Bananaleaf Central
Why is this called
Bananaleaf Central?
I have used the moniker “Bananaleaf” at a number of places on the web. It all started when I set up a Yahoo account years ago and decided to use Bananaleaf as my Yahoo ID. I kind of liked that ID, so I’ve used it in other places too. I call this “Bananaleaf Central” because I have stuff scattered all over the web, so I wanted to make this starting point where you could find me in all the web communities I participate in.
Where does the name Bananaleaf come from?
It comes from a song by Shonen Knife entitled, “Banana Leaf.” Here’s the gist of the song: I was walking along the road with a banana leaf on my head when I fell into a hole. I tried to climb out of it but couldn’t. When I tore the banana leaf, I felt better, then eventually I could climb out of the hole. After that, I went home and laid down to relax. You can listen to the song here:
Guide to
“The Bananaleaf Directory”
As I mentioned above, I have stuff scattered all over the web. I only wish I had the time to be as active in all the places that I want to. At any rate, I am a member of a number of web communities, so I wanted to list all the places you could find me at this one location. So, listed below are all the places you can find me scattered throughout the web, and descriptions about what I’m up to at each place.
Name: J Lee Harshbarger
Age: 53
Location: Ypsilanti, Michigan
Master’s Degree from:
Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California
Major: TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)
Bachelor’s Degree from:
Anderson College (now Anderson University) in Anderson, Indiana
Major: Marketing
Minor: Broadcasting
High School Diploma from:
Kenton Ridge High School in Springfield, Ohio
Main Interests: Listening to music, dancing at raves, writing on the web (blogging, reviewing books & music, etc.), photography, traveling
Religion: Christian
Myers-Briggs Personality Type: I’m on the line of INTP/INFP. The T/F part is directly in the middle.
Favorite Colors: Purple, pink, black, red
My Official Blog
My official blog is My Statement To The World, so to speak, where I give you my two-cents’ worth on various topics. On my official blog, I put the most effort into my postings, including photographs and links to accompany my writings.
I say “official blog” because I do post some blog entries at my web communities listed below, but those entries have no pictures or links, and tend to be limited in topic, according to the community. Anything I post at those various web communities, I also post on my official blog. Sometimes J Lee’s Soapbox gets the posting first, and then it’s copied to other communities; other times, the other communities get the posting first and then I make the official version with pictures and links at J Lee’s Soapbox.
One thing to be sure of, at J Lee’s Soapbox is where you can find all of my blog entries in one place.
J Lee Harshbarger on his soapbox, giving you his two-cents’ worth.
Special thanks to my wife for making this mini-me.
J Lee’s Soapbox is my “official” blog, where I give you my two-cents’ worth on various topics.
Web Communities
Currently where I’m most active, Extended family, friends from church, and college classmates of mine are here.
This has been my major blogging community since October 2004. Most of my online-only friends are here.
I have written reviews for over 100 CDs and books at Amazon.
My Twitter ID is “songsequencer.” I only tweet about music, mostly what I’m listening to at the moment.
I’m only here so people can find me. And somewhat for the underground music.
My blog was hosted first on Apple’s .Mac and then on their MobileMe. Now they’ve stopped hosting. My blog was created with iBlog software that hasn’t been updated by Lifli in years. I gave up.
Web Communities
I joined Facebook in 2007 very reluctantly...I only did it because one of my nieces begged me to. I didn’t like Facebook--it seemed to gossipy to me... “So-and-so changed their profile pic. Other so-and-so posted a new picture. Still another so-and-so wrote on someone’s wall.” So I joined, but then remained basically dormant on the site.
That all changed in late summer 2008, when all of a sudden a significant portion of my extended family--my generation plus the kids and parents of my generation--joined Facebook in a matter of a few weeks. Since my extended family is scattered all over the country...actually, the world...Facebook has turned out to be an even better connector than e-mail, which was a welcome technology in our family.
But that’s not all. In this same time frame, my classmates from the broadcasting department in college joined, and then I connected with a bunch of people from my church. So with those three large groups all appearing on Facebook in a short amount of time, Facebook has become the social networking site I check most often.
Although my first blogging community was Diaryland, I didn’t stay there long because soon afterward someone introduced me to Xanga, a much better blogging community, and it’s been my #1 blogging community ever since I joined in 2004.
Unlike Facebook, where all my Friends are people I actually know in person, all of the people I interact with on Xanga I only know online. But after interacting with them over the years, they have become online friends.
I get into a lot of good discussions at Xanga, as someone writes a post and the comments start going as people all put in their two-cents’ worth. I really enjoy these discussions. This is why I like Xanga best. While it has social networking stuff like photos, videos, etc., the people at Xanga are mostly there to blog and discuss, so Xanga remains my favorite online community.
My Xanga ID is bananaleaf_soapbox, but you can visit my site using this URL:
Did you know at Amazon you can have your home page, where you note your favorites, interests, etc., and have friends also?
Since I have written over 100 reviews of CDs, books, and movies (mostly CDs), I have made a full-information home page at Amazon. If you like music, I think you’ll enjoy this page. People who are into books, movies/TV, and consumer electronics may also find common interests to mine at my Amazon home page.
When I worked at Borders, I got lots of free CDs and books, and had more time to listen to music and read books than I do now, so I’m not as active at Amazon as I used to be. I have lots of reviews I still want to write...so many desired projects, so little time....
This is a web community that I joined for alumni of Anderson University in Indiana. Like many Ning sites for certain communities, it’s rather inactive, as everyone who’s keeping in touch with old classmates is doing so on Facebook. Indeed, all my Anderson University friends are on Facebook, but only a couple are on this site. There are groups here for exchanging memories about various aspects of the college, but once you do that, there’s not much else going on here.
I joined MySpace when it was the big rage as a place to connect with old friends (it’s now been eclipsed by Facebook). I did come across a couple old friends and am connected with a couple relatives here, but I never became very active on MySpace because I can’t stand its garish, busy layout.
Mostly what I’ve used MySpace for is to find underground music, thus many of my “Friends” at this location are underground musicians, particularly underground Christian musicians who tend not to identify themselves as Christian blatantly because most of their fans are not Christians (being that most Christians seem to like such boring music).
I hope to learn more about some of these musicians. One of my online-only friends who I first met on Xanga downloads a lot of music from MySpace and makes great compilation CDs with them. I’d like to do more of this, but once again, it takes a lot of time to find it all, and there’s only so much time....
I joined this when I worked at Borders. Borders made a big push about its becoming a part of this web community, and I joined it to discuss books. Since I was in the book industry at the time, I had lots to say about books and planned to write about books and the industry here.
But once I left Borders, I lost touch with the book industry. And besides, I never liked Gather. Billed as “MySpace for adults,” it seems to be dominated by Baby Boomers, and the people in the community are way too sensitive--it drives me nuts.
So although I’ve posted a few things here (all re-postings from somewhere else), I’m basically inactive here.
This is a web community where people give their opinions on all kinds of consumer products. I have written four reviews here, two about stereo equipment, one about a dishwasher and one about a battery-powered lawn mower. I intend to write more reviews, but as with all other things here, I have more project desires than time to do them.
Anyway, if you have a page at this community, please let me know. And you can check mine to see if I’ve updated it with some new reviews. My user ID on epinions is bananaleaf.
My Yahoo ID is bananaleaf. This is the one that started my naming myself as bananaleaf at all my other web communities.
I have a profile at Yahoo, which just has very basic information. I used to use Yahoo e-mail, but once they started charging for having a spam-free account, I quit using it. It seems at this point they’ve abolished that bad idea, and now my work e-mail is tied to my Yahoo account, so I’m at Yahoo mail more often.
I have a social networking page on Yahoo, but I don’t put anything there directly. Any YouTube videos I have favorited or any Del.icio.us bookmarks I create show up on this page. I may put more here in the future, but not likely much.
This is a web community about traveling. People in this community submit reviews of restaurants, hotels, and tourist places of interest so that others may learn as they plan their own trip...or perhaps they just want to learn about places.
Since I travel a lot, I’ve been wanting to put reviews here but never got around to joining. I’ve just joined, so I don’t have reviews yet as I post this web page, but I hope to put some reviews on my page. My user ID on Trip Advisor is bananaleaf.
Bananaleaf Central is the index section of J Lee Harshbarger’s personal website. To visit the subsidiary websites, click the links below.
Twitter is a major force in social networking, as evidenced by the effect it had on the protests in Iran. I have never liked Twitter, though, because of its restrictive 140-character limit for postings, and because it’s so difficult to communicate with others effectively, having to know all the Twitter codes and protocols.
However, I do have a Twitter account, and use it for one topic: Music. Mostly I tweet what I’m playing at the moment, but sometimes I say other things about music. If you’d like to know what I’m listening to or hear other thoughts of mine on music, then follow me on Twitter!
Pinterest has been the fastest growing social networking site in recent years. Though I’m not crazy about it like some people, I do enjoy collecting images that are visually appealing to me. My pinboards include architecture, home decor, flowers, music, books, fashion, and some pinboards are simply all about the COLOR. (I love colors!!!)
So here at Pinterest, you can get a sense of what appeals to me visually, as well as some visual representations of my interests.
