I'm looking at my notes for the "My Blog is a Business?" session, the one hosted by Rob McNealy, Chris Brogan, Jeremy Wright, and Nina Yablok. In the past, I've gone to many a seminar, and upon returning to the real world completely abandon whatever materials made the return trip, yet knowing that there was good information there.
So this time I figure if I read and actually create content based on these notes, then I'll be able to put some of this advice into action. Or someone else will, and as far as I'm concerned, that's just as good. Somehow that provides a good segway to one of the points I've highlighted.
You have to be willing to give the advice for free.more»
In the future, Sarah Palin will create Internet memes on the daily. oh wait...it's already happening. Surely her foreign policy experience won't be the last. You don't get that kind of experience by osmosis or proximity. I live next door to a doctor, if anyone would like me to perform open heart surgery on their loved ones, feel free to twitter me. And I've seen a lot of Speedy Gonzales cartoons as well, so that should probably qualify me to be our next ambassador to Mexico.
Who cares about the bailout when we've got this giant disembodied Putin head floating toward Anchorage. It's making me wonder about those weather balloons they used to mistake for UFOs.
The recurring theme throughout everything from the Citizen Journalism sessions on Thursday through the Sunday morning keynotes was PASSION. Passion is key to any form of success, but is especially vital in industries or movements that are somewhere between their infant and toddler stages. The speakers at this event were full of passion. You could hear the passion in the questions raised by the audience members.
I'd been to the Comdex trade shows for the computer industry previously, and there was a lot of loitering, a lot of lemme outta heres, a lot of "where we going tonight?" Sure there was passion. Occasionally. I don't exclude myself from this mix. I was just happy to be there. An East Coast marketing guy who wasn't sure what he was doing at the time, but knew sure enough that he was going to Vegas and it wasn't on his credit card. I worked my tail off, but the passion wasn't there.
It's different when you go to Las Vegas over ten years later, knowing full well next month's MasterCard statement will be a good deal higher than the last, attend every session, hit every event, party into the wee hours with folks who spent their day the same exact way, and wake up again at 7:00 to start the whole thing again. And not use an alarm clock for the entirety of the trip. It means you felt the passion as well. I think nearly all the people I met at the event felt the same way.
I'm taking care of some necessary business, so I can go through my notes and post on this event. I don't regret my 2:30 PM decision last Thursday to get on a flight 3 1/2 hours later for the event. Posts coming real soon. Would love to hear what other bloggers thought of this event as well.
...Stays in Vegas. Probably not this weekend though.
After all, this weekend Vegas plays host to the BlogWorld Expo. If there's one thing bloggers are completely incapable of, it's keeping their mouths shut. Well, their mouths aren't the problem (unless of course their podcasting or vlogging, of course), it's those fingers, because first they'll twitter, then they'll post, and the diggs will follow. So gentlemen, try to remain as such at those gentlemen's clubs, and ladies, keep count of those cosmopolitans.
I was wavering about attending this conference or not, since I'd abandoned blogging and writing for awhile, because of many of life's constant distractions and sometimes derailments, but since I've got a few ideas up my sleeve, and am working with a new magazine on their blog. So here I am in Vegas.
Hell, maybe I'll even find some content while I'm here. Actually I found some already.
Tyra Banks was on my plane. Just saying her name in my head conjures up those old Nike commercials with Lil' Penny, which is kind of interesting since I once shared an elevator with Chris Rock.
I had to stare like an idiot while whatever facial recognition that came installed with my cerebrum confirmed it was indeed Ms. Banks. So like any smooth character would, I saunter through first class on the way to my seat in row 79 which is just a seatbelt strapped onto the rudder, in case you were wondering. But yeah, I lean over and casually say, "Hi Beyonce, I love your music," and continue my stroll to my seat in untouchable class.
Nah, I didn't do that. I didn't think of that until I was hanging onto that rudder for my dear life. I had no reason to mess with her. But pretending to mistake one celebrity for another when approaching them seems like it could be a fun thing. I'm trying to think if I ever did this before, but probably not since my obliviousness would normally kick in.
Tyra looks great in person, by the way, the television does not deceive. One of my rowmates in solitary class, also noted the presence of Ms. Banks, so I consider this celebrity sighting confirmed, and blogworthy. Most of the time I'm oblivious to this sort of thing, until another member of my party tells me afterwards. Actually I was too drunk to realize that Chris Rock was on the elevator with me.
What if fonts were people? I've never posed this question to myself or anyone else, but I'm sure glad the folks at College Humor did. And just like anybody else, they don't seem to agree on anything. And they have trouble agreeing to disagree. And then there's this font called Ransom.
Nothing tells people you know a Mac inside and out like wearing a hat. Maybe it prevents the knowledge from escaping through your hair follicles, trapping it so it can be re-absorbed through your scalp.
Don't believe me? Click on the image below to go view Apple's video introduction to their workshops. I counted at least 6 hats the first time. And it's clear that baseball caps are not the best choice. I only saw one of those. It's probably because of the big hole in the back above where you adjust the size. But if you must wear a baseball cap, be sure it is fitted to prevent information leakage.
Today I was pondering a lot of different business/work decisions/ideas through my head on the way to my father's house. And when I arrived there was a blue jay on a wall, with a cardinal about 6 feet away on the grill. The jay was foraging, the cardinal...kinda just hangin'. I was fortunate enough to have a camera with me, but just unfortunate enough to have the cardinal fly off before I could start snapping. Although when I switched the camera to movie mode, the cardinal reappeared for a cameo before darting off again, kind of like what Christopher Walken does in some films.
Not long after, a gaggle of finches (don't know what to call it, but it was quite shy of a flock) came storming by like some sort of multiplayer whilring dervish, you know like binary stars, except with more than two. Must have been a courtship ritual with the young bucks trying to impress a dame. (It's really odd calling a finch a young buck, is it as odd to read?)
They departed as quickly as they arrived kind of like a teenage driver at a tangential relative's family function. The blue jay was completely nonplussed. He kind of looked at 'em like they were a bunch of fools, and went about his business. And yeah, it could have been a she, but I don't know enough about blue jays, except that they supposedly can be pretty nasty, but I believe that's when they perceive danger to their young, and I thing most of us would act the same, pecking on skulls and gouging out eyeballs and that sort of thing.
Anyway I thought this strange coupling may have been a sign that I was on to something with what I was thinking when I arrived, although then again maybe it was just a "Thanks for throwing down some new grass seed at the cemetery today, Son." Or maybe it means I should go ahead to that bird preserve I was thinking about with my son this weekend. You know, once you start thinking too much you tend to ruin everything.
And the thinking never ends. The thing with the blue jays and the eyeballs a few lines back got me thinking about that "slicing up eyeballs" line in "Debaser" by The Pixies. So even though my much imagined mp3 blog, hasn't happened...yet. I'm gonna drop some Pixies on you for a limited time, and if Charles or Kim want me to take it down sooner, I invite them to let me know.
UPDATE: July, 24, 2008: I now know a little more about birds than I did 2 months ago. My so-called finches were actually sparrows, and apparently I don't have the movie file with the blue jay and the cardinal. Oh well.
"Red Crayon won what? The crayons were having a race?"
"Yes."
"Oh!...Where were the crayons having the race?"
"The wall."
The wall, of course. Where else would crayons have a race? This was the conversation me and my two year old had as I was leaning out of the shower recently. Looking at the tracks the racers left behind, it appears to have been a hard fought battle and thankfully it looked like they were doing laps on a track rather than a marathon, so that means less paint, although I'm in no hurry. These are the sort of markings that turn a house into a home.
I can't believe this is now available, and I am without a system to play it. Yes, I could buy a new system, and this is the killer app (no pun intended) to drive new console sales. It was what I was waiting for.
But right now, I have a self-imposed boycott on excessive spending, and unless someone pays me real soon to write about video games, I can't justify the expenditure, when debt reduction is my current goal.
I feel the need to post, because GTA has been the source the majority of traffic to my blog. And most of those posts were written back when San Andreas was released, and they still bring in the most traffic here. The game has pull.
But right now, economics is getting the best of me.
I said right now...for now.
There is a PS3 beckoning me. I hear it. I feel it. It comes to me in dreams. It haunts me. It taunts me. I sense a disturbance in The Force each time a "10" is given in a review somewhere.
Like any addict, I can find a way to justify the purchase, but for now my line is drawn in the sand. I'm not exactly sure how that line in the sand thing works, whether it's me who crosses it, or if I wait for something to cross it, or if it has something to do with the tides, but right now it means I'm not buying Grand Theft Auto IV in the immediate future.
I am a freaking masochist. Reading Kotaku's not helping.
Ok...that title was a tease, but it would be the sort of premature announcement that Fox would make before a deal was actually announced, if the 2000 presidential election is any indication.
I tire of Larry Kudlow on CNBC. So today I contacted CNBC through their web site to complain. Does this e-mail go beyond the webmaster? I don't know. I had difficulty using the "Fast Message" feature today when I tried to contact the Fast Money guys about erroneously referring to Ravi Shankar as being deceased. Maybe I should have included that in my e-mail about Kudlow. That way if my message was being sent to the wrong person in one respect, they may have at least been the right person to fix something else. And then the next time someone else living is referred to as dead, I can save their asses live in real-time. more»
And when relating the story to a family member today, I couldn't help but be reminded of this scene from Fight Club.
And after seeing that again, I've found inner peace.
If you get Fight Club, then you'll get this post. If not, well then, just bask in the beauty of controlled implosions. No actual buildings were harmed in the making of the film.
I've been completely engulfed in work. The blog suffers. But I managed to read this entire piece by John Cusack over at The Huffington Post. Cusack is not thrilled about the State of the Union. He is not alone.
Did I mention that this post is 2 and a half years old. I didn't think I was busy for that long, but what's changed? Hunter S. Thompson is still dead. Iraq is still a mess. The wolves are still in the hen house.
And to all the grammar geeks out there, it's "has" not "have", since I'm talking about the chain of office superstores, and not individual staples, and they're a helluva lot more fun than the superstores. They would've posted my review.
Staples (the office superstore) asked me in an e-mail to submit a review of a recent purchase. And what I purchased was a 10-pack of blue two-pocket portfolio folders. And I typically don't buy these without first consulting Consumer Reports, but this time it was all impulse. No wonder my credit card bills exceed the per capita income of some less favored nations. (You know I really wanted to put the extra "u" in both "favor" and "humor" tonight. Is that the Brit in me that I never knew was there? Is that even an English thing? Granted it does look better, and so does "colour". Well, maybe.)
So today I noticed that my review was no longer on their website. In the context of this blog it certainly may seem more of a lame stab at humour (ha-ha!), but was downright hysterical over at Staples (the website of the office superstore, not at the website of a collective group self-realizing staples that wrestled the URL from the corporate monolith). Alright, so it wasn't that funny, but here it is. If you can't fill the Internet with crap that has nowhere else to go, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing, say it again. Or not.
Staples product review for blue 2 pocket portfolios
By larzini from NJ on 3/7/2008
Your rating: 5 stars
Headline: Holds Papers Exactly As Described!
Pros : Easy To Open/Close, Durable Construction, 2 pockets,
Potty-trained, It's Blue, Nicely textured, Fun for the whole family
Cons : Poor gas mileage, No puree setting, Don't feed after midnight,
Slight metallic taste
Best Uses : Organizing Documents, Conversation piece, Bud vase, Holding
papers, Fanning, Placemat
Describe Yourself : Value Oriented
Primary use of this product : Business
These folders are great. First of all, they are blue. A blue so blue.
And blue is a color. And it is a color I enjoy wholeheartedly. I have
used many of these folders, and each time they lived up to my
expectations of holding my papers. Except one time when I turned a paper-filled
folder upside-down. Guess what? Yep. The papers fell out. Not just one.
All of them. DO NOT TURN UPSIDE-DOWN WHEN PAPERS ARE INSIDE. THEY WILL
FALL OUT! Sorry about yelling, but I cannot emphazise that point enough.
And I can't spell emphazies either. Did I mention there is not
spell-check feature? Well, there's not. Perhaps in the next release.
Unfortunately, Staples have not opened up the next version to users for beta
testing. By the way, the folders are blue. I opened the folder and closed
it numerous times. And it performed every time without fail. Another
nice thing is that there are 10 in a package. I really didn't need that
many, but rather than waste them, I spread whatever documents I need to
transport evenly among the 10 folders. If I have less than 10 papers I
need to transport, I grab magazine blow-in cards or junk mail and put
those in the empty folders. It kills me to have 10 folders and even
leave one empty. If you really need a folder, I would consider this one,
maybe the red model as well, but your insurance rates will go up, so let
the buyer beware.
All proper spacing removed for your inconvenience.
Did that post make this read like a splog? (That's "spam blog" for you home-gamers.)
I should say St. Valentine's Day. Well, not anymore, it's now Friday, but this post somehow disappeared after writing it about 24 hours ago.
I never dreamt I'd someday look back fondly at the Crazy Eddie television commercials. Yet, here I find myself waxing nostalgically over some Northeastern pop culture detritus.
I never embed, I usually just link, but I've reconsidered my position on that. Why send the eyeballs elsewhere when they can stay right here.
I remember buying vinyl records and cassettes at Crazy Eddie, as well as a floppy disk drive for my Atari 800XL computer. These ads actually inspired the Seinfeld episode entitled, "The Junk Mail". Elaine dates a guy who was once the fictional television pitchman known as "The Wiz". Incidentally, The Wiz, later known as Nobody Beats The Wiz, was also an electronics retailer located predominantly in New York and New Jersey. But since their prices weren't completely insane they often used real-life characters in their ads, such as Joe Namath.
This was long before Namath went 0-for-2 in pass attempts on the sidelines, seeking out kisses from Suzy Kolber. (Yep, that link goes to the infamous video. I thought it would look kind of crappy to put two embedded videos in the same post. Especially when the point of this video was to highlight the Crazy Eddie ads, and not focus on the ancillary Joe Namath reference.)
I can't believe this is now available, and I am without a system to play it. Yes, I could buy a new system, and this is the killer app (no pun intended) to drive new console sales. It was what I was waiting for.
By larzini from NJ on 3/7/2008
