Dumpstering and AT&T -- The Great Cingular De-Branding

Part of the 11-year-mark dumpster activity I posted about below involves current news insomuch as I worked on the launch of Cingular in 2000/2001 while I was at Ketchum.

What this has to do with dirty Dumpsters is that news of AT&T's de-branding campaign came just an hour after I sat in this very spot at my laptop nostalgically leafing through the old Employee Road Show Plan and Briefing Book for Cingular, two samples I saved from my agency days and this week's Dumpster flush at the Sessum house.

Cingular is in the news because it is essentially unbecoming Cingular.

One of the biggest “de-brandings” in advertising history is to begin Monday when AT&T, now the sole owner of Cingular Wireless, starts changing all Cingular marketing to adopt the AT&T name.

AT&T will not disclose the budget for the campaign, which will continue for five or six months — leading to the partnership with Apple on the new iPhone, scheduled for midyear.

I like to tell the story about the head of the Atlanta office telling me not to dare utter the name C-i-n-g-u-l-a-r aloud back in 2000, and my paranoid hiding of the piece of paper with the Cingular name on it in my underwear drawer, not even telling George what the name was until Launch time. My job was to write messaging around the name -- why the C, etc. -- ahead of the launch. A dirty job, but, hey. Not much has changed there. ;-)

Allow me to provide a coveted snippet of what brand new Cingular employees -- the first to work for this new and revolutionary wireless company -- heard back in the day of its dawning when executives traveled across the country introducing the company to the team, a trip down memory lane if you will:

We're here today to have a conversation, really, about our new company. There are two exciting things about what I just said -- this company is new and it's ours. And, as the video said, it's more than a name change -- we are a once-in-a-lifetime company.

Cingular is going to be what we make of it for all of us as employees and for our customers as well. ... Even as we speak -- for many days -- your executive team has hit the road to take the story to Cingular Employees across the nation. Our launch to the outside world will be on January 14th, but we want you -- the insiders -- to hear about it first...

We want to meet you, and we want you to meet us. After all, each of us is going to express ourselves at Cingular. Collectively, we will be stronger if we listen to each other and share ideas.

There was big branding money behind a destined-to-be giant at just the right time in the wireless revolution.

And just like the white board where so many ideas emerged, it can be erased just like that. But all of this branding, re-branding and de-branding costs mega-bucks--$1 billion just last year to promote AT&T as the brand name of SBC, which gave rise to Cingular (along with BellSouth) in the first place, and the same brand that Cingular shed in 2004. And it costs a lot in terms of customer attention and employee identity too.

Whether or not it will be worth it is not something I'm not far enough inside to speculate on. Of course, being part of the Apple iPhone deal will help keep the company in the news--no matter what it's called it's going to be part of the Next Big Thing.

But will it be the right part--the right partner?

I do think Cingular was one of the most impressive brands of its kind built in the last ten years. Whether you morph the logo into a globe with a jack head, an inside out jack, or a jackass, AT&T will still have its work cut out to find a way to be believable as innovative and nimble in a space where those qualities are expected and valued.

Cingular said back then, "We are not a technology company; we are a human expression company!"

What does AT&T want to be when it re-grows up?

Tags: telecom, blogging, tech, technology, PR, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Cingular, AT&T, Branding, Business, Dumpsters = Powered by Qumana

The Dumpster

Twenty two years together is a long time. That's how long George and I have been George and I.

That also represents more than two decades of collecting memories. And stuff.

A lot of stuff.

From reel-to-reels to 8-tracks to LPs to CDs (we were there for all of them), and back again. From old photos to super 8s to dvds. Broken electronics and broken chairs, old Halloween wigs, 6 vacuums, dish racks, cords and screws, boxes of books and magazines, 20 years of joint tax returns plus receipts, moldy clothes and infomercial exercise equipment, license plates and out-of-state drivers' licenses. It's all there.

We've lived in this house for 11 years now, and the items above represent the contents of just one corner of our garage and downstairs. Which is why we finally made the mature and wise decision to rent a dumpster for a week and let go of some of our treasures... err stuff... okay junk.

Working together to get it done has been a painful process, not just because of the memories unearthed from the bottom of ordinary-looking cardboard boxes, but because we approach the task of "cleaning out the garage" in very different ways.

George is a go-through-every-box-waste-not-want-not, highly resourceful person who can find a use for just about any piece of wood, metal, mineral or vegetable. I'm of the opinion that unless I would physically pick up an item to carry to a hypothetical new house -- either because it means that much to me or it's that indispensable -- then it's time to let go of it.

Those two dumpster approaches aren't exactly symbiotic. But as a system of checks and balances, it works.

How it works is like this: I almost get to throw something away, and he brings it back and matches it with some other part he picks up from seemingly nowhere, which I had no idea was in any way related to the item I was about to toss. And then he says, "See?" Some choice words usually follow from both of us. It's been a long week.

On the important things, we agree--and that's sort of how Dumpster Use equates to real-life. Husband and Wife coming together to agree on which crap is really crap: the non-working, rusted-through barbeque grill, GONE; the old, rusted deck chairs and table, GONE; the roll-away crib, in my van for the mission; toddler toys of Jenna's, bye-bye! And let's not forget the five boxes of samples from my portfolio, too much hard-copy for my new world of work, GONE.

And so it has been, since Monday. Work and Dumpster, Work and Dumpster, that has been the routine. Sometimes it varies--dumpster and work, dumpster and work.

No matter how you slice it though, it's been a trying walk through the last two decades of our lives--and many boxes from further back, from our own childhoods. I'm hoping that there's a therapeutic release when the dumpster company pulls away old Nelly on Monday. I only know one thing--the dumpster will be gone, along with every irretrievable scrap inside it.

Big Sigh.

In the mean time, you know where we'll be. Send Motrin.

Tags: family, life, dumpster, memories, photos, cleaning, home, web2.0 = Powered by Qumana

i wanna nother lil app - followmethere

I want a lil follow-me-there app that knows where i am online -- oh she's logged in to myspace, flickr, and twitter right now, for example -- and there's a little widget at the top of my blog that lets you follow me there WHEN I'm online this place or that or have done something new there.

caveat: this probably already exists and i don't know about it. so tell me.

Okay sure you can subscribe to places where I am but for crying out loud I just don't do it for folks I want to follow around, and then two months later I say, "man i haven't kept up with so-and-so for two months!" and I get all sad and disillusioned with the state of the Net, whereby I often lose my temper and piss someone off, and the cycle begins again.

Ah, life!

Like you, I am dis-integrated into so many spaces online -- my myspace page, twitter, allied, blogsisters, blogher, jeremy's blog, kat herding comments, flickr, bubbleshare, Kaneva, Skype, Yahoo IM, even facebook and orkut (though i am rarely online there), google docs, jsessum.com, jeneane.net -- i mean how many RSS feeds would it take to keep up with where I am and what I'm doing/saying/sharing? And why would you want to go through all that effort? I don't even know my own feeds for what I do/say/publish in all of those places. I certainly don't keep up with myself. I am a ball rolling down hill. I am a leaky swimming pool. Help me.

I need a whole aggregator just for me to cure my Internet Dissociative Identity Disorder (I-DID)

Why can't you just subscribe to "follow jeneane" and you trek along on my magic carpet via links or some avatar with a flying broomstick?

Only you should probably think of doing this with someone a little more interesting than me. Like Doc. :-)

Tags: tech, internet, blogging, myspace, twitter, kaneva, skype, allied, blogsisters, blogher, jeremy outerbridge, kat herding, flickr, bubbleshare, yahoo, facebook, orkut, google docs, blogs, marketing, web2.0, PR, doc searls, magic carpet = Powered by Qumana

I wanna lil' app...

I want a little app that will let me grab the URLs and titles of posts I most want to have time to read (but haven't read yet) and put them in a kind of dog-eared library list on my blog sidebar.

Then I want--right from that box on my blog sidebar--for me to checkmark a post or article if I've already read it, and then maybe add a sentence or two description for my readers who also might want to read (or have a say) on posts we have no time to read. And I want it to be quick and easy--like a little bookmarklet thing--and not look dumb in my blog sidebar, and NOT be overly complex. if you want a social component beyond the box, that's fine, but don't make me participate.

Take cue from BubbleShare. The smartest first thing they did right was allow a zero-registration option --> It was the company saying:  you don't owe it to me to be part of my process just because I'm giving you software to use. I really want you to try it so that you'll want to use it again and again and tell your friends. Truth be known, I need you more than you need me. So go ahead and jump in by just entering an email address. But if you want more features, then we need to know who you are so we can let you at them.

In the business of widgets and web 2.0, the user still wants one thing: for you to give them cool shit that lets them do cool shit. No hoops. And not a lot of work.

So, going back to my lil' app, I want it to work like that too.

Tags: tech, PR, marketing, widgets, web2.0, blogging, advertising, social software, my lil app = Powered by Qumana

When Good PR Hurts

When you're done at this CES booth, go ahead and stroll on over to the Anal Probe booth #204, the Dog Shit Wearing booth #1175, and the blood-letting leech booth #9330.

Weee! Tradeshows are more fun every year!

Tags: CES, PR, Marketing, Taser, Tradeshows, Demos, S&M, Advertising, Blogging, Tech, Electronics, Anal Probe = Powered by Qumana

Writing Yourself Real

First posted at BlogHer.org
---------------------------

In 2002, David Weinberger wrote a defining statement about what early blog settlers were doing:

The importance of the weblog phenomenon isn't so much that it enables people to publish their breakfast menus or even their genuine insights. It's that we now know what our "avatars" on the Net are going to be: not graphical cartoon representations but our body of writing. You are what you write. On the Web we are writing ourselves into existence. This introduces into the self the same issues of control, inspiration, invention, deception and play as have always been present in the relationship of authors to what they write."

When we came upon that line by David back then, most of us went, "Yes! That's it! We are writing ourselves real."

It may sound kind of corny now, as millions have come here in the mean time with new ideas and skilled debating skills. But David's early description of what our online journaling meant was right on: we really were writing ourselves into existence -- and just as important, we were reading one another into existence.

CREATING THE ONLINE YOU--WHAT'S IT MEAN TO THE OFFLINE YOU?

With my own online presence having grown from a single Google search result on "Jeneane Sessum" in 2000, to nearly half a million today, I am an example of someone who has been created in some parallel form online. And that has fascinated me.

When David first wrote those words, I jammed with him, adding my own thoughts on what the heck any of us were doing blogging:

As our fingers wind around the keyboard sketching our online selves--filling in the furrows, the wrinkles, the gleam, the raised eyebrow as we go--that avatar we create *recreates* us in the offline world. It is a circle of creation and recreation. That is the joy in it for me--not so much the voice, the self I have created through blogging, but how that unleashed voice is transforming me, the person, the flesh and the mind.

I have always believed that what we do here changes who we are out there. I don't know anyone who blogged back in 2001/2002 who has not been changed by the act of writing, and having been read, in public.

Ask yourself: Have you been shaped and changed by the conversations you have had in pixels? I have met my best friends here; I have been adopted family I never knew I had. I have never been more loved.

I know when you are lying to me. I scream alongside you when you tear off another layer of skin to show me who you are underneath it all.

Not all of this 'writing ourselves into existence' has been great fun, you see. Pain, lost relationships, tremendous hurt are all a part of the process.

I remember the first time I read Halley Suitt--before I ever knew her, emailed her, talked to her on the phone or met her. BEFORE she existed at all in my universe. I read her into existence with her post on her father's death. And I have never forgotten her first line:

"When my dad wakes up today, the first thing he will notice is that he is dead."

IN PRAISE OF THE AMATEUR US

Posts like Halley's were what early blogging was about--and they are still what blogging should be about.

Before the conferences and the professionalization of the blogosphere, we were just people who hurt, celebrated, joked, goofed, wept, learned, and played. We did not intend to grow, but we grew. Some of us even grew up.

Beyond the 'journalism or not' debate. Above the mayhem of politics and academics. Aside from the technology and reviews. We were telling our stories to one another, and the stories mattered.

I'm not meaning to wax nostalgic here.

But I guess I am.

The point I set out to make -- I'm getting to it in a round about way -- is that David's notion of creating ourselves online -- something we are still doing at a frenetic pace -- is still important.

As a blogger, it's not necessarily what you write ABOUT that matters, but it is about where you write FROM. You can be a CEO in pain from the loss of a loved one and write from that pain and turn out the best writing you have ever done on growing your customer base. You can be a teacher overjoyed and in love and write the best post you have ever written about distance learning. Just go in, step down, and w-r-i-t-e.

That is how you begin to exist.

ABOVE ALL ELSE BE FREE

I believe in the multi-dimensional blog, where you can be CEO and be grieving your mother's death at the same time, where you can be soldier and poet, where you can mix AJAX with love, where you can fact check and sob, where you can be thicker than the words you type, where your substance is in your disparate parts, where your blog brings the pieces of you together.

As you continue to write yourself into existence, keep in mind how we wrote here before. How being real meant that a manager could write about how unmanageable loss is. Don't sacrifice the freedom you have to define yourself as MORE THAN you have been defined previously. Let your writing redefine who you are, write your way out, post your way through, because it's okay.

It's okay to not know the answer and write anyway; you are not less of a marketer. It's okay to walk on stage and fart outloud; you are not less of a mother. It's okay if you throw up--you are no less a technologist.

This is still the best chance you have for freedom.

Don't give up on love or lust for Alexa numbers. Don't silo for technorati. Don't sacrifice your heart for traffic.

Don't settle.

Tags: blogging, web2.0, writing, marketing, business, advertising, tech, david weinberger, halley suitt, weblogging, technorati, PR = Powered by Qumana

Puke-covered school days

Ever since I was very young, I've been a vomiter. My mom would get us dressed to go out to a special dinner, and before we'd be out of the driveway, one-year-old me would yack all over my dainty little outfit. Prim and proper replaced by stinky and gross.

I remember train trips throwing up, sail boat throwing up, car ride throwing up, bus ride throwing up (discretely into my knit cap), flu throwing up, excitement throwing up, depression throwing up, you NAME it throwing up. Except airplanes. I never threw up on an airplane. Small blessings.

With all that load lightening, you'd think my body could at least reward me with 20 or 30 or several dozen fewer pounds. But no, I guess my overactive gag reflex must have triggered a starvation response in my metabolism. Yeah, that's it.

The one saving grace--not sure how I managed it either--was that I never threw up in school. It's amazing. All of those years, all of those ripe opportunities for retching in front of my friends, and somehow I never ralphed in class.

Or in the cafeteria, as Fin Slippy's boy did Friday, not from motion sickness or anxiety, no, nothing like that. Apparently he upchucked due to uncontrollable laughter and a pretty darn funny preschool lunch table joke.

I admire you, Henry. This is one fear you will never have to deal with. You faced it without even knowing it was there, too young for phobias about broken etiquette rules to paralyze you. You, amazing Henry, zapped the power from that common fear by self-assuredly tossing your cookies...er...grapes right where you sat, at the lunch table.

I wish I could have done that at your tender age. Think of how less stressed middle school would have been if that "what if" had been behind me.

For me, it was not to be. But for you--you made it through.

Respect, young man. Respect.

Tags: kids, parents, family, school, childhood, vomiting, puke, throwup, flu, ralph, wretch, yack, fin slippy, blogging, web2.0, techmeme = Powered by Qumana

huh uh uh singalong mm hmm hit me one time alright...

holla
call her
see what I see
in fronta me
musicology
toldja
true funk soldia
dolla
back in the day
september
hot pants by james
phd in advanced
body movin
true funk solidas
musicology

don't you eva touch my stereo.

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someathat prince

no place like home

we were over at my friend's tonight when the weather folks started cutting into the Giants game with red spreading up the Georgia map like a bad rash. South of Atlanta (Coweta) had several tornados. We heard the siren around 6:30 and spent nearly 1/2 hour in the basement with hail and pounding rain. They said winds were likely to reach 60 mph, but I don't think it got that bad up our way. Still, Jenna has a tornado phobia. She said she felt like she was going to "puke" a few times, but we made it through. We're still in Kansas. ;-)

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it strikes me as truly scary...

That I was born nearly 20 years before him.  I'm putting my cane down to say happy birthday Mr. Mesina.

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whoa but we had some weather tonite...

...including tornado siren fun and 1/2 hour in a friend's basement. wee! be safe ya'll.

GREAT idea. Thanking Commenters

Saw it at Toby's blog, about Nancy link-thanking all of her commenters for 2006. What a great idea (and a great way for readers to find new blogs). Any commenter of Nancy's rates a looksie by me! While you're at it, don't miss Toby's Friday rundown of blogging tips.

Tags: blogging, web2.0, comments, nancy white, toby bloomberg = Powered by Qumana

it should be easy

for me to just blast away post after post, alternating poetry, rants and thoughts on marketing and technology and social software and myspace and social drama and kids and life and loss and all of that.

the posts come so fast now, they don't have time to make it here.

going toward six years, this is the stage where we save as draft and move on.

It's like double dipping. I post in my head and then i go back and dip into part of that post and think up something new from the old.

except i never quite get HERE to post either.

it's really rather bothersome.

i'll try to be better about it.

So I'm only slightly panicked, google.

....that all of my archives are 404-ing.

maybe it's temporary.

maybe i'm fucked.

funny you know--in the era of Web2.0, legacy users are a burden rather than a blessing.

We are the grandparents of your user community--we birthed babies who have birthed babies on your platform. And yet, because we have lived several thousand lifetimes in posts, we have outlived our usefulness, taking up too much space, tangled in technology that's several revs back and nearly unsupportable.

With the focus on adoption and acquisition, web 2.0 users who stick with a company are not rewarded; we're baggage. We clog up the works with our megs of content and broken links and reliance of features from Christmases past.

We are too smart to be snowed, too demanding to be avoided, too connected to be silent.

We require a whole different language and resource base inside the organization--we are a support drain, an unwanted expense, a headache for resources that should be doing more important things--like adding the latest, coolest, newest features.

In an era when new sign ons = $, existing users -- customers -- are just a hassle. Where's the iceberg--let's set 'em all afloat.

I wish I thought that it was going to come back to bite them in the ass. You know? I wish I believed that.

But I don't. I think we're reaping what we sewed.

Back on topic: I hope my 27 years of archives come back.

Soon.

Tags: blogging, business, tech, web2.0, Google, Blogger, marketing, CRM, PR

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Has Dave Winer Said...

...what happened to his pledge to quit blogging by the end of the year 2006? Not that I want to see him go. . . Just that the retirement pledge was pretty big news when he blogged it. Just wondering if there's been an update I missed.

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This isn't a conference...

...It's some kind of corpogeek-conference olympics in a germ ward. Bring your Hand Sanitizer. And some of those sneakers with wheels the kids wear. Or stay far away like the rest of us!

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what the hell is up with google the last couplea days?

blogger's slower than molasses; gmail's slower than molasses; my archives on blogger are 404ing all over the place; chat's turned into gtalk and gchat and popup chat to the point where i uninstalled allofit. been trying to trick gmail into workin by changing from with chat view to standard view to HTML view.

is it this thing they're turned on recently: "New! Google finds the search results most relevant to you, based on your search history. Learn more."

no i don wanna learn more. i want what i already got to work. there's only one thing google has to do now to continue to dominate: keep shit working well.

peaceout.

SoCon Atlanta -- hey that's my google map location!

Oh my, what a great conference name: SoCon.

she breathes.

in.

and out.

decides that any conference self-identified as "SoCon" and FREE has potential.

And officially OMG, it's in Atlanta, with an unconference in Kennesaw, which is quite nearly precisely and exactly where we live.

I just found out about it from j. brotherlove, who says he's going, along with Karsh, and I'll use any opportunity to connect with Their Smartnesses. I think Toby mentioned it too. Why isn't she leading a session? Grab her, people. I'll be happy to lead a dinner table discussion if the organizers get more people (and have more tables) than they do right now.

okay, well, like jbrolo, I don't think I can afford the SXSW trip this year -- not shortly before D-day, I mean Tax Day, but hanging out in Kennesaw at a SoCon freebee conference sounds good to me.

One bit of unsolicited advice--stretch it, okay? Add guys like j. brotherlove and Karsh and George. Or ask them who might be good to include -- geeks, designers, writers, artists, performers using social spaces online to connect or create. And I mean to talk or to contribute or to discuss or to eat with. Not lecture to.

Social Software is bigger than the same old "journalism" and "PR" and "podcasting" drone. Let's maybe encourage Atlanta to show off its major advantage over other cities at this conference -- its textures. Textures, context, inclusion, diversity, resilience -- not just the New Media 101 topics that have been done to death.

Of course, the devil is almost always in the details.

If I've learned anything from my 27 years of blogging and social tech, it's that.

Tags: atlanta, social media, social software, web2.0, Internet, business, blogging, myspace, communities, atlanta, kennesaw, SoCon, SoCon07, Toby Bloomberg, the brotherlove, karsh, george sessum, PR, blogging, marketing, conferences, unconference = Powered by Qumana

The Godfather's Soul?

George told me a couple of days ago that James Brown's body is at his South Carolina home while the family decides where exactly to put it. I see he was still this side of the earth on Tuesday. Anyone know if he's been laid to rest yet?

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Joy.

Look mom, no tonsils. Or adenoids either.

a-skiing we will go...

This album is powered by
BubbleShare

On Mothers and Daughters

She stands on the bunny slope in her pink Wal-mart clearance-priced ski bib, sun burning her silhouette into my squinting eyes.

My little girl on skis.

I remember my first trip to the ski slope in western New York, about her age, when we couldn't afford lessons, so my brother tried to teach me until he got tired of helping me up. Time expired: Five minutes. The rest of the day I squirmed around on the cold snow-packed ground trying to right myself, poles akimbo, no idea what to do with the awkward things on my feet. My brother was long gone, onto bigger hills. I spent the rest of the day frustrated, in tears, mostly on my cold, wet behind.

Before I decided to spend the money on Jenna's lesson, I tried to teach her some of what I remembered, and since I wasn't on skis, I could help her up easier than my brother could me.

How interesting it is now that we're home, warm, dry, to think about how she interpreted my teaching -- "You're stressing me out, Mom!" "I'm TRYING!" "Never mind!" and other exaggerated reactions to what I thought were mild corrections and advice to keep her from careening into a barrel.

She was reduced to tears before I found someone to teach her, saying she was too "frustrated" to keep trying.

And it was, of course, All My Fault.

I had already seen her travel about eight feet without falling, so I knew she could do it. But something about Me As Mother instructing her wasn't working.

Everything I said was construed as criticism, even though I tried HARD to relate it as "Maybe try this," or "How about trying that." Okay, I might have lost my cool when she pulled me off my feet and I landed on my back. But overall, I was pretty easy going.

How interesting it was, then, when the 18-year-old ski instructor took Jenna under her wing, and she became a beginner skier inside of an hour.

How quickly she learned from someone other than ME, no fuss, no back-talking, no stress, no frustration. All of her beefs dissolved under the guidance of a non-mother, and she graduated to a 1+ beginner at the end of two hours.

She's getting to that age where she'll say, "Mom, stop, you're embarrassing me." I remember the first time I said it. And it reminds me. The push away, the I don't want you teaching/telling/taking/walking with/near me. You're too old. Besides, you're a Mother.

And in the next instant, a runaway five year old slams into her, knocks her down, and skis over her hand, and it's all me--"OHH Mom! OUCH!!!"

This is what age 9 is made of.

Half baby half grown.

It blows my mind and reminds me that the time with her near me is flying by. Skating, skiing, dancing, swimming, flying by.

What I say will mean less and less to her over time, until the mother-daughter tipping point when I hope she can make sense out of some of what I taught her after all.

Time.

Passing.

Babies.

Growing.

It blows my mind to bits.

Tags: Parenting, Family, Children, Kids, Skiing, Teaching, Aging, Students, Mothers, Independence, Blogging, Women = Powered by Qumana

Boys Break News -- Girls Lose.

It's fascinating that I was the first to post the BubbleShare news, 30 minutes after the release hit the wire -- heck, you might even say I'm a little piece of the news -- and that Toby Bloomberg was the second to post -- but it took Matthew and Marc blogging it to make Techmeme.

I'm sure I'll wind up with a supporting role on Techmeme by linking to Matthew and Mark's posts.

p.s., Thanks Michael for digging what I said. ;-)

UPDATE: After considering a point Gabe Rivera made in one of his (ahem) comments, I adjusted the headline of this post to the version I had right before I first published. I stand by my criticism over the lack of women in anchor positions on Techmeme and won't change a word of this post. But I should have published with the broader headline, because the issue reaches far beyond one website.

Tags: techmeme, photosharing, news, social media, blogher, internet, business, marketing, web2.0, PR, blogging = Powered by Qumana

Speaking of Family Photo Fun, Kaboose Just Acquired BubbleShare

Hey, my homies at BubbleShare have been acquired by Kaboose! The Kaboose CEO said, "We are acquiring a seasoned and talented team that will advance our ability to release best-in-class Web 2.0 community services to our user base," which translates to, "Albert and the guys are amazing what they do, have created a kickass service -- and the families who use Kaboose are going to dig BubbleShare."

Techmeme and the rest can take care of the details. I just wanted to congratulate the guys and am happy to see one of my Web 2.0 babies graduate. ;-)

Tags: bubbleshare, web2.0, tech, photo sharing, flickr, kaboose, acquisitions, parents, families, business, advertising, marketing, PR = Powered by Qumana

i wish my camera battery was solar powered AND i wish my camera was wireless...

'cause i have some COOL pix to show you of the North Carolina mountains where my friend and I took Jenna skiing New Year's day, and nice mountain pictures Jenna took today on the drive home. We went to Cataloochee in Maggie Valley, NC. Here's the live webcam outside of the ski lodge. (hint: we're home, so we're not there.)

The drive up was interesting. Going through North Georgia always is. There was that one stop we made for gas where I found a white supremacist magazine on top of the real-estate guides for Habersham County. I took that one along so I could have some interesting bathroom reading. The bathroom (garbage) is where I left it too. How many Americans do you think have had complete lobotomies by now? No, really.

Anyway, we made the 3.5 hour drive without any problems, except my hyper-vigilanteism caused by reading the Neo Nazi rag I picked up along the way. That, combined with the six cups of coffee and fresh-garlic-coated wings we ate when we got there may have had something to do with my lack of sleep that night.

In the morning, Jenna had her first try on skis, complete with a lesson, and you have GOT to see the mini movies. C-u-t-e is one big hint. The battery is recharging tonight, so I'll try to get the pictures up in the morning, and a movie or two, so you can see jenna in the SNOW (which excited us to no end). In case you're wondering, I did NOT strap those chopsticks onto my feet--I hiked and trudged through the slush in good old fashioned boots like a good old fashioned Great Lake dweller, although I did have the pleasure of falling twice, since the man-made snow had turned mostly to ice, and since Jenna never did quite get the hang of getting up after falling on skis.

Things I learned since the last time I went skiing 38 years ago:
They have little moving sidewalk thingies now that take the kids up to the top of the bunny slope instead of having to side-step up or use a tow rope like we did.
To help kids learn how not to crash into barrels and grown ups, they they teach them how to "Pizza." That's what they call what we used to call the snowplow -- I guess because the triangle shape your skis make when you put the tips together looks like a piece of pizza. As in: "Good Pizza, Jenna!" (Yeah, that one took me a while.)
It hurts just as much to fall on your back without skis as it does with.
Lifting up a nine year old who can't get her balance can cause permanent neurological damage to the piker-up-ee.
Film--and pix--at 11. (or whenever the battery charges).

Tags: ski, north carolina, kids, parenting, vacation, cataloochee, maggie valley, blogging = Powered by Qumana

i love you, Google Alerts.

Google. We're just so fucking smart.

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Meow.

You are Catwoman

You have had a tough childhood,
you know how to be a thief and exploit others
but you stand up for society's cast-offs.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

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Lemur Heads the Z-List

Because Kathy Sierra Tucson is actually an A-Lister posing on Seth's Squidoo z-list, I hearby disqualify her from the Z-List list, which in itself makes little to no sense, because if you make it to the top of the z-list, then you're not really z-list at all. You're maybe Y-List. And in the end, who the fuck cares.

As Frank says about this squidooey thing, Seth does his usual coopting of memes to create 'a thang' which he will later monetize. And I'm happy to see Frank and I and Anne Z challenging the Lemur for the lead.

HA! LEMUR! watch it there you rascal.

In truth, I am officially B List, which means I probably don't belong on the Z-List either, unless you assume there is simply one A list, and everyone else makes up the Z-List. Then I qualify. But Kathy Sierra definitely does not.

Join me in helping Lemur knock the A-Lister off the top, and while you're at it, boost the rest of us remnants up on a list that makes no sense, because once you rank the z-list..... well, I think we've ridden that pony already.

Tags: blogging, long tail, z-list, head lemur, frank paynter, anne zelenka, blogging, tech, web2.0 = Powered by Qumana

nothing like an eviction before new years

my friend called yesterday to let me know that some friends of ours in her neighborhood were being evicted. As evictions go, this was one of those in-denial-little-warning kind, where the sheriff shows up with the eviction team and the family shakes and stammers while they try to figure out what to do as they watch their stuff pile up with a thump on their driveway one early afternoon in December.

It's not my business to know how it got so bad--been close enough to bad to know how it can sneak up on you even when you should have been able to see it coming with a blindfold on. Apparently the couple once owned the house, then it got bad, then they quick claimed it, then the new 'owner' sold it, and you know, sometimes bad goes from bad to worse until a twelve-year-old girl shows up on your porch and asks if you know any one with a truck.

We all helped out yesterday, massive box taping and packing--or shoving stuff haphazardly into cartons, more like--in the middle of a suburban driveway in the middle of a middle class++ neighborhood on the Friday before New Year's. The neighbors, their church friends, the eviction team. Everyone except the Sheriff, who I suppose isn't there to help but to enforce. He was there to make sure that the new stove the mom got for her birthday stayed with the house under protest, and the new fridge the couple bought to replace the one that wasn't working stayed with the house, over much insistence otherwise. Le's say: They fought the law and the law won.

What I noticed among the literal rubble was the importance of simple things in an emergency--like a few rolls of packing tape. Like a neighbor's saved boxes from their move-in six months ago. Like a case of bottled water.

The other amazing thing was how fast their church stepped in to help. I don't know the church they attend, but I mean, they mobilized fast, not just with helpers for packing and loading, but with keys to a house, with heat and water and beds and linens, that someone in the congregation was moving out of and selling. By nightfall, we were at that house, hanging the family's clothes in the closets, making a temporary home for five people without one.

Of course, there is always more to the story--like the denial that brings the bottom to us when we most need to hit it but don't want to, like the antidepressants that don't take away the need to feel better as we medicate by whatever means--even spending and hoarding--and like what happens when the walls fall in and we wonder how they got so weak to begin with, like how the middle in America is disintegrating. You could ponder it for hours.

But when someone's kid's Baptism dress is laying in a heap on the driveway in front of you, none of that matters. What matters is assembling collapsed boxes as fast as you can, trying to decide what to shove in them, taping them up and passing them toward the truck. What matters is the bottled water you grabbed on the way over to give to the guys loading the truck. What matters is the quick thinking that gets shelter for a family with no place to go. What matters is friends.

Tags: eviction, family, america, business, religion = Powered by Qumana

peter piper picked a peck of posts - payperpost acquires performancing

i have been a vocal payperpost supporter, versus the blogerati who trash talk PPP as "payola" (please--you ought to be in the music business and see how payola really works--p.s., watch your knees). Although I haven't gotten into using PPP, I did sign up and do an experimental post and think it's a good idea and a solid tool.

I think the folks behind payperpost, and I don't know them, are smart. I think they're doubly smart today for acquiring performancing. Apparently they are not acquiring the blog editor part of performancing, nor the ad engine, but instead the analytics engine and classifieds exchange.

Now I would think acquiring the blog editor and ad tool would have made sense. But it probably would have been too costly. I don't know. I suspect the devil is where he usually is, in the details.

Neat development.

Tags: payperpost, performancing, blogging, tech, business, internet = Powered by Qumana

Microsoft Is Asking the Mostly Male Bloggers Who Received Free Laptops (loaded with vista) from the PR Gurus at Edelmen

...to GIVE THE LAPTOPS AWAY or send them back when they are done reviewing them.

and to that end, Gentlemen (and Barb), Give-Away Laptops Should Be Sent To:

Jeneane Sessum
4430 Wade Green Road
Suite 180
#176
Kennesaw, Georgia 30144
678-294-0900
(please give me a call so I know my pre-reviewed laptop is on the way!)

Think I'm kidding?

Marshall got this email, destined to be a classic in the PR-screwups-in-Blogaria saga. (BTW, in my opinion the giveaway wasn't a bad idea, but very poorly executed. Sending out the following email, however, was really-really stupid):

Marshall,

No good deed goes unpunished, right? You may have seen that other bloggers got review machines as well. Some of that coverage was not factual. As you write your review I just wanted to emphasize that this is a review pc. I strongly recommend you disclose that we sent you this machine for review, and I hope you give your honest opinions. Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding of our intentions I’m going to ask that you either give the pc away or send it back when you no longer need it for product reviews.

Thanks for your understanding, and happy reviewing,

Aaron ***

Oh, Edelman. You silly kids! Next time, won't you consult with the professionals at KHM first?

Tags: Microsoft, AcerFerrari, PR, Advertising, Marketing, Blogging, Tech, Scoble, Business, Viral, Stupid = Powered by Qumana

If you're here looking for info on President Gerald Ford (who died for real this time)...

...you have learned by now that I don't know anything worth your while. I just wrote a funny press release once. So, you might want to check out funeral information on the late President Ford here, or at CBS News, or at Newsday. Looks like the official mourning and funeral begins Saturday. I'll see you there.

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5. Have never used, and will never use, the term "arsy-varsy." -- TomM.

Tom got tagged. And Kia eats fish heads.

...and OMG Kia, but I also threw up all over my aunt-and-uncle's bathroom in 1970. It was after we came back from the Kodak Theater matinee movie one Sunday, where I had gone with my aunt who worked at Kodak and could get us in to free movies on the weekends, and I had eaten Milk Duds at the show, and simultaneously I must have come down with the stomach flu, because I was feeling really queasy when we got back to my aunt's house where I was supposed to spend the night, and this particular Italian couple's remedy for my stomach upset was to have me smell a bowl of minced garlic, after which I barely made it to the upstairs bathroom in time to vomit and have diarrhea all over their shag carpet and commode cover.

a damn small world, I'd say.

Tags: 1970, Kodak Theater, Movies, Milk Duds, Stomach Flu, Vomit, Diarrhea, Minced Garlic, Five from Hell, Tom Matrullo, Kia = Powered by Qumana

top google searches for my blog today

gerald ford dies
free hamsters

you do the math.

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santa didn't bring any linden dollars. :-(

Do you know that as much as I love my tie-dye t-shirt in second life, if I had some extra linden loot in my stocking, I would have spent it on some of this stuff (body ink most likely)...

Yeah, I know; I ain't right. ;-)

Tags: second life, fashion, style, gaming, metaverse, skin, hair, gowns, shirts, marketing, advertising, 3-D world, linden labs = Powered by Qumana

Gerald Ford Dies, For Real This Time

In 2004 I wrote a press release on Gerald Ford's death that was sort of--errrr--a shot at humor, not completely at Gerald Ford's expense. Since then I've gotten visits daily from folks wondering if Gerald Ford was still alive; in fact thousands have come upon my parody press release searching Gerald Ford Dies. Mostly because I'm the fourth hit on that phrase on Google.

Well, may Gerald Ford rest in peace, because he has now officially died, and I can only wonder what people searching for information about his death think when they read my old release from June of 04.

90-Year-Old Gerald Ford Dies - Nation Says, Tough Doo Doo.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 13, 2004 -- Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States, died late Sunday evening at the age of 90 from natural causes. Sources say wife Betty was at President Ford's bedside at the couple's home in Ann Arbor, Mich., when he died, shortly before 11 p.m.

Sources close to the family say that the President, who served from 1974 to 1977, had been recuperating from pneumonia and had insisted on attending President Reagan's memorial services last week with the other living American Presidents. Speculation has arisen that attending the Reagan memorial events may have been too much for the ailing President.

"Now what the hell are we supposed to do?" asked one White House source, referencing the recently-completed period of national mourning for President Reagan. "We just closed the banks, the libraries, shut down the whole government -- people aren't even back to work yet! Are we supposed to do this whole shebang again? What timing. We're at WAR you know."

Customers at Tom's delicatessen in Washington had mixed reactions when told of the news.

"Well, I think if they just get him in the ground quick, we'll remember them both at the same time, and since they're both republicans, that seems pretty fair," suggested Ted Nielsen from nearby Herndon, V.A. "No sense closing down the country one more day for another dead President. Besides, he was clumsy and he didn't look as good as Ronnie. He couldn't act for shit either."

Margie Wilson sees it differently. "CNN's been war-war-war since 9/11," she said. "Me? I like to break up the monotony of war with a good two-week memorial fest, topped off with a romantic hillside burial service. It's the least we can do to honor our dead presidents. And those who've died in the war. And, well, everyone else who's dead too. For goodness sakes, our dead are national heroes. Really, who knows better than the dead what our country needs right now?"

The passing of Presidents Ford and Reagan raises the issue of the aging crop of Presidents: President Carter turns 80 this year, while President George Bush Sr. marked his 80th birthday today by skydiving in front of thousands of onlookers at Texas A&M University. It appears only President Clinton will escape a funeral within the next five to ten years.

"I was sorry to hear about Gerry," President Clinton said. "And Ronnie," President Clinton said again. "And the thing that really blew me away was that Ray Charles died, and you didn't hear jack about that. You know? Here you have dead Presidents, and, now don't get me wrong, I was a President, but you see we're representatives of the people, and we are paid as public servants to do our jobs. And we have done our jobs. President Reagan did his job. President Ford did his job. And I did my job. But NOT ONE of us could blow like Ray Charles. Not one of us had the soul, the hot ache from the pit of the gut like Ray did. Shit. Awe, shit. Ray's the one I'll miss the most."

###

ok. the net truly is wonderous.

Tags: gerald ford, PR, blogging, marketing, humor, death = Powered by Qumana

groovester james brown dead - soul, R&B, funk, and hip hop mourn.

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i just can't think of five things you don't already know about me...

...but i found jeremy's and kat's quite interesting!

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shark jumping 101

i think the time magazine "YOU" thing is stupid. i don't like those change-out images which feel pretty stereotypical (give the asian dude the keyboard, right, stick a mic in the brother's face), and since when does you = web 2.0 because a lot of YOUs aren't us, and everyone probably wrote about this already, but it's all news to me. did everyone love it or hate it? i think it's stupid. okay then.

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My how time flies!

Can it really be 9 days 'til dave winer stops blogging?

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roundtable with myself

Jenna's doing well. Her scabs are almost off, the final step in the post-surgery healing process for the tonsillectomy. The voice has a ways to go before it sounds like our girl again--(thanks to the adenoidectomy and sinus procedure)--how cute that it's gone up a few steps, but can I have our Jenna back? Minnie Mouse doesn't suit her so well. And the drainage issue is still, well, wow. But she's breathing better and bopping around, so THANK YOU for the prayers and good karma. It is working. We are bathing in it. Trust me.

And let me tell you, we were bathing a plenty as George and I recovered from the plague we picked up at the hospital. I haven't felt that helplessly sick since my own surgery 9 years prior, and it took me back -- the whole experience did -- tumbling back in time, past all of the traumatic speed bumps of the last decade and more.

Weee! Racing through the snow, in a one-hearse open sleigh, o're the landmines we go, puking all the way, ho ho ho...

What I should have known, and will you please remind me next time, you know there will be a next time, friends, is that I must remember to keep hold of the coping mechanisms I've worked so hard to keep on hand in my Mental Health Emergency Kit. Because all of that is gone as soon as I enter the doorway to panic. By the third second of terror, I don't even know my name, and I'd fly from the sound of it if I heard it, as every slice of solid ground slips away: so immediately I am swallowed. Eaten whole by the churning, burning eternity of agony that slows every second into seven lifetimes.

The problem with panic is that you can't see out the other side. Four walls without windows, it is always right now, and right now is always.

It Wrecks Me.

It's like that.

But in the end, I came out the other side, mostly rebuilt by physically mending and getting well, a process that took some good antibiotics and time, and tears and talk, and doubting and waiting, and believing again.

PLUS some warm thoughts from some good friends in the land of the blogs.

Thank you, all.

p.s. j. brotherlove--Should we start calling you uncle brotherlove now or later?

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Tish Digs In

Is something rotten in the state of blogmark? Uh, mebbe so. Tish Grier has uncovered some potentially not-so-funny business going on with a company selling bloggers' URLs for profit. Things that make you go, WTF?

Okay...it's bad enough that our mailing addys are sent to whomever will pay for them. And it's so bad for our teleophone numbers that we had to start a National Do Not Call list.

But *selling* our URLs??

Okay, maybe it's only going to be the URLs of "influential" bloggers, and the rest of us schmoes are out in the cold...

but still...Umbria is selling our urls! not their service! Which means we may be dealing with more spam than we already get.

IMHO, this is NOT how social media works and could ultimately black-eye a company that misuses Umbria's info. It could also open the door to other kinds of rip-off,splog-related efforts.

I would love to know if anyone knows more about this--and thanks to Tish for the scoop.

p.s., I'll sell you Tish's URL for $4,999.

p.p.s. Tish, shhhh--we'll split the profit.

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GoJuice: Ken Camp Jams on Alec Saunders New Presence

I enjoyed reading Ken Camp's thoughtful take on Alec Saunders' post about the "New Presence."

In his post, Alec ponders important points on the intersection of mobility and presence, reflecting on who we are becoming around what mobile devices, who we are when we are here and there (or no place in particular) with attached devices that connect us to other devices, systems and humans, when we want them to and when we don't, and all of that stuff.

"The intersection of presence and mobility is where the subtle politesse of telephone etiquette breaks.   Today’s presence metaphor, tied as it is to the device, is fundamentally broken in a mobile context.  What does it mean to be present when mobile?  My phone is on, and it’s not in use.  Am I available?  Maybe, and maybe not.  Where am I? Is the topic of the call suitable for discussion in a public place?  How about on an airline?"

As we bounce around social networks, collaborative spaces, and various message platforms online, we simultaneously bound across geographies, roles, and tasks offline; we have become mobile-squared, more dispersed and dis-integrated as our legacy systems once were. How the telecommunications industry and innovators deal with the scattered us is for experts like these folks.

What interests me is the future of online communication platforms that can keep me "whole" and allow me to dissociate identity-wise as I traverse the net, the same way that wireless networks and devices can keep me connected as I move about in the physical world today.

Part of the reason I've been posting less here, beyond the tugs and turbulents of family responsibilities, is that I've been writing and posting more within other roles I'm exploring in what I (sort of) joke is my "Third Life" experience. This is living across online social spaces through connected stories and dramas in tandem with others doing the same -- for example with Kat and Jeremy of Kat Herding Media (KHM), and their most recent practice of Clientology(TM).

My mobility goes to the very core of who I am, and then some. I want to play with who I am in the in-between spaces online and off. My identity is mobile. Nothing human is fixed; only devices on hips are.

Ken Camp is grappling with these concepts and more when he considers how we should parse the ideas of presence and mobility, deciding that we should call it nothing or at least call it something completely different... the Absence of Presence, as he describes here:

The problem isn't with the concept. The concept is sound. The problem is with the words. I suggest we abandon them all and start fresh. There's no benefit in continuing on a path that hasn't been thoroughly evangelized, isn't filled with latent demand to fuel a revenue stream, and has an 800 pound gorilla obfuscating the situation.

"I'm sort of inside the industry, and I definitely want to get my mojo on with presence, availability, relevance and context philosophically.  But I wouldn't take a job as a marketing manager promoting it. And I sure wouldn't take a job as a sales manager making quota from it. It's not an enterprise initiative, and not likely to be one any time soon.

"Call it mojo. Call it karma. Call it my Web 2.0 Aura if you like. My fear is that until a spin doctor steps in a really steps it up a notch, we'll continue to flail around the absence of presence."

I don't have enough depth to have an opinion on what to call the ideas these folks are knocking around, but I think you should take some time to read Alec and Ken, and see if they don't help get your GoJuice on.

Now I have some new presents to wrap. ;-)

Tags: telecom, mobility, New Presence, alec saunders, ken camp, web2.0, blogging, tech, marketing, business, Internet, wireless = Powered by Qumana

We're ok. Jenna's mending. George and I got an infection from hospital, got so sick, got meds, got better. Thank you.

so a lot of what i've been sitting with around this being sick and not feeling able to take care of myself or my kid, coupled with feeling like i was gonna die, you know it all goes back to that abandonment depression thing, of course, doesn't everything? yes.

but i am -- between panic and sadness and confusion -- at least this time aware intermittently of what the feeling feels like (that is when it doesn't feel like my imagined seconds before death)...

...clarified for me as I called a couple friends who were not there or busy -- to find someone to just help me (do what i don't know, make sure i didn't die and take care of jenna for me with george dragging his sick self through 5 performances....)

someone to promise me it would be ok who i could believe, and aside from the UNRELENTING pull of wanting my mother and knowing that wasn't going to happen, not because she isn't "there" but because i can't let her be "here" right in here, and how will it be for me when i'm old, and all of that...

and what if and what when and what if and what when...

...that bright, shining serrated edge that kept glistening was a single word: helpless.

helplessnesssss.

then what am i doing: knowing i would wreck the world to make it ok for my kid.... to give her the tools to not feel this way -- i don't feel like i have them. not today. even after ALL of this LONG process, i still hit that space  -- whether it's live or memorex --  that's precisely helpless,,,,,,,,,,

                no one, no where: help me?

never we never forget the way there; the trips are less frequent but the gps is always on....

              where does the world go in that racing paralysis: the memory of before and hope of what's next dissolving.

.... how do i ever know it's ever going to ever end ever?

...that and then the whiplash: jenna coming out of anesthesia and her moaning - 'are they gone? is it over? is it done? are my tonsils gone?' and tears down her cheeks when i say yes honey, they're gone it's ok its all done,' and sleeping and waking and asking with the same mix of emotions, mommy, daddy, are they gone, is it over i don't get it?

...I don't know how to process it.

echoes come in layers, and I'm coming out of anesthesia when i almost bled to death and all of that mess is

IN MY FACE

and then all of my father's dying and death and sickness is like coming home. ......to the cool white cotton sheets -- she took such good care of me

i still don't get ANY of it or how to make it better for me or my husband or my child or my family, or how to make it stop or how to make it start, and i already know i can't, and that's where this show began.

i guess i'm back.

Tags: grieving, PTSD, children, tonsillitis, adenoidectomy, sinus surgery, blogging, not blogging = Powered by Qumana

this is not my beautiful house

i've been grappling with real-world stuff that's had me using the web more for research than for writing. like the old old days before i blogged, when finding stuff and finding stuff out was what made my brain zing. then blogging came, then writing to the web, then sharing ourselves, then NOT sharing ourselves, and here we are.

boring boring boring--we're a mass of boring twittering webbugs who care more about what's being said about whom than all of the whos we are.

ack.

i'll get over it. probably.

processing.

that's all.

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

woot.

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Globe for Darfur

December 10th is Human Right's Day. We can't do much, but there are some things we can do.

People around the world will be join together to denounce the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war in Darfur and to show solidarity with the women and girls of Darfur.

Get Informed

Read and Support POTP

Sign a petition

Find an event near you

Use tools to send letters or start a meeting where you live.

More things you can do

What I'm Not Writing About

What I'm not writing about is everything that matters to me.

I'm not writing about how sick Jenna has been, and how it's down to the wire as to whether or not she'll have her T&A (tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy) on Tuesday, how the first antibiotic didn't work, and how this one is working, but her asthma's kicked up, and it's been nebulizer treatments and pills, and trying to get her to school because if you miss 15 days (we're just about there--whoopie!) they have this great rule where they send social services to your house to chat you up, I guess to make sure you're not holding your kid hostage in the closet--OH WAIT NO, they miss all of those cases because they're checking up on the asthmatic strep-infected kids who really need schools to give a crap about the air quality in the buildings and maybe not put them in pre-flooded basements with no windows so they have a fighting chance.

I'm not writing about how she's gotten all As in spite of this health stuff, and how that makes me cry, and how weak I feel when she can't do the things she likes to do.

I'm not writing about the trips to Walgreens and another $500 in maintenance medicines this month, and I should write about the three baskets she made in her game last Saturday even though she had to sit out every 20 minutes for a toke on her puffer waiting to stop coughing.

I'm not writing about how behind I am at blogging about business and communications over at BlogHer.

I'm not writing about Jenna waking up today vomiting--the latest virus I'm assuming for now--and holding the throw-up bowl. I'm not writing about the 4:00 appointment I have today for her chest x-ray to be sure there's no pneumonia or else surgery's off.

I'm not writing how short it makes me as a mother, all of this sickness, and how useless I feel at my inability to fix anything, and how yelling at her out of frustration makes me hate myself.

I'm not writing about the $624 insurance premium we have to come up with each month--and how that only covers six sick visits (no well visits) each year, which Jenna breezed through in the first half of last year, and how we're into the $2,000 deductible now, with everything out of pocket until we give them $2,000 (plus the $624/month premium), and then, best of all, we get to pay 30 percent of all the other costs since BCBS oh-so-generously covers 70 percent.

I'm not writing about wondering how much the chest x-ray today will cost, and I'm trying not to even think about money because people with sick loved ones shouldn't have to think about money over care, so I don't think it and I don't write it.

I'm not writing about all of this because I make part of my living in this space now, and that means I have to be at the top of my game.

How can she be at the top of her game with a sick kid--that is how Business thinks and business is right. Business is right that I am not at the top of my game--I don't have 17 hours to work every day, only 11. I don't have time to blog and do the work, I only have time to work. I don't have time for community, only for strategy.

I have no doubt I can help you achieve your goals even with a sick kid and a coughing fit of my own. But don't expect me to have a personality, or a deadline might slip. The blogging world isn't about me or you anymore--at least not for tech sharpshooters, nomads and writers. It's about looking sharp and being sharp and talking sharp and thinking sharp. It's about showing what you've got and about NOT stopping showing it.

Out here, among the blogs, where there are no throw-up bowls to hold, I'm not feeling sharp. In fact, I'm feeling very, very dull.

That's what I'm not writing about.

Tags: blogging, business, advertising, PR, marketing, parenting, illness, tonsills, surgery, strep, asthma = Powered by Qumana

no no.

hoping they're wrong and the body found thought to be James Kim is actually him, breathing and ok.

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Twitter for the Rest of Us

I enjoy twittering. I really do. I think the people I follow are swell. I really do. I'm already sick of hearing my own mediocrity, though. Trying to make meaning of life in snippets when so many are living non-fiction horror stories every instant of every day. How do we capture more than the surface in a ubiquitous IM setting where dozens of lines of chatter are crossing continuously. And if we don't try to capture more, are we cheapening how we relate to each other? I dunno. Just thinking. Of other twitters. Outside of the Valley.

deciding whether to bounce a check for groceries or medicines.

pawning grandmother's jewelry

feeding the kids Motrin for breakfast so their fever won't show up at daycare until I get off work.

scanning for the softest impact spot in case my bad brakes fail.

rent or food? rent or food?

walking the back roads. not for exercise.

taking back birthday presents.

turning the heat down to 62. happy to have heat.

diabetes. self insured. panicked.

looking for enough money to get the gas to get to work.

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BY FAR

...the most relevant-to-blogging thing I've run into in, say, 5 years?

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