Just got back from taking Jenna and her friend to see Akeelah and the Bee. What can I say--good movie, maybe a little predictable--girl from the hood makes good--but anything with Lawrence Fishburn in it works for me, and my girl came home spelling and is reading her dictionary in her room to fall asleep, which is better than the effects of the average Disney Channel show on any given Mon-Sun.

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Stowe's Body Gets Rash (of Bids)

The winning "Clothe Stowe" bid was $15/day. WOW! Go, Stowe. It appears that you will see Stowe in a lot of HeadShift wear. Score one for the smart marketing team.

T-shirts or not, I may suggest a little help in the copywriting area, as I'm still not sure exactly, precisely, remotely what they do.

Headshift is a professional online social media consulting and development company, which is rapidly emerging as the UK market leader in this specialist sector. We work with a range of knowledge-based organisations to create successful online communication projects that exploit the power of social networking.

Forgetaboutit, let's see your t-shirts!

(hey, nice location)

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ZeFrank, been around and better than ever

some people haven't heard of zefrank, he's been around long time, but his video news show is hyfuckingsterical. Star baby.

thanks frank for reminding and pointing.

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Paynting vs Op Ed

Frank Goes 700 words per mile in his oped exploratory post. Lookout!

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give a hoot, don't pollute - blog earth day.

how does shelley do that thing where she can turn comments off after a specific period of time? Her blog has the best features of any out there--I'm sure she crafts the best of those features together herself.

I particularly like how she can leave comments open for a long time, but once a post gets really old, she can turn the ability to make additional comments off. I'm finding that the only spam fight i have on blogger/spot is fighting spam made to comments on old posts. The way shelley has it, comments are turned off, but if you come across a years-old post, you are invited to contact her after the close date if you would like to contribute a comment.

That's hot. It is inviting to VALID commenters who come along later on, but also would keep penis spam from littering my five-year-old posts and the nets in general.

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feast or famine?

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Jon Looks at the Pronounian Symantics of Fear

Jon Husband has an interesting post that highlights how many times Bush invokes the ubiquitous, terrifying enemy of the people using "they/them."  In general, everything USians fear is encompassed in the third-person: Them, They, Their, and of course the favorite modifier, "THOSE people."

ugh.

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NO Jazz Fest?

George on jazz.

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Lemur says...

help a blogger kick a clueless ad agency's butt in court.

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If there was one conference to go to this year...

...it was obviously Tequila Con.

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Sprint Ambassadors Program for Bloggers, Any Ambassadorettes?

So, I've seen the cool guys posting about getting these new phones to evaluate from Sprint--you know, they're giving them to key bloggers to check out. The phones do everything but wash your clothes or so it seems.

So I was wondering, since I've only seen guys talking about getting them, how many women bloggers are participating as Ambassadors? I haven't seen one. Surely there must be some, right?

For the past several months, Sprint has been seeding next-generation phones with ‘A-list’ bloggers including Jeff Jarvis at Buzz Machine, Steve Hall of AdRants and Joseph Jaffe. Sprint sends each blogger an e-mail noting that the Ambassador team has visited their blog and would like to offer them membership in the program and a free phone. After signing up, bloggers get a Sprint Power Vision-enable phone (a Samsung SPH-A920) which can download music from the Sprint Music Store, stream live TV, take pictures and video and play games. The phone is free to the blogger, including downloads of tunes, video and games, for six months at the end of which it is deactivated. The blogger can keep the phone but needs to pay Sprint at normal rates to continue using it.

You know, I'm just asking. Because I'm curious.

Tags: clueless a-list tricks, toys for boys, sprint, samsung - Powered by Qumana

Four Bloggers A Day

I've been on this regimen. A few of you already know about it. Lemme 'splain in case you want to get in on the same pathway to personal excellence.

Long time ago, you had to pay for long distance by the minute. Now some of us still have those plans whereby you pay for each minute, BUT if you run your business out of your bed, usually you have to make lots of calls, so it's cheaper just to get the already-paid-for long distance, and such. Never mind that cell phones let you gab LD for free, not counting the airtime they like to charge you $170 a month for.

BUT THEN, that has little to do with my regimen, which is this: I am calling four bloggers each day to check in with them.

Why you ask?

Because I can, I answer.

And I should. I remember when we First Blogged, Long Distance wasn't so free, and certain members of this blogging community ran up $600 phone bills connecting and learning who we really were and what we were about. OH! were those the days, my friends?

I remember when Locke got his first Sprint plan where it was one price for long distance. We were drunk with the possibilities. HEY, Who even needs to blog anymore--we'll just CALL everyone! What if we talked for 24 hours--would they cut us off? Have you ever talked to Halley?

Ah, we were but children then.

So now, long distance is unlimited, and we do what human beings like to do: FORGET TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT. We get all professional, treat it like HAM Radio, and stop answering the phone.  feh!

SO: I will call four bloggers each day until I run out of phone numbers. I have already checked in with Frank, Doc, David, Halley, Jon (Skype Counts), Chris (Ubiquitous for me, but he's included anyway), and Tom (VM counts).

Now, some of these folks are private people. I'm not saying you should call THE SAME four bloggers as me each day, I'm just saying WTF pick up the phone once in a while before I get ready to launch  PhoneCon III.

Don't make me do it.

What you can do instead is give me your number. It must be in the U.S., or be prepared to skype with me if you're International. I do not use a set agenda. I make shit up. If all we want to do is say, HEY!!! six times, that's okay too.

Should you wish to start your own Four Bloggers A Day program, you may include me in your lineup: 678 - 294 - 0900. Just remember: I know where the disconnect button is and I know how to use it.

If you get my VM, that counts. Leave me a message. You hear me, I hear you, we're all the richer for the experience.

Kay, eat that LD for lunch!

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virtual admin needed, probably already exists, but where?

For folks living and working in netspace, join me in asking for my latest want: a virtual administrator. Google calendar is great, integration with chat and mail is great, conferences are great, 'where am i now' widgets are great, frapper, lappr, and scrappr all you want, upload and share, book-fly-and-greet, schedule skype and phone conferences and chats on global timezones, and just TRY to keep up.

I'm trying to get four+ virtufriends together with one meatspace friend at a conference they're all attending, one I'm not attending, and i'm looking at one's where am I, and another's conference list, and another's blog, and emailing them all (i.e. bugging them) with times and details to see who's open when, and I'm thinking, if we all shared a virtual administrator for that week/event/etc, how EASY would it be for her (or him--really, we're talking transactions, so pick your sex) to align, schedule, book, and coordinate all of our necessary shit for that week (and even tho I'm not there, I still want to play a role--have her ask me how!), allowing us to opt in or out, and go beyond the standard fare offered as part of the conference AND give us something that works across the various tools people are using to keep their respective shit together.

Let us change it on the fly, deliver us up-to-date info via RSS, and send change alerts as text messages or email if we want--"the lounge is a madhouse--we're meeting in my suite instead!", ALL AROUND A SPECIFIC SOCIAL CIRCLE AND EVENT, oh, and if I forget to bring my prescription or favorite walking shoes, let me request info from the virutal admin on where to find what nearest to where I'm staying without hopping among map interfaces or checking continually with the front desk. 

I want the virtual admin to learn to know me over time, like a real one.

Instead of being an ongoing way of life and cost center, though, I use the virtual admin only when I need to.

She's there when I need her, and she can't quit. How cool is that?

It's ripe for an ad model, or subscription model. I dunno. It's probably already out there. But I bet I can think of ways to make it better.

I figured a admin sounding name is the way to go--so i tried to remember some of the more efficient executive assistants i've worked with.

How about ColletteSanders.com

Collette, the web2.0isphere awaits you.

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"Important Take Home Messages"

Sifting through morning email. Found the use of "You" in this press release headline from the Journal of Sexual Medicine curious. (But then, I find the term sexual medicine curious too.)

You don't often find press releases that talk, well, right to You in the headline. Mainly because, in writing these things, there is no specific "You" who is being talked to, given that the press release is a tool for disseminating news to a mass audience.

I really don't think this release is talking to Me, because I know what I think about the topic. If I had to release this news nugget, I might also be tempted to use "You," though. Something like: Men Say Leave My Nipples Alone and Aim Lower, Will You?

Queue Marvin Gay and write your own versions.

Breast and Nipple Stimulation Turns Women on More Than You Think
New Research Indicates Women are More Sexually Aroused by Breast and Nipple Manipulation than Men

April 26, 2006 – Women are more aroused by breast and nipple stimulation than men during lovemaking according to the first ever evidence-based research, published in the May 2006 issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine. There are limited studies in the medical literature examining the importance, during lovemaking, of nipple or breast stimulation in enhancing sexual arousal in females and males.  And while older research reported that men employ nipple and breast stimulation to induce sexual arousal as part of foreplay, Kinsey reported that the significance for the female was probably overestimated.

The new research in The Journal of Sexual Medicine entitled, "Nipple/Breast Stimulation and Sexual Arousal in Young Men and Women" by Roy Levin (Sheffield, UK) and Cindy Meston (Austin, TX), reports that in 82% of women studied, nipple/breast stimulation caused or enhanced their sexual arousal, and that when they were sexually aroused nipple/breast stimulation increased their arousal. Only 7% of women reported that such stimulation caused a decrease in their arousal while approximately 25% asked their partner to stop stimulating their nipples/breasts during lovemaking.

In the case of the men, like the women, nipple stimulation was excitatory for their sexual arousal but the percentage was significantly less (52% compared to 82%). Thirty nine percent of men (compared to 78% of women) reported that nipple stimulation increased their arousal when they were sexually aroused. While virtually the same percentage of men as women found that nipple stimulation decreased their arousal when sexually aroused, a smaller proportion of men asked for the stimulation to be stopped (14% versus 25%).

This gender difference could feasibly be due to a number of factors including gender differences in reporting biases or social desirability, or gender roles ascribed to this behavior. One aspect of breast/nipple stimulation is the putative release of central neuropeptide hormones that are strong stimulators of sexual activity.

In this novel research, the authors provided a short questionnaire to 148 males and 153 females who were undergraduates at a major University. Participants varied in age from 17 to 29 years old, and mean age was 19 years for both men and women.  The sample consisted of 56% Caucasian, 7% African American, 22% Hispanic, 14% Asian American and 1% other.  Participants were administered a series of six questions inquiring about their sexual arousal response to breast/nipple stimulation, a demographics questionnaire, and a variety of other sexually relevant measures. 

“This study was undertaken in young western men and women,” noted lead author of the study Dr. Roy Levin, Department of Biomedical Science,University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.  “To widen the perspective we need to undertake breast and nipple behavior studies in groups of different ages and cultures.”

Dr. Cindy Meston, co-author of the research and Professor of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA stated that “nipple stimulation could be enhancing sexual arousal via numerous different hormonal and/or brain neurotransmitter pathways. The next step in this research is to try to understand the precise underlying mechanisms involved and whether they are the same for men and women. Such information would bring us a tiny bit closer to answering the bigger question of what exactly is sexual desire and arousal.”

"There are important take home messages from this study," said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine.  "The difference in responses between genders is the obvious take home message.  Just as important, this is one of the first studies to investigate the effect of non-genital stimulation on sexual arousal, written by a psychologist and a physiologist, an example of the broader, multi-disciplinary investigations being performed in contemporary sexual medicine research.  There is a paucity of basic science studies that explain the mechanism of these gender differences.”

The manuscript is published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.  Media who wish to receive a PDF of the article may contact

medicalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net.
Drs. Levin, Meston and Goldstein are available for questions and interviews.  To arrange for a telephone interview, please contact medicalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net or 781-388-8507.

About the Journal
The Journal of Sexual Medicine publishes multidisciplinary basic science and clinical research to define and understand the scientific basis of male and female sexual function and dysfunction.  As the official journal of the International Society for Sexual Medicine, it provides healthcare professionals in sexual medicine with essential educational content and promotes the exchange of scientific information generated from basic science and clinical research.

About The International Society for Sexual Medicine
The International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) was founded in 1982 for the purpose of promoting, throughout the international scientific community, research and knowledge in sexual medicine, considered as the subspeciality area of medicine that embraces the study, diagnosis and treatment of the sexual health concerns of men and women. The society has over 3000 members worldwide, with five regional societies that are affiliated with ISSM: the Africa Gulf Society for Sexual Medicine, Asia Pacific Society for Sexual Medicine, European Society for Sexual Medicine, Latin American Society for Sexual Medicine, and Sexual Medicine Society of North America.

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Dear Julie (as if) of America West Airlines Customer Service

Hello Julie, our customer service supervisor from America West Airlines, whose name I bet is something more like Sandra. Julie I have been thinking about you all day, visions of what I might do with my Visa debit card you so mightily scoff at, the one I used to give your company $560, which is, coincidentally the amount I pay for health insurance because I had the balls to try and make a go of my own business when I couldn't stand my job anymore.

Julie, woman to woman, you need a new job. To get laid. To visit your psychic. SOMETHING. If you're that unhappy where you feel compelled to treat customers as though they are about to launch a hostile takeover of your business and your square little world, then for goodness sake, put in your resignation letter and get a job at The Container Store. Big Lots. Something. But not as an America West customer service rep.

There is a better life for you Julie. Somewhere.

You don't have to be such a hater. Lose that zero and get yourself a hero. Turn that frown upside down. Add value to people's lives. Go to the bookstore, and pick up the latest new age best seller. Get in Touch with the Core of Your Being so that you can become happier, healthier -- mindbodyandspirit.

One world, Julie. One love. One life.

Julie. Every time I look at my Visa debit card I will think of you and America West Airlines and your horrible Customer Service and how we won't fly with you again, and I will remember the last words I said to you:

"I'm glad I'm a blogger."

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WATCH YOUR BACK--AMERICA WEST AIRLINES WILL HOLD TWO TO THREE TIMES THE FUNDS NECESSARY

If you talk to Julie at Customer Service for America West Airlines, part of US Airways, you better have the duct tape ready for your head. You will DEFINITELY want to wrap it around tightly before you start your talk.

I think Ron Cole, VP of Customers & Inflight Service at America West better spend some time on the phone as a customer so that he can update the company's rather out-of-date pledge from 1999.

Let's start with Julie. Julie, the Customer Service Representative who would not give us her last name when we spoke to her today, and to whom we were escalated in search of some assistance after five days of the company holding $1100 of our money. She is also the most condescending, unknowledgeable, unhelpful customer disservice person I've ever spoken to. And that's saying a lot.

When I finally arranged, initiated, and held America West Airline representative Julie captive on a three-way conference call with my bank, the Suntrust associate tried to explain to Julie that indeed America West's Merchant Services Group HAD put a hold on $1100 AFTER we made our purchase of $550, and that they weren't entitled to that money. Essentially, the airline tied up nearly $1700 for a $550 ticket. AND they wouldn't let $1100 of it go.

The Suntrust associate explained that Suntrust needed a fax  in order to release that $1100 in funds back to us. That eventually (could be 5 days, could be 10, sometimes 30) pending items fall off, but in the mean time, that $1100 is unavailable to the account holder...i.e., yours truly.

She said the following statements in the most bitter, loud, interruptive manner I've ever heard on the other end of the phone, and Lord knows I've talked to some Pieces Of Work:

Me: If you were in my shoes and $1100 of you money was being held by a merchant, you'd be making this call too.
Julie: No. If it were me, I wouldn't have paid with a Visa debit card. I don't pay for things that way.
Me: Well then, why do you accept Visa debit cards on your site?
Julie: You asked me what I would do. I wouldn't do it the way you did.

next interaction:

Julie: Well, you probably hit the submit button three times, that's why there were three charges.
George/Me: We did NOT hit any button twice--I know how to pay for things online.
Suntust: Actually, America West, it shows that the FIRST charge went through fine--that's the $556.50 that you've been paid. The other two holds were put on after that payment. Those are the holds we need you to release by faxing us authorization.

next interaction

Suntrust: M'am we need a fax from you to release these funds. What the customer is saying--and I get 20 of these through like this each day--is that you are holding up their funds.
Julie: Well, we got our money. The charge for the tickets went through.
Suntrust: What I'm saying is that, it may not be your fault, but we need authorization from America West to take the hold off of the two charges for $560 that are still pending. Your Merchant Services Group put that hold on.
Julie: Well these people think it's my fault.

WHAT THE HECK, EXCUSE ME? Can you climb off your high horse enough to tell me why, once I PAY for an airline ticket and that charge goes through, you deserve to grab an extra $1100 and hang onto that for 5-10 days? And then treat me like excrement for paying for it using a method that you offer on your site?

Hello? Realworld Calling Airline Industry.... Come in Airline Industry That Has Been Abandoned By Anyone With a Clue... Hello?

In the end JULIE HUNG UP ON US after telling Suntrust she would indeed send the fax. I should have thought to have her fax one to me too--in truth, I was too bewildered by her spite.

The only answer is to start recording and podcasting these bad customer service interactions so that people can HEAR what is said, how it's said, and merchants are exposed for the games they play and their positioning lies. From now on, I'm recording. You're on notice, Julie.

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nothing personal

i'm just insanely busy. maybe you can help. i will post these reminders:

i forgot to pay the garbage bill. we have garbage sitting in the driveway bec/ i guess they don't come if you forget to pay them. Also, don't let me forget to pay health ins later today. no telling what they'll do to you if you don't pay them. repossess my fine health prolly. OH! and remind me to call our accountant.

thank you for your virtual assistance. off to meetings.

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Someone needs our prayers

...feeling so so sorry for Terry Heaton's tragic loss. The immensity of shock--words really can't get at it. All he's asking for are our prayers. Let's get to it.

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knockin' robin and the bird flew

What is the knocking robin trying to tell us? The commenter that said a knockin' robin had come to their house isn't the only one. Lately I've been seeing more referrers that come here from searching on "knocking robin." And I've gotten two emails.

Maybe this is just a function of my post having risen to the top in google. Or maybe more robins really are knocking on people's windows.

Which begs the question: is it the same robin flying about the U.S.? Could these be offspring of my robin who learned to knock by watching its knocking parent? And whoever they are, what do they want?

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where are the web 1.0 ceos now? Prosumers. And Conversations Are Markets Too

I was thinking this morning how many of the smart, too-quickly-gone web 1.0 clients I worked with, who -- had their ideas and business models come just a little later -- might have had staying power.

I wonder where Biri Singh is. He was the head of Intelligent Digital (rebranded idapta) in the high boom days. Working with Biri was like getting a look under the hood of the amazing engine that would become e-commerce. I can't find much about him on the web past the idapta days. But I think he has to be somewhere. He should be blogging. But I did find this article I wrote with him back on digital marketplaces back in 00.

I think about the B2B marketplace when Doc talks about how consumers are not consumers, and if they ever were, which they really weren't, they're TOTALLY not now, because we are smack dab in the middle of a ... well, I'm not going to speak for Doc. But look, the flip is flopping, and when all is said and done, each one of us could be an exchange. an individual marketplace, a realtime living breathing ebay that also takes the kids to the park, C2B, C2C, blow ALL of that, it's M2Y - me to you.

So if I'm anything that you simply must "call" me, then maybe i'm a prosumer, proactively producing services/products that matter to me in partnership - in tandem - with you and your business and what I'm interested in  from you.

Okay, it's the coffee.

I sent Doc an email last week but i dunno if he got it because a lot of times i end up in his junk folder he tells me, something about my version of outlook, and also, the email didn't make much sense. And yet, unabashedly, I bring it to you.

you know the whole thing about ‘consumer’ not being ‘consumers’ anymore but the increasing dual role, online  at least, of being consumer/producer, user/developer, each of us trending toward becoming a minimemarketplace, where I make I buy I make I sell, right? And so for organizations, right, the mandate is don’t look at me as a customer anymore, I’m – yes little individual me – becoming your partner, right, I supply you and you supply me, we exchange, and the marketplace becomes HUMAN because eventually it will be simply too fast for traditional-cos to adapt to, and we are, what, reverting back to a hyperbarter system, a human hub model, I dunno....

...We’re racing, really, to a point where there’s no verb between the two, just take out the ‘are,’ and swap them if you want. From my perspective, the more conversations and interactions I have with people who are thinking and creating stuff this fast is that we’re approaching some merge-point between trust/talk/need/create/ where a call with six women talking about the NEED (market) for a site for moms on the move looking for childcare recommendations from other women they know online (trust), one woman moving to manhattan asking, “Do you know any resources here, and then talking with two others, I just used one in Austin I can contribute, do you have one in Atlanta? And we need a site for this with an amazon-review structure…” that what occurs to me is: these conversations are fucking markets.

Right, so, I had to share.

How would you like to be Doc? Patience of a saint I tell you. ;-)

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okay that was 3 minutes per post, plus an analysis post (that would be this)

not bad at all. i would have to believe three minutes per post beats my old records. Still at 3 minutes per post it would take me how long to post 30? well, 90 minutes Einstein. So how many minutes are in a day and wouldn't THAT be a feat that no one would want to try, let alone read.

although, again, you would be surprised at the fun you can have when writing finds you, not the other way around.

so if you do the exercise, even if you don't make it, tag it 30in30 and let's see if it catches on so that when our chillen and grand chillen come to technorati they might never find this, thereby saving themselves on shame and therapy bills.

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one more minute

now see, i could have done more posts, but these were kind of meaty. A lot of thought went into them. the idea is: make yourself write.

WRITE FUCKING WRITE.

Don't spend so much time formulating opinions and debating the same bullshitmeaningless stuff each day. Sometime just say to youself--self, 30 posts in 30 minutes and GO and see what happens.

you know some folks used to do blog marathons, where they would plan an all nighter -- sometimes it was for charity -- and see how long they could post -- trying for 24 or 48 hours, hooking up with other bloggers to take over while they slept.

you might think: that writing probably sucked. but you don't know when meaning's going to sneak up on you.

it's a tricky bastard

(bastard is my word of the week)

I did not know i was going to mention skype or yahoo or allaboutgeoge or what else did i write about? it's gone now. I didn't know what the hell to write, but it's like exercise -- don't think it, don't link it, just write it, and if you CONSTRUCT it, then you have to go back and start again.

more in the morn. gotta be up at six.

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in praise of skype

for me skype is like the x3504 when i was at ketchum, and you could dial anyone with a four digit extension and then your other line was free for incoming client calls, babysitters, your bookie, what have you.

Skype is like that for me now -- it sits over there like my old two line desk phone, and i get calls from my favorite Canadians or friends around the globe, and it's kind of like over-the-cube talk.

I told allaboutgeorge today he's my cube mate--my over-the-wall neighbor, and just when I'm dozing and like--aaaah i cannot write this--george pops up in yahoo IM with some goddam witty interlude and he makes me laugh. If I could toss a bag of spicy cajun chips over the cube wall to george i would.

and he uses yahoo, but i started this post about skype, but really it's about gesturing, which good web2.0 tools take into account.

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do you go to aldi's?

i shopped at aldi's today, the food market with the offbeat stuff at good prices, and you buy your own bags if you don't bring them with you, and the other weird thing that I like: bring a quarter because you put a quarter in to get your shopping cart and then you get your money back at the end when you shove the cart back into it's lineup.

the funny thing is that i have a friend who can't do the cart thing. i mean she cannot grasp the concept -- "what if i don't have a quarter?" she keeps asking. I'm like, dude, bring one. She's like, "you don't understand--i don't want to have to know that i have a quarter in order to go."

george says they have Aldis a lot oveseas. That makes him like the store. he likes things that are over the seas.

i think i get it. no, no i guess i don't.

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It would help if I had something to say

My sister and her husband are planning to move to Alabama. No banjo. No knee. I guess that's when you come, not go.

My family is a mess. When she goes, she essentially takes away a link that connects me to my only other family in the area. Good for her. She doesn't need the stress of being that link. Although, it has had benefits too.

I don't want her to go. It might only be over the border. Still. byebye.

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back in the old days, 01 or so, i used to try to do 30 posts in 30 minutes

you see, i never made it. Sometimes I'd do 30 posts, but it would take me 2 hours. Sometimes I would do 2 posts. and then say GAH! I'm sleepy. I almost would always try at night.

i got to thinking qumana makes posting easier so i wondered can i do 15 posts in 15 minutes, stating now.

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One for the Road

Hello Atlanta Traffic! How about an espresso maker for you car console?

The WMF espresso machine features in Audi's latest concept car (the Roadjet) and sits neatly in the central arm rest between the passenger. WMF claim their machine is "fully functional" and "provides fresh coffee at the touch of a button.
possshhh. next week: the passenger pizza maker!

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OMG! and other notes

My Chase Account Has Been Violated!!!!

o. wait. i don't have a chase account. JOKES YOU YOU spambastard.

other things:

no more "the sun goes down on mcnealy" post headings. i expect more creativity from the blogosphere. something like: "IBM PR team saddened - no more turrets outbursts coming from scott on sun earnings calls."  How will they stay awake!?

no invoking Dr. King when speaking about multi-billion-dollar-global-people-eating corporations.

Web 2.0 revamp of "how white is your blogroll" becomes: how white is aggregator? So? How about you?

i've been working on my other site - jeneane.net - so far oldies but goodies.

Hello RB, Hello Euan, Hello Jon, Hello Shelley, Hello Mike, and Halley I expect more than one email from you this week.

i am too tired to link. i need a link-o-later: a tool that goes searching for the closest link and automatically inserts it when I right click on a phrase/name in Qumana.  Or maybe it goes ahead and does all of that "later" on (get it, link-o-LATER), while I sleep. Like comment moderation. This is link moderation -- "want to add these links to your post?" sure! I link to Qumana because i talked to Jon today. Hi jon! And Q makes blogging easier.

even someone barely conscious like me can do it!

Put that on you brochure with pride.

these notes are kind of random.

george, he has traveled a road the last five years that makes hairs stand on end, never mind the first 40 yrs, but, what doesn't kill us makes us ...?.. and don't forget i was there, and so when i take naps sometimes, you will forgive me for this temporary break in hypervigilence. And george posted on it for a second i see. that's good there is a lot to say. and it's his.

aye, there's the rub

you should see what's back there in my archives as i'm finding my old poetry for jeneane.net. holy blog history lesson batman. it makes my right elbow hurt.

i am kind of hyperventilating lately to shop. sometimes i get that way when i have been severely budgetized, like paying thousands in taxes a week ago tends to make me budgetize myself better. but then a week goes by and in my mind i am shopping ALLTHEHELL over the place--things I haven't wanted in like 5 years come back and assault me.

just say no to commerce.

web 2.0 must offer a windowshopping service where you can pretend to buy things. ok i guess that's second life, except i want my windowshopping experience to be free. i want to own everything and be able to use it, but maybe i don't exactly get to touch it.

whatabout wampum.com where we all go back and barter for stuff. i'll write you a brochure if you send me one of those expensive grill cooking pans or come fix my roof. hell i don't know if that's even a domain, and as you can tell, this time of evening, i'm a bit rambly pambly.

Fact checking would be overkill.

if you have a myspace blog, i am telling you that the new bubbleshare "share" tab has some cool ways to include pix in posts, including a bar where your album scrolls by and also a flashy-weird-jumpy like earthquake cam thing. i like it.

in meat life i'm working on some M2M projects, and if you don't know what that is, mix wireless with machines and data with GPS networks for verticals like security, financial services, healthcare, et al -- add in web-based access, and bob's your uncle.

i think that's all i was going to tell you tonight. what's going on with you?

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For Robert Peake and His Family...

your story, your grieving, and post about scattering James' ashes yesterday was profound and deeply moving. Thank you for sharing it, and for letting us glimpse the beautiful soul and spirit of your little baby boy.

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just go with it

j. brotherlove and I seem to have been on the same sputter-sputter-zzzzzzz schedule for a while now. Wishing you well, bro--and hoping to hear more blogging. I gotta get some of that Naproxen. I had it a couple of years back and it worked well. Lately I've been a 4 Advil girl, gelcaps when I can afford 'em because they work quicker.

Send a copy of that resume over here when you get it done, okay? Damn fine writer is what you are. And a webby wiz too.

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jeneane, why so grumpy?

I'm not grumpy!!!! <jumping up and down> I'm getting older. The patience I have left, I try to reserve for Jenna. Her moods cascade; she is interested in everything, wants to know all there is, needing, giving, reminding me what it is to behold these things: Wonder. Joy. When held side-by-side against what seems important, your child recasts everything you've arranged just so, reminding you that you know - precisely - nothing at all.

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A part of me who thinks that this whole word of mouth thing has jumped the shark

web 3.0: when shutting-the-fuck-up adds value.

pioneers:
Mark Pilgrim (onto web 4.0)
Russell Beattie (but will his Yahoo ads live?)
Dave Winer (we'll see)

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Indians: They're Not Just for Call Centers Anymore!

Coding Monkeys?

"Far from being merely the rooms full of workhorse coding monkeys, performing the mundane tasks the ideas coming out of BarCampBangalore are better than any I've heard at US camps..."

eh?

I'm sure it's merely the language barrier. Right?

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silver mike tuesday

wishes and horses for mike and wendy on their 25th.

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that teflon-coated blogging guy

Stowe says it best. I haven't had the energy to tackle the "what bugs me about Guy Kawasaki's Blog" thing, because, you know, sunny-side-up eggs slide so easily off teflon that you barely have any clean-up left. Just wipe the pan and put it up. It's perfect and shiny and ready for tomorrow. Makes it almost not matter when the eggs taste like shit.

And just to make it clear: There is, never was, and never will be a "little man sitting on my shoulder."

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You See?

Quit claiming you don't inbreed up there in the north. You know you do.

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too thin or too rich

rumor has it angelina and brad are holed up with the family in Namibia, having rented out all 12 rooms+suites of the luxurious Burning Shores resort.

whole place. themselves.

i'm a simple girl. really. happy with a good vacuum and filter, and a trip to a conference once or twice a year. but holy shit will you look at this place?

how many bloggers will live and die and not sit on that patio with that view and no one else around in our lifetimes? zero'd be a good bet, not meaning to diss you fine readers of allied, a scant few of whom might even have the means and the wherewithal to book all the rooms like this in a resort where they bring you food under those fancy tops.

table for four, eh?

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What the Hell Is Google Doing?

I haven't vanity searched on Google for a long time. But I just did, and I was, well, surprised. Used to be, if you had say 500,000 hits for your name (and your name is a unique name--as in, there's only one me), Google would return at least a few dozen pages of results, hiding (or omitting) the obvious "similar to" results unless you asked Google to "repeat the search with the omitted results included."

Still, if you had hundreds of thousands of hits, you'd get a good half-hour's worth of stuff to meander through, reminisce, see if you've showed up anyplace new, who's taken your name in vain, etc.

But tonight it's all or nothing. Either I take 500,000 (many of which are very similar to one another), or I get only the first 10 pages - search results 1-77. If I want to see more than 77, I have to take them all.

That's just stupid. Is it a fluke? Was I sick that day? What?

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