So is the best part being above the super models?

Or this most awesome post from Tom who knows I've been brooding more than usual lately? I think by far Tom's bruit post is the best thing.

Oddly, I'd been thinking for the last four days that I would come back into circulation as an independent kind of like Prince, because from a contractual standpoint, being a symbol opens up brand new horizons the law has yet to completely settle on. I was looking for the perfect non-name to represent The Blogger Formerly Known as Jeneane.

Tom's most appropriate Trinacrian symbol is just what I was looking for! Now, what kind of computation mechanism would be required to tell Google (but no one else) that [(insert trinacrian symbol here)] is the blogger formerly known as me?

Or maybe I should just put it on a cafe press t-shirt.... hmmmmm. ;-)

In case you don't know, Tom's the best.

--posted by

Song and Dance and The Color Purple

With George Sessum a founding orchestra member of The Color Purple, which first hit the stage in a five-week pre-broadway shakedown here in Atlanta, I've been following the show's journey to broadway from the sidelines. This I know: it was an intense schedule and experience for the cast and crew who first brought The Color Purple to the stage at its World Premiere at the Alliance. And since that time, the Broadway-bound company has spent a year improving and refining the show.

With Oprah signed on as a co-producer now, I'm sure that no expense will be spared to ensure the show has a long, successful run.

It was fun to see the original cast members I'd met do their thing on Oprah last week. Hope to get to NY to see the end result.

Standing O for all involved.

*************************
Bonus Links - MP3s & Such

My original post on
The Color Purple World Premiere

MP3s
Push Da Button
What About Love
The Color Purple

Video
Videos on Oprah.com

************************

Jeneane 2.0

This news item will be as brief as I can make it.

I've left The Content Factor as a partner. While I maintain a relationship with my existing clients through the business, I am otherwise unhitched, departnered, unattached and free. In fact, I'm just one big forward looking statement!

Eventually, I'll write about some of the tough lessons I've learned during the last year in working to build what has become a very successful business.

But now's not the time for that.

If I stop to look back, I risk falling into a giant, goo-filled pothole. Now is not the time for goo. (Not sure when the right time for goo is, well kinda, but never mind.) Now is the time to entertain new ventures and opportunities. Some of which I'm already entertaining.

You too can entertain me.

(Sing Elvis, Dance!!!!)

Contact info and recent work is represented here.

Welcome me home.

I'm glad to be back.

Wshew.

Redemption Song

[audio]
[interesting 2nd - audio]

Old pirates yes they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
from the Bottom less pit
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the almighty
We forward in this generation
triumphantly

Won't you help to sing these songs of freedom
Cause all I ever had
redemption songs, redemption songs

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
Cause none of them can stop the time

How long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look
Some say it's just a part of it
We've got to fulfill the book

Won't you help to sing,
these songs of freedom
Cause all I ever had,
redemption songs, redemption songs,
redemption songs

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
Cause none of them can stop the time
How long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look
Yes some say it's just part of it
We've got to fulfill the book

Won't you help to sing, these songs of freedom
Cause all I ever had, redemption songs
All I ever had, redemption songs
These songs of freedom, songs of freedom

You mustabeen a beautiful baaabbyyyyy

Happy Birthday Suit, RageBoy.

With you, they broke the mold. And the mold maker. And the mold maker's maker!

Have a great day.

Goodbye "City too busy to hate" - Hello "Every Day Is An Opening Day"

I guess it's not abnormal when you live in a major metropolitan area to see it rebranded once in ten years.

When we moved to Atlanta in 1994 we really did arrive in a city that fit its unfortunate slogan: "The City Too Busy to Hate."

You and I both know it takes time and energy to hate, and Atlantans back then had little of either. They were too busy building entire industries from the ground up, and in their spare time shopping or sitting in traffic, or hunting for underpriced real estate. NO spare time for hating. Not that it didn't occur to the average Atlantan. There simply wasn't time.

Talk to the hand--got no time to hate you.

And now, with the Olympics a distant memory, we've grown up. Because we're not too busy to hate any more. We've got the time, the memories of dreams denied, lots of people laid off, the dot-com boom having come and gone. We've got a divided nation. One at war. A war that half the country doesn't think we got into for the right reasons. Atlanta's just a microcosm of the larger American divisions. Our millions of bumper stickers demonstrate the opposing views in this city. "Love it or leave it." "Bring the troops home." "My boss is a Jewish Carpenter." "My right. My choice."

Who can blame our great mayor, then, for deciding that it is time to drop the pretense of brotherly ambivalence and rebrand.

Atlanta is now the city where "Every Day is an Opening Day." And, in the tradition of KFC, we are now officially ATL. That's A-Tee-El.

For me, this conjures an image of a confused city--are we talking about baseball? The open minds, open doors, open hearts of the Methodist Church? Our reputation as a city welcoming of diversity as long as you stay out of certain counties at night? Our strip clubs that are open late? The HOV lanes that are open except when they're clogged with traffic? I'm not sure.

I think about the brainstorms that must have gone into coming up with the slogan. How many Snickers bars were ingested in the name of progress? How many Hershey's kisses? How many stress balls had to die? How many easel pads? Ahhh. Just think about how it went down...

"Okay, what do you think of when you think of Atlanta--"

"baseball?"

"traffic" = "a ha ha ha ha"

"pass the candy dish"

"anyone want a Coke?"

"no idea is a bad idea come on..."

"gay pride?"

"The buckhead murder district?" = "a ha ha haha"

"Dan you've got a client call--sandy's looking for you."

"scuse me."

"Okay, Mike Vick?"

"Dawgs."

"The music--has to appeal to the urban crowd..."

"Smells like Hell in the A-T-L?" - "a ha ha ha"

"Marta's Ashcan?" = "a ha ha ha ha"

"Bob you're being a jerk."

"Okay no idea's a bad idea..."

"Atlantizzle My Nizzzle?" = " a ha ha ha"

"How many of us in here are billing? Is this billable?"

"How about the culture--Cultural Mecca or something..."

"Jesus, why don't you just call it Islamanta!"

"Pass me the candy dish..."

Almost makes me miss home. ;-)

Slap Me and I Mean Hard

I'm nearing the end of writing a 100-page web site. (Hi JW!) Can't point to it yet. It's in progress. So. Tired. Words playing tricks. I'm almost there. Oh. Oh. I have a hive on my eyelid now. It itches. It's swelling. I feel a hard dot in the middle. Spider bite probably. But where from? Google? I'm waiting for my right eye to seal shut. The wall. Hitting the wall. Running the last 20 miles with eye wide shut. Damn.

B-Lo You're so Fucking Stealth

Dear Blogger, I love when you sneak features in and wait for us to talk about them. No I don't. Not really. But I see you added moderated comments. Wow. That's cool. What else did you do while you were in here? Sometime you might want to drop me a line. Maybe a free shirt I never got. Tell me stuff like we just went in and changed up Blogger again--did you see us? I like the way you break shit before you go in and add new stuff, so that we're so busy worrying about why blogger's not working that we don't notice you sneak in a bunch of features. Righteous slight of hand! And then I like how the next time I notice new menu items and how sometimes my little edit buttons get really REALLY long instead of square like a button should be, which I think means they're broken, in a way. I like how it seems like you fix that shit and then BAM it's back again. Like an old friend. So, thanks for moderated comments blogger. I'm not going to use them. I mean we already can do comments three ways til Sunday with your multi-choice comment options. Me and my friends we like to reveal our secret comment code we have to enter to post a comment so that we can keep the spammers away. That was a really good idea, Blogger, and I like how sometimes I can't tell WTF letters you're throwing at me because its some Palatinizia font in bright red sideways. I'm not I really into that "backlink" thing either. I haven't figured out what it's for. It showed up. Like without really working or anything. I want to do that on my job Blogger. Hey client, your shit is broken--OH WAIT LOOK it does new things! That is the great thing about Y2K05 business models.

So, dear blogger, maybe you might want to put a little field for us to insert technorati tags like simple/dimple. Or maybe could encourage all of the creative folks you know out there where you live to scare up some new templates for my friends. Luckily I had Josh Hallett design my new one for me. Blogger do you like it? Blogger you would like Josh!! He's very creative and his designs are elegant.

So, anyway, I hope all is well there. Guess it's too late to ever get that shirt. No biggie. I'm fine. Just quit breaking shit every time you toss some celery into this soup and not telling us what you're up to.

Night.

incarnationcantations

ssssssssssssssssssssssss ssssssssssssssssssssssss

rumpumpumpkin soup

vegemetavitamin goop

from nortward down

my spell be bound

you'll do the loop-de-loop.

OMG!

Why My Name Is Spelled Jeneane

My Name is spelled Jeneane. There aren't many Jeanines who spell their names my way. Garafalo is close, but she's off by a letter.

For the many blogziens who have asked over the many years WTF is up with my spelling, I will answer you all at once: my SISTER who was 9 when I was born was tasked with spelling my name. She was learning the rule which I guess they taught in Catholic school in 1962, that the FIRST vowel talks and the SECOND vowel walks.

That's how she got the "ea"

the e talks, the a walks.

In theory I guess you don't need the e on the end of my name, as 'bean' works quite nicely not being beane. But it certainly does provide some balance. The idea of being 'Jenean' makes me feel very jittery.

Like I've been somehow amputated. A name cut short. What a shame. Oh the humanity.

And Jeanne is an entirely different name. Don't call me that. I'm not coming to the meadow.

Jeanne is one syllable. I'm two.

So, that's today's how to say/spell/remember my name.

Thank you.

Class dismissed.

steroid comedown

wick a sheath, ember
charred then spark
reminds me, what feels any other way isn't anyway
consider laughing, slashing, grinding you
to maim or hump
either way
tomatos + salt + pepper + mayo on soft white bread
seven, please

what do you mean by that
lighting the corners of things
heel toe heel electric
your lips razors of flesh
i can hear sound in sound

turn down the air
rushing
my ears are
a villiage
arsonists
paris is burning
paradiddles

now on the edge of that spoon
soft curves feminine
form plump meat
what was he for halloween
anyhow
diamonds have edges
seven feet thick
every hair
grows inward
tickling thoughts I haven't
had.

scent, wind clash - the soft silence of without, the dancing of quiet, the marvel of the circus of 'be'.

carry me.

OH Madame!

The Internets - It is Making That Beautiful Noise Again:

It was a couple a few sandwiches short of being a picnic if you know what I mean wordcountwise. Word to the wise.

Let me tell you about Ralphie the neighbour boy when I was six and seven and lived on AntrimRoad always dressed in women’s clothing. Huge lobster, perhaps the hugest lobster ever, hung over the fireplace mantle in the playroom. Couldn’t tear my eyes offa it. It figured largely most likely to succeed probably. I feel like I am making this up. I can’t remember if he wore makeup. And another neighbour kid who later lost her arm. And her sister Kathleen (different one JMo and PingLee) and a huge collection of Catholic memorabilia branding me for life. German last name. They drew on their genitals seems weird but it was true.

I abstained. Use your arm while you got it I guess.

Dangerous iceskates hanging from the rafters in the basement. Creepy peeper man next door. Angry brothers on the other side always hurting frogs.

more childhood imagery, and certain themes that appear to be specific

Every note in the music was clear and forceful

(At one point, I saw myself in the mirror and noticed a conventional movement of the hands which did not stem from the music. I rejected it at once. When one side of
the record was over, I turned it over and went on dancing. I felt no fatigue, and movement gave me great pleasure.)

it informs us of the importance of an experience with virtually no personal content

these images light
dancing

it’s kindof easy

For the first time, I loved myself.

--Madame Levy

A Thank You Note

Don't miss Tony's Dear Rock-n-Roll, a tender letter home.

The World Wide Wish

Having kids means understanding convergence. Every day you watch as baby and adult inside of your kids vie for control. I'm a baby. No, I'm a grown up. I'm a two year old, no I'm 22. In the center of that boxing ring is who they are at any given moment.

So Jenna's standing at the foot of the bed, reading aloud from her holiday wish list, which she has painstakingly and independently compiled on notebook paper from devout study across three toy catalogs that came by mail.

She's serious about the performance. She recites an entire page of descriptions, prices, and if you ask, she'll sing you the jingle.

Her wishlist got me thinking about what I want. Not just in an amazon.com sort of way, but my macro wish list.

My wishes that are horses with beggars who ride.

And that got me thinking about how we seem to be just one good utilitool shy of having the ability to create our own world wide wishlists.

Break me out of Amazon and Froogle, of ebay and overstock. Let me cross from retail into give-space and back. Let my wishes reflect my dimensions. And know me all the while.

Let me add a donation to MSF from over here, and Golden Pearl Shower Cream from over there, but only while it's on clearance, because if you're going to spend $17, then I'd rather have two of these, because I get the free pink mini dog. I want my wishlist to know that. My wish is that meals on wheels in can keep bringing lunches to my Aunt, and that our Ford gets paid off before they want it back. I'd like some heat for the winter and a health insurance premium or two for when Jenna gets strep. Add in a bottle of Children's Motrin for that. And refill her prescription Singulair at Walgreens if you would. I want a real tire on my car, not a donut, and Tires Plus by my house gives us a discount for having our work done there, so add Two Installed Tires to my wishlist. Let me know when it's time to rotate them. And I could use a copy of photoshop -- that would rock my world. On my world wide wish list you could pay my garbage or buy me a can. And if you could send a paid roofer my way, well you'd blow me down. You could add to my wish list some supplies for Shelley's photography and books for Locke, shipped to their doors, in my stead, because I need them to do what they do, to put a different kind of roof over my head.

You and I are not so different, and very different, at any one time, in need of this as much as this.

I want commerce to become elastic.

intuitively inclusive. an extranet of wants and needs.

let me be buyer, seller and intermediary all at once.

Me the marketer, Me the market, Me the marketplace.

Can you give me that?

And for a little extra, can you wrap it up with an RSS bow?

Happy Holidays...

Holiday on Uranus

Well the kids are off school again today, and what with the state of education in Georgia, why not. Another day off won't ruin the kiddies' chances of living in the Governor's mansion one day.

bada bing!

Hope you enjoyed the ElmiTaste fun yesterday and the introduction of one Mr. Rage Boy as chief chewing officer. Yes, ElimiTaste is a client, but they didn't just find us bloggers by accident. They've been reading blogs and throwing some spare change to bloggers for a while now. They're your mouth's answer to Big Gum, and you know I like answers to Big Anything (Big PR, Big Oil, Big Bang...)

So that's what's up with that.

More news coming on what the fuck I'm up to soon. Soon as I know.

On the hamster front, all is quiet.

We cleaned all three cages yesterday, which has become a family fun day here at the Sessum house.

It involves many materials and hands, including rolls of plastic, garbage bags, George Forman cleaning products, paper towels, bleach, shavings, fluff, buckets, and a range of other supplies. I am so grateful to my sister for bringing the precious little pets into our lives.

I had the bright idea of taking Coco the matriarchal escape artist and switching her cage with the Runt's cage (a nice double-decker abode) because it has those doors that latch shut with a hook. The move was intended to keep her inside the cage. Indeed, she has refrained from escaping for TWO WHOLE DAYS, which in the world of Coco is like 8 hamster years.

I can't say she's happy about it.

She's chewing the bars of the cage like James Brown on an assult and battery rap.

I read somewhere that this is not good for hamsters. I read that their teeth are so long, and go so far up into their heads, that continuous chewing in such a manner can cause their teeth to receed up into their brains, causing brain damage and/or death.

Can you imagine--you've got these long tusks-for-teeth, and you're trying to chew your way out of prison to go see your fuck buddy in the next cage, and all of a sudden BAM! Your teeth wind up in your brain?

Yowsa! That's gotta be worse than going off Effexor.

I thought about giving her some Zapp to chew. But last night I gave her a cracker instead. I thought, maybe something different to chew on would distract her from her mission of gnawing through metal bars. She ate the cracker and attacked the bars with new fervor.

I'm worried about her.

But not worried enough to switch her back to the easy-escape cage, so she can break out and go shit under my stove some more.

Happy Tuesday!

Scoble Has Photo Taken with My Tree

U.S. News & World Report has determined that Scoble is standing by my tree.

All in Good Taste ; - )

*****************************
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
******************************

Blog hero, Internet fortune teller, and slayer of New Age dragons, RageBoy, has announced his decision to join the ad age by making a partial-subsidization- of-book-buying-habit deal (AKA: arrangement) with the gum guys at ElimiTaste.

Not only can RB now rush to the bookstore chomping on Zapp with some extra cash in his pocket, but he can also talk to the ladies in the "Spirituality" isle of Barnes & Noble without that skanky Starbucks-and-cigarette aftertaste on his tongue, thanks to SmokeScreen.

God bless us, every damn one!

Read more about RB's sellout class hierarchy of needs.

Read more about ElimiTaste here.

And ask RageBoy how YOU can become an affiliate.

Weinberger Real Disclosure Statement: YES ElimiTaste is a client (suggested addition to the Weinberger scale: WWT (work with them).) They are also cool folks who understand how bloggers think, and they intend not to insult us. You can buy their gum online, pop it in your mouth after coffee or a cigarette (ahhhh, those were the days), or hand it out to the kids for trick-or-treat (DOH! I mean after the Thanksgiving turkey). Not to mention, the ElimiTaste folks don't waste your time with things like the juicy fruit blog.

And the gum's damn good too.

To quote RageBoy's evil twin Chris Locke:

"I've been chewing the shit outta the stuff."

....and you can too.

For The Hamster Weaning Cell Phone Question Guy.

One cool thing about blogging is that we become seen as experts on stuff that we're not.

One scary thing about blogging is that we become seen as experts on stuff that we're not.

Thanks, Google. I remember the time a man emailed me from Europe because his daughter was in the hospital. He wanted me to know that he found my writings about Jenna's Strep Throat and how I could usually tell it was strep by her strawberry tongue. Strawberry tongue is self-explanatory if you've never seen it. If you have seen it, you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, this father who had googled my writing about strep wanted to let me know about Kawasaki disease - a rarer-than-strep and often more-serious-than-strep illness that is also frequently accompanied by a strawberry tongue (among other symptoms). The man who wrote wanted me to know that strawberry tongue does not always mean strep--it can be part and parcel of many illnesses, including Kawasaki Disease. Why is this important? Because a delayed diagnosis of Kawasaki's can lead to permanent heart damage, even death.

That's one example of how my sorta-knowledge had realworld impact by NOT being the expertise Google had suggested.

Another example is from today. Luckily I'm a bit more qualified for this one.

Today I got a voice mail from Hamster Guy - HI! - I forgot his name. He was asking about hamster weaning. First, Hamster Guy, let me say congratulations on the new members of your family. (HAHAHAHAH!)

Now, as far as weaning goes, you'll see the little kids start leaving the nest in about 10 days. They can't really do anything much but slug themselves around with their big heads. This goes on for a couple of weeks until they look like real hamsters, but smaller. Between 3-4 weeks old you can separate them from the mom. There's a whole other ballgame involved in telling the sexes apart, and you don't want to mess that up or you'll have more hamsters on your hands. Allow me to include a helpful diagram for the hamster sex newbie.

It took me about two weeks after weaning for me to find homes for most all of them. We still have one - the runt - and the two parents. It's a royal pain in the ass because they're Syrian hamsters and they will fight bloody as adults, so we have 3 separate cages that need to be CLEANED and WATERED and so on. There are lots of good hamster sites. Which in itself is amazing.

I'm sorry I didn't call you back Hamster Guy--my cellphone is in the car, and I just remembered your message. I hope this helps. Have fun with the babies.

Don't bring any over here.

Sincerely,
Miss Manners

This is what I'm talking about

Phil Libin is the President of Corestreet. He was one of the earlier regular executives blogging about his industry. But that's not why I read his blog. I read his blog because he is Phil Libin. There is a difference. It isn't subtle.

Neither is this post - Compelling. Vulnerable. Beautiful.

One day, when I must have been a particularly meddlesome six-year-old, my grandfather said, "You know, at birth every person gets a certain quota of words allotted to them for life. It's impossible to tell how many words anyone has, the numbers vary widely, but when you've spoken all of your words, you die." This affected me deeply and I immediately resolved to horde my remaining lot. For the rest of the day, I expressed my demands by mumming, pointing and stomping until my grandfather told me that gestures counted even more than spoken words. Foiled, I started to worry about how many words I had needlessly burned through in my careless six years. From then on, I thought, every word I speak had better be really necessary. This is how I learned about economics.

Phil has lived an interesting life - he obviously has had a model of what it means to be interesting. What does it look like? To be interesting? To be someone who gives out little pieces of yourself to others -- pieces so full of meaning that they last like that? I think it is about dimensions, about teaching a little boy the power of language while you teach him about what it means to love someone for close to a century. I think that those are the people I want to know. I want to know all 600 sides of you. Of Phil. Of Phil's grandfather. Don't you?

My grandfather and grandmother were married and inseparable for almost 75 years. She died a year and a half ago and he didn't speak much after that, although I don't think that it was because he was trying to stretch out his days. He died peacefully at the age of 99 and we buried him today.

I do a lot of talking. It's pretty much my entire job. Right now, I'm sitting in the airport departure lounge getting ready to fly for a few meetings and two speeches. I'm going to pare down my PowerPoint decks a bit. Probably not every word is really necessary. I'm going to try to make it last a week this time.

Phil, every one of the words in this post was necessary. Your grandfather would be proud.

Stone Age

A friend forwarded this invite to a poll that Ad Age is doing on employees wasting time blogging:

Be Part of the News - VOTE IN THE AD AGE WEEKLY ONLINE POLL BACKGROUND: A report last week by Advertising Age Editor at Large Bradley Johnson noted that about 35 million workers -- or one in four people in the U.S. labor force -- spend an average of 3.5 hours, or 9%, of each work day reading blogs. This blogification of workplace time is no minor concern -- the total losses across the national work force are estimated to be the equivalent of 551,000 years of paid time that is being spent on blogs via the employer's own computer systems. Another important point was that the time spent reading blogs on the job was in addition to the time already spent surfing the Web in personal pursuits. The debate appears to be one of reasonable limits. At what point, or at what length of time, does the use of company assets for personal activities become unreasonable? And is the problem likely to become an even greater one as more and more TV content goes online, becoming easily accessible from one's office computer? Do employers need to find new ways to police their computer systems? THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Should employers allow their staff to read blogs in the workplace?

Since the poll is now closed, I thought I would re-write this solicitation in a more Web 2.0 way:

Help Us Feel Useful in the Age of the Net - VOTE IN THE AD AGE WEEKLY ONLINE POLL BACKGROUND: A report last week by one of our guys who's hanging onto his MSM title for dear life noted that about 35 million workers -- or one in four people in the U.S. labor force -- spend an average of 3.5 hours, or 9%, of each work day educating themselves without dipping into your "professional development" budget while at the same time escaping the tedious mindlessness of watercooler chitchat. This blogification of workplace time is no minor concern -- when the slaves find out they can make money without living in the quarters out back, your business stands to lose 551,000 years of indentured servitude, which means fewer workers to fire just before retirement. Another important point was that the time spent reading blogs on the job was in addition to the time already spent surfing the Web looking for jobs at clued companies, not yours. The debate appears to be one of reasonable limits. At what point, or at what length of time, does the use of company assets for building tighter connections with your markets become a problem? And is the problem likely to become an even greater one as more and more of our print subscribers use the publication for toilet paper, potentially in your own office bathrooms? Do employers need to find new ways to police their computer systems? Because we're having to find new ways to seem interesting. THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Should employers allow their staff to read blogs in the workplace?

My suggested changes are bolded.

This one's on the house.

HAT TIP: To me for fortuitously predicting this stupid discussion during my first week of blogging November 10, 2001.

And if the corporation knew what we were doing, what would they say? "Wow, what an amazing forum--who are you talking with? what matters to them? what the hell is going on out there?" No, I'm pretty sure that's not what's going to happen. Like blocking napster access (back in the day), I'm pretty darn sure the corporate eyebrow would raise not-so-slightly, with the ageold warning: "Don't let this affect your productivity." I'm willing to wager we'll start to hear non-gonzo proclamations of 'no blogging at work,' or worse yet, "Hey, set one of those blogs up for the marketing department, will ya? we can talk about our new product launch." egads.

It's not easy being right.

Let's Go to the Movies

Atlanta's Kaneva is making headlines again with the launch of IndependenceMovieFest.com, a joint effort with Campus MovieFest (CMF).

From what I understand, they're currently running an online Independent Movie Festival that sounds like something I wish had taken place when my nephew was studying film at RIT. He'd make these incredible short films with a cast of characters from the campus and I remember thinking I wish someone who could make a difference in his 'after college' life would see these things. As it is, he changed majors because it was frustrating wanting to make films but not having an audience outside of the family and professors to appreciate them. Man, they were funny. (Hi Russ, if you're reading).

That's why I like this idea--and I like that it's aimed at young film makers looking for an exposure platform. I also like that the Movie Festival will let community participants play movie critic along with a panel of legit judges who'll be reviewing the work. I like that it might bring back good short-film makers who might have given up on getting their work out because there wasn't "a better way." Now, better technology makes watching movies online a real option. And as a distribution platform, control goes back into the artist's hands.

They're taking submissions now through May 15, 2006. The festival ends and winners are announced July 4, 2006. (Get it--INDEPENDENCE Movie Fest...)

You can watch trailers free after registering at Kaneva. I'm still not sure how pricing for the festival works for us moviegoers -- like can I get a wristband similar to going to Six Flags? Can I pick certain days to watch and get a pricing deal? I do know there are some free movies and some dollar movies. And I do know the Kaneva folks will answer questions if you ask 'em.

Check out the official details here.

If there's a filmmaker in your life, send them here.

Weinberger Real Disclosure Forward Looking Statement (WRDFLS)

WRDFLS Rating: FT, FT2, SUT, WTOMS, IJND++

Here's what's amazing

When Josh offered to help me out of my template mess here, I gave him creative license and a huge grin he couldn't see from his side of the monitor, and the same with Andrea who helped on my portfolio site.

The thing is, I didn't see Josh's rendition until he was pretty close to finished.

That's the first time I saw the tree. Right there. Above here.

And I told Josh what I'll tell you now, but I didn't get a chance to really explain it to him, and maybe you won't believe it because you think, I know how she can be, but really, how am I? So what I meant to tell Josh is what I'm telling now: that the farm I've written about so often, the place where my father died when I was younger than my daughter is now, that home of innocence shattered, sat directly across the road from this field, this tree, this very day, the sun falling just so.

Or it could be.

And I mean -- during those years when the farmer across the road gave his soil a rest, and that field was cut clean and green, watered well by gray western New York skies, giving way to welcome sun and a so-damn blue -- the only thing standing between me and forever, forever being the end of that field I never reached on stubby five-year-old legs, was that tree.

Right there.

Josh put me across the road, wondering when the farmer would cut us a path back to forever, the end of his field, which he would do each year, and my brother would race me as far as we could go, which was never to the end, if it had an end. I never found out.

And now there, in that place that Josh gave me back, stand pricey new homes of vinyl and pressure treated lumber, no field, no tree.

And no forever.

Except for here.

Into my fifth year...

In 2001, the Financial Times Group named Christopher Locke one of the Top 50 Business Thinkers in the World. 2001 was an interesting year. Many of my clients and colleagues were finishing up their happy dance soon to be tripping on the bad foot.

Chris Locke already knew what was next. That same year, he issued a challenge to his EGR readers: Start a blog and I'll blogroll you.

I'd already been blogging over at Gonzo Engaged, and around that time welcomed anyone and everyone onto the blog who wanted to come and experiment. Oh they came. A rowdy group o regulars still hangs there. Tom, Marek, Ken, Frank, Denise, Kevin--you know who you are.

When the challenge came, quite a few bloggers you know today took Chris up on his offer. If Chris is your babydaddy, then give him a shout out. Leave a comment here.

He was this allied's blogbaby daddy. And finer stock there isn't. Just ask his psychotherapist.

The day I took the challenge was November 4, 2001. Which means tonight I'm ready-or-not entering my fifth year of blogging. With a new look, courtesy of Josh Hallett. And a new attitude, courtesy of Andrea Roceal James, cause like I said, if I didn't have me some blog friends I'd have no friends atall.

Thus and such having been revealed and not meaning to mix past present and future, here I am doing just that.

And why not. This is the Web. Linear's dead. There is no Christmas Past. Every day is a holiday and a day of mourning in the same instant. We walk on invisible lines toward and away from one another 500 times a day. Someone is always coming. What's better than that.

So, in my own celebratory way, I'm thinking about why I'm here, not philosophically or metaphysically speaking, or even spiritually speaking, unless you count the places Google takes me sometimes.

And in this throw-my-own party, where do we go from here, frame of mind, I have to toss in some kind words from the guy who started a generation of newbies on the road to each other and to you. And who told me a long time back what i needed to be doing, and that if I did well then by golly somebody gonna take notice...

If your aim is to genuinely inform your markets about what you're up to and why anyone should give a damn, hire Jeneane. You can't go wrong. That's assuming, of course, that you are up to something worth giving a damn about. If not, hire robots. They're cheaper and they don't seem to mind writing crap. Jeneane does mind. Although she has many laudable communication skills, suffering fools gladly is not high among them.

Aside from that, she's a very nice person and doesn't (usually) bite.

Right. Not usually.

Happy Anniversary.

Thank you Josh and Andrea and this blog's babydaddy.

And thanks to everyone who keeps coming here.

Damn. What else can I say?

i want to feel like this

HELL YAH!

instead we are all sick here.

i have made the yelp part of my blogger profile.

I think it captures my essence.

I love you all.

in steroids,
j.

always tell people it's a PDF

Doc gets pissed about PDFs. We all know that. And we know why. He's right, they are a pain in the ass in terms of loading time, hogging resources, and searchability, although I think google spiders them now, right?

But what is a pain is that PDFs aren't as fast and manuverable as HTML.

What's nice is that you, the author, controls the look during the browser wars of today and tomorrow.

My solution is to simply TELL readers that the document they're about to click on is a PDF. It's really very simple. Just put [PDF] after the document link.

That'll make Doc happer. It'll make me happy. And we can all get some rest.

I'm telling you

If I were to tell you all about what I'm going through right now, your hair might stand on end. Or it might not. Because you've been around here before and usually I have something going on. Lots of times that something might make your hair stand on end.

I'm the quiet retiring sort.

What I can tell you is that talented and busy information architect (mom i wanna be an infoarchitect when i grow up!) Josh Hallett is making me a cool new template for this joint, and talented web designer and geek icon Andrea Roceal James is working on a cool site design for me, and David and Chris have two very big shoulders--well they probably have four of them when you stand them end to end, but that doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, unless they decide to carry purses, but most certainly if it weren't for blog friends, I'd have no friends at all.

I want a signed copy of Cluetrain by all three guys (sorry Rick). I think I'm going to ask for their addresses and enclose self-addressed stamped envelopes and ask them each to sign and pass it on. Do you think they would? I know in the end it would sit in Chris' livingroom pile-o-books. I guess that's okay.

In other news, I'm sick, George is sick, Jenna is trying to get better. I need more steroids. If you have a medrol dose pack, please send it to me.

Oh the stories I could tell you and will one day, maybe in code, maybe because you know me so well code is all you need. The holy code of blog disclosure, because I never go back on my storytelling word.

Did you all see what David made the other day? I think this is brilliant. I love it. I want it on a business card.

tadum--i gotta go now. get some sleep.

thisblogsucks.com

I know I haven't updated. I know this blog has been SUCKorama for the last two weeks. It's because someone's working on a nice new template for me, and I just can't abide this ugly place anymore. Sometimes your words need a place to land before you bother taking all that effort to link them together into fragments and occasional sentences and toss them into the world. For crying out loud bloogle, you might know that and throw us a template bone once every quarter century.

Now I think my swiki has gone and bumped down all the stuff on my sidebar--or it's probably blogger's fault, because generally when blogger fixes some stuff, your template gets all funny...

not to mention half the time I come to read my own non-posting and I get an error message.

My house here is just a mess. I hope to have it back in order soon.

in other news, i'm coming off steroids, grumpy, and tired as fuck.

hope everyone's well.

My Poetry as Pain in the Ass

I don't quite know how to share the good news. So read David. And Euen.

Euen has captured it in PDF for posterior--I mean posterity.

Apparently one of my more heartfelt poems has been search optimized right to the top of the Hemorrhoid pile.

I mean, I'm verklempt.

I've saved the PDF in my, errr, samples folder.

Thanks, fellas. ;-)

Shelley's been workin' on the railroad all the live-long day.

Whoa.

Wordsworth.

According to the latest calculations based on the real-deal street appeal, I'm just up to my ears in net worth.

ALLIED

My blog is worth $124,198.80.
How much is your blog worth?

BLOG SISTERS

My blog is worth $75,083.82.
How much is your blog worth?

GONZO ENGAGED

My blog is worth $11,290.80.
How much is your blog worth?

Bidding opens at a buck fifty (as in $1.50).

I'm a Top 5 Peurto Rican Blogger!?

WHO KNEW!?

I'd like to thank the academy, all the little people, the sun that tanned me, and my Chevy van. Really.

It's just me.

okay, i thought the fake boobs were funny sort of. like because they're fake. not just not real, but completely not real on a not real dummy. george is like, so what's so funny. I'm like, get it, it means "tough titties!" and he's like what does that mean. i said it means like tough shit. and he's like, i never heard that phrase to mean that phrase. so i said, then i guess it's just me, and now it's just not funny at all.

i think i'll blame it on the template.

are you not reading blogsisters?

You all should be reading Blog Sisters.

I bet you wanna know about some stuff...

Well TOUGH


OH shut up, they're not even real. They're on a pretend human from that place that makes real dolls, or whatever they're called. Remember? Charlie in the bubble bath a week or so back?

So what's that do to you? Worse than a dead woman. A pretend woman. HA! And I'm the freak. Yeah. Okay.

Listen, you've been asking for content, and here I am all fudging around with my template, and there's just nothing I can do about that. There's only so much brainpower to go around, and I'm running three guns shy of a posse (I SAID POSSE), so you have to bare with me or go read DOOCE.

But I have help on the way this weekend and damn if I don't need it. More on that and a big fat thankyou link later.

Mean time, there is one cool little thing over on the right hand side there that Sir RageBoy has already asked to play with. And I said okay, and I hope that's okay with the people who invented the little doosie. It's the lil swicki over there with my words in it.

You know you want one.

You've been looking at it saying WTF is that?

You want one badenuf, send me an email.

I'll let you in.

How 'bout that for some content.

"TELL me about it!" -- Halley Suitt

It never fails. When I talk with Halley by phone, I always end up in stitches.

We each play a part in what eventually ends up being a snot out the nose fiesta, even if fiesta probably isn't the right word. Now in this space, I don't hesitate to give Halley a hard time and she doesn't hesitate to give me lip back, but when we catch up and talk turkey, we're two slap happy freak moms on the phone.

Usually I'm driving, or she's driving, and it's dangerous. Especially when we're talking about kids and school and how THEY DON'T HAVE SCHOOL ANYMORE what with all the holidays, and while we get extra Bible-Belt and Hurricane holidays here in landlocked Atlanta, Halley gets the Jewish Holidays, and we both get "inservice" and "teacher workdays," approximately every two to three days. And every public school parent in America understands the threat of Conference Week.

SHIT!

Conference week resulted in Jenna being off half-days all last week, unless you take into account the fact that they're not half days at all; they're "drop your kid off, take a shower, and see them in 23 minutes" days.

Then I'm all: Halley, I remember actually GOING to school; do you remember that? And she's all--TELL me about it! And I'm all Halley remember summer school? AS IF!

So she tells me they still have summer school up there, but you really have to work to get in--and I mean fail everything including classes you didn't even take; and I tell her hey, down here they don't have summer school--public schools are locked up like Fort Knox all summer for you to lust after as you tote your kids to friends, relatives, camps, because goodness knows at least in Suburban Atlanta there's no one home to make for real neighborhoods anymore because everyone's working 17 days a week.

Then I had to hang up because a business call came in, and I had to take it, and after all I was on the way from therapy where I'm busily working on other people's personality disorders, mine being well in-hand by now.

The moral of the story: Don't Suitt and drive.

quote of the day

"STOP BRAGGIN' AND WRING THAT CHICKEN'S NECK!" -Granny

From an early episode of beverly hillbilly's that jenna is watching while I work and she holds her throw-up bowl next to me.

hmmm. she sure has been quiet.

hmmmm.

okay, quite honestly?

I don't like this template either. And you know what? Blogskins has been taken over by 15 year olds obsessed with Japanese anime. Okay? There's nothing wrong with that, unless you (I) spend three hours scrolling through skins fascinated by the change in the inhabitants of that site that I used to rely on for templates.

I just had to update you.

I'm still feeling displaced. The swicki's cool though, eh? --->

Do you commune?

Okay, I need a teensy weensy piece of your brains. I have a client. God smiles upon me: I have more than one even! Anyway, for this client, whom you will be hearing more about even from other strings on this web of ours, we're developing a kind of edgy fun community-group blog around a specific activity. Don't get all PR-sey on me now, I know from what I speak and it won't be dweeby. What I'm saying though is that I want to know what community type blogs you think have the best look - feel - interface - features - valueadds - content - quirkiness - easiness - attitude - photos - forums - whatever else - etc. Some of you may even want to jump on and off of it once it's up.

So, got any good examples, better known in the real world as best practices, to point me to? I'll make it up to you. Probably not for a month or so though. Long story. Tired body.

I was trying to put in some really cute code at the bottom here--guess what, it didn't work.

Blogebrity Grew Up Good

Blogebrity could have gone lots of different ways from it's early black screen list of A-B-C-orati. It went the right way. Good writing. Irreverent. Design++.

Step 1: ADMIT YOU ARE POWERLESS

OKAY, I SUCK AT TEMPLATES.

I CAN'T DO THIS.

I want one of these--they are free but I don't know how to ake them work in blogger.

someone must.

WTF.

WHere can I find a blogger template that doesn't look like stupidville.

Google can wire a nation, and they can't give us new blogger templates for 300-something DAYS?

That ain't cool.

Come on man, folks are talking about how amateurish we are. Give us some templates that LOOK like the more powerful tools.

GOOGLE PAY SOME BLOG TEMPLATE DESIGNERS for their shit and put it up.

We're tired of looking like each other.

--me

i'm having some template issues

could you tell?

Funny Game Show Segment

I'll take the little cartoon man with the long......for $500, Bob?

The Bird Flu Home!

Poultry-Cast from the Wonderchicken.

All is right with the world.

two-fold.

Sorta.

Digital Identity

Crisis.

Dear New Job of Tony's

Only TPop can write a letter to his new job and make it sound this good. It's just not natural what he does with those letters he writes to persons, places and things, but I and my readers are glad he writes them.

TPop (I made that nickname up for this post) works for Buzznet now, which is like Fickr but different. I would wager, being that they picked TPie (that's another nickname I made up for this post) to be their blog-liaison or I'm not sure exactly his title, that they're looking to be the badboy photo sharing community, which is to say I probably wouldn't have even given Buzznet a plug if Stewart had written back to me two weeks ago when I asked him to buy me. Sheesh. They always forget the little people.

Now that my Flickr Friends are all like can we grab a nap now that we're Yahoo, I don't mind plugging Buzznet, because you know me and underdogs and new things. Just ask Stewart. I was all over Flickr from day one, which is pre-day-one for you. What were there like four people on when we had the IM going and the slip-a-photo-in-your-chat-session thing? Talking about adding MP3s next, because it wouldn't have been that hard...

Dear TPie and Buzznet, you should go dig up some of the alpha features from the old Flickr and stick them into Buzznet, the good ones that is, especially the chat where you could slap photos into the middle of your chat session like exclamation points and surprise poeple--hey here's the penis pig dammit! And how you could like grab people and toss them into your session like photos, and then drag them out, and you didn't have to actually have PHOTOS back then, because if you ever look up my stuff on Flickr you'll notice that most are collages that I should be embarrassed to have up there, but I put them up there in the beginning when all you had was a little desk tray that those photos lived in, for example Dave Winer as Alexander Graham Bell.

Because when Flickr had to get all nice in order to get looking tastey enough to buy, God Rest Their Souls, I think they had to decide what to become, and I just HATE that stage as a user, so they decided to be a photo sharing site, and damn if they didn't build the best little taxi this side of manhattan. But back in the day of alpha, Flickr was much more than that; in fact it exploded features out of its own ass daily. And I even remember most of them.

Catrina and Stewart never slept and were always on, creeping up on you when you lest expected it. That is what you call a best practice. Hi Stewart!

So anyway, I wanted to tell T-Lo that we are proud of him and his new job and thank you for taking us to that BlowGun conference with you Tony because this is the second year it crept up on me, and I'm all: It's BlowGun Time Again?

Sincerely,
Jeneane

Twisted Catholic Guilt

From time to time I take a break in the professional nature of this weblog to bring you a real-life story from the bowels of my family.

That is why I am taking this opportunity to tell you a story. It is a story that in any ordinary life might be an unstory. But here, listen anyway.

Last week Jenna and her 14-month-old near-brother ((she's changed his diaper and rocked him to sleep; I was there -- and I mean there -- when he was born)), who is the son of my friend, were eating dorritos. And I mean, NACHO CHEESE dorritos.

In fact, they were so cheesy by 7:00 that we stuck them in the jaccuzi, at which time the baby covered himself in bubbles and Jenna made him a dome-shape hat out of suds, then put a white beard on his chin. He screeched and threw suds at her. We watched and laughed. She even made headway in teaching him how to swim--it's a big, big jaccuzi.

In fact she had so much fun that she spoke out loud about it.

Which is all to say that I got a phone call this morning from my family telling me how wrong, immoral, unseemly, (keep going) it was for me to have put our 8 year old in the tub with a 14-month-old boy. "I mean, if she would have had underpants on or something, but even then..." "I'm just saying, it’s not right..."

I want you all to swish that around in your heads for a while.

Thank you.

The Eighth Wonder of the World

Reptition compulsion is so amazing to me - me a serial offender - that I have over my yet-to-be-made morning coffee labeled it the eighth wonder of the world.

Sure, it lacks a certain physical manifestation, there are no big waterfalls or canyons to distinguish it, except in my psyche and bank account, but it is astounding in its power and majesty all the same.

And so it is with pride, for my head knocking enjoyment and yours, that I reintroduce the simple, elegant wonder of repetition compulsion, which bears repeating.

Have a good morning!

internet postage increase

Shelley leaves us with some parting thoughts on sense and centsability. Web 2.0: night of the living dweebs.

freewifi Originally uploaded by Burningbird.

I heart splogs

I'm trying not to. I really am.

Return To Sender.

Internet Stamps? This is a really bad idea. Unless, of course, I get to be Postmaster of the invisible multi-national post office and Shelley gets to be banker of the universal imaginary currency, and in the deal I want Park Place AND Boardwalk with two hotels each. Kay?

The guilty parties are at the bottom of the post. Have your fun as you will.

Now, what SHOULD come out of this is the new SPLOG boardgame which would be all the rage at cool blogging conferences like the recently completed BlowGun and the upcoming every other one.

Ready-Set-INVENT!

I was very sad most of today and then I got happy just now

For two reasons, one being I just read this prayer from Tony Pierce to the Lord during his trip to New York (Tony's not the Lord's), his new job (ibid), and tony's pretty sureal visit to the now-popular BlowGun conference.

dear Lord,thank you for everything youve given me. my cup overfloweth. im considering a super big gulp cup. i cant believe that you do all of this for me. i know i dont deserve it so i will do my best not to be a jerk about it. those girls last night were amazing. im not handsome. i dont know what these girls want with me. i wasnt even funny. i barely had anything to say other than wow cool tattoos.also thank you for letting me meet all the cool bloggers and shakers at the conference. thanks for letting me meet some of my readers. i know i dont deserve any of that either. why are you doing this for me? is it to spread the Good News? fine, consider it spread.you know i totally believe in you and i do my best to be a good person. for some reason i didnt buy condoms at the drug store because i had no idea what was in store for me. what you have taught me on this trip is: when i leave my house, everything is in store for me.also thank you for letting me go to ucsb. i drank and smoked and partied and i was able to stay up super late and wake up pretty early and not make a fool out of myself - more than i usually do. thank you for letting me practice how to write over all of these years - its paid off better than if i had taken guitar lessons. plus i dont have to wear mascara.also thank you for getting me this job at Buzznet. i think i will do a great job there. we have some competition which is great cuz i love competition.also thank you for letting my book agent contact me today. i know ive been resisting writing a real book but maybe theres something down that path that you see and i dont. and maybe im being a lazy bastard.thanks for all the great food ive been able to eat here.please bless everyone especially the cubs. amen

And the other being that reading Frank's site and then Tony's recapitulation of last night, i can only figure that when tony says he met some nice people from Madison, Wisconsin sent over by jeneananenaenane or however tony spells my name, he musta meant the Paynters. And how cool is that? Now two of each of the three of us have never met eachother but are best friends, and what else is blogging for anyhow? comeon blowgun 2006!

why - template questions

Anyone know why:

1) google adsense is 'turned on' and the code seems to be at the top of the template, but the ads aren't showing up.

2) where do I need to close a title tag--is there still something weird in the title bar?

3) why does my profile picture load last--does it for you too?

thank you in advance!

P.S., I toyed with moving the font up to 12px but it looks suddenly like I'm an idiot writing this. Fonts are funny that way.

Digital Entertainment Platform

Chris Klaus, head of Kaneva -- the marketplace for digital content development and distribution -- does a video blog. It's a good white board talk on what they're doing and why.

Anyone in the community can start their own channel for free and begin putting content in that channel... We are also adding in other great community features such as blogs and forums. All of this is to allow participants to gather around certain types of content.

Among other things. Cool

A Ray of Hope?

I can catastrophize as well as the next guy and better than most. A little known fact: most of what RB and I discuss on the phone revolves around our shared conspriacy theories. And while I haven't quite come to terms with the "singularity" prophecies of genius Ray Kurzweil, I do have the book -- the very big book -- just waiting for a moment when I'm not afraid to begin reading it.



And so, it was with interest that I read today's opinion piece by Ray on the Bird Flu genome project, which he says has resulted in the dangerous proposition of an online RX for viral destruction. With the published genetic structure of the bird flu available in the GenBank database, Kurzweil wonders how wise it is to release the complete genetic code for such a deadly virus.

Proponents of publishing this data point out that valuable insights have been gained from the virus's recreation. These insights could help scientists across the world detect and defend against future pandemics, including avian flu.

There are other approaches, however, to sharing the scientifically useful information. Specific insights - for example, that a key mutation noted in one gene may in part explain the virus's unusual virulence - could be published without disclosing the complete genetic recipe.


The online publication of the bird flu's genetic viral recipe is likely to stir up the freedom of speech debate with passion on both the pro and con sides. I'm hopeful that the right people are paying atention to Ray's concerns.

Why? Because before I'm a writer, a net-head, a freedom-of-speech zealot or a creative commonsist, I'm a mom.

Doc is just great.

And not just because he heard me. He just really is. Over the last four years when I've gotten to the place where I think--man, is it just me or what?--Doc writes something that makes me go yes, that's what I was trying to say, but he says it so well and his headlines are the best in the blogosphere.

Plus he has ultrasonic vision and can read blogspot blogs with one hand tied behind his back. ;-)

One word that's in the news a lot these days:

Cull.

One thing that really, really bugs me:

Others.

Death With Dignity--I mean, for your fish.

From Pharyngula comes advice on the best -- for the fish -- way to end a life with dignity and as little pain as possible. Hint: ms222. I don't think they sell it at Walmart.

We get to the lethal injection concept only after some really nasty (and perhaps flawed) euthanasia alternatives are discussed:

Less nasty techniques are the freezer and alcohol strategies. I don't think putting a fish in a freezer is humane: they don't seem to react strongly to slowly freezing to death, but then they can't - their metabolism is shutting down. Fish tend to be very sensitive to cold, though, and seek out optimal temperatures and avoid the cold, and can respond to changes of a few degrees with shock, so I have my doubts that this is a good way for them to go. Putting them in water with a few percent alcohol might be OK; they do get drunk, pass out, and die, just like people can.

OH! I thought that was how we were supposed to euthanize Aunt Hilda!

But fear not, you too can be the Dr. Kevorkian of fish:

I get my stuff from Sigma, catalog number a-5040, for those of you who can purchase through academic suppliers. Otherwise, here are a few commercial places that will sell it to you: Doctors Foster & Smith, PondRX, and Argent Labs. It's about $15-20 for a 5 gram bottle, which sounds expensive, but a little goes a very long ways. I bought a 25 gram bottle 8 years ago, and I've still got lots left -- and I euthanize fish far more often than your usual pet fish owner.

You know. Some questions are just better left unasked.

Tell 'Em Shel

A must-read for any PR professional, student, and client from Shel Israel on "what PR must do." More than a few of us older disillusioned sorts would like to have said what Shel says here, but wouldn't have the precise creds or eloquency to do it with Shel's class and style:

Why should the PR professional of today care about the reminiscence of what some old guy did 25 years ago? Because you are in a profession that is at risk. It is at risk because many systems in place don't work. You are at risk because the editors you do know are probably less influential than they used to be, and the ones who don't know you have little interest in hearing from you. You are at risk because your practice has become more expensive for clients even as it has become less effective. You are at risk because PR worked best when a handful of people influenced any market niche, now thousands of people influence it and they are harder to reach and much harder to build an authentic relationship.

There are solutions to this problem, and while I believe the PR industry has entered into a major shakeup, I do not believe that the profession is doomed. But I do believe that the survivors will need to fit into a new model, which is very much like the old model I learned at the old University of Regis McKenna.

PR people need to be facilitators, not mouth pieces and certainly not gatekeepers in suits and nice dresses. I will be writing about this subject in several doses. There is a good deal to say about it.

You got my AMEN, brother!

See Also - Jeneane on:
Ketchum Comes Unclued, 2003.
Bye-Bye BigPR, 2003.

Doc goes for context--breaking out of mono.

Over at IT garage Doc talks about the splog problem within the larger problem of homogeny and monoculturalism in tech.

And he's not even talking about penises! (well, not directly).

I think that what Doc is saying is so important that here goes the whole thing--call me a spammer, flag my ass and zip me in a leather cell, I don't give a crap:

I became convinced today that our biggest problems are monocultures. What's bad for lawns and farms is also bad for classrooms, churches, industries, governments, political parties, banks, credit card companies and every other organization that lives by controlling and isolating its members. In other words, silos.

Today there's been some interesting back and forth between Steve Gillmor (to whose gang I belong) and myself on the subject of what Steve calls the "page view model" vs. the "attention model". I've been representing the former and Steve the latter.

Background is provided by Dave Winer, who writes, Links are now devalued. Page-rank is under attack and the attackers are winning. It won't be long before Google itself is infested. Tim Bray is right, below, it's time for Google to get on top of this. They're both the victimizer and the victim. The spammers found a huge hole in Page-rank. You could drive a truck through it. I was the early warning system on this, the canary in the coal mine. They don't like to listen to me, maybe they'll accept Verisign's help. (Context: Dave just sold Weblogs.com, the ping site on which all RSS search engines rely, to Verisign.)

I believe links are devalued because Google has become a monoculture, both as a search engine and as an advertising system. Blog spammers, or sploggers, are taking advantage of that monoculture in the same way boll weevils take advantage of a cotton field.

I know a fair amount of what the RSS engines are doing about blog spam, or splogs. And I salute Mark Cuban for being the first search engine honcho (he's an investor in IceRocket) to call major attention to the problem, and for coining the term "splog".

But I don't see much sign that Google is doing more than putting a little notification flag on blogspot blogs, to allow readers to notify google that the blog in question is possibly a fake one. No doubt they are dealing with the problem, though. So is Yahoo, from what I'm told (and see in results). But we need to hear more (perhaps from Google's AdSense blog?).

But is any of it enough? I don't think so. The bigger question is, Can anything be enough to thwart a blight in a monocultural environment?

The real answer to the link devaluation problem has to come from outside Google. We need polyculture: for search, for advertising, for everything. In its absence, we get some fine but isolating services. And blights that take advantage of that isolation.

Forget for a moment -- if you can; I know it's hard to forget since we're in a discussion about silos among a group made up of white men in their 40s and 50s even though some women, i don't know, ME FOR EXAMPLE, also wrote about the topic -- that the conversation itself is homogenous. Doc knows that's a problem. It's a conversational problem (aka: richness and meaning), and a problem with the VOLUME of conversation and the WATTAGE of conversation that reinforces the status quo voice.

But that's not exactly what Doc is talking about.

What Doc's really talking about here is that as the value of each and every link falls with a proportionate rise in noise, then the very business model of search-and-find (as we know it) and advertising (as we know it) and rank (as we know it) have to change. That means the strategy, the model, the tools, the money, the everything.

I agree with Doc 100%.

And I'll get even more prophetic: Link-based search was neat. It's a good thing they gave it to us when they did. It made the web 1.0 fly. So did RSS. It's not going anywhere, but someone's going to find a way that is even more intuitive, that skates across spam but doesn't further silo the conversation by paving over neighborhoods that don't SEEM to matter.

I don't want to be fed. I want to feast.

SO, what's next. And quit looking to Google for the answer to why all of your also-ran stuff isn't working right now, fellas. Stop striking a pose long enough to innovate. I mean, it's gada.be you guys. Right?

I once was lost...

Tens of thousands of the poorest of the poor are now homeless and living outside. Entire villages are gone. Nearly 40 bridges are washed out. Roads have been destroyed making access to many areas impossible.

Mercy Corps is playing a lead role in orchestrating the relief efforts with Guatemala's government and other international aid agencies working in the country. Prior to this storm, Mercy Corps was already helping coordinate a program called the Disaster Preparedness Coordination Project, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

There are more than 1,000 new orphans. Guatemala's attorney general Roberto Molina said the orphans would be placed with close relatives or put up for adoption. If red tape could be cut, we would open our home to a child today. I bet many caring people would.

In the mean time:

Donate.

Donate.

More on Global Voices.

memories

light the corners of my mind.

All I need to know about blogging while facing surgery I learned from Terry Heaton

Not only is Terry Heaton facing surgery without insurance, but he's also blogging up a storm of good advice on healthy blog living.

If you gain from something somebody else says, tell them.

You can't be a part of something unless you participate.

Meeting people at core enhances the sweetness of meeting them in person.

Walk away once in awhile, so you always have the energy to come back.

Nobody is better than you, but neither is anybody worse.

He's in the zone, on the cusp, and I pray on his way to great health AND great blogging adventures through the holidays and into the new year.

Below Whose Radar Screen? Blogspot: The Low Rent District

I own several domains. I host a couple of sites. I have my own site at sessum.com with extra space on the server.

And I keep my blogs on blogspot.

I pay them too.

Chris Pirillo finds the fact that a large population of legitimate bloggers live on blogspot unfathomable. He says that's because Google's spam problem is out of hand. I appreciate that problem, believe me. I have to deal with it for my clients too.

But the splog deluge has nothing to do with who's "LEGITIMATE" on blogspot.

Chris has said he thinks blogspot hosts 99% crap. Even in what Ev says in defense of blogspot residents, you can hear a hint of the prevailing attitude among some that the po-folk need a home too.

In case you don't get what I'm saying, I'll put it this way: The opinion among the big guys is that blogspot squatters are the undesirables of the net. We are also-rans. Not needed. Part of the problem. And, you're no one if you don't have your own blog.com.

I've known this for a long time. I've heard it first hand. In email. At an Atlanta blogger's gathering. I've heard it over and over again: "Jeneane, what are you doing on blogspot? No real blogger stays on blogspot. Why don't you move off that sewer?" Try this tool. Try that tool. At least host it someplace else. The blogspot domain pulls your readership down. They're not trustworthy. on and on.

Well-meaning people have been trying to pull me off blogspot for years -- some because they care about this blog, others because they can't believe a "legitimate" blogger would want to live here. I appreciate that. But stop.

Thank you very much--I have no intention of going.

The subtleties beneath the discussion over Splogs (the spam blogs littering the blogosphere--especially prominent on blogspot) offer some interesting attitudes and perceptions among the blogerati on blog real estate. If the old location-location-location adage works, then blogspot is the ninth ward of New Orleans. It's the ghetto. Take Pirillo's approach and pave it over.

Well news flash folks:

More than 50-percent of the blogs worth reading are on blogspot. And 80 percent of people who want to test the blog waters (some who stay, some who don't) take their leap of faith on blogspot.

THAT'S why this place is so important to me.

If you want to make blogging a place for professionals only, then get your own sandbox. You don't own this one. You want a place without splogs? I WANT a place that's free, and a tool that's easier than any other tool on the market so that Aunt Sophie and Barbara and Stanley and Joey and Leroy and Tarnjan and Stella and Martin and Martina can all play around and maybe Sophie posts a poem that makes me weep and Martin writes about his baby girl who died from SIDS, and maybe they stay and maybe they go, and maybe in the mean time you're pissed off you have to wade through VIAGRA VIOXX XANAX, but fucking fuck you.

Halley is on blogspot.

Tom is on blogspot.

Jessica is on blogspot

Blog Sisters has been on blogspot for four years.

Will's on Blogspot.

Every fourth or fifth blog on my blogroll is on blogspot.

So Google, hear what these guys are saying about the spam problem and fix it. It's not all henny penny, but it's really important. And yes, I'm willing to type in an authentication code for each post. That's not a bad idea from Chris Pirillo

The rest of blogland, hear the subtleties of what's being said about blogspot, and don't buy into it.

Locke Keeps Unlockeing

Chris Locke on MB does more connecting of more dots.

You know what? I would pay $ to hear Chris audio blog these posts in addition to the text-and-graphic versions which are essential. Half of reading Mystic B. is what's hidden behind the links. When I talked to Chris about a post last week, he was chorttling (most likely between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. mountain time) over some page I hadn't seen linked off of his post. I happened to mention that I hadn't seen that part. He was all: "DID YOU CLICK THE PICTURE!?" And I hung my head knowingly. "DRAT!" I might have said. But instead I said, "NO! I didn't notice that one was clickable!" and anyway, the moral of the story is always try clicking Locke's images.

Which has nothing to do with why I would pay for the ipod version of Mystic Bourgeoisie. It's because hearing him read it works so very well. Chorttles and all.

Anyway, don't miss the latest the jung-eliade school... wherein Chris further demasks the cloaked, caped, and ornamental and pseudo-religious symbol wearing vectors of the new age...who apparently can't even do drugs right.

The inherently gnostic aversion to "this world" is what brought these motherfuckers down. It was their way of making the psychedelic experience conceptually safe, colonizing it with "oriental" conceptualizations that tamed it, domesticated it, "spiritualized" it. My objection to these perennialist ex-hippie faux filosofers is not that they did drugs -- oh yeah, how shocking! -- but that, after doing all those drugs, they missed the boat.

In other words, if you're going to drop, don't forget what it felt like without your skin on.

The Bird Flew?

I keep hearing this--what is the big deal?!

Finally a reason to go to walmart

I wish they would open some of these clinics in walmarts or walgreens around here. What a sanity saver for the un or underinsured! The only problem is when flu season hits and you've got 88 poeple waiting to see the nurse who are germing up Walmart even worse than it already is.

My question: Are they armed with an RX pad from a physician? If not, don't bother. Just take a few steps past the clinic into the OTC remedy isles.

If they are, then it's great to be able to pay for a visit and to get your prescription with one sick kid in one sick place, which has lysol and kleenex to boot.

Some clinics, such as MinuteClinic, post their services and prices like a cafe menu for all to see. Services and prices vary among different clinics. For example, a meningitis vaccine is $110, the most expensive item on MinuteClinic's menu, said Dr. Woodburn. A flu shot is $30. An exam for strep throat is $49 plus the $10 for a rapid strep test and another $15 for a throat culture.

RediClinic, on the other hand, features a fixed-price menu where all diagnostic tests are a flat $45. There are also differences between the clinics in whether they accept insurance. RediClinic, said Web Golinkin, chief executive officer of Houston-based Interfit Health, which owns RediClinic, is "purely a cash business" but is considering allowing third-party payments.

I'm game.

--time out--

I wish I knew how to bump the font size up a smidgeon on the body font for each post. I just don't even see the reference to it in the template.

Is it big enough for you guys to read?

My Knee 2.0

My knee 2.0 is all about data.

The data tells me that I really screwed up my knee 1.0 when I decided to go from couch sitting 3.0 to riding a bike up and down hills .5 in one day. And that only after having lived 43 years, mostly not so healthily.

Anyway, I've been studying and researching and mining, and I think a little fluid-filled joint on the side of my knee is the problem. It's getting better, you see, and it would be better still if I could get my paws on some Vicodin 5.0.

Okay I'm kidding.

Anyway, what's making me more depressed than I need to be is that my bike - 0.0 -- is sitting undridden until I get this knee to where doing dishes for 5 minutes doesn't cause undue agony.

Anyway, hi.

allied 2.0

A lot of folks, they put stock in events and publicity and press releases and news articles and Top 100 bloggers. But it doesn't seem that it takes a majority to declare a 2.o transformation. Sometimes it takes, you know, just some guy. Or gal. Or a certain amount of time to pass by. A time for boredom to come and give way to new thinking and cool tools that do things. And one day, a couple of people go, hey, it's the next point-something.

So anyway...

I'm that gal.

And this is ALLIED 2.0

Welcome.

If I Ever Lose My Faith In You

by Sting (audio)

You could say I lost my faith in science and progress
You could say I lost my belief in the holy church
You could say I lost my sense of direction
You could say all of this and worse but
If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do

Some would say I was a lost man in a lost world
You could say I lost my faith in the people on TV
You could say I'd lost my belief in our politicians
They all seemed like game show hosts to me

If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do

I could be lost inside their lies without a trace
But every time I close my eyes I see your face
I never saw no miracle of science
That didn't go from a blessing to a curse
I never saw no military solution
That didn't always end up as something worse but
Let me say this first
If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do

new template--thoughts?

feedback?

A comment on comments

well i turned blogger comments on. i didn't like them. i switched to haloscan. I didn't back up my template. my sidebar is screwed.

If anyone has a lovely template for me, now would be the time for a quick re-design, considering i blew away all my nice little links in the sidebar. they'll be back soon--including the blogroll.

I the meantime, oh please tell me you like the new comments, courtesy of halo scan, courtesy of Tony Pierce, who admirably can use grammar as a verb.

in other news, Gonzo Engaged, who turned 4 today, is looking smashing!

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

The road to aggression

FUCK YOU!

Someone said that to me today, and told me to put it on my goddam blog.

I decided to oblige.

One for the pres

specially after scatological encounters.