Your Blog This Weekend

Thanks for the mic, Chris...

My mantra these days:
It's not reactive, it's not proactive - it's interactive.

Of course, there's a little bit of reactive and proactive in interactivity. You are talking with someone, you are reacting to the conversation, you can proactively take the lead on a topic, etc.- but the key is you are engaged in the discussion - you are interacting.

I say my new mantra to someone in a meeting at least once a day and I gut check myself on social networking next steps with it daily.

If you are only listening, if you are only shouting, if you aren't joining in to the conversation - it's not working and you'll hear about it from the influencers.

It's not how to control the influencers, the influencers control us.

Breaking down the silos to actually join in the conversation can be overwhelming to a company that is used to shouting proactively, listening and reacting when need be, but definitely not conversing.

Social networking isn't a sales channel, it isn't a marketing channel, it's not a PR channel, it's a relationship channel.

Can you truly build a relationship without a two way conversation?

I'm a teacher assistant for the base class of animation, and I tutor in it too. Well, today, we start a walk cycle with these kids, and each quarter , we have the guys and girls try to walk like the opposite gender to show the differences.

Guys walk with their shoulders leading and lock the hips down, and their legs are like pistons. Women, because of their thigh bones curving in, walk with just their hips, their shoulders usually stay completely still. Well, to get the guys to try to walk like girls, we put them in high heels. Yes, I had to do it when I was in the class. AND, we have the try to do the walk in the parking lot right by the smoke deck.

So you see some guys, trying to act all macho, barely standing in high heels getting cat calls. I just get to stand their and tell them what they are doing wrong since I already 'suffered' through that. Best part, I get paid to just stand their and watch them trying to keep their balance and lock their shoulders.

It's just as funny because the girls can't walk like men anyways, it's really hard, because their bodies just aren't made like that, same with us guys.

Good times.

-Phil

This is a fun roll reversal experiment Chris, thanks for the opportunity. I am posting something from my own blog archive, my blog is mostly tech and gadgets but here is one of the more esoteric posts from the last month. If I get a sec this weekend I'll write something new just for this experiment.

Archive for August 20th, 2007
There is a 20% chance that reality, is a simulation.

This is what happens when we let philosophers mingle with geeks. I mean its not a new thought, If you have ever seen the greatest movie ever, The Matrix, then this concept is even familiar to you. But still it seems a bit twilight zone-ish to see it being bantered about as a reality on the academic level.

Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch - New York Times

Dr. Bostrom of Oxford University, theorizes that there is as high as a 20% chance that out lives are merely artificial intelligence running in a humanity simulation made by what he refers to as “post-humans” though for the sake of argument you could also refer to them as future humans at least from our current point of view.

Computer experts are already predicting that we will have the processing power to do such extensive civilization simulation ourselves sometime this century.

So what’s to say that it hasn’t already happened, and that this reality, August 20, 2007, isn’t just part of a scientific study, of the the “posthumans” ancestors, or even part of a game.

Simulations like the Sims, Sim City, Command & Conquer and many others already occupy many of “currenthumans” or “simhumans” free time as a form of entertainment. Perhaps the world as we know it is just, a game.

Or just as we play with our own limited simulations, perhaps this reality is a nested simulation. It’s a simulation that some other sim made in his or her simulated world…

So the logical question is… What happens when the sims discover that they aren’t real? Does it matter that we aren’t real, as long as the “game” keeps running? Do we care? Or as Tom Merrit & Molly Wood suggest on the Buzz out Loud podcast, does this knowledge actually cause a cosmic buffer overflow, a blue screen of death on the “posthumans” computer, and the apocalypse here?

Personally, I don’t care. Just keep my program running long enough for me to have an effect on the simulation please. “Carpe Programme” as it were.

Via: Buzz Out Loud Show Notes - Humity’s runtime error - Alpha blog - alpha.cnet.com

…

Philip Crow's hilarious post made me think of a blog post and topic for my podcast that I will upload in the future but I will give you a sneak peak since you are so nice about letting us post here :)

It is amazing how great it is to watch cartoons on a big screen tv (ok, far, far from getting students to wear high heels but he was talking about an animation class). My friend has a 61" tv and what a difference it makes when you watch Looney Tunes or like we did 2 weeks ago, classic Woody Woodpecker cartoons.

You enjoy the cartoon a lot more and notice more details in the action. Gags are funnier. It is exactly what Bill Watterson, creator of "Calvin & Hobbes" was fighting for with his comic: larger space. He argued that the larger the panels, the more the reader can enjoy the comic.

Watterson was so right.

Speaking of Looney Tunes, cough shameless plug cough today I posted a new show for my podcast. It's a light topic: me and my friend trying to outdo each other by quoting Looney Tunes cartoons.
http://www.superspud.com/spudcast

Well, since I don't have anything to write about right now--and I plan to read a book that has been silently sleeping in my drawer for weeks--all I want to say is:

"Hope all bloggers in the world are having a great weekend."

a blog inside your blog, brilliant

For the moment, I'll finish the circle in some fashion . . . is it reactive, proactive, interactive? I don't know.

I know the the longer I blog the more self-conscious I become in the comment box -- especially that of a blogger I so like.

You'd think it would be the opposite, wouldn't you? Decades of writing and interacting in print, but every word seems to take on just that bit of more meaning. Hmmmmmm

When it's not a conversation, anything I say just doesn't seem quite right. Inactive?

How Not to use Social Media

Today, I received an invite to a new social media site from a close friend. So I went to check it out. I trust this person, so must be something new and cool, right?

This site, Quetchup, proceeded to spam my whole email list of over 800 people. I am embarrassed and have been fielding emails all day about this thing.

In an economy of trust, these things will occasionally happen. You get taken advantage of, and in contagion fashion, most of your friends and colleagues become unwitting victims of the same problem.

I handled it by twittering and sending out "sorry" emails to my list. I feel like I accidentally betrayed a trust others put in me, and I feel ashamed about it.

However, I also think the backlash against this company will be swift and painful. Rather than inviting people to come check out the site and see if this tool is better than any other, it has succeeded in turning on and off every switch in my email list, and the lists of many others. If this site gets beyond a start up after this, I will be seriously surprised.

The lesson learned is that in trust economies, we can occasionally be led astray, just like in the real world. Unlike the real world, the explosion can be quicker, and may be harder to contain.

Plus, those who may not know us well may assume that we actually advocate for this company, when just the opposite is true. And I don't know how long it may take to re-earn the trust of others, but I hope it is quick and people will just chalk this up to being a bit too trusting on a Saturday morning.

I really object to a company putting me in a position of apologizing to over 800 people for their stupid software, but there it is. And this is the one cautionary note about trust economies- when we go astray, we have to be concerned whether trust on a broader sense will derail pretty quickly.

Yeah, Chris and his next idea to involve his readers...
1.What will be next experiment?

2.Why would you participate (in this)?
3.Do you have anything, that has a value, to share?
4.Is it a way for you to become popular?
5.Have you read all previous comments in this post?
6.Are you planning to write here about the idea you had in your head? Or did you change the subject while reading all previous comments?

These are just some questions on the way we use blogs.

Ever since I have gotten my "RSS feed" act together, I have been able to keep up with the postings of fellow bloggers/vloggers. This has actually made me feel as if some of the things I have going on around me has some order to it. Looking at their posts also has made me realize that there are so many witty, intellegent, and interesting people in the world. I'll also have to admit it has made me realize some things that has made me reflect on myself.

I have never been one who talked of traveling a lot. There are people who have always wanted to travel, meet new people, and see new things. And don't get me wrong it's not that I don't want this, but I realized that it was something I never really gave much attention, until now.

I take photos and I hunger to take videos of the world around me. I look for new things and hope to catch a glimpse of the spontaneity of Chicago or wherever it is that I roam. Then I read my RSS feeds and I realized that I had not even ventured myself into places to catch that spontaneity. I see beautiful photos of people, of events, of art, and even those of friends and I realized that it wasn't that the blogger/vlogger set these situations up but that they were just there.

I have complained much about how my city needs to reach out to the art and tech community more and I still stand behind that request. But I have also realized that I have not taken advantage of what is already out there for me to see and hear. Well, a friend called me today and invited me to see INDIA MATRI BHUMI (THE MOTHERLAND) by Roberto Rossellini at the Chopin Theatre. And you know what, I'm going. I believe that by me getting my RSS feeds together I have let the internet ,bringing new ideas and people together, help me take advantage of what my city has to offer.

My journey and desire to change Chicago is still there. But now I take on a new journey as well. And that is to quench every thirst I have with all the art, technology, and people interaction that's before me. I thank my fellow bloggers/vloggers for this because they helped to open my eyes by giving me a glimpse into their wonderful, full of life, thought provoking, personal world. You are the internet.

ON LURKING, SOCIAL NETWORKING AND HAS ANYTHING REALLY CHANGED SINCE THE SEVENTH GRADE

Although I've been lurking around your blog for months, this is (I think) the first time I've commented.

Here's why,

It's pretty much the same diffidence that makes one wonder in the seventh grade, "will anyone talk to me if I sit at that lunch table?" (A problem I avoided in high school by rarely setting foot in the cafeteria)

In this, more grown up, incarnation it's, "will anyone be interested in what I have to say?", "am I talking too much?", "should I wait and let someone else comment first?"

But, really, isn't 2.0 media, social networking really "geeks of the world unite!" (no offense). And if anyone can understand the leftover seventh grade insecurities, isn't it my fellow bloggers?

So, HAS anything really changed since junior high?

Well, yeah.

But, just like then, it's up to me to choose how. I can choose to fell rejected and under-appreciated in all time zones. Or I can pull up a chair and take a chance that there are people out there who will be interested in what I have to say . . . but I'll never know if I keep avoiding the lunch room.

And, one of the things that blogging has taught me is that writing is more important to me than worrying what people think about me.

So, does anyone mind if I sit with you . . . I'm hungry.


And ps. in response to ULA (comment #10):
1. Can't wait to find out.
2. Because it's fun.
3. I believe that everyone has something of value to share.
4. Considering my topic, I'd better plead the 5th on this one.
5. yes.
6. The former, except for this part.

Baby Raspberry arrives in about 6 weeks (this is not the baby's name, just its project name; we are not sure if it is a boy or a girl). This morning I tried to sleep in but kept thinking of the things like:

- get food and drink supplies ready (we are using a nurse midwife in a non-hopspital setting; you must bring the food and drink supplies)
- Is the call list ready?
- Is the Ryan pick up/drop off list ready (Ryan is our son in 1st grade; who handles him all depends on when we decide to go into heavy labor...) ?
- Do I know the way to the hospital (just in case, recommended by nurse midwife to practice driving route)?
- Is my mother in law packed and ready (she is staying with us to help after birth)?
- Which health care plan picks up the baby (yes, we have two plans, one for me and son, one for my wife... its complicated)? The math on this is not easy.
- What work related items can be wrapped up in the next 4 weeks? Or, said another way, "Oh no, this list of projects has to be wrapped up in 4 weeks"!
- When my parents were at this age they had 4 boys! How did they manage that?
- The Financial Aid Podcast keeps reminding me to save save save.
- Sleep in while I can ...

Most of the responses here are so different from how I initially imagined they would be. So many differences in people - how they think, what they think about, how they interpret. It's amazing.

I am excited by ideas. I am thrilled by story. I love taking in the ideas of other people and feeling their excitement inside that idea. Sometimes I want to accept the excitement - jump right in and participate. Sometimes I just want to watch, or follow the story that their ideas create. Sometimes I want to take the excitement and create something new with it - make my own story out of it or take a new idea that it creates in me and run with it.

Those things excite me. There are topics and even specifics, of course, but in very broad terms that is where I find excitement.

Chris this is the loveliest idea in the world. I did something a bit similar when I was on vacation, but this has a lovely freedom to it.

So here's my post:

It's Labor Day weekend and I was thinking of my local Trader Joe's. Just popped into my head while I was cutting tomatoes for a picnic.

I love the people who work at TJ's. I know their names, most of them. I like to engage, make them laugh, and I remind myself often to take a moment to appreciate their hard work.

I know they will be working on Monday. And I think it's strange and curious how accustomed we are to expect that TJ's and the gas station and the convenience stores and Nordstrom and the Gap will all be open to accommodate our voracious consumerism.

We're often like that about our blogs too, aren't we?

I haven't decided if I'll be open tomorrow on my blog. It might be a good day to appreciate the hundreds of friends who come to snoop around on my site, but ironically, I like appreciating them from your site here, Chris. Today.

We are all part of this ever-spiraling matrix, and it's wonderful to read and enjoy your magnificent minds.You have great friends.

Now, what if we could turn Labor Day on its head and instead discover what life would be like if we all enjoyed the Labor of our Day?

Best to all.

Twitter was extremely buggy for the last couple days and it has really given me some time to reflect on how badly it *can* work. I've been fortunate, for the time that I've been using Twitter I've seen the Cats twice, the correctly perched bird a dozen times, and three or four times, the bird's been flipped... So, for the most part the service has worked well, and for a free service, it's been outstanding... however seeing Twitter from the outside, as I was locked out of Twitting for a bit, and seeing only a couple of the people that I follow able to get through at a time, it made me think. The threaded nature of the conversations that normally pass by like the ripples of a stream were abruptly dashed as if a rock had been tossed into the flow. It seemed very much like the Visa commercial when someone tries to pay with cash and everything comes to a grinding halt. I realized during my "lockout" that I've become quite used to being able to "mini-blog" my actions and interact with my twitter friends. It also occurred to me that as the popularity of any single social media source grows, problems such as this are inevitable because adding more users undoubtedly slows the service. I'm certain that as more companies use the various Social Media services for advertising that they too will add to the burden. One can only hope that the funding that projects such as Twitter receive are better managed than the money that went into Internet BOOM! companies and that much of that investment money goes to improvement of the services themselves rather than an executive's pockets.

One can only hope this time it's different.

I've been thinking about digital identity a lot. Since I blog and do other stuff online, I have a pretty substantial amount of stuff out there when I google my name.

Some of this is just old fashioned blog fodder, some stuff are stand-up comedy bits I've done, videoblog posts, a whole bunch of stuff.

In my day job, I'm a communications guy for a nonprofit. I don't really want those worlds to collide, so I go by another version of my name at that job. But what happens if somehow those personae collide?

I feel like if they do, it will limit my freedom of expression. I'll have to self censor, more than I already do.

I don't have any conclusions about the above, but it's been on my mind, and I thought I'd take this opportunity to spew it out into the ether.

I didn't wasnt to write about the echochamber of 2.0 but here's what I'm writing about at the moment! I am convinced the purpose of problems is to forge our lives to live without fear. Time and again I am faced with circumstances that test my belief in the infinite potential of life, that try to coax fear out of my life. I can come up with all the reasons why my fear and subsequent course of action is justified, but coming up with a reason to take the courageous action, the right action is a real battle. This is the battle of our human revolution to gradually drive out our fear and complaint. Like a sword being pounded in the fire to bring out impurities, so we face the realities of daily life. Our live contains all the necessary ingredients to transform. The relationships that we have, the arguments, the likes and the dislikes all provide grist to the millstone of our own inner revolution.

I was intrigued by Jonny Goldstein's concern about digital identities. I think we have to realize that we aren't people with multiple identity disorder.
You have to be comfortable with your digital footprint, and that everything you say and do may be used against you, and handle yourself accordingly online.
I make it a point to conduct myself professionally online. To say what I believe in, to tell the truth, and to quote Richard Bach "Live never to be ashamed if anything you say or do is published around the world, even if what is said is not true." Because that is what can happen on the net.

And lastly:
Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.
Richard Bach

This turned out amazing. I had over a dozen blog posts to read, right here in the middle of my blog. Excellent. I presume most of you used the "subscribe to comments" option so that you'd see more and more responses as you came along. What I want to know is: are you also subscribers to the blog, through the RSS feed? Did that influence you at all? Another way of asking: why do you come back here?

I took a digital weekend off, trying very hard not to touch email, to blog, etc. I had a few blog post ideas, so I launched them on timers to execute at different points in the weekend, but even that felt okay.

What I've learned from the weekend off will find its way into my writing for the next little while.

Thanks, everyone, for writing my blog for me. I learned the trick from Liz Strauss, the queen of comments as conversations. Stop by her site and linger a while. You'll see lots of swell stuff.

The rest of you? Well, you know how I feel about you, right? : )