs to you.  So when it gets aggregated, stored, analyzed, ad used in various ways --at you, about you, toward you-- or sold to others for analysis or for further marketing or contact purposes -- is to lessen that. To make it that you have control over such activity.













This is very good. I've done a great deal of work in this arena. It is very rewarding. Is the GDPR perfect? No, far from.  But it is a superb and wonderful first step forward. It will mature, undergo revision, and become stronger and better. It works across all the EU countries, and all of them have input on how it will grow, transform, transition, and help the process and transformation of personal data in the emerging, burgeoning Personal Information Economy (PIE).

You've probably seen all those emails asking for permission to keep sending you emails. And those terribly annoying horizontal (usually) rectangles across websites telling about collecting cookies and in unreadable or gobbledygook language that is as vague as vague can be that, yeah, more stuff other than those cookies but we're nice people so just check here or you're stuck and can go no further.

What's the scoop with that?  Here's what it is, almost all the time: they've cajoled you into giving away your rights regarding how they can use the data they gather about you. Your personal data.

Here with this blog --- a blog I update very rarely --- Google, owner of blogger.com, letting me know it has my best interests in mind (read that as it has Google's best interests in mind) tells me it has the GDPR "yes, this blog is GDPR Kosher" statement for the blog, in fact it is automatically attached, I just have to employ some digital magic to agree to it.

But they do it in warning color yellow, as though the world will fall apart if I don't agree.  Here's what  it looked like:






And for  some reason I can't get that image to be centered. Or enlarged. That is clearly a sign from all greater powers to close this, the 2018 entry.

See you next year.

Official 2016 Entry

Whew, got here just in time to make it for this online outpost's annual entry.

2016, what a miserable year.  Musicians died at such a pace, one would think the Grim Reaper was planning a mega concert to raise funds.  Political figures died.  Stars of various sorts died.  Even the Democratic party died.

There were some good things.

Gary Sanchez made his debut as a NY Yankee.  His bat was phenomenal, hitting 20 home runs, getting 60 hits and batting to a .299 average.  He and the rest of a slew of Yankee Youngsters give hope for a budding Youth Movement to pull the Yankees out of the doldrums caused by long term contracts resulting in aging players and thus a tired and debilitating and often injured team.

Here in NYC an alternative to Uber arose, Juno.  Lower prices!  Happier and better paid drivers!  And those Juno drivers may also get a piece of the company, on an earn-in basis.  This is unlike Uber (and Lyft, Gett, etc.) where the drivers are treated like chattel.

We saw many plays and music this year.  Special mention for that goes to my sister-in-law Helen, who can get tickets, it seems, to all sorts of great and often unknown or little known gems. She also scores those extra seats that are available (if you subscribe to the right organizations, as she does) for many great performances.  We've been to the ballet, to Carnegie Hall many times, to Alvin Ailey, and other recitals, plus a few historic instruments performances where Mozart or Bach was played on instruments from back in the day when the music was composed.

It was a good year for PDEC.  That's the Personal Data Ecosystem Consortium.  I'm the Executive Director, having been the Communications Director prior to that.  PDEC grew in certain ways.  Growth years have their growing pains, part of the process, but PDEC came through stronger and with a businesslike Board of Directors (commonly known in PDEC-speak as the Governance Board) and structure with a path of action for 2017.  In addition PDEC entered into agreements with other non profits in the Personal Data and Identity space, Kantara and OIX.  We signed those agreements at the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) in October.  Working with those industry colleagues and with the board at PDEC has been very rewarding.


My daughter got her Masters degree this year. That's a big deal!  I'm proud of her and proud for her.  She found a professional path to pursue, one that brings her joy and accomplishment.  Such a deal!  In pursuit of the degree she made excellent contacts and now has working relationships and a road ahead that looks extremely promising.

My son is looking at what's ahead.  He makes his annual trek to NYC for the New Year. There could be big changes coming, but superstition indicates that it isn't wise to discuss it, or even to type about it for publication here.

This year my company enjoyed very good client relationships.  We were fortunate to have repeat business, always a good sign.  In one case it was repeat people-wise, new company.  Another was a new assignment, same client.  And new business came in the form of recommendation and referral, also always nice.  It wasn't the most active year, but it wasn't inactive.

The election left us feeling empty, with a visceral sense of loss and concern for what's to come.  But what led up to it, the Primaries, was no better.  I have a dark and dim view of what's ahead, but won't share that here.  After all, why should I darken your digital doorstep?

Sometime in 2017, provided I remember (it did take me until the 361st day of this year), I might go into it, and let you know if my predictions came true.  Some of them are for past 2017, so it might take more than a year.  I've spoken them and written them in emails to a few people, so there's that.  This isn't just an idle blog assertion.



This was a peculiar health year.  Mrs. Yankfan deserves an award for dealing with me and my maladies.  I was laid up with mysterious headaches for awhile early in the year.  Went to a neurologist who put me through any rounds of tests.  A zillion tests, it seemed.  The headaches were terrible. After all the tests showed it wasn't any number of dreadful things (brain cancer, brain tumor, Lymes Disease, stroke or mini-strokes, heart attack or mini-infarctions, and a host of other less harrowing possibilities), he said it seemed a better idea to treat it rather than keep trying to figure it out.  Treatment was medication he wanted to try out slowly, to work out how much to give me at what dosage during the day.  We worked it out, and the headaches went away.  That's the good news.  The bad news, however, is that with the medication came weight gain.  And the weight gain persisted.

I visited my regular doctor for a different reason and she asked about the weight gain.  I hadn't associated it with the headache medication, but that was the only change I'd made.  No diet change no other change.  She suggested I see an endocrinologist, who turned out to be very much in demand, the sort of doctor one waits 8 months for to get an appointment.  By luck (and a timely cancellation) I got one for later that week.







He reviewed my meds, looked at the medical history I'd provided, and suggested a change in headache meds.  He also had some dietary ideas and suggestions for handling other issues I have.  Well, bingo!  It's working, and over the months since then I've lost all the weight the headache meds added, and taken of a bunch more.  My blood sugar is under control and I continue to lose weight.  I have a constant battle with the insurance company, as they want to argue about almost every medication prescribed for me, but we plow through and get by.



It's well worth pointing out that this is not some BS diet, or drinking shakes or nuking fake food. He only slightly modified my regular diet, eliminated a few things, and told me to eat smaller portions.  Following his suggestions proved to be easy, and the results came rapidly.

Since then I've developed some odd stomach problem.  You by all means do not want details on that.  It is every bit as gross as you think.  I'm still stuck with it. Not much of an appetite, not keeping much food down.  Had a zillion more tests, still no clue what it is.  And, get this, stomach problem, but I've lost my voice! I can type, sure, but I can't speak. No voice whatsoever.  I can whisper.  That's that.

Makes the phone hard to use.

And that's this year's Welcome to Deanland (the blogspot version) entry.

Official Annual Entry: 2015

It seems that every year at this time (mid January, more than halfway into the month) the existence of this blog comes to mine, and I remember to compose the annual (blogger or blogspot) blog entry.  A-posting I shall go.

Having read the prior few posts (few being the operative word here) it seems that each year I've ruminated on the past year, made vague predictions or suggested projections about the coming year, and commented on the status of my health and my business for the 12 months preceding the post.

A minor change in format this year.  Now we enter the phase of oblique mentions, nothing specific.

Weird events occurred in the beginning of the year.  Early February.  An injury of significant proportion. I feared for how this would affect my business.  Those fears turned out to be of no consequence. All the accounts bore with me, some waiting as long as a year. I am just now getting to some work that was actually due in Spring of last year.  Clients were supportive and incredibly considerate.  "We like your work,we respect how you go about it, we'll wait until you can do it.  As long as it takes.  No problem."  Then my contact at that client left to go to another job.  The new contact reiterated what she had to say.

To say I was humbled, thankful and overwhelmed (and relieved!) is an understatement.

This happened a number of times in different ways as I attempted to do whatever I could.  The bigger and more challenging work just had to wait.  And it did. When one is self-employed, as I have been throughout most of my adult life, getting work done on time and meeting client expectation is a core necessity.  Clients bearing with me, extending deadlines, understanding when I'd explain that I was just too tired to take care of something (thanks, Tom!) and telling me to just recuperate and resume when okay ... floored me.  At my weakest moment my clients and friends offered me nothing but strength.

This month, the onset of 2015, finds me getting back in gear.  There's still some uphill climb, but it seems less steep by the day and the majority of the process seems to be behind me.

Which makes for a very upbeat and confident feeling about the year.

Let's leave it at that.

And for the record: will I think to update this site, this rarely viewed or used blog, more than but once this year?   Maybe.

But not likely.  See you next year.  

Official 2014 Blog Post

After a tumultuous 2013, here we are in 2014.

Health was not so great in 2013, so 2014 can only be better.  Last year began with some serious illness, followed by knee problems that worsened due to a fall on a city street.  Despite that, and even with the economy as miserable as it is, it was a good business year.

After 21+ years of having an office in a suburb of NYC, it was time to close that down.  It had become more of a storage facility than a working office. It was roomy as could be, but in many ways no longer necessary.  It took three months of concerted effort to go through everything.  That meant deciding what to keep, what to toss, what to give away, and even to sell a few items.  It was also quite physically demanding a process.

Now, 23.5 years after having moved to Rockland County, the ties there are cut.  Back in NYC, where indeed it all began. 

Who knows, maybe this will be the year of more than one single post on this blog.  There are other occasional Deanland bloggy sorts of outposts (tumblr, etc.).  And there's the main deanland blog.  Perhaps this will be a year of more writing.

Hope so! 

Gee, the time between posts has been so long that it appears the dashboard has changed.  Log in errors show up even after a successful log in.  That makes no sense, but so be it.  Log in successfully, attempt another interaction, be told not successfully logged in.  So I hit the "create a new entry" icon, and we will see what happens. Surely this sort of incident is not happening to just me.

And people wonder why WordPress is so successful?

Simplicity!

Occasional Post (as in now)

Every now then and again it occurs to me that this blog exists. At even scarcer intervals there is inclination to post something here. Today is one of those days. Recent surgery has me typing this with only one hand. Nine more days until the cast comes off.

Yesterday the Yankees beat Detroit. I was there. CC Sabathia went 8 innings, David Robertson (he of high socks and Tuscaloosa fame) closed it out. A-Rod, with two infield hits, tied and then surpassed Willie Mays on baseball's all time RBI list.

And so it goes, another rare post on this outpost on the web. At the current rate of entry, next one should occur sometime in 2016. See you then. Or whenever.

Blue Moon & Blogger

It must surely be a blue moon. Why else would I post hereabouts? Checking out my various outposts on the web, this site showed up. Since it is searchable, it seemed only right to post something before the year comes to an end. Lots of interesting work of late. Most notably, a site you should check out: Smartman Daily. Where Guys Go For Good Advice. Check it out. Let me know what you think. Read it daily. Link to it. Subscribe to the newsletter. And while you're at it, check out DeanLand, my more regular (har har) blog. Over there I am trying to post more than once a month or every other month. Really, I am trying. But time is less and less available and at a greater premium by the day. And blog posts over there tend to take a lot of time in composition. If I win the lottery I promise to spend more time on teh blog. Of course, I'd have to buy a lottery ticket for this to occur. I'll put that on my Things To Do When I Have Nothing Else To Do (or When I Get Around To It) list.

Hey, What Happened?

Supposedly there was a post back in September of 05. Click on it and one goes to nowhere. Harrumph.

Huh? Whah?

What is the true meaning of those special words, "Rama Lama Ding Dong?"

Hmm. Out of curiosity I thought I'd see if the DeanLand blog over here at Blogger was still in working order. Turns out it is. And it isn't. I can log in, go to the edit/create area -- but no posts (past or present) seem to show. So I tried to recreate DeanLand, but, alas, it is already taken. By me, of course. Wnat can be the problem? I have no idea. But this will serve as a test post -- maybe Blogger kills or suspends inactive blogs. Maybe not, could just be some individual error. Whatever, this is as much effort as I have time to spend on deanLand/Blogger at the moment.

My, it sure has been a long time since a post appeared on this blog. The world works in strange and mysterious ways. I'd forgotten of the existence of this blog. There's two other DeanLand blogs, one here, my main blog, and then there's this one, the "faux blog" created as a reaction in the Summer of 2004 when Weblogs.com went down. Due to a variety of events of an extreme nature (yep, both good and bad events) I haven't updated the main blog in over a month. Work is hectic. Health issues surrounding friends and family, and even yours truly, have been teh focus of critical attention. My good friend died, a family member came down with the same exact illness that was the demise of my friend, so there was surgery and then a few weeks of follow-up fear and hell. At the moment all seems ok. The highs have been higher thanever, the lows have been to new depths. I long for the comfort of the middle ground. And yet there is a sense of feat that the middle may just be gone, sanctioned to memory. As the old phrase goes, only time will tell. And time ain't telling until you've already figured it out.

My, it sure has been a long time since a post appeared on this blog. The world works in strange and mysterious ways. I'd forgotten of the existence of this blog. There's two other DeanLand blogs, one here, my main blog, and then there's this one, the "faux blog" created as a reaction in the Summer of 2004 when Weblogs.com went down. Due to a variety of events of an extreme nature (yep, both good and bad events) I haven't updated the main blog in over a month. Work is hectic. Health issues surrounding friends and family, and even yours truly, have been the focus of critical attention. My good friend died, a family member came down with the same exact illness that was the demise of my friend, so there was surgery and then a few weeks of follow-up fear and hell. At the moment all seems ok. The highs have been higher thanever, the lows have been to new depths. I long for the comfort of the middle ground. And yet there is a sense of feat that the middle may just be gone, sanctioned to memory. As the old phrase goes, only time will tell. And time ain't telling until you've already figured it out.

My, it sure has been a long time since a post appeared on this blog. The world works in strange and mysterious ways. I'd forgotten of the existence of this blog. There's two other DeanLand blogs, one here, my main blog, and then there's this one, the "faux blog" created as a reaction in the Summer of 2004 when Weblogs.com went down. Due to a variety of events of an extreme nature (yep, both good and bad events) I haven't updated the main blog in over a month. Work is hectic. Health issues surrounding friends and family, and even yours truly, have been the focus of critical attention. My good friend died, a family member came down with the same exact illness that was the demise of my friend, so there was surgery and then a few weeks of follow-up fear and hell. At the moment all seems ok. The highs have been higher thanever, the lows have been to new depths. I long for the comfort of the middle ground. And yet there is a sense of feat that the middle may just be gone, sanctioned to memory. As the old phrase goes, only time will tell. And time ain't telling until you've already figured it out.

Here's the question: Will this page ever end up on my domain? Damn, I sure don't know at this point!

[7/2/2000 12:32:59 AM | Dean Landsman] Welcome to Dean Land To begin with, this weblog will include my rants on Baseball (most specifically, the World Champion New York Yankees), Telecom, Media, New Media, and anything else that strikes me as worth posting. It will also include an area for responses, replies, your input. As chief of content, editing and deleting rights will be up to management (me). Bear with me as I get the hang of the blog. It will improve over time. It wouldn't be right if I didn't mention a few items and people in this maiden post: I found 'blogger with some help from Joe Jennett. Check out his site: net.weblogs.com Joe was very helpful, trading e-mails back and forth with me. He understood my desire to get this going, as well as my not-so-technical status. All via e-mail, and just a few of them, at that. Big thanks to Joe! It was Joe who steered me to Blogger. You want to create a weblog of your own? You want a site to assist you in just that pursuit? Check out Blogger. There are a number of weblogs I check out on a pretty regular basis. The one that gets a daily look-see is my friend Doc Searls' weblog. Doc is one excellent writer, a real smart guy, and one of the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto. A link on a recent post of Doc's was the beginning of my discovering Joe Jennett. That link deserves some credit by proxy. It also merits a visit. Check out Lemur Zone. That's Alan Herrell's site. He uses Joe's net.weblogs.com. Clearly, he knows more on the tech side than yours truly. More soon. This is a beginning. Your comments are welcome and encouraged.

Welcome to Dean Land
To begin with, this weblog will include my rants on Baseball (most specifically, the World Champion New York Yankees), Telecom, Media, New Media, and anything else that strikes me as worth posting. It will also include an area for responses, replies, your input. As chief of content, editing and deleting rights will be up to management (me).

Bear with me as I get the hang of the blog. It will improve over time.

It wouldn't be right if I didn't mention a few items and people in this maiden post:

I found 'blogger with some help from Joe Jennett. Check out his site: net.weblogs.com Joe was very helpful, trading e-mails back and forth with me. He understood my desire to get this going, as well as my not-so-technical status. All via e-mail, and just a few of them, at that. Big thanks to Joe!

It was Joe who steered me to Blogger. You want to create a weblog of your own? You want a site to assist you in just that pursuit? Check out Blogger.

There are a number of weblogs I check out on a pretty regular basis. The one that gets a daily look-see is my friend Doc Searls' weblog. Doc is one excellent writer, a real smart guy, and one of the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto.

A link on a recent post of Doc's was the beginning of my discovering Joe Jennett. That link deserves some credit by proxy. It also merits a visit. Check out Lemur Zone. That's Alan Herrell's site. He uses Joe's net.weblogs.com. Clearly, he knows more on the tech side than yours truly.

More soon. This is a beginning.

Your comments are welcome and encouraged.