The preceding post changed from when I originally posted it early Saturday morning. I could’ve deleted it, but chose instead to edit it. I very rarely edit or touch my posts after I’ve published it, but chose to edit that one after hearing a sermon on TV this morning.
Warning - Religious context to follow. If religion scares you, don’t read the rest.
While working out on the elliptical machine, I turned the TV at the gym on CNN to get an update on the Virginia Tech shooting.
After all the speeches, there was a moment of silence and at that point, a young man was being comforted in the front row by the President, his wife and a few others. Moments later, the young man, along with a woman, scurried out of the auditorium with a few people accompanying them. The anchor then said:
“Obviously, this is very emotional.”
Really? Sometimes I wonder if journalists have a brain in their head as they utter cliche after cliche, words that have become redundant, meaningless, irrelevant.
As a person who uses social media to increase awareness of my brand, I find the actions that have been taken against one female blogger to be truly disturbing.
On my blog, I don’t expect everyone to agree with my views and opinions and that’s the price I pay for being visible. However, disagreements become disgusting when it involves death and rape threats and pictures that are meant to demean, silence and put fear in someone’s mind.
This has happened to a blogger by the name of Kathy Sierra who blogs over at Creating Passionate Users. Four weeks ago, she started getting death threats in her inbox. While scary, she didn’t think anything of it until someone started posting pictures of her with a noose around her neck and being muzzled with a thong.
I’ll be honest. I used to be pretrified going to conferences. You never know anyone and for those who do know each other, they form their little cliques and keep outsiders out. I would escape the lonliness by looking “busy” on my laptop or blathering in the hallways on my cellphone. All so I could look like I was connected to something, someone.
However, over the past 12-months, I can now go to conferences and know I’ll never be alone. All I need to do is see the list of registrants and I know someone will meet me at the airport or meet me in the lobby of the hotel or meet me for dinner.
If you love podcasting and new media, you need to be a part of this movement. An independent band is releasing a song called Mine Again today and wants you to spend just 99-cents and 2-minutes of your time to head over to iTunes to buy it. The goal is to demonstrate the power of social media to help this song debut at #1 in iTunes.
Now, if you’re thinking these chaps are going to get rich off of this thing, think again. Half of the proceeds they receive will be donated to a college scholarship. We give to them, they give to a deserving student.
Go here for more details. Then, Bum Rush the Charts (click on the big blue button at the top that says Buy Mine Again).
Update: Looks like there’s a flame out happening on Digg. Not everyone is down with this, although the Washington Post did a story.
Okay, so I’m standing in line at the grocery store. I hate shopping - any type of shopping - so to ease my misery, I think good thoughts. You know, like a plate of food from a Chinese buffet, Battlestar Galactica, chiseled chests, even my future Rottweiler named Tank, anything but the items that burden my arms.
So, I start thinking about movies. Aside from action, comedy and sci fi movies, I just love films that have an end-of-the-world message (upon searching, I discovered that this genre is called apocalyptic fiction). Some disease, alien, force of nature or plague is threatening Earth and it’s left to just 1 or 2 or a small band of people to save all of humanity from the impending destruction.
Films like 28 Days Later, Outbreak, War of the Worlds, The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact and Armageddon are just a small sample of films in this genre that keep me on the edge of my seat. Love it!
Which got me thinking…
There was an article that I wanted to read and unfortunately, the site that it was on is no longer up. As I consumed some more holiday treats, I remembered archive.org. There, I was able to input the URL and voila! The article popped up.
I ended up becoming quite nostalgic and did a search on some of the web properties I used to operate.
Just in case your curiosity is getting the better of you, here they are:
Every year, Time Magazine selects a person of the year. For 2006, Time’s person of the year is you. Yes, you. Why? Find out by reading their article.
Thank you Time Magazine.
I’m not sure if I blogged about my 13-hour drive to Boston when I attended Podcamp back in September. Well, if I didn’t, just a quick narrative that the drive from Toronto to Boston should’ve taken 9-hours through 1 province (Ontario) and 2 states (New York & Mass).
So why did I see New York state, Pennsylvania, Conneticut and Mass in a span of 13-hours? Don’t ask…
Well, that’s how I felt trying to navigate through Second Life where Toronto’s CaseCamp was held last night. Here’s my story.
One person who has a new widget on his blog everytime I look is Mathew Ingram. I marvel at how this middle-aged dude can be so much more ahead of me with how quickly he pimps his blog.
So, I’m using Wordpress and I’m looking to pimp my blog. Any suggestions on cool widgets and plug-ins I could be using? Also, should I go to a 3-column format or just stick with 2? And lastly, is there a plug-in I can use so I can add tags to my posts right from Wordpress without having to head over to Technorati and copying and pasting them everytime?
Yes, I could easily look at the list of plug-ins on the Wordpress site, but I’m asking you which ones are you using and why are they your favourites?