June 30, 2008
June 27, 2008
June 26, 2008
Loren Feldman Gets a Web Design Refresh from Dave Winer
Dave Winer, who is the registrant of 1938media.net has created a new homepage for Loren Feldman, whose Don Rickles mocking shtick has become about as old as... Don Rickles. Dave's homepage design features some of Loren's best work!
Looks like some similar domains are available for those involved in the latest parody parade looking to launch an offensive defense strategy.
I don't know much about the origin of this feud, but it's going to be interesting to watch how this plays out. Especially with Dave entering from stage right.
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Looks like some similar domains are available for those involved in the latest parody parade looking to launch an offensive defense strategy.
I don't know much about the origin of this feud, but it's going to be interesting to watch how this plays out. Especially with Dave entering from stage right.
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well i missed the subway kid dying on twitter thing...
I guess I was too busy getting kissed to death by a grateful little dog (few posts down friends) to catch the jared-from-subway-died twitter mishap today.
Louis Gray Not Blue has a good rundown of what happens when the echo chamber tunes in to its own reverb, and suddenly twitterers were all a-twitter tweeting the news of the subway guy's demise.
Except that the whole thing was urban legend and Subway-Jared is just fine.
Cindy McCain on the other hand is probably still sneaking Vicodin. I took one after my surgery. I can hardly blame her, addict-thief that she is...
But I digress.
Louis noted that the ripple effect of popular twitterers tweeting bad information in this case had tens of thousands of followers of Kevin Rose of Digg and Adam Ostrow of Mashable mourning Jared's death before lunch.
Louis thinks that those who twitter should fact-check before tweeting 'breaking news' as a solution to the potential harm of false tweets (known pre-1999 as rumors). I think 1) fact checking online is overrated, 2) twitter is not a news-breaking service but ubiquitous IM and inherently untrustworthy yet entertaining overall, 3) that you can always count on the self-correcting nature of the Internet.
That's how you'll know when I tweet, "Surgeon General reports 140 character thinking causes brain damage," that I might be telling the truth.
---
Louis Gray Not Blue has a good rundown of what happens when the echo chamber tunes in to its own reverb, and suddenly twitterers were all a-twitter tweeting the news of the subway guy's demise.
Except that the whole thing was urban legend and Subway-Jared is just fine.
Cindy McCain on the other hand is probably still sneaking Vicodin. I took one after my surgery. I can hardly blame her, addict-thief that she is...
But I digress.
Louis noted that the ripple effect of popular twitterers tweeting bad information in this case had tens of thousands of followers of Kevin Rose of Digg and Adam Ostrow of Mashable mourning Jared's death before lunch.
Louis thinks that those who twitter should fact-check before tweeting 'breaking news' as a solution to the potential harm of false tweets (known pre-1999 as rumors). I think 1) fact checking online is overrated, 2) twitter is not a news-breaking service but ubiquitous IM and inherently untrustworthy yet entertaining overall, 3) that you can always count on the self-correcting nature of the Internet.
That's how you'll know when I tweet, "Surgeon General reports 140 character thinking causes brain damage," that I might be telling the truth.
---
June 25, 2008
Only In Amerika...
...where anyone can be President, and any any any really any anyone can be first trollop, I mean lady.
Cindy (not brady) McCain said at a recent rally that she is and always has been proud of her country (unsaid: unlike that obama bitch). TBogg says why:
-
Cindy (not brady) McCain said at a recent rally that she is and always has been proud of her country (unsaid: unlike that obama bitch). TBogg says why:
Where else could Cindy McCain get away with stealing drugs donated to help impoverished Third World people in order to keep that damn monkey off of her back. And where else could she walk away unscathed? To be fair, she was under a lot of pressure at the time because her husband was up to his wattled neck in the Charles Keating Affair, and now look, he's going to be the Republican candidate for President. So not only is this a great country, but it's also a very forgiving country, and that has to count for something...-
-
o this little dog
And I mean to tell you it's the laaast thing we need.
Truly. I don't have to tell you about the price of gas and how you have to drive everywhere in this megalopolis just to l-i-v-e. (FWIW, when was the last time a large bag of Lays potato chips -- which I didn't buy but did admire in amazement -- cost over $4? Answer: NEVER.) And did I mention healthcare bills up the ying yang? I know I'm singing to the choir here my sisters and brothers.
So when my sister told me about this starving, lonely, neglected mother dog next door to her (one puppy dead, one 'gone,' and the other now belonging to my sister) who wasn't being fed or watered (except when she'd sneak over to do it), and when she told me the owner told her to just find someone to take it--he didn't care as long as it was gone soon--and when she asked me to look at it with her while I was visiting last weekend, my question to YOU, dear readers, is why the heck did I not drive away?
Why did I go back to that dog pen in the glaring sun with no shade in the 100-degree heat and see this 4 pound shaggy black little mama dog sitting there so scared and so lonely? No babies, no friends, no family, nothing but flies and muddy water.
This is a matter of mathematics. We already have two dogs, two cats, one (currently) hamster, one beta, and a variety of insects who consider themselves kin. I should not have walked back there. I should not have picked her up. I should have driven away.
And that's what I did. With four little paws on the floorboard of the van, planted near the air conditioning, with two of the most grateful eyes I've ever seen looking up at me.
And we're calling her daisy.
She eats cheap dog food and runs around naked despite the list of Walmart dog clothes Jenna had in mind, and she eats out of jenna's old baby bowls and sleeps in a cat carrier. And I think she thinks she's in heaven.
---
Truly. I don't have to tell you about the price of gas and how you have to drive everywhere in this megalopolis just to l-i-v-e. (FWIW, when was the last time a large bag of Lays potato chips -- which I didn't buy but did admire in amazement -- cost over $4? Answer: NEVER.) And did I mention healthcare bills up the ying yang? I know I'm singing to the choir here my sisters and brothers.
So when my sister told me about this starving, lonely, neglected mother dog next door to her (one puppy dead, one 'gone,' and the other now belonging to my sister) who wasn't being fed or watered (except when she'd sneak over to do it), and when she told me the owner told her to just find someone to take it--he didn't care as long as it was gone soon--and when she asked me to look at it with her while I was visiting last weekend, my question to YOU, dear readers, is why the heck did I not drive away?
Why did I go back to that dog pen in the glaring sun with no shade in the 100-degree heat and see this 4 pound shaggy black little mama dog sitting there so scared and so lonely? No babies, no friends, no family, nothing but flies and muddy water.
This is a matter of mathematics. We already have two dogs, two cats, one (currently) hamster, one beta, and a variety of insects who consider themselves kin. I should not have walked back there. I should not have picked her up. I should have driven away.
And that's what I did. With four little paws on the floorboard of the van, planted near the air conditioning, with two of the most grateful eyes I've ever seen looking up at me.
And we're calling her daisy.
She eats cheap dog food and runs around naked despite the list of Walmart dog clothes Jenna had in mind, and she eats out of jenna's old baby bowls and sleeps in a cat carrier. And I think she thinks she's in heaven.
---
June 23, 2008
June 21, 2008
Found: Virgin Pack of American Spirits
July 4th will be my FOUR YEAR anniversary of quitting smoking. Holy Cow! Most of you who read me were there when I quit. I languished over having to quit for the first two years. Every day, every mile. OH how I missed my best friends. OH how I fiddled and gnashed teeth in those early days.I quit for 4 years once before in my life - the day Bill Clinton was elected President (first term) was my first quit date. I quit for four years then too. Then on one night in one fit of one bit of frustration and anger, I grabbed a pack out of a cigarette machine (they were always close at hand back then, weren't they?) and lit up. Smokers are such addicts: I can quit again--I am good at quitting.
So imagine my surprise today when I was trying to find out why my car charger wasn't working for my phone, and I pulled out the little drawer at the bottom of my console that I never use, and there they were: an unopened pack of American Spirits - my brand, my old friend, right there--came back to see if I still cared.
The pack was in there because the last time George went down to see his mother, during her final days, he took the van. He quit a year ago August. That was one of his last packs - and he's always wondered what happened to it.
The first thing I did after staring for a Very Long Time was smell the pack. Cellophane sealed, I could still smell its sexy scent. Yes, even now, it smelled THAT good. Next I put them on top of the dashboard and drove to the pool, because that's where we were going when I found them.
The next thing I did was think about how it would feel to smoke, to escape, to have something ELSE to do--a distraction from everything else in the elses of the elses of the elses I have to do. As I wrote then:
When you smoke, you are always doing more than one thing at a time. Every time you light up you are smoking AND thinking, walking, breathing, sitting, talking, pacing, driving, writing, drinking, whatever. Usually you are doing several things at once. That's what stimulants do best--let you multi-task and enjoy the rush of it.I've gotten better over the years. Moments aren't exactly something to escape anymore. I'm mostly present during them. I have stopped running in between the tick of the clock. Somehow I think that's good, although I'm not sure it will ever feel normal.
Losing the ability to escape the perplexing LENGTH of a single moment is perhaps my biggest loss in giving up cigarettes.
There must be some joy to be found in those seem-to-last-forever-moments -- another stretch of highway, another commercial, another bill collector, another Zoom episode, another press release, another Web site. There must be something people enjoy about being present inside of those tick-tock-ticks of time. For me, it is extra time to be anxious.
I've got a long way to go, friends.
I didn't have one. And I didn't bring them home. I left them with a friend at the pool who still smokes. Someone I wouldn't be tempted to ask for one, because I thought about it. I sure did. Four years later I could have easily blown it by telling myself some story about how Good I Am At Quitting.
Like always, this blog is part of what keeps me honest and accountable -- to me as much as to you. It's not so different as I head toward four years than it was after six months, and my sentiments--they're pretty much the same:
This blog helped keep me honest. Honestly. There were times I thought about it. Seriously. George's cigarettes are in the garage right now. I could easily have grabbed one during one of my "moments." One of the thoughts during those "moments" was that I would have to post it. I would. I wouldn't not post if if I cheated. I would tell you all that I slipped up, and how good it was, but how bad it feels to have to turn the clock back, and you would all tell me that everyone has a slip up and it doesn't mean I've lost the battle--or lost respect--to just pick up where I was before the slipup, and I would say thank you, I love you guys, and to be honest, I wanted to avoid that WHOLE thing.Really. Thanks to you all for helping me get here. And pat me on the back and give a shout out to God for the help. Slowly, very slowly, I've used those moments I used to use to escape to connect in new ways to new people and new energy. And I don't mean that in a woo-woo way. I mean that in an ah-ha way.
So thanks.
Jenna, if you ever read this post, please don't EVER light one of those disgusting cigarettes. It's not just that they're bad for you. It's that they don't let you go. They cuff your hands and mess with your head, and all of your internal organs too, as long as you live. Which won't be as long as you would have. And even if you quit, they never stop messing with you.
peace-out.
June 20, 2008
a face
The big diseases have faces. The big organs have faces. Your heart, your kidney, your lungs, even your breasts -- they're the Big News body parts.
They have celebrity faces that get attention. And because they get attention, they get money. And because they get money, they attract talented young researchers who dedicate their lives beating the disease or figuring out the organ. And because they get talent, more people survive, get well, watch their kids grow up, are free from pain.
Pancreatic cancer is a disease without a face. That's because, as Randy Pausch says, no one lives long enough to become the face of that disease.
Randy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer almost 2 years ago. It is a rare for anyone with pancreatic cancer to live as long as Randy has. Most -- like my father -- die within six months. The five year survival rate is around 3 or 4 percent. Even 40 years after my father's death, the prognosis is the same. No other cancer has been as elusive or remained as aggressive over the decades.
I found Randy's story because reading Doc Searl's posts about his pancreatitis battle, and Suzi's blog about hers, reminded me of the pancreas' tricky stubborn ways. Doc and Suzi don't have pancreatic cancer, but they do have bum pancreases. As I read of their latest challenges, I searched around to see how things were progressing with that odd organ and came across Randy's blog, his Carnegie Mellon "last lecture," which has become a book, and his recent testimony before the Health and Human Services Subcommittee:
Please watch it, and give what you can to PANCAN or the Lustgarten Foundation.
They have celebrity faces that get attention. And because they get attention, they get money. And because they get money, they attract talented young researchers who dedicate their lives beating the disease or figuring out the organ. And because they get talent, more people survive, get well, watch their kids grow up, are free from pain.
Pancreatic cancer is a disease without a face. That's because, as Randy Pausch says, no one lives long enough to become the face of that disease.
Randy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer almost 2 years ago. It is a rare for anyone with pancreatic cancer to live as long as Randy has. Most -- like my father -- die within six months. The five year survival rate is around 3 or 4 percent. Even 40 years after my father's death, the prognosis is the same. No other cancer has been as elusive or remained as aggressive over the decades.
I found Randy's story because reading Doc Searl's posts about his pancreatitis battle, and Suzi's blog about hers, reminded me of the pancreas' tricky stubborn ways. Doc and Suzi don't have pancreatic cancer, but they do have bum pancreases. As I read of their latest challenges, I searched around to see how things were progressing with that odd organ and came across Randy's blog, his Carnegie Mellon "last lecture," which has become a book, and his recent testimony before the Health and Human Services Subcommittee:
Please watch it, and give what you can to PANCAN or the Lustgarten Foundation.
June 16, 2008
You had to be there...
...to know why this made me cry. I'm so happy Gary is back.
Meanwhile, I'd offer to take some of doc's extra morphine, but last time i had that shit in the hospital they had to stop me from itching my back raw with my dinner fork.
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Meanwhile, I'd offer to take some of doc's extra morphine, but last time i had that shit in the hospital they had to stop me from itching my back raw with my dinner fork.
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June 10, 2008
June 09, 2008
June 07, 2008
The Day of the Numerican
This story is unique and yet ubiquitous. It is one too often left untold because it is unfolding in real time in families across America. Our family history is written forward, yet linked back to the legacy of slavery.
John Lee Harris says of the Numerican Nation:
John Lee Harris says of the Numerican Nation:
"In as much as we are not immigrants, in the traditional sense of the word, I prefer to think of us as the Numerican Nation: A spiritual people borne of slavery."And he writes:
I’ve postulated that our family’s identity is inextricably bound-up in the past; therefore, we are Numericans.Numerican is constitutive of two words, Numen and American.
In ancient times the word numen denoted a local divinity, or presiding spirit of a place. The word American simply refers to “the New World”.
Our forefathers lived and died in the Carolinas’; their numen and/or spirit reside there:
Whereas Africans, Eurasians, and Native Americans entered, new Americans emerged, a spiritual people borne of slavery. Their identity forever changed through the passage of time.
Implicit thereto is the fundamental belief that historians simply got it wrong; 250 years of bondage left the Numerican Nation without global roots.
June 04, 2008
May 30, 2008
Powned! Getting Nasty about Nasty Business
I don't know the whys and wherefores of law enough to know if the scam mike describes on TC tonight is legally a scam or not. I know I've fallen for a couple, and I'm not the only one. Sure we are online regulars and should know not to click the BIG YES and instead click the teeny-tiny 'no thanks,' but every now and then, there's a disconnect and we enter into the quagmire of clicks, getting powned.
I personally paid for that scamified ringtone/download service for TWO YEARS without knowing. What does that say about me? I'm a financial goofball. Still, have you seen where they bury that on your phone bill? We have a bundled ATT bill that's like 26 pages. One little line item slips in and it can take a long time to catch it. I figured the bill went up by $14 because the bill ALWAYS seems to go up. We ended up getting some of the money back, but not all of it.
Considering Intelius the company Mike has investigated is getting ready to go public, I hope the fact that he's got a big mouth comes in right handy and gives the powers that be some pause.
Nassty business.
UPDATE: - Jain's Son has his say on TC.
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I personally paid for that scamified ringtone/download service for TWO YEARS without knowing. What does that say about me? I'm a financial goofball. Still, have you seen where they bury that on your phone bill? We have a bundled ATT bill that's like 26 pages. One little line item slips in and it can take a long time to catch it. I figured the bill went up by $14 because the bill ALWAYS seems to go up. We ended up getting some of the money back, but not all of it.
Considering Intelius the company Mike has investigated is getting ready to go public, I hope the fact that he's got a big mouth comes in right handy and gives the powers that be some pause.
Nassty business.
UPDATE: - Jain's Son has his say on TC.
---
May 29, 2008
I like that friendfeed's a backchannel
On the other hand, I'm sorry to disappoint all of those calling for friendfeed comments to be pulled into the larger web, but I happen to enjoy the back channel short bursts of comments on the feeds in friendfeed. It is the perfect medium for wit and snark. Lord knows we need some more of that around here before this entire talkosphere turns into snoresville.So leave friendfeed alone.
I say it's not such a big deal if people have to get off their asses and walk over there when twitter is down. Satisfying an addiction can take a little work. If you want to complain about the extra effort, go chop some wood or water the horses or something.
Friendfeed's like a viewing booth at a porn shop, except with comments. Okay, not exactly. But kind of. You have your rooms if you're into that. Otherwise you can watch all the goings on, and if you're moved to respond, well, the platform is all yours.
oh they're gonna love me over there now.
---
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May 28, 2008
SezWho? My Blog Life in Comments 2001-2008
For as long as I can remember in the land of blogs, technology experts like Shelley Powers told me not to give control of my data away. Serious technology folks host their own stuff, and usually on their own servers, because they don't like to leave chance to chance--and because they know how.
I'll cop to the fact that It's a pretty dumb idea to have stayed on blogspot so long. Honestly? That's the trap of a closed system. Once you invest enough of your time and energy and passion into it, the barrier to change is about as high as the sky. Maybe higher. The relationship becomes sort of a 'the devil you know" dance, and you're not leading.
THIRD PARTIES? DON'T RSVP.
As I've written before, I like Blogger as blogging software. But I wish I would have left blogspot for my own hosted site long ago. On BlogSisters I solved illusion of hosting with web forwarding. But still, all of that content is on blogspot.
It's not like I haven't taken warnings about the risks of putting my content in the hands of third parties seriously. I have. But it has always been 'not quite seriously enough.' There are other must-dos competing with my time.
As the noise level escalates and Web 2.0 companies come and go, I see more clearly the argument for keeping ownership of my data whenever possible. It's a hot topic for social media and comment users lately.
FOLLOW THE BOUNCING COMMENTS: FROM YACCS TO BLOGGER TO HALSOCAN TO BLOGGER + SEZWHO
Take my comments here on Allied. Some of us were doing comments before most of the blogs on Techmeme tonight were born, and before most Web 2.0 CEO's could drive.
In the early days of blogging, if you wanted comments, you had to stay up until 2 a.m. and sign on to get an account on YACCS within a given 1 hour period. If you weren't lucky enough to get your login during that window, you had to wait until the next day. And after enough users were on the system to create headaches, YACCS said, No More.
YACC's creator, Hossein, was a one or two man shop - Remember, these were the days before flush funding and social media conferences. Having YACCS comments in those days was being a REAL blogger, because commenting tools were hard to come by. It meant you cared enough to stay up late.
After some years, I think about 2004, Blogger got pretty good comments of its own, and I was getting a lot of YACCS comment spam. Hossein decided to stop supporting YACCS and it was time to make a switch, so I turned YACCS off and turned Blogger comments on.
That worked pretty well for a while, but before Google's first big Blogger upgrade, I started getting MORE comment spam, tried moderating comments for a while and hated it (remember - this was before OpenID, before comment registration, and when CAPTCHA didn't even work well) and so I decided to turn Blogger comments off somewhere in 2006 and replace them with Haloscan.
Why Haloscan? Because Shakespierce used Haloscan, and I wanted to be kewl like Tony. No really. I'm serious.
See how adoption works? The Kewl Factor is a powerful thang.
SO Here I am again, and Haloscan is being difficult where Blogger's new templates are concerned (you've been seeing that error message for the last HOW LONG now?), so I'm turning Blogger comments back on.
AUGMENTING, NOT REPLACING
The good news is, I can turn Blogger comments back on and STILL HAVE a custom service that does more than Blogger lets me do with comments. I can get a universal user profile and comment tracking across social media. And instead of giving away the data, it stays where my comments live, with the rest of my content.
That's because I installed SezWho, which is not a comment replacement system, like disqus, but a conversation and reputation-driven universal profile. It is known for working across all kinds of social media -- including wordpress, drupal, and Blogger blogs; phpBB forums; etc. -- and for having a layer of semantic intelligence that tracks reputation over time. With open API's, it can do pretty much whatever the web decides it should do.
By turning comments back on with Blogger and adding SezWho, I don't think I'll be looking back three years from now and seeing the kind of SPAM that's piled up because my commenting service (as YACCS did) had to shutter its doors, but somehow left a window open for spammers to slip through.
Second of all, I'll have access to conversations that no matter what happens to the third party service provider. They'll live with the rest of my blog content, not on some other site somewhere else. I'll be able to keep my blog's conversational legacy, not wish that I kept it.
Third, as menopause progresses and I become even more forgetful than I am this very minute, my SezWho Universal Profile will give me a web-wide view of conversations I've participated in from wherever I am. Now, I wish I had a Universal Profile for my offline life. If only.
Fourth, Trackbacks work with SezWho, and that's a plus because with Blogger I could never seem to get trackbacks to work no matter how many times someone said: "Could you use trackbacks please?"
Well I've already given more reasons than Fred Wilson's Three Reasons in this post, and if he can do a shoutout for a company he's funding, then I can tell you why I decided to try SezWho as a mere flack.
Now back to our regularly scheduled conversation.
---
----
I'll cop to the fact that It's a pretty dumb idea to have stayed on blogspot so long. Honestly? That's the trap of a closed system. Once you invest enough of your time and energy and passion into it, the barrier to change is about as high as the sky. Maybe higher. The relationship becomes sort of a 'the devil you know" dance, and you're not leading.
THIRD PARTIES? DON'T RSVP.
As I've written before, I like Blogger as blogging software. But I wish I would have left blogspot for my own hosted site long ago. On BlogSisters I solved illusion of hosting with web forwarding. But still, all of that content is on blogspot.
It's not like I haven't taken warnings about the risks of putting my content in the hands of third parties seriously. I have. But it has always been 'not quite seriously enough.' There are other must-dos competing with my time.
As the noise level escalates and Web 2.0 companies come and go, I see more clearly the argument for keeping ownership of my data whenever possible. It's a hot topic for social media and comment users lately.
FOLLOW THE BOUNCING COMMENTS: FROM YACCS TO BLOGGER TO HALSOCAN TO BLOGGER + SEZWHO
Take my comments here on Allied. Some of us were doing comments before most of the blogs on Techmeme tonight were born, and before most Web 2.0 CEO's could drive.
In the early days of blogging, if you wanted comments, you had to stay up until 2 a.m. and sign on to get an account on YACCS within a given 1 hour period. If you weren't lucky enough to get your login during that window, you had to wait until the next day. And after enough users were on the system to create headaches, YACCS said, No More.
YACC's creator, Hossein, was a one or two man shop - Remember, these were the days before flush funding and social media conferences. Having YACCS comments in those days was being a REAL blogger, because commenting tools were hard to come by. It meant you cared enough to stay up late.
After some years, I think about 2004, Blogger got pretty good comments of its own, and I was getting a lot of YACCS comment spam. Hossein decided to stop supporting YACCS and it was time to make a switch, so I turned YACCS off and turned Blogger comments on.
That worked pretty well for a while, but before Google's first big Blogger upgrade, I started getting MORE comment spam, tried moderating comments for a while and hated it (remember - this was before OpenID, before comment registration, and when CAPTCHA didn't even work well) and so I decided to turn Blogger comments off somewhere in 2006 and replace them with Haloscan.
Why Haloscan? Because Shakespierce used Haloscan, and I wanted to be kewl like Tony. No really. I'm serious.
See how adoption works? The Kewl Factor is a powerful thang.
SO Here I am again, and Haloscan is being difficult where Blogger's new templates are concerned (you've been seeing that error message for the last HOW LONG now?), so I'm turning Blogger comments back on.
AUGMENTING, NOT REPLACING
The good news is, I can turn Blogger comments back on and STILL HAVE a custom service that does more than Blogger lets me do with comments. I can get a universal user profile and comment tracking across social media. And instead of giving away the data, it stays where my comments live, with the rest of my content.
That's because I installed SezWho, which is not a comment replacement system, like disqus, but a conversation and reputation-driven universal profile. It is known for working across all kinds of social media -- including wordpress, drupal, and Blogger blogs; phpBB forums; etc. -- and for having a layer of semantic intelligence that tracks reputation over time. With open API's, it can do pretty much whatever the web decides it should do.
By turning comments back on with Blogger and adding SezWho, I don't think I'll be looking back three years from now and seeing the kind of SPAM that's piled up because my commenting service (as YACCS did) had to shutter its doors, but somehow left a window open for spammers to slip through.
Second of all, I'll have access to conversations that no matter what happens to the third party service provider. They'll live with the rest of my blog content, not on some other site somewhere else. I'll be able to keep my blog's conversational legacy, not wish that I kept it.
Third, as menopause progresses and I become even more forgetful than I am this very minute, my SezWho Universal Profile will give me a web-wide view of conversations I've participated in from wherever I am. Now, I wish I had a Universal Profile for my offline life. If only.
Fourth, Trackbacks work with SezWho, and that's a plus because with Blogger I could never seem to get trackbacks to work no matter how many times someone said: "Could you use trackbacks please?"
Well I've already given more reasons than Fred Wilson's Three Reasons in this post, and if he can do a shoutout for a company he's funding, then I can tell you why I decided to try SezWho as a mere flack.
Now back to our regularly scheduled conversation.
---
----
perhaps the best term for stubborn ass I've ever heard
In the new book What Happened, President Bush's former press secretary Scott McClellan decides to stop covering up for his former boss, and eloquently expresses his version of life in the administration.
He utters one of the best descriptors for Bush's particular kind of flawed thinking that I've ever heard. He calls the President's particular kind of pig headedness a "detrimental resistance to reflection."
How accurate of a phrase is that, and how many people do I know who have fallen lockstep into a pattern of thinking that denies subtleties?
Never look back, only ahead. Never peel back the layers, go with your gut. This, I think, is the single biggest flaw, and a poison that has now invaded the cultural personality of conservative republicans, and much of America: an unwavering commitment to disallowing what might be gleaned from nuances and the cadence of things.
That is his legacy - It may be the death of us.
---
He utters one of the best descriptors for Bush's particular kind of flawed thinking that I've ever heard. He calls the President's particular kind of pig headedness a "detrimental resistance to reflection."
How accurate of a phrase is that, and how many people do I know who have fallen lockstep into a pattern of thinking that denies subtleties?
Never look back, only ahead. Never peel back the layers, go with your gut. This, I think, is the single biggest flaw, and a poison that has now invaded the cultural personality of conservative republicans, and much of America: an unwavering commitment to disallowing what might be gleaned from nuances and the cadence of things.
That is his legacy - It may be the death of us.
---
May 27, 2008
i think i predicted twitter in 01
see #1. @ev, you're welcome. And now...My 2001-penned blogging predictions, just because:
muffled LOLing may ensue.
December 20, 2001
Blog Predictions for 2002
Some iteration of instant messaging and chat functions will merge with blogs for folks to talk amongst themselves--taking 'blogback' to the next level.
More idiots will begin blogging, annoying the hell out of blog pioneers and increasing the velocity of insult hurling.
Doc Searls will announce the first blogger wedding mid-year, when friends who met blogging decide to tie the knot. The conception of their first child will be bloggerized. RageBoy will be all over that shit.
More celebrities will jump on the blog bandwagon.
RageBoy and Winer will go at it again, likely using biological and chemical weapons this time. There will be no winner, but lots of memes.
Corporations will get wind that employees are blogging during work hours and issue anti-blogging policies.
Smart companies will get wind that employees are blogging during work hours and imagine the possibilities.
A major motion picture will feature a character who blogs. The character will be a psychopathic alcoholic intellectual head case.
The part will be offered to Jack Nicholson, who will turn it down because bloggers don't get cute chicks.
Some company, somewhere, will take Gonzo Marketing to heart and underwrite some blog, somewhere, somehow. Please.
Community blogs--or "party blogs" like Gonzo Engaged--will grow in residents and in numbers, morphing into their own form of blogging. These forms will separate from one-man blogs, which will lean more toward journal and journalism than community.
David Weinberger will stop blogging again, only to start again in 2004.
muffled LOLing may ensue.
May 24, 2008
punks exposed
Exposed
Back in 1971, when I was 24, my life was a terrifying blur of goats and window-pane acid. I had just moved to the Catskills to grow organic kohlrabi and rutabagas, and I was just becoming aware of sheetrock. Crazed hippies lived all around me and we had orgies up in the back forty. No electricity. We pumped water from the stream, had propane lights, and cooked on a wood stove. Nobody had the faintest fucking clue what I was thinking and I liked it like that.
Tag Poetry: OR All of the post labels I've used so far.
"media 2.0" "social media" #6 $ 'farmworkers' 0000002 1 less cage to answer 10 more in 10 1000 close friends 103 in the shade 13 babies 1984 1st amendment 20 bucks to post this 20 in 20 20 in 200 20 posts 20-20 20-40 20-in-20 2004 remake rox 21 3040 3121 3D 4-hour work week 420 45 46th 5 more peanuts in the jar 50 more billion 5K 8 Reasons :-( a list apart a post wherein the exhaustion of being online since 1991 catches up with me abcdefg about facebook about tags about-facebook ActionAid active reading acutally useful web apps ADD addiction addiction and recovery administrative matters ads adult swim advertising advertorials afraid to leave my yard africa after all aggregator AKMA AKMA found my water albert lai alcatraz alcoholism Alec Baldwin Alien all cheffy all God's chillins need jobs all hail g-chat allergies alli allied Alpha Omega alphonso johnson am i a winner? color me AM amateurs and doinks ambien amen america american bandstand 2.0 americana amerika amerikkka and many mooooooreeee and such and you act like one too anger animals anniversary anniversary thoughts annoying stuff another loss ant farms anti-social PR antisocial software Any Questions apple Apron Strings are the luckiest people are we there yet argumentative art arts As asides asperger's syndrome ass wipes assassination asthma atlanta attachment theory augusta australian snug-as-a-bug authors awards away baaaad way to go baby got back baby it's cold outside baby showers baby your face back biting backup bacteria bad bad boy bad humor bad songs bad UI bad UIs badges baggy pants bah bah black sheep Ban bang bang GOP dead bang bang you're wet bankrupt barack obama be human beauty contests been stiller beggarman thief being real bella sara ben stiller berkman best book reviews best practices in chat betsy devine bifocals BigPR bills v cowboys billy cobham bin laden bin ross bird birth announcements birthday birthday cake bitch in heat BL Ochman black and white Black Tuesday blah blah woof woof blahahahahahha blocky blog babies blog book. blog year book blog reader blog sisters blog spasm blogger blogger blogs blogger heal thyself blogger stories blogger's creed bloggers writing blogging blogging coronary bloggus interuptus blogher BlogHim blogroll blogrolls blogs blogsisters blogtalk radio blurb BMO boat rockin bob marley bobby byrd body drama bolby and attachment theory boldface lie bonanza book contests book reviews book slurper books bottom's up bowel movement-based communication Bowel Position Management BPM brain shivers brain zaps branding breaking tornado news breastfeeding and testaking breathing breeding bricks n mortar brief chats with great minds Bro Can U Spare a Dime broken bubbas bubble bubble toil and trouble bubble trouble bubbles bubbleshare Buffalo Bills build a better mouse trap bunnies burn my feed busblog bush goin home soon bushwacked business Business blogging butt bwana byetrain caffine free diet coke can this be healthy can you tell me how to get cancer cardboard cardiac cath cars of frank Casper the Friendly Ghost cat shit cdc celebration Censorship CEOs cervical cancer CES charity chat cheese and blues cheese glorious cheese cheetos cheney's dick chic chick-fil-a child labor childhood children children should be seen and not spending my money chill hill chips cholecystectomy chris locke chris pirillo christian freedom christopher locke cinguar circle in a spiral clean hamster cage cleaning cleaning house clothing optional club penguin clueplane cluetrain clutrainian shuffle CNN cockney coco code of condom code orange cognitive science colgate college colour me greyhound blues Columbia combustion comment moderation comments community community guy commute commuticide computerworld concert envy concerts i missed conferences conservatives conspiracy consumer retail consumerism++ content context contracts conversation cookie blues cookie crumbled cookies cool stuff i can't buy you cool tools cooooooold Coors Tween corante corporate social responsibility cosmetics countdown to pre-season courage crack pipe CRAZYOCITY creation creepy fun cringely Crusaders cry me a house payment cry me a river CSR cult cults cures pink eye cute kitty cutting cutting corners dallas makes me puke Damn Interesting dance dance revolution danger will robinson dat's what i'm talkin' bout dave winer david weinberger dean death death by blogging death by traffic decongested deep thoughts Deep Thoughts on Social Media defining mean Defrag dell Denise denise howell details dick van dyke dicks and clicks did you say bi-focals diet diet detective digital domain digital ID digital lomein digital nostalgia dildo dimino dis legomenon disease disfellowship dishing Disney diversity DNS do you archive sam i am do you get it Do you need powerpoint for that doc searls doctor doctoral Dodge Grand Caravan does not blogroll dog shit dog stuff doggie mommy bloggers dogs domain names don't blame God don't forget don't get me started don't make that facebook don't mess with blogger donna summers dop system doug's dynamic drivel down by the old oak tree downsize drama dramatic look dream dreams driving mr. george DRM dropped from the list drug industry heal thyself drugs DSL dual purpose feeling vest dumb big cities dumb designers dumb dumb miss american pie dumb error dumb error messages dumb moves dumb stupid conferences and the attendees they rode in on dumbasses dumpbook duo duran duran dustups earphone or microphone Earth Tones Are In This Fall ebay echinachea echo chamber echolalia economics economy Eddie Davis education eggs eh? ehealthcare elder bashing elder storytelling place elderblogger elders electronica electronics elite Elvis end of summer endometriosis endorsement deal engadget enterprise 2.0 eric rice euan semple euphies every vote almost counts everybody lets get stoned everyoneisnotmiscellaneous everything is miscellaneous everything mac everythingismiscellaneous everythingismiscellaneous.com evolution exam Executive exercise extended play eyes fabulous face off book facebook fair trade faith fake hammer family fans support WGA fantasy football fear fear itself fearful pharma feeling so bad so good feminism ferrel mice fetal alcohol syndrome filters finally Finding Nemo firewall first church of free speech flatulence flickr flickrfan florida follow the leader FOOD for jenna forrest four eyes france frank paynter freak out free big screen free hamsters and pink eye is all i get free things to read freedom freedom of speech freelance freelancer's union Freelancers Union freeminds Friendship fun Fun Fun Fun 'til Your Neighbors Take Your Water Away fun on facebook fun on the internets fun with dick and jane funerals fungus funk funny post titles Fusion gadgets Gallbladder gambling garlic gas in the tank gas money gears geeks and streets gender Generosity Genesis genesis exodus genesis george bush george carlin george oppen george sessum george washington carver georgia germs get a clue get a job get allied on the kindle Get Help get off my fucking band get out the vote get passport-ready get smart get the lead out google GET YOUR OWN BABY HAMSTERS gimme a freaking break gimme my quarter back girl from africa give something back gizmodo glasses day 2007 GM gmail gnats are biting and the water is low gnomedex Go go defense go elsewhere goats Gobama going home going solo golby golden lady golden rule gonzo engaged gonzo enraged goober alert good hair days good humor man good idea outtakes good juju good luck good times bad times good tired goofy pictures Google google bump google can you spare a dime google maps google news archive search googlesaveUS grace jones graduation Grandma and the Rooster gratitude grave diggers greats i have met and liked grief grieving groin poke ground turkey groundhog day group blogging Grow Up growing old growing up guitar gummy bears hair club hairstyles half full halley talkin da frenchsais hamster hamster prose hamster research hamsters hamsters and gerbils hand sanitizer hang in there hanging in hanging on hapax legomenon happy happy appy apps happy easter happy facebook HAPPY TO YOU hatfields Hats Off have a heart having my baby he doesn't change clothes head lights head on floor heading toward midnight healing health health insurance health regimen healthcare heaps heehee ending helen razer hell in a handbasket hello i can't see you henry jenkins here mousey mousey hey i resemble that remark hey there HighestOMGBBQ hippie cream still not here hold the fish oil hole holy crap holy shit home party homeless hamsters homeopathy hopscotch horse pig cow horses hospital fun hospital or courtroom house call houses how about baden baden if it's a girl how do you run out of water how to blog how to write how you doin HPV hughtrain humanity humanology humiliation humor humorish humorless bitch hurricane hurricane terrorism hydrogen peroxide hypocrite i am no xml wiz kid i am so so sorry i am such a nerd I did I did see a puddy cat i gotz govt benefitz I Kin Drive a Pickem Up Truck Too i like to watch I meant spooks but it came out wrong I remember back in 1982 they stuck that thing so far up my ass i thought my brains would fall out... i screw you I Thought The Industry Standard Went Under 1.0 Ago i thought they were sugar free i told frank i wake up i wanna play fantasy league i wonder what a vacation is like i'd rather be under anaesthesia i'll give you content i'm just saying I'm old I'm old I wear my trousers rolled i'm so high i swear I could fly i've been playing with imovie iamsick ICanHasCheezburger icann ice skating idiot mitten idiotpreneur if i had a nicke for every post igloo IM immunology improv in scoble's pants in tags in the world in your facebook incision indie labels indie workers Indirect Marketing industry standard inequality Inet infinite loop Influential Woman information injustice inside and outside inside-out day inspiration instant messaging instapundit interception internet internet radio internet words interstructure intervention intrastructure investigative reporting iPhone iPods n us Iraq is that so wrong isight it takes me a while it's brittney bitch it's kind of pretty It's not like I busted a cap in your ass its hard itunes ivr j. brotherlove Jackson 5 jailtime jamaica james brown james called he's got a gig jaws Jazz Jed Clampet jeff jarvis jehovah's witness jena six jeneane sessum jenna jenna birthday 07 jesus christ Jesus take us home jobs from hell joe zawinul jolly good fellow Jon Husband's Birthday Jon Lebkowsky jonas luster journals joy JSTOR jugular julia childs june june 9 just but a bandaid on em just keep swimming JW JWs kaboose kaneva karsh kat herding takes a dirt nap kathy sierra keep moving forward kegger kennesaw kevin marks kids kids are just rehabbers waiting to happen KILL THE MAN WITH THE BALL Kindness kinkos kottke kristen havens labels for flushing Labels: advertising labor tracking lackthereof laist lameness lane hartwell laparoscopy laporascopy laptop last night late night gabbing lawns lawrence lessig lay it down le freak lead me astray learning theory lee hazlewood leeks legs crossed lenny dawson lenox librarian with hanging chads licensing deal lidocain life light and dark like the first morning line brokers linguists link giving linked in linkedIn Bob Man links lips that move live a winter in my shoes live blogging live blogging the keynote listener liz henry LMNOP load of crap lockdown lol Lolcats lolita boys LOLygagging long tail longtail look at all the wheels look at not my new car loss lost in America lots of ladies louisiana Love love 1.0 Love American Style love and hate love of my life love you lps Lula Sessum lula's cousin lumination lungs mac mac update macbook madame bovary madame levy made ya laff magic bullet BABY mahavishnu orchestra major labels makeup Managed Care Managed Speech mandarin meg marek marekblogger margaret marketing marshall kirkpatrick marshmallow mashable mashup masks and duct tape mating max max and marshmallow max the dog maximum ride maybe it is best mccoys meaning meankids meanopause media 2.0 media relations Meet the Robinsons mehalia jackson men methinks thou doth protest too much mexican michael arrington michael moore micropayments microsoft microsoft buys mizpee for a billion? microsoft v google milblogging milblogs mind crack mirror mirror on the wall missed the bus mission mississippi? MLK Mocca 2 Equal Grande moderation mofos molly mom can i have a puppy or a beer mommy blogging mommy is there a man in the tv momommy monday night babyyyyyy monday night football money = dental work money pits money talks bullshit just smells monkey joe monkey world monterey more questions than answers more reading morph me morpheus mosaic generator mother daughter read along motherhood mountain goat mouse mouse mixers mouse on chest moving vans moxie MSA music musick musiclog musicology mustard my bills my heart my kingdom for a whores my lists my money's on weinberger myspace mystery names narcotics navy necrotic flesh neocon wackos neosporin network marketing never a dull moment new allied new boss new home new media news mapping Next Big Thing nice day for a white wedding niceness Nigger night at the movies night at the museum no actually it is very different from that other situation but thanks anyway no blogger no cry no bmw no deal no fool no free lunch No Head No I said COOKS no idea no smoking no tags were harmed in the making of this post no to beacon no way no woman no cry non sequitor norma rae normalcy not a rapper not blogging not boric acid not cluetrain Not Everett not guilty as charged Not Jstor not oprah not peta not satire not so much work safe not sucking hard enough. not that winer not the defendant NOT the truth not twitter not web2.0 npg Nuclear Option NYC O Canada o the humanity obvious off the steering wheel OH Canada Oh Come On oil oil oil ok then old boss old fashioned love song old time bloggers om malik Omega 3 Omega 6 omega brite omg not 7 a.m. omgbbq omgzbbq the car started itself on hold one a day one thumb up onion rings in the cafeteria were very good only 11 years til legal age oooo that smell oops i broke the country open house open wound oprahization or not oral defense Orange Friday orchard park oreally oscars OUCH our future Out in the Prison Yard outkast Ovary over the topless overrun oysters on the half shell pain paint the white house black pancreas panic parched parenting paris dance crazes paris hilton party time passive aggressive b.s. pasta Paul Is Not Dead pay per post pay-per-view paynter paypal payperpost pc peace penguins people people who need people peroxide personal perspiration pesky pet shops have hamsters too Peter Gabriel pets pharmacology photo streaming pigs flying pinata pink eye pissed off pissedness Pitch it or Bitch it pix pizza planet earth playroom plead the 5th please please stop calling me pocket rocketboom podcamp atlanta podcasting poeple poetry poker poland pole dancing poli-bullying political circus politics pool pop culture popcorn popularity porcelin postie toastie pot to piss in potty mouth power to the people pownce PPP pr prayer Pre-School pregnancy pregnant pretzles prince problem solving proctor project playlist promoted to glory pros and digerati provisional voting pry my hands pry my hands off the steering wheel why don't you Psychology Psychotropic Medication psychotropics PTSD PTSD for President Public Listener public relations public school publishing Pun puppies and children purple rain Purple Thursday QRSTUV quaker vs valleyites quechup queue up quinten tarentino race mixing Racism radio weblog rageboy random thoughts Rapture Card read and feed Read Dammit read me feed me reading glasses ready to sleep real real music real or imagined real women reason for the season reboot record companies suck recovery reeses pieces reggae regret relate sunships Relating Relationships relativity relax remote diagnostics renee blodgett Resistance responsibility reumsfeld reverse bullet points rhyming dictionary RIP ripple lip Rise rise and fall of america robert scoble rock meet hard place rock the vote rocky rogers nelson roller coaster of love and real estate ROTFLMFAO RSS RX sad safety Sales sandyman SAO satire savannah gold save my soul scary scientists scoble demos search searching security threat see how they run see me after the test seems like yesterday self combustion self-publishing sell me yer babies Sending Out an SOS senior discount SEO serious shit seritonin reup seritonin two step sessum seth godin sex shake my pants shakespierce shaklee shallow derth of human kind Shame Shame Dumping shanghai shark jumping shave me shaw party of 5 Shelley Powers shelter shhh shhhhh shit I don't really care about shit not working shit that makes me sick shock the monkey shop til u drop shoulda been shove it SHUTUP AND LISTEN sicilian sicko sillicon valley silver n gold simplyhired sinus drainage sinus infection sinuses sit ubu sit slave sleep overs sleepless sleepover sleepover 07 sleeze or cheese slip smart people smartie pants SMB 2.0 smokes smokey robinson SMS fees apply smurfing snowboots social media Social Application Optimization social circle jerk social grafting social media social networking social networks social security social software social software obituaries social tools social underwear social web social workgroups socon socon07 software some bloggers write very well some cars i've never even heard of something beautiful song remains the same Sony soon nuf soon nuf. soso media soul soul man soul selling sounds most like george south africa spanking speakers special interest special interests speech speech therapy spend my money spinnin wheel got to go round spot of tea squeeezy lolcat SSRI discontinuation syndrome st patricks day st. claire pinkney st. josephs st. partrick stages of grief Staph State of the Blogs Roundup state of the union state of the whatchamacallit stavros steal away stephanie booth steroidal maniac steroids stevie stormhoek stowe boyd stowe-boyd-like strike studio 54 stumble upon stumbled upon stumbleupon stupid faces stupid grown ups stupid people stupid PR tricks Stupid Startups stupidity stupified such as summer summertime and the living is easy sun clouds inside outside light dark bmo sunday SUNK Superbowl SuperBugs superpower superstition superstupid surfing surgery Surreal survival swiss time switches swivel feeds sxsw table for two taglines 08 take manhattan and get off take me to your leader take my archives take this job take-back day takin bush to school Takin' em to school talk to me tampax tara hunt tardy tea bags tech techcrunch techmeme technolarity technology technorati technorati two step technoriati tecktonik ted murphy Ted Sorensen teens telecom tell me a story terror terror level terrorism tesco thank you thank you anita thankfulness that 70s thing that's my man the 1 Percenters the artist the beatles the borg The Cluetrain Three Plus One the fat lady's singing the flies have it the green green grass of home the man the noose is on the other foo the noose is on the other foot the omniRX the only real reason to use twitter the poor are pains in the ass the rain in spain the solution is poetry the tubes the willies them's fightin words they still have record stores things i don't care about today things that don't matter things that make sense for five minutes thinking thomas levy those who duck those who must be obeyed thought three cheers for PTSD Tim O time goes by tin can and string 2.0 Tiny Male Heads to get bugged to post tobacco toby bloomberg tom matrullo tomboy tony pierce too important not to run the whole thing. too many commercials too many gone too soon too many side effects tornadoes touchdown toy story toys tragedy training Transition Trauma Trauma is as Trauma does trees Trip to the Library tropical Trumpet turn it on Tuskegee twatter twisting words twitch twitter twitter litter twitter terror tye-die Tyler u-haul U.S. joke UAW UCG UGAC UGC UGU uh uncon uncrustables under arrest underwear showing unholy land unilateral oophorectomy unions united healthcare university of wisconsin unofficial hip hop song finding contest unused vicodin uppity urinal US Americans user feedback User Generated Ad Content USNews vaccine vanilla cupcake VC vicks vapo rub vicodin video blow video dope vinyards virtual worlds vitamin c vitamin e vitamins VMR voice vote for children's wall street journal walt disney want to add more lanes just paint more lines warbloggers watch me go water water retention Water Wars way wayne hurlbert WBBF we came here to play we have a new LIGHTBULB we should meet to share a water toby we're hosed we've gotta get in to get out We7 wealth weather report weather wars weatherism web 2.0 web 2.0 job description web design web too point oh web2.0 web2.OhNo webkinz wee well being wellness wendy and lisa what a crock what a wonderful world What a World what ails you what do you think of baden baden if it's a girl what happened what i'm driving for a week what if what material would you least like to insert what picture that's just some guy with dreadlocks what to do what were you thinking what you drive? duct tape wheel of fortune wheel within a wheel Wheelchair when a noose is actually a noose when you don't have a bush in the white house Where does that leave a blogger exactly white light white men can't hump white space White Wednesday who moved my conference who will buy who would have predicted who'd we beat whoa whoissick why am I indenting why ceos should blog why don't you why not try it windows wirearchy wired wireless wish i were i wish i might with or without wool wiz kids women Women on Farms women seem to be doing fine wonderchicken wood s lot woot wordicide wordpress words work work-a-day life wow writing writing writing writing writing writing wtf xanax yahoo yards yes YES WE CAN YGBFKM you can't have it back you had to have been there you look like a monkey you make the call you must be talking to someone else you put chocolate in my peanut butter you put peanut butter in my chocolate you tell me why don't you you want content you're either for us or against us you've come along way gnomeboy young things youniversity Your Library Yourself yowsa Yvonne Divita zinc zogby poll
HEY HIRE ME I'M MENOPAUSAL!
Here's the thing:
God love the interwebs because what 8 years ago now or 7 anyway I ran into Halley online and years tick by and never mind all the things that have transpired in our lives in the meanwhile, I've lost count, but I was talking to her a few weeks ago and somehow I mentioned that I thought something was amiss with me. Confusion has been the number one symptom of the last month or so, or really having no brain at all; complete and utter confusion with daily tasks; I mean multiple times each day walking into rooms only to feel a jolt of electric in my temples when I try to remember WHY oh why I had left the room I was in before. Telling my daughter and husband the same thing over and over without recall. "YOU JUST SAID THAT MOM!"
Yeah that stuff happens to everyone.
But it doesn't happen to me.
Not six times in one day!!!
Until now.
And so I'm telling Halley maybe I have a brain tumor or need to find a new breed of psychotropic medication or something, and she does that Halley thing with that laugh: "OH DUH HELLO! It's Menopause. Have you NOT READ about it?"
I was like, Menopaaaaa.....?
Like a ton of brick the truth hits you.
And so I read about the forgetfulness and confusion and women showing up at their doctor's offices at my age wondering about dementia and brain tumors.
And I even cried, because I am telling you ladies who are working for a living - working for yourselves for a living using your BRAIN to work for a living -- and you're all 'OOO this conference and that conference and OOOO i think i'll work on my book now.. and Oooo what a great post..." GET THE FUCK READY FOR Menopause - it's gonna bite your ass but good.
Holy disruption to the central mental circuitry.
Now I get why women used to have kids early and not work out of the home -- by the time they'd get to menopause their kids would be out of the house and their husbands half deaf: time for a nap.
SO I've just started reading up on it, and apparently the early menopausal symptoms are the ones that completely mess with your brain and electric circuitry, so I guess that's what I'm in.
It's hard for me to tell because the OBGYN surgeries I've had have taken away any semblence of a cycle. But I'm turning 46, I ache, I have no brain, I sleep weird - like mostly not at night - I have to run after words that used to sit on the tip of my tongue, and I cry when I read books, and yell when I don't read books.
I forgot what I was going to do next, but I'm pretty sure if I go walk into a room something will come to me.
Look forward to more of my menopausal meanderings - oh I'm sure you already are - right here on allied.
Whoever you are.
---
God love the interwebs because what 8 years ago now or 7 anyway I ran into Halley online and years tick by and never mind all the things that have transpired in our lives in the meanwhile, I've lost count, but I was talking to her a few weeks ago and somehow I mentioned that I thought something was amiss with me. Confusion has been the number one symptom of the last month or so, or really having no brain at all; complete and utter confusion with daily tasks; I mean multiple times each day walking into rooms only to feel a jolt of electric in my temples when I try to remember WHY oh why I had left the room I was in before. Telling my daughter and husband the same thing over and over without recall. "YOU JUST SAID THAT MOM!"
Yeah that stuff happens to everyone.
But it doesn't happen to me.
Not six times in one day!!!
Until now.
And so I'm telling Halley maybe I have a brain tumor or need to find a new breed of psychotropic medication or something, and she does that Halley thing with that laugh: "OH DUH HELLO! It's Menopause. Have you NOT READ about it?"
I was like, Menopaaaaa.....?
Like a ton of brick the truth hits you.
And so I read about the forgetfulness and confusion and women showing up at their doctor's offices at my age wondering about dementia and brain tumors.
And I even cried, because I am telling you ladies who are working for a living - working for yourselves for a living using your BRAIN to work for a living -- and you're all 'OOO this conference and that conference and OOOO i think i'll work on my book now.. and Oooo what a great post..." GET THE FUCK READY FOR Menopause - it's gonna bite your ass but good.
Holy disruption to the central mental circuitry.
Now I get why women used to have kids early and not work out of the home -- by the time they'd get to menopause their kids would be out of the house and their husbands half deaf: time for a nap.
SO I've just started reading up on it, and apparently the early menopausal symptoms are the ones that completely mess with your brain and electric circuitry, so I guess that's what I'm in.
It's hard for me to tell because the OBGYN surgeries I've had have taken away any semblence of a cycle. But I'm turning 46, I ache, I have no brain, I sleep weird - like mostly not at night - I have to run after words that used to sit on the tip of my tongue, and I cry when I read books, and yell when I don't read books.
I forgot what I was going to do next, but I'm pretty sure if I go walk into a room something will come to me.
Look forward to more of my menopausal meanderings - oh I'm sure you already are - right here on allied.
Whoever you are.
---
It's getting toward june
i go back to meg's sometimes to leave a comment for her.
she opted out of life two years ago, i like to drop by.
i like to see who else came to copy code and say hello.
i like to see their messages to meg.
i wish if we said the right thing, we could bring her back.
--
May 23, 2008
Perhaps You Should Examine Your Colon!
Okay. Look. I can't take it anymore.
How many times in the last 7 years have we been through the women-free TOP LISTS OF BLOGGING. Or the penis-only MOST IMPORTANT CONFERENCE IN TECHNOLOGY events?
How many men (and women!) have come before these idiots to say -- "Whoops! Sloppy reporting - I didn't realize I had all men in my aggregator - what boring shmuck I am."
The reason I'm bothering to even point to this article is because it's The Fucking Industry Standard (which I thought died during web 1.0 -- must have been resuscitated into beta form--look mom i died and went to beta) and it's an article SPECIFICALLY dedicated to finding the TOP NON-A-LIST blogs worth reading. 25 of them to be exact.
And not one of them a woman's blog.
I can think of at least 20 instances like this in my short memory. The boys at The Industry STANDARD might have happened upon some of these if they didn't take the lazy way out or decide to stay put in the typical circle jerk of links feeding the echo chamber.
My own unfucking of Stowe Boyd comes to mind. O'Reilly, not a renowned women's advocate in his own right, even published a list of important articles by and about women in tech to help educate the doofus brigade.
There's Shelley on progress - and no woman in blogging has taken more grief for raising this issue than Shelley; and there's her pointer to Karl on speaker diversity and why it matters.
(It's all related @richi, trust me).
And there's always the lazy way to get some legs on your aggregator, boys. Just go look at the hundreds of women-penned tech+ blogs listed on Blogher. Don't like Tech? There are other categories. Whatdoyaknow!
Somewhere, some time ago, I remember reading a post -- whose was it, I forget? -- where a woman said: It is Not My Job to do your job, you sloppy reporter, and find some diversity that might make your next Top X List or Conference a bit more interesting.
That's how I feel. Just do your job.
But before I go unwrap the duct tape from around my head, let me address a couple of the commenters over at TIS (that's what we called it before it died and went to beta).
Now besides the author @Richi's lame response: "Hey I don't discriminate and I don't Reverse Discriminate either--LOOKIE ME!" (okay I'm summarizing), old JohnMc had a great addition to the conversation:
.
.
REALLY John?
WOW what an IDEA!
Starting my own blog is such a good idea I thought of it back in 2001!
Oh. My. God. The Twitolution will most certainly be televised.
But the thing that really irked me was the comment from the person who was probably trying to be nice--hard to tell. Eric Hill said: "Perhaps one should consider a "Top 25 up-and-coming female bloggers" report. Just a thought."
Actually Eric, no.
No that's not quite it.
NO that's pretty much not quite the point at all.
Nice idea on it's own, but perhaps someone should consider a "Top 25 up-and-coming gardening blogs." That's not what we're talking about here.
WE ARE NOT UP AND COMING
WE ARE HERE
WE WERE HERE BEFORE YOU
WE ARE STILL HERE
Oh lord.
Stop me.
Really, you have to stop me now.
love you all.
well, not exactly "all."
goodnight.
How many times in the last 7 years have we been through the women-free TOP LISTS OF BLOGGING. Or the penis-only MOST IMPORTANT CONFERENCE IN TECHNOLOGY events?
How many men (and women!) have come before these idiots to say -- "Whoops! Sloppy reporting - I didn't realize I had all men in my aggregator - what boring shmuck I am."
The reason I'm bothering to even point to this article is because it's The Fucking Industry Standard (which I thought died during web 1.0 -- must have been resuscitated into beta form--look mom i died and went to beta) and it's an article SPECIFICALLY dedicated to finding the TOP NON-A-LIST blogs worth reading. 25 of them to be exact.
And not one of them a woman's blog.
I can think of at least 20 instances like this in my short memory. The boys at The Industry STANDARD might have happened upon some of these if they didn't take the lazy way out or decide to stay put in the typical circle jerk of links feeding the echo chamber.
My own unfucking of Stowe Boyd comes to mind. O'Reilly, not a renowned women's advocate in his own right, even published a list of important articles by and about women in tech to help educate the doofus brigade.
There's Shelley on progress - and no woman in blogging has taken more grief for raising this issue than Shelley; and there's her pointer to Karl on speaker diversity and why it matters.
(It's all related @richi, trust me).
And there's always the lazy way to get some legs on your aggregator, boys. Just go look at the hundreds of women-penned tech+ blogs listed on Blogher. Don't like Tech? There are other categories. Whatdoyaknow!
It's like each year a new crop of idiots blooms on the net.
breathe in with me now....
aaaah the fresh scent of stupid.
breathe in with me now....
aaaah the fresh scent of stupid.
Somewhere, some time ago, I remember reading a post -- whose was it, I forget? -- where a woman said: It is Not My Job to do your job, you sloppy reporter, and find some diversity that might make your next Top X List or Conference a bit more interesting.
That's how I feel. Just do your job.
But before I go unwrap the duct tape from around my head, let me address a couple of the commenters over at TIS (that's what we called it before it died and went to beta).
Now besides the author @Richi's lame response: "Hey I don't discriminate and I don't Reverse Discriminate either--LOOKIE ME!" (okay I'm summarizing), old JohnMc had a great addition to the conversation:
"jeneane, In a world of opportunity, crank up a blog and give it your best shot. Competition and voices is what keeps the soup hot.".
.
.
REALLY John?
WOW what an IDEA!
Starting my own blog is such a good idea I thought of it back in 2001!
"competition and voices is what keeps the soup hot."
Oh. My. God. The Twitolution will most certainly be televised.
But the thing that really irked me was the comment from the person who was probably trying to be nice--hard to tell. Eric Hill said: "Perhaps one should consider a "Top 25 up-and-coming female bloggers" report. Just a thought."
Actually Eric, no.
No that's not quite it.
NO that's pretty much not quite the point at all.
Nice idea on it's own, but perhaps someone should consider a "Top 25 up-and-coming gardening blogs." That's not what we're talking about here.
WE ARE NOT UP AND COMING
WE ARE HERE
WE WERE HERE BEFORE YOU
WE ARE STILL HERE
Oh lord.
Stop me.
Really, you have to stop me now.
love you all.
well, not exactly "all."
goodnight.
May 20, 2008
CALLING PORTLAND BLOGGERS WHO URINATE!
Who needs a press release when you can write a headline like that? Yojo Mobile's MizPee has its "Flush of the Year" contest underway in Portand right now. Oregonians are encouraged to add their favorite (aka - cleanest, best equipped, safest, rockinest) restroom here. Want to let your readers vote? Read about the contest and grab the Portland voting widget here.
And yes, as certain as I am that gas will reach $5.00 a gallon by Labor Day, you can rest assured that Flush of the Year will be coming to your town soon.
(Um, btw you don't have to wait for the contest to add your favorite place to piss. You can add a toilet anytime online. And when you're on the go, go to mizpee.com on your cell phone to find the nearest clean restroom OPEN at the time of your query (kuz mizpee does location- and time-based search). Yeah, it's pretty cool.)
--
May 18, 2008
May 16, 2008
May 15, 2008
Link Bait or Just Really Stupid - The Industry Standard (BETA) on 25 Must-Read, Non-A-List Blogs...
and... you guessed it: Not a woman among em.
experts, coders, entrepreneurs, observers, VCs... Ah so many important roles that require heavy lifting.
Niiiicccee.
Tweets for comment went unanswered today. Film at 11. (Or probably not.)
--
experts, coders, entrepreneurs, observers, VCs... Ah so many important roles that require heavy lifting.
Niiiicccee.
Tweets for comment went unanswered today. Film at 11. (Or probably not.)
--
May 13, 2008
May 12, 2008
One more word on the Open PR Discussion...
As I said in 2006, the same thing needs to happen with the analysts, and the whole-whole thing is really part of opening the enterprise or enterprise 2.0, and the whole-whole-whole thing, yes Stowe, does go back to Cluetrain.
Whatever the kingdom; it's time for the surfs (or, surfettes) to take the keys.
--
Whatever the kingdom; it's time for the surfs (or, surfettes) to take the keys.
--
Micro Broadcast is Still Broadcast, and Public Relations Can't Scale Down
Stowe Boyd continues the New PR conversation here, giving me a shoutout and a bit of calling me 'out-my-name' here. So I'm obliged, having survived the tornadoes of the Southeast, to respond with some more thoughts about PR and why it isn't working for bloggers -- and web 2.0 and technology bloggers specifically.
[[I'm resisting the urge to go back to the days of Adam and Eve and make everyone now admit that bloggers aren't journalists, don't WANT to BE journalists, but that some journalists do indeed blog. For the sake of time: never mind.]]
Instead, let me meander for a bit instead.
I think using twitter for PR communication and calling that MicroPR is a very Not-Good idea. Twitter is another medium, another format, but summarizing a pitch into 140 characters and 'pitching' it via twitter with a hashmark is still broadcasting. Call it MicroBroadcasting and slap its picture next to oxymoron in the dictionary, or call it MicroPR, but I can't see how that's going to change anything. Something isn't melding when I hear Stowe say on one hand "TwitPitch is the Future," and on the other hand that everything has to change.
The 'everything has to change part' is the right part. As Stowe says:
The web 2.0 economy, the Techmeme and Techcrunch economy, will not look kindly on real change, because real change would change the power structure. Again, that is fodder for its own post as too few people realize how news is announced and 'made' in the tech sphere these days. Few understand how completely we've replicated the old school with new names. Get Me On Techmeme = Get Me LOTS of Ink; Get Me On TechCrunch = Get Me The New York Times. Old boss, new boss. Mr. Sir. Yessir. Where did we go wrong?
That is not to say PR-as-we-know-it is totally useless.
Old school Public Relations for public companies that must meet strict regulatory requirements still works the way it always has. It's not going away. It doesn't need to. The crisis management specialists, the old school media relations specialists, the IR people--they still have a role to serve in the world of public company PR. Those same people have little use for bloggers unless it is as part of a cute marketing program designed to generate some "buzz." So let's leave that galaxy alone for a while. They'll follow along in time, but only if everything else changes first.
What needs to change FIRST is PR for everyone else.
In relating some of what is changing, Stowe points to an interesting but off-the-mark idea here. although I can see how it could EVOLVE into something useful, right now, this seems to be the kind of carpet bombing approach that Stowe talks about on the other side. The PR Spammers list, started by Gina Trapani, of Lifehacker, based on Matt Haughey's post here, is essentially a wikiblacklist of PR "spammers," and it's growing by leaps and bounds. Throw some logos on there and you've got the next New Media / Social Media conference speakers list ready to go. The thing is, lots of good PR agencies and folks are on that list, including some of those I do and did work with, and that sucks. Not to mention, the list will lose its initial zing when every agency makes sure their competitors show up on that list. It just isn't going to work the way it's intended to.
I'm waiting for the REVERSE of Gina's list -- one that lists BLOGGERS who WANT information and fodder so that they can write posts that people will read and click on their ads and make them money. Because, hey, you're not out there doing altruistic work for the common good here Blogger Folks.
My ReverseGina list would have Gina and Matt list their areas of interest and preferred method of communication specified BY THEM (hint: stowe likes twitter), something that can be dynamically updated, like a wiki version of Profnet and Media Map combined, but populated by the people who will be receiving communications. This kind of tool will match the things I as a blogger am interested in knowing about -- my areas of interest -- with what companies want to talk about, and then match and deliver those wants up in a non-intrusive, timely way. WITHOUT charging $5000 a month for it.
If wishes were horses...
Tools and Twitter Pitches aside, how many times do we have to say what everyone knows: relationships trump tools.
The best thing we as PR people can do is to NOT try to force news, but instead help nurture relationships between clients and customers, to make champions out of users, to encourage our clients to underwrite, support, sponsor, reward, and lift up those who might touch their product or service. TO BE INVISIBLE.
New PR should have very little to do with pitching "news" to bloggers or landing on "techmeme." It should have everything to do making it easier/better/more fun for people to tell each other their stories.
More on these important matters of business later, but right now I have to start the day after Mother's day by being a mom first.
-------
[[I'm resisting the urge to go back to the days of Adam and Eve and make everyone now admit that bloggers aren't journalists, don't WANT to BE journalists, but that some journalists do indeed blog. For the sake of time: never mind.]]
Instead, let me meander for a bit instead.
I think using twitter for PR communication and calling that MicroPR is a very Not-Good idea. Twitter is another medium, another format, but summarizing a pitch into 140 characters and 'pitching' it via twitter with a hashmark is still broadcasting. Call it MicroBroadcasting and slap its picture next to oxymoron in the dictionary, or call it MicroPR, but I can't see how that's going to change anything. Something isn't melding when I hear Stowe say on one hand "TwitPitch is the Future," and on the other hand that everything has to change.
The 'everything has to change part' is the right part. As Stowe says:
Personally, I feel that it is the whole system that is wrong, and piecemeal solutions like blacklists and filtering, and one:one agreements about how I, some specific blogger, should be approached by some specific firm won't work in the long run -- these are all stop gaps and band-aids.
The root cause here is the delusion on the part of the clients that this sort of PR carpet bombing works, that mass media messages embedded in a press release or press release-ish email work, and that we, the bloggers, actually react positively to this junk.
Right on. But Twitter won't change it.
The web 2.0 economy, the Techmeme and Techcrunch economy, will not look kindly on real change, because real change would change the power structure. Again, that is fodder for its own post as too few people realize how news is announced and 'made' in the tech sphere these days. Few understand how completely we've replicated the old school with new names. Get Me On Techmeme = Get Me LOTS of Ink; Get Me On TechCrunch = Get Me The New York Times. Old boss, new boss. Mr. Sir. Yessir. Where did we go wrong?
That is not to say PR-as-we-know-it is totally useless.
Old school Public Relations for public companies that must meet strict regulatory requirements still works the way it always has. It's not going away. It doesn't need to. The crisis management specialists, the old school media relations specialists, the IR people--they still have a role to serve in the world of public company PR. Those same people have little use for bloggers unless it is as part of a cute marketing program designed to generate some "buzz." So let's leave that galaxy alone for a while. They'll follow along in time, but only if everything else changes first.
What needs to change FIRST is PR for everyone else.
In relating some of what is changing, Stowe points to an interesting but off-the-mark idea here. although I can see how it could EVOLVE into something useful, right now, this seems to be the kind of carpet bombing approach that Stowe talks about on the other side. The PR Spammers list, started by Gina Trapani, of Lifehacker, based on Matt Haughey's post here, is essentially a wikiblacklist of PR "spammers," and it's growing by leaps and bounds. Throw some logos on there and you've got the next New Media / Social Media conference speakers list ready to go. The thing is, lots of good PR agencies and folks are on that list, including some of those I do and did work with, and that sucks. Not to mention, the list will lose its initial zing when every agency makes sure their competitors show up on that list. It just isn't going to work the way it's intended to.
I'm waiting for the REVERSE of Gina's list -- one that lists BLOGGERS who WANT information and fodder so that they can write posts that people will read and click on their ads and make them money. Because, hey, you're not out there doing altruistic work for the common good here Blogger Folks.
My ReverseGina list would have Gina and Matt list their areas of interest and preferred method of communication specified BY THEM (hint: stowe likes twitter), something that can be dynamically updated, like a wiki version of Profnet and Media Map combined, but populated by the people who will be receiving communications. This kind of tool will match the things I as a blogger am interested in knowing about -- my areas of interest -- with what companies want to talk about, and then match and deliver those wants up in a non-intrusive, timely way. WITHOUT charging $5000 a month for it.
If wishes were horses...
Tools and Twitter Pitches aside, how many times do we have to say what everyone knows: relationships trump tools.
The best thing we as PR people can do is to NOT try to force news, but instead help nurture relationships between clients and customers, to make champions out of users, to encourage our clients to underwrite, support, sponsor, reward, and lift up those who might touch their product or service. TO BE INVISIBLE.
New PR should have very little to do with pitching "news" to bloggers or landing on "techmeme." It should have everything to do making it easier/better/more fun for people to tell each other their stories.
More on these important matters of business later, but right now I have to start the day after Mother's day by being a mom first.
-------
May 10, 2008
It's a good thing I've been 'out of pocket' the last two days...
It saved me from jumping in and messing up the very measured and thought-provoking response from Brian Solis on when 'pitching' is or isn't spam, and whether or not there's some new term to call reaching out to bloggers who -- from all you can tell, including their presence in media lists and contact information listed on their blogs -- are people who might like to know about something you want to tell them about.
And then it blows up.
I've written about that exact thing before here. And probably a dozen times before that. Some thoughts worth repeating:
As Brian so passionately explains, there are several types of emails (used to be faxes, soon will be tweets) PR people send to blogger contacts, from actual spam to some thing we don't know what to call -- Brian thinks maybe Tofu -- where the PR person is contacting someone who is publicly noted as someone with x, y, z parameters (what they write about, where they live, their specified mode of contact--usually listed on their blog), and so: SHOCK - PR people contact them.
Enter the back channel. Those bloggers (as specified above--and I'm on the sending and receiving end as I blog AND work in PR and marketing) who are now getting lots of pitches on everything from the latest thigh reducers to stories they might actually care about.
These bloggers tend to do one of three things with the emails:
1) Ignore or Delete the email.
2) Respond to the email either positively or negatively.
3) Call in the cavalry to gripe about getting the email in a heroic effort to save the blogosphere from more unwanted email and protect their own precious time and overflowing inbox , all while making an example out of the flack.
Read those three general reactions above and you'll see why the PR person rarely 'wins.' And know too, that I have had EACH of those three reactions myself.
I'm not happy with those being the only reactions available. The only REAL solutions as I see are that we PR people:
1) GET OFF OUR ASSES and create the kind of tools I've been talking about for years -- open source opt-in wiki versions of what bacons/media map are to mainstream media. An online exchange, hub, whateveryouwanttocall it - TOFUPEDIA, or MEDIAPEDIA - that lets WE THE RECIPIENTS and WE THE SENDERS of these communications (emails and tweets and whatever comes next) tell each other what we want to know about, what we don't want to know about, and how we want to find out about it. PR 2.0 needs to go OPEN SOURCE. And after that's baked, top it with RSS and call it dinner.
2) STOP PITCHING AND BITCHING altogether and assume a new role - that of matchmaker between client and the customers they serve, where we serve more a hybrid CRM / business development role than a news-making, ink-producing role (although the news-making and ink-producing are byproducts of doing the CRM/BizDev well). We BECOME the matchmakers, one customer at a time, act as catalyst and then get out of the way. We are no longer pitching news, we are forging partnerships.
Stowe thinks Twitter and other micro-streams are the way to change PR. I am not so optimistic. Changing from Fax machines to email didn't change PR. Neither will changing from email to Twitter. What changes PR is that the BUSINESS OF PR has to change - everything from the tools we use to how we are measured and compensated.
Business' expectations of PR has to change too -- especially in Tech and Web 2.0. As long as 'hitting techmeme' is the goal by which success is judged, then baby, we-all-in-deep-doo-doo.
I've been craving the kind of solutions I mention, and I try assume the matchmaking role whenever I can with clients, although I DO MESS UP. And if I can screw up, your next screw up is right around the corner.
Quite honestly, the longer it takes for PR 2.0 tools to replace the top-down Bacons, Media Map, and Vocuses of the world, the more public floggings will take place at the hand of those who are well-meaning, over-spammed, or just plain arrogant.
---
And then it blows up.
I've written about that exact thing before here. And probably a dozen times before that. Some thoughts worth repeating:
I've been on both the shit receiving end AND on the shit throwing end of the PR machine myself. That's because I walk that blurry line, being both a "journalist" listed IN media map, and a PR flack USER of media map (and similar tools) where the journos and the PR flacks intersect (wish i could say connect--but that doesn't happen there).But the longer I watch the twitter culture blip blip blip in blog posts and tweets with holier-than-thou 'Oh Someone Bothered Me And Kept Me From My Important Work' emissions, the more I fume. That's why I'm glad there's pro like my colleague Brian who can address this issue both with humility and skill.
Anyone having done any kind of media relations knows the reddening sting of a pissed off reporter saying, "You haven't read me, have you?" or "I already wrote about that," or "You're just blindly pitching." And yes, sometimes they're right. But they also fail to take ANY responsibility for how they end up in the endless loop of breaking-news tag.
They know that media map and other tools give PR people infinite details on their every bowel movement. So, if they prefer to be called, if their publication doesn't REALLY cover what media map says it wants to cover, if their beat is wrong, or if they just plain hate PR people and want them to know, then USE THESE TOOLS TO SAY SO. Don't be lazy on the front end and blame the folks who give you fodder for your stories on the backend.
Just like some BigPR SVPs who think they can pull a strategy out of their back pocket to 'build your brand' without understanding your customers, some journalists pull the "blame it on PR flacks" card because it's fast, easy and acceptable to do so. Rather than spell out (and update frequently) on their sites or blogs or in their publications (or God forbid in the tools they know PR people are stuck using) just how they want to interact with us, it's easier to shoot the proxy-messenger. All because an editor is bugged by some pain in the ass emails (news flash: we all get them), hasn't had a good night's sleep, or just plain needs to get laid.
The whole PR industry being broken is not news.
As Brian so passionately explains, there are several types of emails (used to be faxes, soon will be tweets) PR people send to blogger contacts, from actual spam to some thing we don't know what to call -- Brian thinks maybe Tofu -- where the PR person is contacting someone who is publicly noted as someone with x, y, z parameters (what they write about, where they live, their specified mode of contact--usually listed on their blog), and so: SHOCK - PR people contact them.
Enter the back channel. Those bloggers (as specified above--and I'm on the sending and receiving end as I blog AND work in PR and marketing) who are now getting lots of pitches on everything from the latest thigh reducers to stories they might actually care about.
These bloggers tend to do one of three things with the emails:
1) Ignore or Delete the email.
2) Respond to the email either positively or negatively.
3) Call in the cavalry to gripe about getting the email in a heroic effort to save the blogosphere from more unwanted email and protect their own precious time and overflowing inbox , all while making an example out of the flack.
Read those three general reactions above and you'll see why the PR person rarely 'wins.' And know too, that I have had EACH of those three reactions myself.
I'm not happy with those being the only reactions available. The only REAL solutions as I see are that we PR people:
1) GET OFF OUR ASSES and create the kind of tools I've been talking about for years -- open source opt-in wiki versions of what bacons/media map are to mainstream media. An online exchange, hub, whateveryouwanttocall it - TOFUPEDIA, or MEDIAPEDIA - that lets WE THE RECIPIENTS and WE THE SENDERS of these communications (emails and tweets and whatever comes next) tell each other what we want to know about, what we don't want to know about, and how we want to find out about it. PR 2.0 needs to go OPEN SOURCE. And after that's baked, top it with RSS and call it dinner.
2) STOP PITCHING AND BITCHING altogether and assume a new role - that of matchmaker between client and the customers they serve, where we serve more a hybrid CRM / business development role than a news-making, ink-producing role (although the news-making and ink-producing are byproducts of doing the CRM/BizDev well). We BECOME the matchmakers, one customer at a time, act as catalyst and then get out of the way. We are no longer pitching news, we are forging partnerships.
Stowe thinks Twitter and other micro-streams are the way to change PR. I am not so optimistic. Changing from Fax machines to email didn't change PR. Neither will changing from email to Twitter. What changes PR is that the BUSINESS OF PR has to change - everything from the tools we use to how we are measured and compensated.
Business' expectations of PR has to change too -- especially in Tech and Web 2.0. As long as 'hitting techmeme' is the goal by which success is judged, then baby, we-all-in-deep-doo-doo.
I've been craving the kind of solutions I mention, and I try assume the matchmaking role whenever I can with clients, although I DO MESS UP. And if I can screw up, your next screw up is right around the corner.
Quite honestly, the longer it takes for PR 2.0 tools to replace the top-down Bacons, Media Map, and Vocuses of the world, the more public floggings will take place at the hand of those who are well-meaning, over-spammed, or just plain arrogant.
---
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