Blego Archive
Commentary by blog and social media consultant Josh Hallett on the use of blogs for public relations, media, marketing, communication & branding and from time-to-time the unsolicited opinion.
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Sometimes memes are good...they get you writing again. Peter Kim tagged me with the 4x4 meme. So here goes:
Four Jobs I've Had:
- Greens mower at a local golf course (first real job)
- Waiter at Backporch Restaurant (second real job)
- Olive Garden host (college job)
- Champion Chip Timer
Four TV Shows I DVR: (Sadly I don't have a DVR, but these are shows/things I seek out)
- 30 Rock
- The Office
- Formula 1 Racing
- Tour de France Coverage
Four Places I've Been (in 2007):
- Space Needle
- St. Louis Arch
- Millenium Park
- USS Alabama
- Indy Speedway
- RCA Dome
- Niagra Falls
Yes, I know more than four, but I travelled quite a bit in 2007.
Four Favorite Foods:
- A sandwich from Mama Dilo's
- Moe's burrito with tofu
- Grilled cheese from Dish D'Lish
- Just about anything from Cafe Latte
I'm going to go in a few different directions with my tags: Chuck, Barry, Rex and Sarah.
Most U.S. states have a Governor's conference. It's an event that brings together the various tourism and CVB (convention & visitors bureaus) from around a state. This year I've been booked to keynote quite a few of these events around the country. Here's the confirmed list so far:
Maryland Governor's Conference - Baltimore, MD - March 5 2008
Oregon Governor's Conference - Portland, OR - April 7-8, 2008
Michigan Governor's Conference - Lansing, MI - April 14-15, 2008
Wyoming Governor's Conference - Cheyenne, WY - April 21-22, 2008
New Hampshire Governor's Conference - Mt. Washington, NH - May 6-7, 2008
I'm looking forward to each of these visits. I hope to spend a few extra days on Wyoming and Oregon to get some photography in.
I'll be on vacation till the end of the year. On Friday though I'll be in Atlanta to meet-up with some folks like Amani Channel and most likely Dave Coustan and perhaps J. Brotherlove :-)
The haunts will be Midtown, Chow Baby, and then Buckhead.
Back in October I announced that I was joining Voce Communications. The first few months (three to be exact) were a trial period, as in do I really want to work for somebody :-)
Turns out I do.
Starting in 2008 I'll be full-time with Voce. We've done some cool stuff and have plenty of exciting things planned for 2008. Stay tuned.
Those of you that follow me via Twitter learned last weekend that I feel down some stairs. That in itself was not fun, luckily I didn't break anything and came away with a nice hematoma, that as of today is a nice yellow-brown color.
However, I wasn't the only thing that fell down the stairs. My MacBook Pro joined me in the 'flight' down the flight of stairs. What was surreal is that the entire fall seemed to last forever and the entire time I saw my Mac sliding next to me, just out of reach.
We did reach the bottom at the same time, which answers the age-old question, which falls faster Josh or a MacBook Pro....it's a trick question, they fall at the same rate.
The damage to the MBP was mostly cosmetic as you can see, but it still requires a bit of repair to the external case. Could have been worse though.
John Moore first mentioned this to me a few months ago, and now Geoff Livingston has posted something about it, there is a mention of me in Seth Godin's new book, Meatball Sundae.
John told me it has something to do with the Katherine Harris comment-spam posts. Need to get confirmation of this though.
You know when something has arrived when the regular folks put 'the' in front of it, as in 'The Google' or 'The YouTubes'. In preparation for that, I have registered TheHyku.com and from this point forward will always refer to my site as 'The' Hyku. I would appreciate it if you would do the same.
It's a joke folks :-)
Some friends have noticed some hints in my blog posts recently, something about a change. Well a change has been made. On October 1st I joined Voce Communications as a New Media Strategist. I'm really stoked to be joining a great group of friends, specifically the social media team of Mike Manuel, Andrea Weckerle and Scott Sigler. As part of this Voce expansion we're also launching the Voce Nation blog. The Voce Nation will be the collecting point for all the shared knowledge of the team.
This move has been in the works for some time, officially and un-officially. Officially in the sense that Mike Manuel and I really started talking about it in July of this year. Un-officially in the sense that I've been working with Voce for almost two years on projects.
What happens to Hyku? Well two things, first off Hyku has become my personal brand and will remain as such, but the focus will change. You may notice a slight design update to this blog, well that's part of the change. I'll still continue to post here on all types of subjects (plus photography), but I'll reserve much of my serious social media posts to Voce Nation.
Second, as a company Hyku will not being going away (just yet). I still have a number of clients that I will continue to serve. I will also continue many of my speaking engagements, I'll just be wearing a Voce hat during most of them.
Are you moving? Nope, I'm staying in Florida. What's been great about working with Voce over the past two years is that much of what I do can be done remotely. I will be taking more trips to San Francisco and Palo Alto though.
I'm excited that I'll be working more with great clients like Sony and Yahoo to name a few.
Yeah there was the meme going around about blogging less. A good friends recently said, "Yeah, I live that meme...no need to post about it." Ha. Well I'm living it as well.
All my friends that work in the space are busy, very busy. We're all damn busy.
I used to blog quite a bit in what could loosely be termed the 'thought leadership' vein....that was commentary on this evolving world of social media. It was great for business development, but then I ended up getting busy, too busy to blog :-)
You also blog about what you're passionate about, and if you can't really tell, one of the things I'm passionate about now is photography. Many recent posts are initiated by a photo I took.
The crux is that I have a readership that probably started reading me because of one reason or another and I don't feel I'm providing them value. What to do.
Compounding things is the planning of BlogOrlando over the next few weeks. Running an event is a bit of a time sink :-)
Hopefully things will be different after the end of September.
All professions mature and a level of specialization occurs. In some case you're almost forced to choose a path.
With my consulting I've been involved with a number of 'specialized' fields. I've done work with newspapers, corporations, PR firms, ad agencies and CVBs (think tourism). I enjoy working with all of them and the variety definitely allows me to see how social media is impacting a number of industries in unique ways. It also provided a perspective of the landscape that is unique. Similar to how an analyst can look over a number of businesses in the same space. People I know are already drifting towards specialization, it might be legal, medical, non-profit, etc.
I think I need to focus on a few select types of work to improve myself, the question is which direction? Changes are coming and I'm looking forward to it.
I'll be speaking at the ATDC in Atlanta next Wednesday. What is the ATDC? It's the Advanced Technology Development Center located at Georgia Tech.
What's interesting about this speaking engagement is how it came about. On Tuesday I was traveling to Atlanta and posted a quick update to Twitter. I mentioned that I was going to be in Atlanta next week as well. Lance Weatherby from the ATDC saw this and contacted me.
So, a booking via Twitter. I guess there is a business case :-)
At some point on Saturday during WordCamp my Flickr account passed over 100,000 total views. That's kinda cool. I missed the actual 100,000 but was able to take a screen-capture of 100,006.
After I sort thru my 300+ other photos from San Francisco and take quite a few at BlogHer I'll be well over 10,000 total photos online.
I'll be speaking at the Third Thursday event in Palo Alto tomorrow night (Thursday). Here are the details on MeetUp and Upcoming.
Mike Manuel from Voce will be quizzing myself and Alex Kim from Solution Set about blog and web development. Specifically what PR folks need to know so they don't get run over by IT.
if you're in the Palo Alto area tomorrow night, come see us.
David Brain of Edelman Europe recently created a 'Social Media Index' of the top 30 blogs in the social media space. The index took into account traditional blog metrics and other 'social' metrics like Twitter, Facebook, etc. At the end of the day, this blog was ranked 12 out of 30. The list also included friends and colleagues like: Jeremiah, Jeremy, Shel, Stephen, David and Constantin.
What does this mean? Not sure, it's just another list. Maybe I can finally sell out and retire.
I'll look to receive my paper certificate that I can hang on my wall :-)
A few months ago Wired Magazine announced a special cover program with Xerox. If you were one of the first 5000 subscribers to send in your photo, it would be featured on a personalized cover. The idea was designed to show off Xerox's custom printing systems. I was one of the luck 5000.
A few weeks ago I received my personalized issue. I'm just now getting around to posting a photo of it. The cover is a standard glossy-photo stock. As you can see the 'custom' photo is included in a Google Map balloon. The standard issue featured Optimus Prime on the cover.
The newspaper in my area published an article today about how local blogs are impacting a CSX development project.
Readers of this blog may find the story familiar. I wrote a post on how the CSX story developed in cooperation between bloggers and traditional journalists.
I've posted my thoughts on the article over at my hyperlocal blog: Empirical Polk.
Of course the story does feature a picture of me 'blogging'. That's what's always funny about stories like this. The photographer shows up and says, "I'm supposed to get some shots of you blogging......so blog."
I've had a run of new hyku stickers and other gear made up. All of it features the logo variation I've played around with for a while.
Will it replace my regular logo? Who knows...that would entail redesigning my site and other materials as well, which is something I don't have the time for now. The logo/look is meant to be something out of the ordinary.
David has a photo of his Moleskine up, but he's holding it sideways. The logo is meant to be vertical.
If you would like some stickers e-mail me an address.
Looking at the stats the other day I see an inbound search for 'how to write a statement to the press' from Google. The number one result? My post on useless language in corporate press releases.
I wonder if the person doing the search took my post seriously as a genuine 'How-To' and wrote an honest release?
Being behind on feed reading I see Todd Defren's Twitter about Mike Manuel's blog birthday for Media Guerrilla. Mike has been blogging for three years. Congrats.
I start to think about a new business developing blog birthday cards, cakes and other 'celebratory/party' items for your favorite blogger. It turns out that Apple has a great birthday iCard to fit the bill. Here is the one I sent to Mike. The headline says, "Seriously, Go Outside."
Being in the birthday mood, I think, when is the blog birthday for Hyku, I really don't know? I do a quick look and it turns out to be today, that's kinda freaky. Yep, the first post went up on May 3, 2003. To be fair though the posting was rather sporadic at first and I did take some long breaks in there.
There isn't a week that goes by that I am not contacted by somebody wanting to use one of my photos from my Flickr account. Sometimes it's just a blogger, but more and more it's a publication. Recently there have been a run of chambers of commerce and CVBs who find my photos of their towns from my travels. I don't ask for monetary compensation, just a simple photo credit and a copy of the publication.
Like many other bloggers, most of the content I produce is covered under a Creative Commons license. You're free to do what you want with my photos and blog posts as long as you attribute me and share-alike. When I relay this story to traditional media audiences they are often baffled. Why do all these people give their stuff away, for free!
Well like many other folks I'm not in it to make money directly off my content by selling it or allowing advertising on it. I make money off the services I provide, so like Dave Winer has said, the content is the ad, for me.
Getting back to photography, I am constantly pointing folks to Flickr for stock photos. Chances are you can find somebody that has taken a photo under a CC license that you can use. All you need to do is following the licensing terms, or contact them directly if you wish to discuss using the photo in a way that doesn't fit the CC license.
When I attend a conference and take photos, I seek out other bloggers at the event and point them to my photos from the event telling them they're free to use them in their posts, "Take my pictures, Please!" The end result? Other blogs use my photos and link to me, and I am getting offers to attend conferences for free (or reduced cost) to take pictures. Who says giving something away for free doesn't pay off?
Been busy with a bunch of exciting projects these past two weeks. Combine that with being a bit burned out and prepping for some travel and you get no blogging. Perhaps tomorrow night's dinner with Ike Piggot will trigger something.
I have been a vegetarian for almost 8 years now, but recently I have been considering making a switch. Why? I'm not sure, but I find I'm having a number of cravings for things like good barbecue, and I do miss my crawfish.
However the switch is not easy, at least I don't think it will be. In the past when a small amount of animal product has slipped into my food (usually in the form of chicken or beef stock in soup) my stomach has not fared well.
I decided to do some research on making the transition. First stop, Google. I searched for the phrase, 'transition from vegetarian'. The results for the first few pages are all about how to become a vegetarian or transition from vegetarian to vegan. There is not a single mention of going the other way.
Is this a sign? Or perhaps a secret hidden agenda on the part of vegetarian engineers working at Google?
The always-fun Grayson tagged me with the 'Seven Songs' meme. Like many other folks it's a mixture of old-favorites and current stuff that get's heavy rotation on my iPod.
- Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
- Xpander - DJ Sasha
- Drive that Fast - Kitchens of Distinction
- Ceremony - Joy Division
- Round & Round - New Order
- Clocks - Coldplay
- Home & Dry - Pet Shop Boys
It's tough to pick just seven. On any day I'll listen to just about anything by: Depeche Mode, The Cure, Erasure, Joy Division, New Order, Electronic, Pet Shop Boys, Nitzer Ebb, NIN, Dj Sasha, Digweed, Bjork or Coldplay. I know David and I share musical tastes...how about it Dave?
Later today I'll be packing for my trip to Vegas for New Communications Forum. As I have said before, NewComm Forum is one of the best events of the year. Like many conferences it's a combination of great sessions and great people. I jokingly said to a friend, they should just cancel all the sessions and just let us all hang out.
I'm looking forward to seeing: Shel I, Shel H, Mike, David, Brian, Joe, Kami and many, many more friends.
I'll be on two panels and helping with the post-conference wrap-up session on Friday afternoon.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
I've been a minor fan of NASCAR for a few years but I for some reason I am really looking forward to this season. Why? I think it's a combination of things that appeal to my blogger mentality. What's a blogger mentality? For me it's an appreciation for disruptive technologies or people. In the case of NASCAR it's three things: Juan Pablo Montoya, Toyota and Red Bull.
1. Juan Pablo Montoya: I've been a fan of JPM since his F1 days with Williams and McLaren. Is he a bit hot-headed? Yes. Could his departure from Ron & Co. been done better? Yes. Never-the-less, he's in NASCAR now and I hope he does very well. The spotlight sure is on him though. This week I saw feature articles in Sports Illustrated and few other publications plus a cover story in USAToday on Friday.
Of course NASCAR loves the fact that JPM will pull in an entirely new fan base. I remember the first US Grand Prix that JPM raced in, the Columbian's were everywhere. I think the tri-color Red, Blue and Yellow of the Columbian flag almost out-did the Ferrari tifosi red. How will the 'traditional' NASCAR fan base react to swarms of Spanish-speaking Columbian fans? We'll see. In addition to the Hispanic fans, JPM will also attract some F1 fans, like me. For the first time in my life I now own a piece of NASCAR merchandise, a Montoya t-shirt.
2. Toyota: In case you haven't heard (ha) this will be the first year that a foreign car company will race in the Nextel Cup. All politics and nationalism aside this should be very interesting. Toyota, like Honda, don't take racing lightly. From a factory support standpoint they will outspend everybody else to win. They haven't had too much success in their F1 crusade, but I think NASCAR is different. I predict Toyota will get a win this year.
From a spending standpoint, Toyota and Red Bull do bring a bunch of cash to the table to hire the best talent. Whether that will translate into wins remains to be seen, however it has made a lot of other crews happy. The other teams need to up the pay of their top talent to keep them from going elsewhere. That's good for the 'employees' but not so good for the 'owners'.
3. Red Bull: I mentioned Red Bull and their money with Toyota above. Like Toyota, Red Bull brings a singular focus to racing. They also do things a bit differently than other sponsors, they own their teams. In the traditional role an independent team owner runs a series of cars and then solicits sponsors. Sponsors can change and you always have to be chasing new ones. With Red Bull they are the owner and sponsor. They control all aspects of the team.
In F1 you have independent teams, factory teams and Red Bull teams. That dynamic creates an interesting haves vs have-nots. Will Red Bull's entry into NASCAR start a change in the team make-up? Will we ever see a factory team?
Red Bull is also primarily a European brand, if I am correct it's the first major European NASCAR sponsor???
Add all these things up and we're sure to have an interesting season. Oh yeah, Formula 1 starts in four weeks.
A week or two ago I noticed that I was approaching 5000 photos on Flickr. I had planned to note which one was the 5000th shot and blog a bit about it. However in the rush of the past week with a number of events in different cities and states, I missed that moment. (For clarification, as of this post I have 5,204 photos on Flickr of which 4,355 are public)
Since I picked up my Nikon D80 the amount of photos I've been taking has increased quite a bit. A while back I even created a special section on my site to highlight my favorite shots.
So to celebrate the 5000th photo I've created a little mash-up of my photos. The photo on the left is a quick self-protrait I shot at the Hammock Beach Resort on Thursday. The image on the right is a mosaic of 500 random shots from my Flickr photo stream courtesy of Mosaickr.
For the RSS readers out there, I have slightly tweaked the hyku.com design. I had planned on doing a complete revamp, but I have too much client work going on to get a complete overhaul done. With that, I just tweaked some things and adjusted the nav a bit. As such, it's not v6.0 it's v5.1. More details below the photo.
The changes are very slight and many people won't be able to tell much of a difference, but here they are:
- I moved the primary navigation from above the photo to below it. The old location always felt disconnected since it was so far away from the primary content space. It also required a bit of mouse-travel to move around.
- I updated the primary navigation links. The wiki is gone, but I added speaking, travel and photography. The new items are a part of what I do and who I am.
- I wanted to put more emphasis on my original photography at the top. To do this I increased the size of the photo slightly. The rotation is still there and currently features 70+ unique photos. More coming soon.
- On the blog I revamped the the entry listing, specifically removing all the linking, digg, etc. items. I felt they cluttered the content and didn't add much functionality.
- Another major issue was Flickr integration. Currently the medium sized photo on Flickr is 500 pixels wide. The previous blog design couldn't handle a 500 pixel wide image in the entry body. As you see, the screen shot above is 500 pixels wide.
- The overall design features some new fades and highlights to make the design more current.
- The CSS is cleaner and I cleaned out a bunch of old files from the server - yay!
There are a number of other slight changes in the works for when I get some time to do them. Specifically, I will be updating the blog sidebar and adding a revised footer element.
One more thing...this blog runs on MovableType, although I am always asked if it's on WordPress. I work frequently in both platforms and I have no real preference.
The other day I walked into Moe's Southwest Grill in Lakeland, FL to have dinner (I was by myself). The guys behind the counter did the standard 'Welcome to Moe's' thing and then kept talking. I walked up and ordered a Homewrecker burrito. Then came the standard ordering protocol. Rice, yes, black beans, yes.....chicken, steak....tofu. Tofu, yes that's right. I am a vegetarian.
Anyway, right as I say tofu, the guy behind the one waiting on me says, "I called it." This gets my interest, and the guy preparing my food said that the other guy has said "I bet he orders tofu" when I walked in the door. It wasn't like I was wearing my Birkenstocks and a PETA t-shirt to make it obvious. In fact, I had my Ask-a-Ninja t-shirt on.
I wasn't sure if I should be offended or flattered.
Yesterday, Tuesday the 30th of January is one of those days I'd like to forget.
My day started at 5:30 a.m. in the northeastern Atlanta area. I needed to get up early and get on the road, for two reasons:
1. If you don't get up early enough you won't beat the Atlanta traffic, as in you either leave before 6 a.m. or wait till 9 a.m.
2. I needed to get home around 2-3 to finalize a proposal for a major project.
Why was I driving back from Atlanta instead of flying? Well I had been to Savannah and a few other stops earlier on this trip, so driving was the best option.
Everything started fine, out-the-door and on-the-road before 6 a.m. I cruised through downtown Atlanta and was entering the Macon area around 7 a.m. Then just as I got on I-475 there was a big bang. My right, rear tire blew out. I was in the center lane doing around 75 mph. Luckily there was little traffic around me and I was able to safely make it to the shoulder. Picture of the offending tire below:
For the next three hours I dealt with this ordeal. When I take long trips I always rent a car, so I needed to contact Hertz roadside assistance. They told me to stay with the vehicle and they would send somebody to take care of things. And then I was not to continue my trip in my car, I should take it to the nearest Hertz location and exchange it. So I wait, and wait.....and wait. Almost two hours later I am back on the road heading to the Macon airport to see the Hertz man.
I've seen some small airports before, like the one in Pellston, MI, but I think the Macon airport is the smallest I've ever been in. The Hertz man tells me that I don't have a full tank and that I need to go fill it up since they'll charge me something like $6 a gallon. I told him no thanks, I'm not wasting any more time today.
I swap cars, moving from a nice four-door luxury model to a Dodge Neon (that's all they had available). Back on the road at last and only 3 hours behind.
One of the reasons I hate to travel during business hours is that something always seems to come up when you're traveling. Yesterday was no exception. Around 11:30 I had to stop if Tifton, GA to use the wifi at the local Starbucks. To say the wifi was slow and unreliable would be an understatement. Attempting to modify WordPress themes with bad wifi is not fun. A stop that should have taken 10 minutes took almost an hour.
Back on the road at last.....four hours behind.
But wait, I didn't have any cash on me and I forgot that I didn't have a SunPass for the toll on the Florida Turnpike. One more stop at an ATM to get some cash. Now I am hitting early rush-hour traffic in the Orlando area, great.
In the end I arrive home around 5:30 p.m. twelve hours after I left. The trip should have taken 7-8 hours....not 12.
Or so the Wall Street Journal says. I'm not a subscriber so I can't see the full article, but I have a pretty good idea what's in there. Perhaps a friend that has a WSJ subscription can send me the full text of the article.
Update: A few folks have sent me the article...thanks!
Most bloggers have an ego-feed to monitor links to their site and mentions of their name. One of the feeds I monitor is any mention of 'hyku'. For the past few years it's been mostly mentions of my company name.
Recently though, with Technorati and other blog services indexing MySpace blogs, the results are mostly MySpace users misspelling the word haiku. Sad.
It was great to see Florida win the national championship last night. I was at the Sugar Bowl in 1997 when they won their first championship, but didn't make the trip to the big game this year. I'll be speaking at UF again this semester, I wonder if it will still be nuts on campus in a few weeks?
All was not lost in the Hallett household last night since my wife's Auburn Tigers won the Pontiac 'Game Changing Play' $100,000 scholarship contribution, for a play against Florida :-)
I am officially back from vacation a few days early. A number of pressing issues and conference calls have this lovely Friday all booked up. I have quite a few posts lined up including some predictions/thoughts heading into 2007.
Looking forward to a fun year.
I'll be away for a little bit enjoying a break. It's not that I don't have work to do, I'm just forcing myself not to do it for a change.
I'll be in Highlands, N.C. for Christmas then hanging back in Atlanta till the second week of January.
Welcome to the house of sick. My son was sick, now I am sick and so is my wife. Say hello to Z-pac.
What a way to start the Christmas Vacation.
Too much live-blogging makes my head hurt. No more posts today, see you tomorrow.
I am off this morning to Washington D.C. for the WOMMA Summit which I'll be blogging with Marianne Richmond. You'll be able to follow all the action at the main WOMMA Blog and the WOMMA Research Blog.
There is a blogger dinner on Monday night, which will include none other than Constantin Basturea and quite a few other friends.
If you look at the very bottom right of this site you'll see a small amount of text that says 'hyku v5.0'. That's because this is the fifth version of the site/blog. One of the things I plan on doing the first week of 2007 is redesigning hyku (again).
Part of what I do is design, so I need to keep my site sharp/current. Don't get me wrong I like the current version, but I have some new ideas that I want to implement (plus my CSS skills are much better now than they were in early Jan, 2006).
One of the things I plan to continue is integrating my photography in the design. If you didn't know, I have taken all the header shots that are featured. If you want to look through the rotation you can click here.
As I work through the process I'll be documenting it and will post a recap once the new site is live.
The next two weeks will be very busy. In a sense I am sprinting to the finish and towards a break. Like Allan has, I am hoping to take a break for a few weeks starting on Wednesday, Dec 20th - returning the first week of 2007.
Tomorrow I'm off to DC for WOMMA, but when I return it's a mix of project work, holiday social events and kindergarten-related activities. If it wasn't for the fact that I need my computer to offload photos from my D80 I'd consider leaving it home.
I don't claim to be the biggest football fan in the world, but it is interesting that the last University of Florida football game I went to was the Sugar Bowl ten years ago when UF won their first national championship. On New Year's Eve 1996, a group of us took an RV to New Orleans for the big game. The RV was soon nicknamed the 'Vomit Comet' since a bad case of stomach flu quickly went through all the passengers.
I spent 1990-1995 at UF and went to just about every home game, but once I left, the connection was lost to some degree. I don't have any plans to go this year, but I'll be watching the game. Go Gators!
I am pleased to announce that I am a new member of the Research Fellows & Advistory Board for the Society of New Communications Research. SNCR is a distinguished group of folks, many of which are my friends and colleagues, so it will be a great experience.
The big event for SNCR in 2007 will be New Communications Forum in Las Vegas on March 7-9th. I'll be there, will you?
Previous meeting engagements are forcing me to leave Mplanet early, so I'll be missing the final two sessions of the day. It's been a busy two days of blogging (15 posts and 163 photos) and I'm looking forward to a break :-)
Conference blogging is a great experience and I try to work hard at it, so it's nice to get props from somebody like Ann Handley. A while back I posted my guide to conference blogging, and of course I used this for my blogging at Mplanet. The next conference stop for me is the WOMMA Summit 2006 in Washington D.C.
Big thanks to the AMA and the Fleishman-Hillard crew for inviting me and providing support/information when I needed it.
The experience at Mplanet has been great, however we did have one issue last night...but I'll let Ann talk about that one.
For as long as I can remember I have never participated in any Black Friday shopping-spree. I would typically try to avoid anything commerce related on that day, even going out to lunch is a chore. For some reason though, this year I decided to try it out. Perhaps it was a morbid sense of curiosity. Now that my morning of shopping is over, I can say that it will be some time again before I venture out for another post-Thanksgiving sale.
The 2GB SD memory card for $30 at Best Buy looked like a good deal, and it was free of those annoying rebates. Almost three hours later, I think I should have stayed in bed.
I woke at 4 a.m. and then arrived at Best Buy at 4:45, huge line. The store opened at 5 a.m., I didn't actually enter the store till 5:30 a.m., the line was that long. I picked up my item, (luckily it wasn't one of the coveted cheap laptops or HDTV's) and then waited another 40 minutes to check out. Money saved, time lost.
The sad thing is, the same item will probably be available for less money and less wait closer to Christmas.
Contrary to newspaper reports I was not shot. I am also not in Canada, and I am not 14 years old. I came across this story in the Edmonton Sun and felt a little strange reading it.
A routine bicycle ride turned nasty on Monday when an errant bullet emerged from the New Brunswick woods and smashed into the foot of a 14-year-old cyclist.
Josh Hallett was riding his bike just before dark on a trail behind a trailer park near Fredericton when he felt a strange sensation in one of his feet. Within a few seconds, he realized he'd been shot...
Earlier this year I visited Auburn University for part one of my 'Hyku College Tour'. Part two will begin this week with visits to the University of Georgia on Monday and the University of Florida on Thursday and Friday. It looks like I am the un-official social media speaker for the SEC :-)
As I have said before I always enjoy my time interacting with students, I'll be posting reports from my sessions during the week.
I'll be unavailable all day tomorrow since I am working as a precinct clerk for the Florida general election. If you're in Precinct 337 be sure to say hello :-)
I'll snap a few photos my my polling location for the AIGA Polling Place Photo Project.
The Pet Shop Boys are performing in Orlando this evening. The Mrs. and I will be attending the concert at Hard Rock Live.
Image from Dunechaser
When I was younger I would make fun of people going to concerts of bands that were 'older'. Now I guess that's me :-)
Who would I go see in concert from the 'old' days? Well some of the bands are still producing material, but my list would be:
Bjork
The Cure
Depeche Mode
Electronic
Erasure
New Order
Nitzer Ebb
Pet Shop Boys
In each case I'd go to any local concert they put on. Nitzer Ebb is currently touring the US, but nowhere near Florida. Unfortunately I missed Erasure last year, they were in Orlando at the same time I was at Blog Nashville.
What older bands would make your 'must-see' list?
