Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Social Media: I Can See Clearly How Blurry It Is!

It's all getting blurry... In the world of social media, our network(s) become our friends and our friends become our network(s). The business of social networking becomes the socializing of our business. It is increasingly difficult to separate who we are from what we do or whom we work for. After all, if you embrace the transparency that makes the web work so much better, it is nearly impossible to lead a double life online. We are who we are, and all of our Blog posts, Twitter Tweets, Facebook Updates, Utterz utters, Seesmic and YouTube Videos, Flickr photos and the entirety of our daily digital droppings shapes our persona in the eyes of "the community." The lines between personal and professional are dotted and not solid. This is not a bad thing. After all, we spend the majority of our adult lives working and our life's work experience invariably helps shape who we are and how we behave.

A SEPARATE PIECE?

It was not too long ago that I tried to keep my personal online presence separate from my professional online presence. While I did not hide the fact that I work at Myxer, when I did Myxer stuff online I felt I should keep it separate from this personal blog, and vice versa. Little by little, as I found my social network expanding I increasingly encountered people that, aside from being "social" with, I could actually be doing business with. I realized that there were potential partners in them thar social networking woods! So slowly but surely, I have eased a little more of my work life into my social networking and without question my social networking life has eased its way into my business. This has been encouraging, fun and productive on both sides of the fence as I continue to explore ways to appropriately use social media to expand my business, and at the same time leverage my business to expand my social network.

WORK'S A BEACH!

Most recently, I have been having a lot of fun creating short videos as part of my social networking. Whether posting them on Facebook, Utterz, Seesmic, YouTube, or my Social Networking Rehab parody blog, I have been finding video to be a great way to satisfy some of my creative urges. Along the same lines, the other day I took a short video on the beach with my Treo smartphone, and turned it into a silly "recruitment" video for Myxer, since we are actively hiring. On a whim, I posted the video on YouTube and sent the link out on my Twitter stream. Within minutes, in addition to some encouraging comments, I actually received resumes sent to the "HR" email address at the end of the video. A social media video, posted to the Twitter stream, proved to actually be an effective tool to attract potential employees. The lines may be blurred but the results are clear: Social Media and business can and do work together!

How have you incorporated your social media life into your business (or your business into your social media life)?




Send "Work's A Beach" To Your Phone. Click the button > Send video

Video by Sass. Photo Credit: GJS - Fotolia.com

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

You're So Vain (You Probably Think This Blog Is About You)



Variety may be the spice of life, but VANITY is the spice that seasons the blogosphere. Face it, you can't spell B L O G G E R without E G O! It takes a certain amount of self-love, self-confidence and self-centeredness to put your words out there for the world to see. Frankly, few of us would be doing it if we didn't have enough of an ego to believe our words, thoughts, creativity, opinions and observations were worthy of note by others. We want to be noticed, recognized (literally and figuratively) and we want to be heard.

Thanks to technology advances an individual's ability to create and distribute their own content has been democratized. It is the proverbial power of the pen and press on steroids. Whereas man has always been able to create with a scroll and ink or a canvas and paint, the audience was limited. Today, with the same ease we can create something that can literally have infinite global reach. Someone in Australia can read this right now, as simply as someone in the house next door (of course the person in the house next door is probably stealing my Wi-Fi signal. My Mate in Australia is a "legitimate" reader!)

THIS TIME ITS PERSONAL

We have entered the age of Personal Brands, where being master of your domain (name) is as important as your wardrobe and hygiene choices. Parents are choosing child names based on the availability of theirkid.com (and I used to think "GoDADDY" was an odd name for a Domain Registrar... Bob Parsons is a genius!) Contrary to popular belief, we are NOT what we eat. We ARE what shows up when we Google our names! Lifestreaming, Liveblogging, JustinTV, just in time to make an inordinate amount of content available using cool, free and easy tools.

Micro-blogging is making Macro changes to the what, where, why, when and how we communicate and share our opinions and our lives. In social media, everyone is like your first college roommate... a stranger whose life is suddenly exposed to you bit by bit as you spend more time together, sharing more and more tidbits of both the mundane and the meaningful. Over time, the bits (and in our case, bytes) of information shape your perception of the person and make them "real" and before long that stranger is no longer strange, and in fact, has become a friend. Is that any different than what happens on Twitter and Facebook? By the time you go to an event or a "Tweet Up" and meet someone you have been following or have befriended for a while, you are already virtual roommates and well on your way to becoming true friends.

TREES FALLING IN THE WOODS

Now that we have such a powerful and simple ability to reach an audience (and an audience is someone who is listening to YOU, whether it is one person or one thousand). If you write in a blog, Tweet something, or Utter something, or post a video on Seesmic or YouTube or Write on a Wall on Facebook and SOMEONE responds, then you have succeeded and your ego will have been stroked. But is Social Media like trees falling in the woods? If you post something on your blog and the comment meter remains on "0" does that mean nobody can hear it? How does that make you feel? Do you gauge your Twitter tweets by how many @yourname responses you get? Do you feel disappointed or even slighted if you craft a clever 140 character mini-manifesto and see it drift away with the current of the Twitter stream without making a single @you ripple? Honestly... I do! Thanks to our egos I think we all crave feedback. Perhaps even a negative comment is more satisfying than silence. Perhaps it is our ego driven nature that has unconsciously built the infrastructure of Social Media and on-line "community" around channels of linking, commenting, tracking, sharing and re-posting. What do you think?

So, now that we are "roommates," please feel free to stroke my ego by commenting on this blog post and sharing and linking to your heart's delight! And yes, this blog IS about you!


Photo Credit: Albo - Fotolia.com

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Face It, Facebook Works Well As A People Directory!


As you may know if you go back earlier in this blog, I live in South Florida and used to be an avid sailor until Wicked Hurricane Wilma wrecked my boat... Back at the time I posted a bunch of photos of the storm's damage to my home and boat on Flickr and tagged them "Wicked Wilma."

I recently received the following message through Facebook from someone who I don't know and who is not a Facebook friend:

Jeff, I sent you a message already on Flickr but I am trying to get in touch with you seeking permission to use one of your photos in our 2005 Annual Report to Congress. I am trying to find a photo from hurricane Wilma to include in our pub. Please let me know if you are interested.

I thought it was telling that I noticed the message via Facebook, long before I received the email through Flickr. My Flickr account is tied to a Yahoo Mail address that I hardly check on. Facebook, on the other hand, is always open in a browser tab, and has an extremely efficient mobile alert piece that forwards messages right to my Treo via SMS.

The Real Story

More telling was the fact that the person trying to reach me figured out that, when he received no reply to his message via Flickr, he could potentially find me through Facebook. And he did, successfully. The picture above is the image that prompted the search for Sass.

In business, it is often difficult to find a working email address for someone you don't know, and many of the services that do provide contact info, do so for a fee. Facebook provides an easy and open means of making contact with its members. A powerful feature when properly used and not abused.

Have you been contacted randomly through Facebook? Have you successfully made contact with someone you were trying to reach through Facebook? Do all these questions make this sound like one of Chris Brogan's blog posts???

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Caught By Accident (Mash)

WOW. The Podcast & New Media Expo in Ontario, California was a great show. On the business side, I made some excellent contacts with Podcasters, Musicians and Companies who can leverage the Myxer Platform to create and share mobile content from their own stuff. In addition, as a longstanding Podcast listener (I was the guest, "Jeff The Listener" in show 100 of Podcast411.com), it was great to see good friends like Scott Sigler and meet many of my favorite podcasters including Dan Klass, Brian Ibbott, Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff, P.W. Fenton, Lance Anderson, Adam Curry, Anji Bee, Seth Harwood, Drew Domkus, Michael Butler, Rob Walch, CC Chapman and many, many more.

I also happened to be in the right place at the right time (the BAR at the Marriott at 1am!) to bear witness to one of the highlights of the event, and one of those "special moments" that will be talked about for a long, long time. If you were one of the 30 or so noisy drunks hanging by the pool, then you know we will all share a special "I was there..." bond for life. And if you missed it... well, watch the videos and listen to the show at www.accidenthash.com, and next time... don't be such a wuss and STAY OUT LATER!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

I Love Lucy! (and Twitter)


Yes, Twitter is like an episode of I LOVE LUCY...
(to find out how, read on...)

If you read through the posts on this blog you will see that I am an avid user and fan of Twitter. As a loyal Twittizen, Twitter has been fun, it has been a resource, it has been a discovery channel, it has been a meeting place, a community, a respite, a river of information and entertainment, a view into the future, past and present, and just plain cool. It truly has been a benefit to me both personally and professionally. I have met new friends and and established legitimate business leads. It has been a platform for business mashups like my TwitTones, (shameless plug: follow @myxertones for a FREE daily Indy Music ringtone delivered in a Tweet) and it has been an outlet for creativity and (hopefully) humor, such as my experiment with poking fun at my Social Networking "Hobby" as an addiction. It is truly amazing how impactful, interesting and inspiring random bursts of 140 characters can be.

So, what about I LOVE LUCY???

Yesterday @newmediajim asked how we would describe Twitter. He called it
"...sort of like if LinkedIn were having a cocktail party. "
I thought about how I would describe Twitter, and realized it is like an episode of I LOVE LUCY -- Specifically the episode where Lucy is working in the candy factory, and the chocolates are rolling by her, faster and faster... so I responded to NewMediaJim:
"Twitter is like the chocolate conveyor belt in I LOVE LUCY. Lots of great treats flying by..you pluck the ones that look sweet!"
And it is! If you have a great group of diverse folks you follow, as I believe I do, you have access to a constant stream of community consciousness you can tap into any time... from your PC, from your phone, from your connected PDA of choice. Like Lucy's conveyor belt, the Twitter machine is constantly full, and moving fast. You can scramble to catch them all (as Lucy does in the beginning of the skit), or you can slow down, observe what is going by, and pick and choose the tastiest of morsels from the Twitter train of thought. Chew, Chew (Choo Choo!)

Lucy or not, I am having a Ball with Twitter!


Photo Credit:Elena Elisseeva - Fotolia.com

Monday, August 27, 2007

Facebook Is Viral Viagra

The infamous blue pill may get things going in the bedroom, but if you want to get things going in Cyberspace it seems all you need is to get some Facetime on Facebook!

I am an avid Twitterer and a good Twitizen, but I don't get too many @sass or D sass messages. I have had a personal blog since 2004, but I rarely get even 1 comment on my posts, despite toiling over every witty and pithy sentence (at least in my mind they are witty and pithy). Yet I put a video on my Facebook profile and lo and behold, I am suddenly "viral." Granted, I put some work into the video production and I "tagged" Chris Brogan, which gave me a jump start with his active following. And now Jeff Pulver was kind enough to link to my video from his well read blog. That said, as I watch the comments grow and add many new found Facebook Friends, I can see just how well the "virality" (that's viral vitality) is built into the Facebook platform... and it really does work. When someone comments on my video it appears in their profile and news feed for all of their friends to be exposed to. If one of their friends then comments, it goes out to their circle... and on and on and on.

In many respects, this is the power of a "closed system" as opposed to the "open" Internet at large. For a "regular guy with a regular blog" like me, posting on this blog is like putting a message in a bottle, tossing it out to sea, and hoping it will drift to shore where someone may notice it and respond. Posting on Facebook is like going around your neighborhood and sticking a flyer in everyone's mailbox. The flyer in the mailbox is much more likely to be read than the message in the bottle!

Thankfully, I am not yet in need of a "virility" boost from the little blue pill, but I will happily enjoy the "virality" boost I have gotten from Facebook!

UPDATE:
(For those of you not in my neighborhood on Facebook, here is the aforementioned video)




Friday, August 24, 2007

Glass With Class (photos by Sass)

Dale Chihuly's art, taken with a Treo 650 Smartphone

Sunday, August 12, 2007

The Sass Sons (and dining with an iPhone)


The boys at dinner tonight at California Pizza Kitchen. Clearly, the doofy expressions are proof positive that genetics works and more importantly, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. More specifically, the apple was quite large and hit us all in the head when it fell from the tree!

Speaking of apples, last night Sue and I dined at a quite fancy restaurant, Il Mulino on Collins Avenue. At the cozy table next to us an attractive, expensively dressed young woman sat alone and carefully lay out a Blackberry Pearl and an iPhone before her. She spent her Saturday evening dining alone, alternating between sending text messages on the Pearl and talking on the iPhone. A sign of the times? Remember when dining alone meant a corner table and a good novel? I was dying to lean over and ask her why she needed both the Blackberry and the iPhone... Was it the keyboard? Battery life? Just showing off she could afford to have both? Inquiring minds want to know!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Non-Anonymous (Say THAT 10 Times Fast!)

The times they are a changing... at least for me. I have come to realize the value of being "non-anonymous" and it has been somewhat of an awakening for me. I am learning to embrace transparency, and so far I think that's a good thing. As someone who has frequented the Internet since long before the World Wide Web (I got my first Compuserve Account in 1982, along with my Commodore 64) I was sort of weened in the ways of anonymity. Going "online" meant going online with a "screenname" (a "handle" to put it in CB Radio Terms) so that no one knew who you really were. This was especially useful when using a 300 Baud Modem to log onto a strange bulletinboard with a long distance call to San Francisco in the middle of the night (a bulletin board you found in the classified ads in the back of BYTE Magazine...) This pseudo self was very effective for flaming people on the boards with stupid and inane comments, a practice that was practically an art form in the day. Years later, upon getting divorced and finding myself suddenly single, I embraced the world of online dating... once again protected by the Scarlett Letter: In this case the "A" was for "Anonymity." I could flirt and chat and charm, all under the guise of an anonymous profile. In the business world, running several Public Companies, I further honed my skills for secrecy, with fear of "selective disclosure" training me to keep things close to the vest (even though I hadn't actually worn a vest since my Bar Mitzvah!)

Even this blog, loosely launched in 2004, was first published under my anonymous dating screenname and had no public connection to the real me. Of course that has all changed. Now you can get my contact info, my detailed bio on LinkedIN, my Twitter updates, my professional info, pictures of me and mine, and a wealth of peeks at my person that surely must border on TMI -- too much information.

Why the change?

Two words. Social Networking. To truly leverage the power of today's amazing tools of communication and connection, you cannot be nameless. You cannot make a mark if nobody can recognize your mark. With so many touchpoints and vectors, so many avenues to access -- each overlapping and interlacing in so many ways -- every blogpost, comment, update, email, IM and text message you post, leave or send, has a residual value that will only inure to your benefit if it can be attributed to YOU. If you are going to flitter on Twitter, pounce on Pownce, write Haiku on Jaiku, make facetime on Facebook, have a fling on Ning, take up space on MySpace and just be a part of the Community... then you must stand up, open up, take off the the Kimono and take CREDIT for your words, thoughts, opinions and actions. Will you make mistakes? Sure. Will you say something stupid, or overly obvious, or ten minutes after everyone else in the world has already said the same thing? Sure. But that's ok, because you will be in the game, and to be in the game that's part of the game. And in time you will gain both confidence and credibility, and the value of your connections will far surpass the fear of being non-anonymous!

Monday, July 02, 2007

Geeks vs. Romans


I recently went on a vacation to Italy. Although it was purely a vacation, I wanted to have Internet access, and stay in touch with home base. I did NOT want to schlep my laptop along, and as a longstanding Sprint customer, I don't have a GSM phone. (My girlfriend does have an AT&T GSM phone, but, when in Rome I wanted to do as the Romans, but not PAY for the Roamin'!) Always looking for an excuse to acquire a new gadget, I picked up a NOKIA N800 for Internet access and to stay in touch with email, twitter, etc., as well as to use it as my European phone, taking advantage of VOIP with the slick N800 version of Gizmo Project. (Still waiting for the long promised N800 SKYPE client).

First off, I love the N800 and when you have wi-fi available, it is a sweet little Internet demon, making web based email and content a pocketful of fun... Did I say when you have wi-fi available? That's the hitch! I think my expectations of wi-fi proliferation in Italy were grossly overestimated. My first night in Rome, I was thrilled to see that my hotel had wi-fi in the lobby. After we settled into our room for the evening, I rushed downstairs, N800 in hand. The hotel wi-fi service was not free, and the onscreen login instructions were in Italian, so it took me several tries and finally some translation from the concierge to get the right info into the right fields in order to buy an hour for 3 Euros. At a different hotel in Florence, I had to join with yet another wi-fi provider, this time for 25 Euros, for a block of five hours, good for a year. Of course, the rest of the trip, I never encountered another hotspot where I could use the remainder of my time on the 25 Euro account.

I became hot for hot spots, and everywhere we went, I whipped out the N800 to see if there was a wi-fi signal... Note to self: Saying, "Hang on a minute Honey, I want to see if there is wi-fi here" is a surefire way to take the romance out of any quaint and charming Tuscany cafe... I even found myself piggy backing a signal from a nearby office building while our Tour Bus was stopping to pick up passengers... only to lose my email as the bus pulled away...

So the net, net, is that the net is not as pervasive as I wish it would be. And my girlfriend's $400 phone bill was proof positive that Geek or not, when in Rome we paid for the Roamin'!

UPDATE: Skype for the N800 is now available and it is SWEET! Kissed my Gizmo goodbye...

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The Best Wager Ever...

This afternoon I learned that my dear friend and college Fraternity brother Matt Wager passed away over the weekend. This is terrible and upsetting news. Shocking, as I just spoke to Matty on Thursday and Friday. I have lost a dear friend and a true brother. No one epitomized the meaning of "Fraternity" more than Matt. We joined Fraternities to have the good fortune to meet and befriend a guy like Matt Wager. Someone who always was there to be counted on... for a laugh, for words of wisdom, for an obnoxious comment... no matter when, no matter how much time had passed since the last laugh, bit of wisdom or obnoxious comment. I have so many great memories and great stories, so much of Matt that is part of my personal history. He was a real friend, a best friend. Matt will remain with me always, and Matt will always be my brother. My heart goes out to Carol, Danielle, Stephanie and the rest of the family. I shared so many great times, formative times, with Matt, that a part of me will never be the same, knowing that I can't just pick up the phone and give him a call. Matt was always happy, upbeat, successful, and lived life his way... let that be one more thing we can learn from Matt... We are not the goofy, idealistic yutzes we were 25 years ago. Life happens. Make every day count. Enjoy every day like Matt did. I loved Matt, and will miss him a great, great deal.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Twitter + MyxerTones = TwitTones!


I recently joined a new company, mVisible Technologies. We have built a very cool and powerful mobile content delivery platform called Myxer. The Myxer Platform can ingest any digital file, and spit it out in the proper format for any mobile phone, regardless of carrier. Through our MyxerTones website we are empowering thousands of content creators and independent artists to play in the mobile sandbox, enabling them to create, share and sell their own ringtones and other mobile content without having to worry about all the heavy lifting. We have radically simplified the process to the point where anyone can create mobile content and send it to any phone, right from their own website, blog, MySpace page, etc. But I digress... The real point of this post is to introduce my entry into our corporate mashup competition. Everyone in the company was challenged to dive head first into "Web 2.0" and "Social Networking" and create a mashup of Myxer and another platform or online community.

As you may know if you have stumbled upon this little blog before, I am a fan of Twitter, and Twitter even made a monkey of me... I also believe Twitter is a wonderful discovery channel - a great way to be exposed to new and cool products, services, and websites you might otherwise never have encountered. With that in mind, my entry into the Myxer Mashup Competition was a no-brainer: Twitter + MyxerTones = TwitTones. TwitTones uses Twitter to deliver FREE Indy Music Ringtones. Many people are already receiving their Twitter updates on their phones...so it is a perfect platform to use to deliver mobile content. I am not a developer (and I don't even play one on TV,) but I leveraged the ease of use of GoDaddy, Blogger, Twitter, and of course MyxerTones to set up TwitTones. If you are on Twitter and you like Indy Music and personalizing your phone with Ringtones, then TwitTones is for you. Follow or Friend MyxerTones and start getting your daily TwitTone today!

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Ok, I Was WRONG...

I predicted Paulie would go after Tony... Instead, he went after a CAT! Clearly, I am not the only one who was surprised by the Sopranos Finale...

Lots of comments and discussion on Mahalo.

Aloha, Shalom, Adios Sopranos...

Monday, June 04, 2007

My SOPRANOS Prediction...

Ok, I don't usually do this, but I couldn't resist. Here is my prediction for the FINAL episode of THE SOPRANOS...

PAULIE is working for Phil Leotardo and he will be the one to whack Tony (or at least try). My reasons for drawing this conclusion stem from Paulie's displeasure with Tony all season long as related to Tony's continued support of Christopher over him...

...and specific things in last night's episode...

  • The odd shot of Paulie in his car, driving up outside the Bing, noticing the "cousins" and speeding off...
  • I believe Paulie was the one who provided the (ultimately false) info about Phil's rendezvous with his mistress.
  • Phil specifically took Paulie off the "hit list" when planning the whacking of Tony and his lieutenants...

We'll see how well I did next week...

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Global Warming is Hot, but Humans are Toast!


With "EARTH DAY" approaching and all the heat about Global Warming, I am reminded of the prologue I wrote for a "blast from the past" sci-fi story I have been working on for more years than I care to admit. In any event, as one take on the Global Warming controversy, here is the prologue to my Novella in progress, "Getting A Head.":

The future is the past...

Save the earth! Save the earth! Everyone is screaming save the earth. But the earth doesn't need saving. Face it; the earth is not going anywhere. How old is the earth? A billion years? Billions of years? Or, as the late Dr. Carl Sagan would have said, "billions and billions" of years? The earth does not need saving. The earth is a survivor. It survived the dinosaurs. It survived the ice age. It Survived the Romans, the Inquisition... Survived volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, the holocaust, Hiroshima... Hell, the earth even survived the sixties!

The notion that man is capable of destroying the earth is absurd. Man's entire existence, from the first cave person (or Adam and Eve, if you prefer) to today is barely a moment, barely a blink, a single breath in the lifetime of the earth. To think that we, human beings, are strong enough or significant enough to wipe out that which has survived, even thrived, for so long without us harkens back to the days when astronomers believed that man was the center of the universe. Well, we are not the center of the universe. We never were and we never will be.

The so-called "environmentalists" have it all wrong. Their passionate cries should not be to "save the earth", but rather, to "save the people!" or "save the humans!" for we are the ones at risk. In truth, there should be no "environmentalists." Instead, there should be "humanists," dedicated to the preservation of the human race. The pollution, waste, crime, hate, carcinogens, terrorism and civil unrest that plague our modern lives do not put us on a course that will destroy the planet. They do put us on the path to imminent self-destruction. The earth needs no savior. The earth will be here long after every trace of man's very existence is gone...

For all we know, it has happened before (history is doomed to repeat itself, is it not?) For all we know, our species of Homo sapiens is not the first to inhabit this planet we call Earth... Perhaps we are not the first examples of intelligent life, but rather, the second, or even third attempt. Perhaps we are only one of many creatures who, like the Jurassic aged dinosaurs before us, inhabited this planet, thrived upon it, and then faced extinction.

Perhaps...

Friday, April 13, 2007

TWITTER is the new "discovery channel"

I have mentioned how Twitter Made a Monkey of Me and Twitter Made a Comic Strip of Me but the real thing Twitter has done for me is to become my primary "discovery channel." It may be R.I.P. for my RSS reader! Why scour scores of subscriptions when I can have the latest and greatest pushed to me live and on the fly? Twitter has become my best way to discover. Discover cool websites....discover blogs, podcasts, even breaking news... It has been an amazing and inspiring resource. A fleeting glance at Twittervision told me we had lost Kurt Vonnegut. An early morning Tweet on my Treo from the Scobleizer told me of a yet to be reported earthquake in Mexico. A few minutes later, again courtesy of Mr. Scoble, I was watching a live streaming discussion with Chris Pirillo on a slick website, Ustream, that I had never visited before... Another discovery!

Why is this 24/7 "discovery channel" that follows me from my pocket to my desktop so appealing? Perhaps it is innate... perhaps Twitter is the modern way our "tribe" bangs the drum so others can hear us... I know I will continue to beat the Twitter drum (as long as Sprint continues to offer my unlimited data plan!)

Sunday, April 08, 2007

TWITTER Made a Comic Strip Of Me!

Well, I must say, I am all a-twitter. The infamous "Comic Strip Blogger," A/K/A "CSB" caught wind of my "TWITTER Made A Monkey of Me!" post and turned me into a Comic Strip! (In case you are wondering, I am the monkey on the LEFT!)

(fake) Adam Curry makes monkeys out of podcast listeners (with help of Twitter)

Friday, April 06, 2007

TWITTER Made a Monkey of Me!!!

Well, perhaps I allowed Twitter to let me make a monkey of myself... And, as you will soon learn, this is not the first time I have been a monkey! It all started when I signed up for Twitter and began following and befriending folks I knew, including podcasters I admire and have communicated with...such as the proverbial prince of podcasting, the Podfather himself, Adam Curry (adamcurry in Twitterspeak). There was no reason for me to suspect that the "Twit" adamcurry was not the "real" Adam Curry. After all, his occasional Twitter posts ("Tweets"???) seemed to coincide with his UK home base time frame, and mentioned events, people and places that were consistent with things discussed daily on the DAILY SOURCE CODE (the same information ANYONE who listens to the show would have access to... DUH!) Hell, his Twitter icon was even the same "Podfather" graphic from the DSC (the same graphic image ANYONE can download with a 2-second Google Image search... DUH!) Did I mention I have a college degree from an esteemed Ivy League institution? DUH!

So, I believed I was "twittering along" with Adam and my other "real" Twitter friends, when I saw adamcurry's Twittered request "Can you mimic the sound of a Monkey? Call and leave your best monkey impersonation at..." and he listed the (publicly available -- DUH!) numbers for the DSC call-in line.

Well, I thought this was funny... and listened carefully to the next DSC show to see if there was any mention as to why Adam was looking for Monkey Sounds... Alas, no mention or hint as to what was up. But clever me, I figured Adam was cleverly experimenting with Twitter... to see what he could entice his minions to do... Far be it from me to ruin Adam's experiment. Besides, I had EXPERIENCE with MONKEY VOICES! During my illustrious film career, I co-wrote, co-produced and was the "VOICE OF THE MONKEY" in the TROMA Cult Classic, SGT. KABUKIMAN, NYPD! I give good monkey!

So, while driving on I-95, Twittering in traffic, I decided to call into the DSC comment line and give Adam a taste of my "professional" monkey voice. Yes, alone in my car (thankfully with the windows up) I hit DSC in my speed dial and let loose a wild barrage of primate prose worthy of any jungle. Feeling a bit awkward, but oddly proud of my contribution to the cause, I looked forward to hearing Adam perhaps play my monkey call in the next DSC...

Several DSC's later, no mention of Monkeys... Until, alas, in DSC #578, Adam admits that someone has been impersonating him in TWITTER! (Although Twitter adamcurry had also admitted this in a Tweet, I remained unconvinced -- read, IN DENIAL -- until I heard it on the "air" from the Podfather himself).

So, I was duped by a dupe! The fake adamcurry had faked me into faking a monkey! Aside from a bit of embarrassment (and curiously wondering what the REAL Adam Curry must have thought upon hearing my monkey message), I have survived. I am now truly a TWIT, literally and figuratively. That said, I am not discouraged and am sure I will continue to monkey around with Twitter!

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Buy ANCESTOR April 1!


FULL DISCLOSURE: THIS POST IS ACTUALLY A SHAMELESS PLUG FOR SCOTT SIGLER'S ANCESTOR... AVAILABLE IN PRINT APRIL 1 ON AMAZON.COM...

As an early adopter (not to be confused with a "frequent" adopter like Angelina Jolie) I jumped on the Podcasting bandwagon headfirst in early 2005... as a listener. I started with Adam Curry's Daily Source Code, and before long I had added Coverville, The Dawn and Drew Show and The Rock And Roll Geek Show to my listening list... Then I read an article about a guy who was going to release the first "Podcast Only" novel... A novel idea at best! That guy was Scott Sigler and that novel was EARTHCORE. I subscribed to the show's feed the very first day the first episode was released. WOW! Scott's story and storytelling was first class, and the intimacy of podcasting, combined with the weekly serialization, made EARTHCORE more exciting and more compelling than any "audiobook" I had listened to before. I was sucked in by the Silverbugs... the Rocktopi Rocked... and in my book (and his) Sigler ruled! I thought DAMN this guy is talented, and DAMN this book would make a good movie... So I emailed Scott, and got an email back, which led to phone calls, more emails, more phone calls and today I consider Scott a great friend. Since then I have worked with Scott to help pitch EARTHCORE and ANCESTOR to various entertainment contacts from my illustrious past, and we have shared many creative ideas (earning me the proud status of a "MASTAPIMP" -- and if you are a Sigler fan, you know what that means!). It has been a highlight of my podcast "listener" career to get to know Scott and watch his talent (and audience) grow like mindless blood-sucking maggots on an oozing, puss-filled gaping, gouged out bite of human (or sub-human) flesh...

So, if you are among the uninitiated, what are you waiting for??? Listen to Scott's prolific output of premium podcast fiction: EARTHCORE, ANCESTOR, INFECTION and THE ROOKIE. And if the printed page is your thing, get your hands on a copy of EARTHCORE, and on APRIL 1, 2007, help Scott make indy publishing history by driving ANCESTOR to the top of the AMAZON.COM charts. Did I say BUY ANCESTOR APRIL 1?

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Fat Blogging vs. PHAT Blogging

So, I am a podcasting addict... I listen to and/or watch more than 60 podcasts on a regular basis... (more on that soon in a separate post...). I have been listening to and watching Jason Calacanis' podcast and I thought I would "weigh in" on the recent attention he has drawn to "fat blogging" or publicly posting one's personal trials and tribulations with the passing or piling on of pounds (a.k.a. DIETING!). As far as I can tell, fat folks have been bloating their blogs with exercise exposition for ages, but somehow, in Jason's inimitable way, he has drawn some attention to the concept and has successfully "branded" the idea (even placing the trademark moniker, "TM" next to the FatBlogging name... as Jason is the consummate entrepreneur, I suspect that in this case the "TM" may stand for "To Monetize!")

In any event, here is my personal take on the crusade against calories. As someone who's childhood was spent shopping for pants in the "HUSKY" section of the store, I have always been an enlisted soldier in the "Battle of the Bulge." For the past 16 years I have been a Vegetarian (strict, but not Vegan -- I do have some dairy, mostly in the form of cheese). Despite my healthy eating habits, I remained the antithesis of the classic skinny Vegetarian stereotype. As the self-imposed "World's Chubbiest Vegetarian" I proudly told people (when they stared at my belly in horror upon learning that
I was a veggie), "hey, there's no meat or fish in cookies and ice cream!!!"

That said, I am currently on a "GETTING SHIT DONE" roll, and in that spirit, I have lost 16 pounds so far this year, and am within reach of hitting a 15 year low weight! How? EXERCISE, EATING WELL, and MANAGING MY METABOLISM. In the spirit of FatBlogging, I will write a separate post dealing with my specific thoughts on the process (at least the process that seems to be working for me... )

Meanwhile, what about PHAT BLOGGING! (or, PhatBlogging
TM). Forget weight loss, let's blog about getting PHAT!
  • Write about how you saved up for your custom gold GRILLS and post pictures of your shiny smile!
  • Write about how you took out a second mortgage to pay for the RIMS on your ESCALADE!
  • Shoelaces? We don't need no stinkin' shoelaces!
Forget about losing weight... get PHAT!

Now that's PHATBLOGGING!!!

Friday, March 23, 2007

I'm Baaaackkk!

Well, I have never really been gone... but I have been delinquent in my duties of blessing this blog with a parade of posts... It's not that I haven't been thinking about it... I have! But, alas, thinking and DOING are two different things... That said, lately I have been on a doing kick... GETTING SHIT DONE, as they say... So, while I am at it, I may as well get this shit done too and start making a concerted effort to build this blog into a regular repository for my random (and not so random) thoughts, opinions, writings, bits of creative bursts... in other words, a bunch of SASSHOLES!