Hey, it’s been a while. Maybe we’ll do this again for a time.
I turned 40 a few days ago, and it seems the universe has decided it’s time for me to deal with some grown up stuff. Thanks, universe.
Negative: Business for my full-time gig isn’t going so well. Major personnel changes at our two anchor clients have left us… well, short. As such, we had to take measures and let a valued employee seek options elsewhere. I’ve never had to terminate anyone for any reason other than just cause, so this was tough. And yes, likely tougher for the other, I’ll grant you.
Positive: I had a great lunch meeting with two really smart entrepreneurs who like what I have to say. It’s still very early in the planning stages, but I smell interesting things happening.
Negative: As the pic indicates, I’m struggling with the issue of censorship. Not here, but that other site I run. I’m not adding fuel to the fire with a link. Figure it out if you want to join the conversation. If not, carry on.
Positive: I’m helping out the smart folks at Ganglank set up a podcasting studio. We’re doing it totally on the chap, and it’s the first time I’ve ever done such a thing. Very challenging and frustrating at times. But it’s going to be all kinds of rewarding when we can unleash the collective awesome sauce of the Phoenix “engaged” scene.
I’ll spare you the details of my degrading body. Let’s just say I’m going to have put off my prostate check for a bit. Nice of those things to pop up (or out) 2 days after my b-day. Ready for you any time, inherent wisdom. ‘Cuz debilitation sucks.
Well kids, here you have it. The final “Five O’Clock Shadow” post. It was fun doing this, and I got a lot more familiar with Flickr. Sort of resurrected the account, you might say.
I’ve got a new idea, partly thanks to that re-association with Flickr and various other web 2.0 sites. I’ll leave you in suspense as I need to do some rearranging to make ready for it.
And for those who enjoyed my posting of pics on Flickr — they’ll still be coming, sometimes from my phone, sometimes from PhotoBooth, and maybe a real live camera if I can pull it from The Lovely Wife Lovely Wife anytime soon.
Enjoy the new year.
As the year winds down, I find it once again time to re-examine and restate my assumptions. For the remaining days of my vacation, I’ll be doing the following:
Paying close attention to anything that comes in over RSS. Pictures, posts, podcasts… you name it. Each and every item will be examined, and the larger site from which it comes will be evaluated. Not telling you to be interesting, just sayin’…
Pruning my “friends”. I use that term in quotes, since the term is bandied about much by various YANSN sites. In some places, it may make sense for me to keep someone in the “friend” list even though I don’t know them. In others in doesn’t, so I won’t.
Parsing my sites. I said some time ago that I’d sign up for every new shiny thing that comes along just to see how it works. And while that’s still true, I’m going to start being very upfront about what I keep using after a time. Out of the 52 profiles I have, a half dozen or so have actually helped me do anything better. You need to know that, I think.
Happy New Year, in the event I don’t post here again before.
It’s a tradition: the Lovely Wife gets the itch to paint this time every year. Started with NJ’s bathroom and has spilled over into my office. Which is a good thing, as I was starting to not enjoy working in it. New paint helps. I hope.
Happy Xmas to those who celebrate it. We don’t, but I’m not beyond recognizing an event with significance for others. Oh, and I’ll take the time off, too.
Keep your eyes on Podiobooks.com. I’m working on a Top 20 Books of 2007 post.
Anyone know who knows me knows that I’m not one for the Holiday spirit. Part of it is a general aversion to anything that is too popular, a significant amount comes from my internal conflicts with over-commercialization of society and my part in it, and then there’s the fact that most of the trappings either bore or annoy the hell out of me.
But not the food.
Bring it the fuck on.
Listening to: Various tunes by Soul Coughing
While sitting at: Mama Java’s coffee shop in Phoenix
Accomplishing: Some Podiobooks.com updates and general information housekeeping
When I should be: Nothing. This is Sunday.
But I’m really looking forward: To making dinner tonight. Salmon and pasta, me thinks.
Yeah yeah… I know I just said I was giving these things up. But I also said some time ago that I wanted to get into video, so deal.
It’s true, I managed to squeeze a Seesmic invite from someone. Haven’t played with it enough to know what good the whole thing is, and it’s rather insular right now. But at the minimum, it’ll be a good “training” application to see what parts of video I’m good at, and where I need help.
Oh, and it was funny when Sigler used a fictional character to kick a fictional representation of Hutchins in the nads. Cannot wait to see how this arms race goes.
Assumption #1: We live in a world where it is impossible to create time. Therefore, I need to spend my discretionary time in the most productive channels possible.
Assumption #2 My definition of ‘productive’ may be — and probably is — significantly different from that of everyone else on the planet.
Assumption #3 My definition of ‘productive’ is highly influenced by the term ‘discretionary’ in the same sentence.
Assumption #4 Cool and new things (read: ’shiny’) will always grab my attention due to perhaps faulting faulty wiring on my part. Or that of my parents.
Assumption #5 Some of those shiny objects will enhance my productivity.
Assumption #6 Most of them will not.
Assumption #7 Continuing to chase the shiny for the sake of chasing the shiny is — according to my definition — not productive.
Assumption #8 It’s not like others (CC, Clintus, Chris, et. al.) aren’t doing a damn fine job puddle jumping for the masses.
Assumption #9 Not all lists need to contain 10 items
Assumption #10 I receive maximum pleasure during discretionary time when I’m highly productive on Podiobooks.com.
Guess what that means?
I’ll admit it — things have looked a bit cloudy for the last several months. I think I’ve figured out why, and what I’m going to do about it. But I’m not quite ready to announce it just yet, so you’ll have to sit in suspense for a while longer.
But while you are waiting, do me a huge favor. Facebook has just released the ability for brands to create their own profile pages. I’ve made a Facebook profile for Podiobooks.com and would be your BFF if you would befriend the page and start interacting with it. Facebook promises some pretty groovy things when real people (you and me) start interacting with brands that they love (Podiobooks.com?), and I’m curious if where that leads us.
I had a fantastic time at PodcampAZ on Saturday. Good people, good discussion, and a good deal more activity in this town than I had ever imagined. I’ve made quite a few new contacts that I’m really looking forward to getting to know better.
Yet at the same time, I’m starting to ponder some existential questions. I’m not ready to call it a crisis, but I’m getting that itch. It’s very much a ‘what do I want to do when I grow up?’ question. Here’s what I know:
I really enjoy what we’re doing at Podiobooks.com. Hugely rewarding for me and I know it’s a great resource for others, so that’s not in any danger
I dig playing in the new media playground, but do wonder this: to what end?
I miss podcasting, but not enough to make me carve out more time do it more often. So enjoy the Utterz. And I ask the same “to what end” question.
Video would be cool, but also terribly time consuming. No, I’m not a record-and-release kind of guy on general principle. No problem if you are. I ain’t. See TWE question.
I’m really interested in stepping back from the bleeding edge and teaching some people who are about five years behind how to get two years behind. Unsure about the transition, and I’ll miss the edge.
How about you? Do you try and keep a linear progression to your personal life path, or do you go through these same sorts of things? And if so, do you acknowledge and embrace them, or bury them down deep inside?
A couple of things have me jazzed today:
Google’s OpenSocial movement.
No, it’s not a new social media site you need to make a profile for. Rather, it’s a set of open APIs that will (in theory) allow for interoperability between social networking sites. And at the rate companies are jumping on board, it should be quite an impact. I’m recommending to Doug, Chris, Ray and the rest of the development crew on Podiobooks.com that we follow suit. Sweet!
NaPodPoMo. Anxious to get back into the swing of things behind the mic, yet unable to come up with anything that I really want to do long term, I’ve decided to give National Podcast Post month a shot. Daily podcasts — likely in the form of Utterz but maybe a CultCast for the entire month of Nov. Yikes.
That’s it for now. Hockey tonight, so you can follow the action here or here, I’m not sure which one!
Cripes, people. I mean I dig the fact that you creative types are going to town on your stuff and all, but do you have to do it all at once?
Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty is now live. I read the book (’cuz I rock) and really enjoyed it. Can’t wait to hear Mur read it to me.
Scott Sigler launched Nocturnal, and you know I have to listen to that. Oh, and Scott promises that we’ll have The Rookie up and loaded in a few short days.
Dairy of an S&M Romance is live, and it sort of behooves me to listen to the first adult-oriented book on our site, don’t you think?
I’ve been waiting to hear The Secret World Chronicle for over a year… and it will be live on Podiobooks.com by the weekend.
… and there are still dozens of damn fine books I have had the time to get to. Gah! Someone clone me, please!
I’m what you’d call a moderate reader of Laughing Squid. It comes in my RSS feed, and I’d say about 30-40% of the articles interest me. That’s actually fairly good, as I tend to blow through news items only looking for the tasty morsels of goodness.
But I must take exception with a recent post entitled Social Network Message Autoresponder.
I get the complaint. I really and truly do. We have this fantastic communication tool called email, so why don’t we just get folks to use it more often? Well… three reasons:
One size does not necessarily fit all - Email may be your chosen way to communicate, but it’s obviously not the preferred method for the person who reached out to you via some social site. And unless I’m mistaken, the only way they can contact you through said social media site is if you already have a profile on said social graph, yes? This look like a cake-eat situation.
My grandma makes the same argument for paper letters - This works really well for my grandma, but not so much for me. The same in reverse holds true for my son. If I email him, it takes him days to respond. But if I send him a message on MyFace, he responds in minutes. This one relates to #1 above, but I felt it was strong enough to stand on it’s own.
Email is overloaded - While it may still be hailed as the killer app, it’s losing its charm for many of us. I dread opening the inbox some times, and I even keep the damn thing cleaned out! Thank the gods for RSS feeds and readers, or I’d be out of my gourd. And if there was a way to route email to an RSS feed, I’d be in hog heaven!
As I stated earlier, I sympathize. Heck, I was in your camp for a while. But since every single social media site I belong can be set to send me an email when someone messages me, and since my browser tends to store my login details, and since the person decided that’s how they communicate best, I’m happy to take off the mask an talk to them over there. On my schedule, of course.
Do you try and force the conversation on your terms? Or are you happy to talk where they want to talk? Tell me about it…
A list of things on my mind. Won’t make a lot of sense to all of you, so feel free to move along:
I’m liking Utterz. But I’m hesitant to stick it here on the blog. I just got the blog cleaned up and I don’t want to clutter. And unlike everyone else, I’m not sticking it in my Twitter feed. If you want a feed with all my junk, follow me on Jaiku.
You sure about this, Geo?
Went back to the gym today and am thinking about going back tonight. Time to get serious about this shit. Have decided that Traineo is the right way to go, but I wish it was easier to add friends. You know… the cornerstone of social networking?
We added the first ever erotica title to Podiobooks.com. Nobilis has a short story collection of erotica rumored to be on the way, but ThornDaddy and Dollie beat him to the punch.
For those that asked: I’m going as nothing tomorrow.
Have made interesting connections with certain individuals in the city of Chicago. Quite.
Two author friends of mine didn’t know I’d left tDP, though I did that long before I left FPM.
Am taking the rest of the night off.
End trans.
So… I’m not so sure this is working out. Well, for one thing, I know that I’m not working out. That’s probably part of the problem.
So I’ve fired up the Traineo profile, hoping that some of you may have one and are using it a lot more than I. With luck, you can get my ass moving. Just hard to crawl out of bed or drag myself away from the ‘puter. But I need to do it.
PodcampAZ next weekend. I’ll dry to post more between now and then.
And heck, I forgot to mention that my fantastic narration of The Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd is live. It was on SE#015. Apologies for the audio quality. Seems something happened and everyone was overmodulated. Sounds a lot worse on my since I’m pretty loud by nature.
Sorry for the longer-than-anticipated hiatus.
When I returned from the trip to NYC, I spent my time hanging out with Philip from Australia and my father. I wasn’t sure how that paring would go, but it turned out rather good. I think they both found the other strangely fascinating. 
Today I had a great surprise. It turns out that some of my tips on promoting your podcast were picked up by Entrepreneur.com. So thanks to Catherine for running them, and also for cleaning them up and making me sound a lot smarter than I really am.
I’m going incommunicado for the next several days. I have another trip to NYC coming up, and I don’t know when I’ll update.
So you know the drill: play nice.
Oh, and I updated the Theme for my blog. Perfect time to do it, don’t you think? I’m hoping that since it’s an updated version of the same thing, there’s less of a chance for breakage. But if not, report it here and I’ll deal when I get back. Or Dan might tweak, if he’s watching.
E.
Not a lot of time to update tonight. A very strange day work-wise. I have a huge project that was due last week — and I still haven’t finished it.
Yeah, I procrastinate.
My mom is in town, plus there are lots of cool things which have been taking away my attention. They are just so much more fun than… well, work.
So I may disappear on you all for a few days. I have to get this done. And hang out with mom.
Today the value of social media came up in a few conversational threads I’m following. I’m not here to justify your usage of one social media site over another. Nor am I here to try and convince you that you should follow lock step behind me as I play with latest shiny thing. I figure you can make you own decisions, and that you look to me and others (and we’re all honored, I can assure you) for occasional commentary on the latest meme. I’m here to help.
But tonight I want to talk to you about the true power of social and new media. It’s about the real opportunities involvement in a community can bring. Please understand that “opportunities” means many different things to many different people. For some, it’s simply about extending friendship. For others, it’s about developing real “offline” relationships. Many are trying to build their professional credentials. And a few of us are just playing around to stay ahead of the curve.
I’m all of those things. In fact, my involvement with new and social media has allowed me — just in the past few days — to start scheming up some pretty cool things with some pretty cool people. Steve Eley and I are talking about ways of making Escape Pod and Podiobooks.com work closer together. Kris Smith and I are playing with the idea of ‘friendship’. C.C. Chapman and I are pondering the definition of ‘perfection’. I wouldn’t have met these guys were it not for social media.
So am I an evangelist? You bet. Because that’s just the tip of the iceberg. And all of us involved in this destination-less wave of new and social media are just getting started.
Heard today that a new social media site, ViewPoints.com, has just come on line. Like all good new social media sites, this one has a focus and is breaking into relatively new territory: Social Reviews.
The concept is simple to anyone who has ever created a profile on any social media site, so I won’t belabor that point. What I will rave about is their use of the “I am” tags, which is simply brilliant. When filling out your profile, they give you the chance to choose several statements about yourself in different context. In the “About my Work” category, you can say that you are a movie star, a college professor, a CEO… lots of different choices. Think you have one better? Add your own tag. Then do that about 20 more times and you’ve developed quite the tag repository about yourself.
Armed with that information, the system then suggests tags to you that may be relevant to the reviews that you are writing. How cool is that! Very helpful to others who are reading your review to help them understand if you are the same type of person that they are.
All and all, I found the site easy to use and friendly. Looks like a lot of thought was put in to this one, and I think they’ll do well. Heck, I’ve already created my first review.
