Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

wordpress heaven

have you wordpress people seen this site? it has a ton of themes that look really good. makes me wanna move over to wordpress, almost..

methoblogger down!

hey all methoblogger friends,

i come out of a short computer sabbath to find out that jay's world has ended. apparently his isp service accidentally canceled his account. so, you can't find the methoblog or his personal blog at this time. we are not sure how long it will take to get everything back up again. from what i know their most recent back up, that doesn't have kinks in it dates back to july. this will probably mean that we are going to have to do the redesign again and also ask folks who have gotten plugged in the last few months to check in and possibly sign in with the site again.

in good news. as it looks the blogroll is still functioning, allan will be posting the weekly round up. we have many capable people in the rest of the methoblogosphere that can pick up some of the slack highlighting new posts from friends (the primary purpose of the aggregator & site).. and john is still crazy.

update: the methoblog is back up and being reconstructed. jay is asking everyone to set up a new account with the site as we begin rebuilding.

myspace geek not geeky enough

i am not sure what i was expecting, but as i listened and then skipped through this announcement of google's upcoming open social i found myself saying.. "huh" to the myspace ceo guy who introduced their partnership with the app. (fast forward to around 51st minute to see what i am mentioning, the first 10 minutes is good to get an idea of the open social premise). not quite what i would expect, maybe tom.. i hope this doesn't mean more pirates fighting ninja's and zombies..

zombeatles

this is for you john. thanks newscoma

bachelor blogging

the wife is away for a few days in atlanta for a business conference thing. so i am bach-ing it. potential for a whole lot of posting..

this is about right

tip allan

loltheologians

for those that love the lol. this is loltheologians. tip to john

commenting gone wild!

this post does raise some great questions.. then it just goes crazy! politics and religion, apparently everyone has an opinion and is sharing. i like kat's simple response of "keep your politics out of my religion"

the education system has mined our minds : sir ken robinson

i am have been totally enjoying these series of talks provided by the ted conference. mitch was talking about being excited to go to the conference. i can see why now. some fabulous speakers, know & unknown. some wonderful thoughts and creative expressions. my favorite so far is this talk by sir ken robinson. i'd encourage you to make space to watch the whole thing. he tells a lovely story at the end with a great closing, but you might not catch it all if you don't have some of his set up thoughts. he's humorous so it doesn't drag.

erin & i have often talked about how one element of our raising children will be instilling a love of and engagement into the arts. developing not only a creative self, but cultivating a mind that is able to think more abstractly and innovatively. whether it be drawing, painting, song writing, screenplay, theater, music, etc. our hope is that our children never say that they can't or they are no good when it comes to utilizing their creative selfs that God created (something that also extends into our youth ministry).

other talks that might peek the interests.

• malcolm gladwell: what we can learn from spaghetti sauce
• rick warren: living a life with purpose
• dan dennett: a secular, scientific rebuttal to rick warren
• julia sweeney: letting go of God
• richard baraniuk: goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning
• ray kurzweil: how technology's accelerating power will transform us
• peter gabriel: fighting injustice with a video camera
• richard dawkins: an atheists call to arms
• marjora carter: greening the ghetto

blog action day : send my kids to college

in my contribution to blog action day. i want you to help save the earth & help send my kids to college.

as i have mentioned before. the lovely wife is working for the family biz, all american pest control, a termite and pest control small business here in nashville. her grandfather started it back in the 60's, her dad took over some time ago and has made it one of the outstanding business operations of this type in middle tennessee & the nation.

one of the programs we offer to homeowners is the sentricon system developed by dow agro sciences. sentricon is, simply put, a baiting system that draws away termites to the bait stations instead of your home. then they chew on the bait that prevents them from molting. they can't grow from there and then they die. many of you might have seen these stations before as the little plastic green circles around someones home or commercial property.

this keeps you from contributing to the spraying of more chemical onto the earth while protecting (what might be) your greatest asset. the only maintenance after installation is some periodic checks where our techs monitor and clean out the stations. no pesticides, poisons, sick pets, burned plants, etc that you do not want.

it is effective. we (like i have anything to do with it) used to insure thousands of dollars for repair costs due to the older chemical spray treatments. since moving to sentricon 10 years ago we have only spent around 3k dollars in repair costs. it is pretty amazing stuff.

there are other providers of sentricon around, nashville, the states, the world. but, if you are in the middle tennessee area and/or 1. do not have termite protection for your home 2. dislike your current company or chemical spray treatment, give erin or her dad (though he is on vacation this week) a call.

so, save the earth, help send my future children to college. ps: if you want to have some fun, tell them i sent ya.

all american pest control - (615) 883-8526

so you are anti-social networking? this social network site is for you

you hate myspace? you hate facebook? or live journal, xanga, etc. then hatebook is for you. join in, create yourself a profile of all the things you hate & get connected with people who hate them too.

i registered to see what fun this wasn't. i got a kick out of being called a sucker. saying that i hate my blog.. and other random negativeness. this probably stems from my sarcastic nature.

it looks and functions like facebook, so maybe what i will do is hate on how hatebook copies facebook. sounds like fun!

tip: techcrunch

shortest post to tell ya

just so you know, i changed my feed settings to give out the full posts.. back in the day, i think i set up the partial post thing in an effort to drive traffic. the realization i've come to.. i've got friends out there, who gives a crap if you come here to read the whole post or not.

this if for my star wars friends

this is for you phil, john, andy and other friends of star wars. you will be amazed. via best week ever

skype me!

hey friends, are you on skype? i'm now able to rock the internet system. basically set up an account to be able to do some podcast conversations with people. though i might actually try it out as a phone system. the idea of an international call is pretty cool to me. so skype me if you can!

what's in a blog?

in the spirit of making up sites written by people, rick warren has a secret blog now. for those that have one or two issue with rick, you can find something to laugh about within his secret diary.

tip: marko

will it be "safe" to blog?

i spent today down in murfreesboro with some of the clergy folk of my conference (and some disciples of christ folk) at a sexual ethic training thing. we basically watch a video series and then did some role play and small group stuff. i'm okay with that, but show a little energy and provide an environment that promotes some creativity when you are wanting creative participation. not the white walled gym with linear rowed seating. at least they were cushioned seats. tomorrow is much of the same, but i was told it was going to be even more boring. honest, here's the conversation.

me: what is going on today?
friend: today is pretty cool, tomorrow is the boring day
me: really, how do you know?
friend: today is some moving around and activities, tomorrow is safe sanctuaries and i am doing it. it's going to bore you for sure.
me: thanks for that

luckily i met up with some of the church staff later in the afternoon and i got the password for their office wireless. so i'm hoping to fill time watching or listening to football games. safe sanctuaries is great, but being trained on this for the third time is just a bit tough.

wow how things change!

i have spent a few hours this morning catching up with jonathon as we are trying to resurrect our covenant group. we met up at alektor cafe, one of our fav little stops. i have not been here in quite a while. they put on a little patio in the front lawn which is very nice. amazingly though, the wealth of wifi spots one can choose from is astounding. when we first started coming here there wasn't any wifi, then you could get one signal, but you had to be in the back of the shop. now, it's like a wifi candy store. random i know

lolmethobloggers

john is having some lolfun with the methoblog community. some familiar faces are highlighted.

friday five

playing the friday five game with the revgalblogpals.

With that in mind I bring you the cultural Friday 5.
Name a
1. Book : In the Name of Jesus, by Henri Nouwen. one of the most influential books i have read. i like to say it ruined me.
2. Piece of music : Phantom of the Opera. I don't know if it was this piece exactly, but one of my significant musical experiences was performing at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in NYC while a freshman in high school with my youth bell choir. we kicked butt, but mostly the atmosphere and sound gave me my first "strangely warmed" feeling (ref. for those john wesley fans).
3. Work of art : Impression, Sunrise by Monet. i really like it, not sure why, i have a print that hangs in my office so i stare at it often. after that it would the Trinity icon, also in my office.
4. Film : Mr. Hollands Opus, i can't think of a movie that reflects more the spirit of my life. at least i think so, i can't not cry at the end, which has to mean something too.
5. Unusual engagement with popular culture : it isn't 'popular culture' but i like to escape to a monastery for a period of time a time or two a year to spend time in silence and prayer which are amazing times for me.

That have helped/ challenged you on your spiritual journey.

preaching and blogging to no one

i found this interesting, darren rowse on feelings of preaching to empty pews can help you with blogging to no one. nothing terribly prophetic, i was just intrigued to know this tidbit and felt like sharing.

As I reflect upon my early days of blogging where I felt that nobody was listening I now realize that that was a time where I learned a lot about what I wanted to say and how to say it.

In those early days I tested ideas, tried new ways of expressing them and learned a lot about my topic and the medium of blogging.

So my advice to new bloggers who feel like no one is listening is to not give up and see the experience of preaching to the empty pews on your blog as a learning experience.

update on jay

since this effects not just jay, a good friend, but  the methoblog community as well. earlier stephen asked what happened to jay.. he's fine, over on his facebook he's been able to say..

jay voorhees is.. "is ticked off that my ISP has suspended my hosting account without warning."

updates coming, if anyone really cares.. if you know jay, you know he will be back online as soon as he can help it.

update: jay got back online. thus, the methoblog is back online

closing out barcampnashville

what a day! erin i started out early this morning, did some errands as we made our way to west end for barcampnashville. my notes currently consume the blog. it was fun to have erin there, she got to geek with me for at least a day. her coming was in part though to develop some dream ideas of growing the family biz through some innovative marketing ideas. be on the lookout for an erin blog or podcast in coming months. here are my highlight thoughts in no particular order.

• barcamp opened with a bang. chris and mitch were awesome in presentation and content. the 20 minute talk (40 min for keynote) limit stacking people on top of each other is a cool format. they also appeared to be some of the more seasoned public speakers/presenters.
• very cool to see some of the nashville blogging crew. i didn't know many of them this morning, and still don't know all of them, but i do know more. i'll be jazzed to get more involved with the mcb crew.
• people seemed surprised to find out a youth minister was there.
• learned some cool stuff about google... more than i probably wanted to know, but i'll be sure taking advantage of google a bit more.
• enjoyed the dinner break, the organizing a place helped in meeting new people. since we sat in for the main sessions we didn't network during the event.
• brittney's presentation wasn't mind blowing, but wonderful. she has an endearing spirit about her that comes across and i think that's why people love her. you could feel that sentiment in the room.. or maybe that was the room getting a little cooler. naaah

thanks to the sponsors, it was way cool. erin & i were glad to be a part of it and it was well worth our time in the sometimes too hot exit-in.

saturday @ barcamp (now liveblogging)

today erin & i will be heading to barcamp nashville. we are both going to pick up, hopefully, on some fresh perspectives on marketing and media use with the internet. along the way i might meet up with some other blogger friends. john is the only person i know personally that is going.. knowing only one person at an event usually ups the odds of meeting someone new. so that should be pretty cool.

gonna be there? look for me there, say hi

live blog (linking to happen later)

12:00... erin and i arrived before the 11:30am opening. quickly ran into john, whom is the only person i knew going into the event. so i was pretty happy to 1. see him again 2. immediately have another person to talk with. the folks waiting in line were quite nice. so it looks positive as an event. since getting in we met up with rob and newscoma. we see some other people we know through networks (not necessarily blogging)

12:30... chris houchens, "blogging gives you are word of mouth outlet." "social media it not the place for sales." people in corporate marketing have failed in trying to do that (sale over social media). "you need to be honest and sincere with social media" warhol revisited, "in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. with social media everyone is famous to 15 people." now is the best time to be in marketing we've ever had, because the market is self-sorting itself. embracing the medium. corporate blogs do's and don'ts

• first, let's kill all the lawyers. it needs to be direct link out and not filtered through lawyers
• blogs work when they are based on: candor, urgency, timeliness, pithiness, controversy..
• blogs are NOT a press release machine
• understand what a blog is (example chrysler firehouse blog)
• don't be fake (example the coke zero blog as fake)
• discuss the Industry NOT just your Company (example brew blog by miller brewing)
• fictional characters CANNOT blog (example the pink panther blog, captain morgan)
• watching from the sidelines is important too, be aware of what is going on online about your company. search youtube and search engines about what is being said.
• if you are not going to blog about yourself, someone else is

chis put his presentation on www.slideshare.net "the youtube for powerpoint"

12:39... bryce wells from athlon: podcasting, lessons for traditional publishers. i hear, "content online is a black hole." wikipedia defines podcast as. what is a "traditional publisher." having a website does not mean you are a traditional publisher. in april 2007 over 100 million ipods are in the market.

• our magazines only come out once a year, our editors are consumed with our core sports throughout the year. some editors do more that 100 radio interviews a year.
• our online strategy is to turn each sport's preseason into an online event, team predictions..

lots o' information about logistics of podcasting. now applying lessons to video podcasting.

as traditional publisher should embrace podcasting and find ways to complement their core offerings.

1:00.. mitch joel, six pixels of separation, the new world of new marketing.

• "the the conversation is dominated by consumer themselves, and they're paying scant attention to the self-interested blather of the marketer, who needs ads- offline, online or otherwise? this raise the question of agencies are left to do." -bob garfield, dec 2005
• aol commercial "is the internet a bad thing?" put out commercial because they don't have a choice, people are saying these things anyways.
• blogs and these things are not a fad, they are not going away
• people do this because we can, we've always wanted to do these things. (connect)
• half of youtube's audience is over 34
• 17% of sony playstation owners in america are aged 50+
• 48% of leisure time is pent online.
• quiz: youtube's growth from april 2006-2007? 616% wow!!
• facebook growth from 2006-2007? 2424%
• "i really don't know whether we'll be printing the times in five years, and you know what? i don't care either." arthur sulzberger, owner, chairman and publisher of ny times.
• "newmark told an all-too-knowing audience that this is a time of 'creative destruction' and that he has a 'great deal of sympathy for people who run the printing presses. they are screwed.' it's not that journalism is becoming obsolete; rather the deliver methods are changing: 'even the kids realize new is important. the problem is paper is too expensive, ' he said." craiglist founder
• talking of being told that 'you' are killing the news. problem with that is, the daily show is only funny if you know what the news is.

one to many conversation

• if you understand you internal conversation, your one to one conversation.. how do we tell the world?
• advertise cost millions.. though the 'one to many conversation' has been democratized
• nobody talks about this, they talk about control

connecting real power creating community conversations

• "real power" never before have you been able to go through you day to day lives and affect change
• show another time and media where this could have happened?
• it wasn't enough where you could read and look, you can now create
• we are all intrinsically connected
• it's completely different from how we are conditioned to do things as marketers
• blog stats: over 71 million blogs.. some of them must be good, 120,00 new blogs started every day, over 1.4 million blog postings every day. 58k blog postings in an hour. don't try to get ahead of this today, just get on-board.
• 300 story of, civilization could have gone one way or another way. barcamp is our 300.

know control

• consumer is not in control.. because manufacturers still control the price and products. the only difference is the consumers voice is as big as the companies. we live in a world where the consumers voice is an equal

what is social media

• the web as we knew it. look, it's about eyes
• today, it's about hands, you can change stuff

wisdom of crowds (book to read)

• together we are a lot smarter (example motorola q wiki page)
• co-creation, example starwood creating new...
• trust economy, is what this world is based on. i trust him through the online channel. in ebay, you would buy from the person with positive
• digital darwinism. if it is not good, no body will come and it will become extinct. if it is good it will evolve.

six points of separation

• make people the heroes - not the brands
• everything is "with" not "instead of"
• don't be fleeting - build, grown...
• earn the right to get your consumer out of lurker mode
• it's attitudinal not generational
• upload a video to youtube.. do something now

juan mann brings it all home

1:45.. wow!! break

2:05.. Luke Kanies & David Touve talking about humans and computers.. people are still chatting away after the break, so it's somewhat difficult to focus on these guys.

it's getting hot here.. okay, it got hot a long time ago. some 500 people in and out of the exit in while the temp goes up. you couldn't expect anything else.

dave and luke are making some great points about the limitations of computers due to limitations of our own self. the interactivity or imagined interactivity of computers we come in contact with. they are running a loop of computer/human images (six million dollar man, old ascii comps, etc) while talking.. which is pretty darn cool.

these guys are really sharp.. probably too sharp.. i can only imagine their late night drunk conversations. that'd be interesting.. or completely insane

2:26... jackson miller, 3 dimensional social networks. too many web applications don't do #$!. they make me do all the work. things need to be simple. pen and pad are simple. macbook tries to make complex things simple.

one dimensional social network

• do you know them?
• yes or no, true or false, boolean
• myspace, instant messenger

two dimensional social networking

• do you know them?
• in what context do you know them?
• facebook, linkedin, etc.

three dimensional social networks ?

• do you know them?
• in what context do you know them?
• how deep is your relationship?
• can there be a system that can identify how well and through avenues you know someone?
• "i want my communications to be weighted by this." sort by the amount of attention you give them
• our network apps will be able to know what is more relevant and we don't have to do all the work
• "relevance is measured by attention over time"

2:44... chris wage, centre source, demystifying web 2.0.

• web 1.0 the beginning. traditional client/server interaction. web as information-repository. cgi-the web gets interactive.
• what web 2.o isn't. not a new technology. involves a fair amount of marketing hype/buzz. will not do your dishes.
• what is web 2.0. primarily represents a change in thinking about how the web works.
• advantages of web 2.o. participatory, open communication, decentralized architecture, social networking, semantic web.
• technical changes, ajax, semantic markup, tagging, rest, xml (rss/atom)
• development processes, rapid development/extreme programming, the end of the software release cycle. (ie. google maps is still in beta)
• problems, nobody knows what web 2.0 means, semantic web is not an idea that is perfectly reconcilable with the real world, "bubble 2.0".. technologies like ajax circumvent a lot of standard assumptions about web-browsing.
• conclusion - web 2.0 is not a cure all, involves some useful rethinking about web usage, dangerous marketing buzz/hype.

3:20... caleb garner, on gaming stuff. at the moment he's talking about an upcoming game. i am not a big gamer person.. actually i never really play. that is a long story about me being a young child and not getting an atari. my family had to purchase a colecovision. apparently we were the only family that had one, so none of my friends wanted to play at our house cause we'd kick their butt.. my brother and i didn't want to play at their house cause we'd get our butts kicked. so eventually, gaming was not part of my life.

people are talkative again after the break. go outside!.. oh yeah, it's hot out there. we tried. i think the blogger friends went to the cafe. i hear it is cooler there.

you know, i think this stuff would be kinda fun to play with.. now, if only there were four more hours in the day that i could be awake.. hmmm

3:41... jared scheel on iphone application development.. can't afford it.. so i'm gonna rest the comp and let my lap cool off.

4:02... matt reed, on design aspects and techniques for the user. cool splash page thing. is that something design companies still put into a site. what they do with cabedge.

• entertainment (20%)
• informational (70%)
• application (10%)

when designing, what to keep in mind

• designer, client, user, google
• designer and clients need to begin with the users and google in mind
• in bad design, designer thinks they rock.. client thinks it rocks.. user is out.. google doesn't know what it is. in the end the client is not happy.
• if you break the site down to the core, the html, then what? it makes sense to the broad web and google, but real people don't eat it up. the designer is ashamed, the client feels jipped, user doesn't think it looks legit, google loves it.
• applying a style sheet, designer is happy, client is happy, user thinks it looks legit, google is able to index it. a lot of architecture on how to show the information, shorter design time, shorter changes
• text navigation helps in making sites changeable
• design for the user, all things circle around that, and it is sometimes hard to get a client to see that.

(battery low.. got to switch to computer #2 soon)

switched to back up computer.. yeah it works (the battery sometimes likes to run quickly, which it may still do). people are kinda loud. bluepaw paid for a round.. well $500 worth of a round.

5:03... chip gallent, from linearmill on tips to increase web traffic (conversion metrics).

• the conversion funnel, breakdown you site behaviors. understand all of the steps to understanding your success metricscale, lead or registration. what you think you know is unimportant.
• the goals, break down your conversion process to determine where the opportunities for success. understand why your site visitors don't continue to the next step.
• conversion funnel chart, internet traffic 2 website visitors 2 website prospects 2 transaction initiation 2 transaction steps 2 transaction success.
• understand the funnel, at each step within the funnel, your visitors are going to make 1 of 3 decisions. continue to the next step, leave the site...
• what worked?, stop guessing. start knowing. invest in analytics. a/b test your registration/shopping cart steps & order. eliminate all intra-registration, on-page links. the offer will impact the results.
• ? used google analytics because they rely on google adsense. also used omni(something)

www.conversion-funnel.com

5:22... john ellis, from resort quest, 7 habits of highly effective pay-per-click advertisers.. the travel biz in search engine marketing is very important. so how do we convert our searchers into buyers?

• separate content from search. know that there is a difference between the content links and search links that are
• control spinning by adjusting bids... not daily spend budget. set it and it won't go over it, but if you only manage that you miss out on a lot of clicks. lowering your position on the page can get you where you need to be, but you must monitor your cost per click.
• create a negative keyword list.. it's not the traffic that counts, its the quality of traffic that counts. lose unwanted traffic. get rid of the people who are not really interested. (ie. if you are a soap company take off soap opera to eliminate that traffic)
• conversion matters, not clicks. what you want is the buyers. what are they doing when they come in and when they leave?
• avoid #1 spot. the return is not in the number one spot. (hey i'm number one in google) you get a lot of wasteful traffic. the people that want to buy look at the 1st and 2nd but will buy at the 3rd or 4th position. if you try for #1 it's more expensive and a competitor will start a fight wasting money for that one spot. they will get more traffic which you have to be cool with, but the end results are similar
• bid exact, avoid broad.. these are the exact keywords that you put in. being exact enable the more targeted consumer.
• good analytics are needed to measure the cost per click. where are they coming from, figure out the funnel path. follow the customer path.

it's not traffic that matters, it is unwanted traffic that you want to get rid of and get the close. you will start paying less and making more. google is still the top dog in searches, be there first, 60-70% of your traffic is there. yahoo is around 10%.

5:43.. stasia holdren from sitening on local search and narrowing your results.

• why? $243.1 billion in the us online retail sales in 2007, people are researching online and then looking local for the services or product.
• what is a local search? with people looking you want as a local business to get online there.
• why is it cool? because there is money to be made there.
• could be found through tradition words or zip code type applications to help match people and products
• identified as local,
• business listings in google is now in google maps.
• you as a business owner can put in more detailed information into the google local information. there can be reviews put into the website. (this is really cool, i'll have to see if i can do this with the church's listing i am sure the other churches don't know this)
• some local portals will sort by ratings
• how do i get listed? at the bottom of the google maps page there is a link to edit business information.
• if you can show your address and information in a traditional envelop style the google bot can pick up the information is easier.
• they then will do a phone call verification.
• ppc and google level. local searches are not limited to google, but they are like 70%.
• ppc geotargeting. get your information out there and make sure it is correct in as many places as you can. if it is wrong then other sites will pull information that is incorrect
• targeting.. (that was fast)
• roadblocks, isp prevents google from identifying ip, ip doesn't match location of searcher, google doesn't recognize location.

6:04... dinner?

7:32... parker and colin polidor, cell journalism/nashflix and community powered media.

• immediacy of sending content remotely is undeniable.
• okay.. so we are all of a sudden talking about how said self grows up with the internet.. uh, we all have that history, you have 20 minutes.. get going, this isn't a one hour presentation where you touch my heart, why cell journalists? why community media?
• okay, so just realized that time is running out.. also mentioned in the twitter page
• kat asking what benefit for the community sending it in if it is monetized. answer, this is a platform for putting up new media.
• nashflix is still in beta, which we heard today one is always in, but then they mentioned that they are seeing what the users want.. which i can't help but think is an interesting perspective

7:55... brittney gilbert, on blog bold.. learn the rules , then break them. getting back to the basics

• what are the rules? specialize, standardize, have a message/mission statement, identify your traffic & write for your readers, make money by selling ads.
• breaking the rules. specialization is a good idea, but overrated. a personal blog can be both "general interest" and successful. many people read blogs for the person behind it, not the subject matter.
• people read your blog because of who you are.
• note: brittney looks small behind the podium.. she's not that small
• breaking the rules. your blog need not look like everyone else's. don't have a blog roll if you don't want. don't allow comments if you don't want. don't look at too many other blogs before you design. having a mission statement is great, but not essential. you don't need a message, ramble if you want. some of the best-loved blogs have no mission or aim. write when the mood strikes, about whatever that may be.
• breaking the rules. forget you have an audience. write for yourself. look less at your stats. trust yourself and your material.
• breaking the rules. ads are not essential. bloggers make money in other ways-writing gigs, employment opportunities and book deals. concentrate on the content, not on the advertising. blog because you love it, not for the money.
• rules worth following. post often (every post doesn't have to be a masterpiece), mind your manners, don't feed the trolls.
• want a blog job? don't wait for one to open up. create one. lobby local media outlets. pitch your blogging skills to companies big and small. they don't even know they need you yet. show them that they do.
• odd, she waves bye and i for some reason i wave back... hmm..

8:18pm... penelope trunk, the brazen careerist, someone who sticks to a path that is true to themselves. she "was like the best at selling ads on her bikini" as a beach volleyball player. so as she climbed the ladder she sees that all the people at the top are such "losers".. talk will be 10 myths

1. job hoppers will hurt your career. it's a smart thing, get the learning and then go and get more learning. 18-24 yr olds will have a new job every two years and it will persist till 2010. you build your skill set faster and network faster. job hopping is actually good
2. office politics is about backstabbing. true, if you are a backstabber's. the way to get the projects you want or get someone to take you further is that you get people to like you. find the people who have empathy, can forge relationships, that people will want to bring you up.
3. do good work and then you'll do fine. good work is totally overrated. people will rather work with someone who incompetent and likeable than someone competent and a jerk. focus on how likable you are more. if you spend the majority of your work day with your head down getting your job done then you are not getting your work done. pay attention to people.
4. you need a good resume. a resume only gets about 10 seconds worth. that 10 seconds is to help them throw you out. 90% of jobs people get from connections. think about your story. your resume is not everything. you need an integrated story about how you got to where you are.
5. promotions are good. promotions are someone elses vision for your career. it is what the company needs for you to do, not what you need to be doing. people who were recently divorced and promoted says that divorce is less stressful. instead of promoted from programming to management, promotion means you get to pick the cool project
6. grad school opens doors. grad school generally closes doors. if you are not going to a top 10 school for an mba the degree is not worth enough to give up working to get, keep working or go to night school. the people who are making law partner are better marketers.
7. entrepreneurship is risky. corporate life is just as risky as there is no safety net. in entrepreneurship now it's the less risky move as you can rely on yourself instead of others. the bar for entrepreneurship is really low right now. a good idea sticks and if it is not then it is only a wasted weekend. if you are learning and able to live then you are a success, but if you are stuck in corporate and miserable then can you be a success.
8. don't reveal too much of yourself online. no one needs to give you warnings about what is too personal. plus, human resources is not going to go through all your myspace to only find that everyone else is unhireable because of the same thing. if you are going to blog then get credit for it, put you name into it.
9. work hard to reach the american dream. college, wife, house, kids, retire.. yeah. generation x is the first generation to not make more money than their parents. but it's not biggie as they are not money oriented as their parents. generation x and y value their time more than their money. if we have our own company then we control i time more. we are redefining the american dream
10. find a stable job and have a stable adult life. unfortunately companies cannot trade off that type of safety. people can offer the ability to find fulfilling work and specialties. find stability inside you by accepting that things are going to change.

"my blog is a community where we ask these same kind of questions".. i like penelope trunk, she's cool.

8:52... whew!! it's been a good day, but we are outta here. (will clean up grammar and links later)

i won

hey, i won a caption contest put on by john. i think this is my second winning distinction which would be awesome if he didn't run three or four contests a week. still i'm quite proud of my creativeness.

friday five

i am playing the friday five after a long hiatus, if i remember correctly, john said i blogged like a girl..

Tell us the first thing you think of on reading each one. Your response might be simply another word, or it might be a sentence, a poem or a story.

1. vineyard: a good wine.. and there is a new vineyard outside franklin tn that i want to check out

2. root: root directory.. my inner geek coming out

3. rescue: my days as a firefighter and emt back in new jersey.. those were interesting years

4. perseverance: if i continue to sit at this desk eventually i will get some work done

5. divided: the church.. all kinds of ways

cleaning house

so i'm running a new theme, simple, a little color.. mostly the change comes from a need to clean up some of the links and stuff.

web crash of 2007

brilliant, if this happened, i too would probably "control-alt-delete myself." tip to marko

ramblings of a tired man

currently i am in chicago and really enjoying my bed at the conrad hotel. i so have to get me one of these things for back home. so far my trip up here has been this.. golf, drink, eat, sleep, sleep, eat.. think i might sleep a bit then actually go walk around. if i have time i'll take in the architect tour through the river, maybe i'll wait for the wifey to get done with her business meetings first.

i picked up a refurbed ipod this week. the only i've been doing with it so far has been listening to divine conspiracy by dallas willard. there is something passive about listening to a book that makes it hard to catch all points, but i am enjoying it. i like how he takes you through the sermon on the mount. he also has a some great phrasing to his points that i will probably go back and write down for my own person later on.

my golf game is getting better. not sure if i have ever talked about my golf past. i used to be pretty good, playing competitively in high school and junior golf tournaments. i tried out for my alma mater my freshman year, played poorly the first day and never went back. stopped playing almost completely (the occasional wedding round brought me back). late spring i decided i wanted to play well again, so i've tried to play or hit balls once every two weeks. i got picked up by my buddy and went to play this course. it had some crazy holes, but i scored well until the heat and just tiredness took over. then i donated some balls to the course so stupid shots. but until that point i was quite pleased with my play.

erin and i finally made the decision to attend barcamp nashville. i think it will be cool to learn some new tech marking stuff that i will most likely be trying out within my church construct. erin is looking at for a new vision for using the internet both for herself and the family biz. we might even get her dad to go. though he will most likely not last till midnight. any friends out there i can expect to see at this thing?

one must still check their sources

now i know that john spoke of this great tragedy and whenever he cites the source people negate checking out the source and take it for actual real journalism. i find it funny over the years as people have gotten bent out of shape over a fake news story. admittedly, lark news runs stories that hit close to home with some aspect of church & spiritual life you could actually imagine it being true.. maybe down the road a few years they might be true.

considering one of my most recent collisions with actual journalism and this apparent radio group using this same source john uses for fun, i have to wonder... do people check sources anymore? or is truth in whatever source you cite, regardless of their actual fact content?

tip: cartoonblog

methoblog fantasy

if you are like me, then sundays are not a day that you can easily attend an nfl football game. you might not even be able to watch them on tv. still, we can dream or "fantasy" about sundays and check box scores on monday.

i have set up a fantasy football site for fellow methobloggers. it is a private group so if you are interested i need to send you an invite. the beginnings, ie. the draft, is an autodraft (which means you can do nothing and a team will get drafted for you) with a draft day set for sept 1st. if you are not particularly a methodist blogger, but want in, we are cool with that, we do work well with others. open doors open minds...

email me at gavoweb(at)gmail(dot)com to let me know you are interested

i didn't need a test to tell me this

85%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

 

what type of blog is yours?

some perspective on all those blogger awards via cartoonchurch blog

reader & randomness

catching up on some blog reading this evening while watching live earth stuff. it's been a crazy time of late. my team of folks have been busy prepping and building prayerstations and atmospheric stuff for our "worship feast" area of youth 2007. all things are built, painted, packaged and ready for packing and shipping on monday and tuesday. it was great fun, at times, putting a vision together. nice to spend someone elses money in doing it too. i have one item i am nervous about, but i won't speak of it here. if we don't pull it off then you won't know. you'll still think what we do is cool. &:~)

we are in a good spot with all things. i guess this is what happens when you plan. go figure. i hope to do some video blogging of our set up and experiences. if you are going to be in greensboro then come find me in or around the worship feast area. you especially

due to planning i got to spend today in bed and shopping with wifey. apparently it was shoes day. i got two new sets of flip flops (my shoe of choice, even when not weather permitting). this was needed as my most recent purchase of flops was almost two years ago. i also got some cool trail runners on clearance. impulse buy, but worth it. i might actually run in them. we got some new shoes for wifey. one of them being golf shoes, her first. i entered her and some friends in a golf tournament and seeing that she has never played before, she needs to learn to play the part.

we finished our day eating at chef's market in goodlettsville (town just north of nashville, but partly within the metro area). it was my first time to make it for dinner so i was excited, they have stuff on their menu that is only available for dinner. so i had a good idea i knew what i wanted. surprised to find one of my favorite conference youth kids there working. he graduated last year so i haven't seen him since last summer. big hugs and some catch up, that was special. i ordered the snake bite pasta.. everyone should have themselves the snake bite pasta. it is wonderful!! erin has the chicken cordon bleu, that was excellent, but not as excellent as the pasta i had. it was a huge portion so i took home half and have been looking at the leftovers just anticipating when i will eat it. yummie!

home again and after cleaning up a bit wifey went to bed and i'm catching up with you my blog friends.

in going through the reader, here are some things that i found funny, interesting or just blog worthy.

• wanna be a worship leader and janitor? this church is for you. they are at least honest. thanks jaws
• ann coulter will go away if you ignore her. thanks sam
• i wanna meet up with my friends in places that jonny does
• shane claiborne interviewed by the wittenburg door.
• i like how a gay/lesbian book store handed out water to Christians who are holding revival against that kind of lifestyle.
• catching up on the latest of the nashville is talking blogging community chaos
• jamey's take on nashville representing in their own town revival
• in talking about people turned off by church. "I would wager that the things that most turn them off are the things that most turn Jesus off." thoughts on a rob bell interview by phil

my plagiarism & copywright issues

i received an email from the folks at prairie home companion yesterday. apparently a post that i had put up about garrison keillor & methodists, which was sent to me over email, was adapted/plagiarized and circulated. not being familiar with keillor at that time i found it amusing and posted the email circulation. i didn't know that i would be some source for this information. thus, i found this interesting

Your column gives the impression that some or all of the December 16, 2006 posting are comments that Mr. Keillor made regarding Methodists and as such has been reprinted in the UMMen Summer 2007 magazine.

in my post (which i have removed per their request) i mentioned that it was adapted & i received it through an email forward. so i find it interesting that i would be the resource for a print magazine.

with respect to mr. keillor and the brain trust behind prairie home i've removed my post as well as from a posting on themethoblog. jay has written a formal letter suggesting that they entertain the idea of using creative commons license.

are you on pownce?

so i have seen folks mention pownce before. then i get an invite from jay. before i know anything i'm signed up. if there are others of you out there that are on pownce or want an invite let me know. http://pownce.com/gavoweb/

just call me disney

thanks to thomas, apparently i am one of the least offensive bloggers in all the land. i'm like disney.. actually disney probably is more racey than i.. guess i need to step up my controversy & scare level. now, where to begin?

see how you fare

a mystic, evangelical & fundamentalist

... a mystic, and evangelical pastor and a fundamentalist preacher die on the same day and wake to find themselves by the pearly gates. Upon reaching the gates they are promptly greeted by Peter, who informs them that before entering heaven they must be interviewed by Jesus concerning the state of their doctrine. The first to be called forward is the mystic, who is quietly ushered into a room. Five hours later the mystic reappears with a smile saying, "I thought I had got it all wrong." Then Peter signals to the evangelical pastor, who stands up and enters the room. After a full day has passed the pastor reappears with a frown and says to himself, "How could I have been so foolish!" Finally Peter asks the fundamentalist to follow him. The fundamentalist picks up his well-worn Bible and walks into the room. A few days pass with no sign of the preacher, then finally a door swings open and Jesus himself appears, exclaiming, "How could I have got it all so wrong!"

i keep giggling at this, long after reading it. courtesy of 'how (not) to speak of God'

annual conference : jedi jay

jay helping people miss votes by talking in the lobby. apparently the camera on my phone is pretty bad

annual conference : supergirl sighting

that is supergirl in the distance. apparently conflicted on sitting in the balcony or on the main floor.

image verification

hey all.. so it seems while gavin is away the spam comes to play. i've never been hit by the spam bug too much but five spam comments over three days and that is enough to say, it is image verification time. sorry for the inconvenience. i tried going without it for as long as i could (which was pretty long).