Why Twitter Matters

If you're a regular visitor to my blog, you're probably used to seeing my Twitter feed broadcast my latest ramblings.  And I'm willing to bet there are a number of people out there that a) don't know what Twitter is, b) don't understand Twitter, or c) think Twitter is overrated and will be gone in a year.

Well I've just read an article tweeted by @jcuene preaching why Twitter (and Twitter search) may become more important than most people think.  It boils down to this:

Google Search: provides the most relevant content on the Web that match your search terms

Twitter Search: provides the most recent content on Twitter that match your search terms

In other words, Google helps you find information.  Twitter helps you find information that is being discussed right now.

This Clocks Rocks

The Nixie Tube Clock.  I want one.

Social Media 101 - a.k.a. The Barack Way

I was about to write a post highlighting a particularly bad use of social media, when I stopped and (no offense) thought about my audience.  So instead, I thought I'd take a step back and briefly touch on what social media is all about in case there are any lingering questions out there.

Social Media is about you... whether you are a creator, consumer, or contributor, social media needs you.  Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube are all exemplary examples.

YouTube would be a worthless site if nobody uploaded a video.  It would be equally worthless if nobody ever watched those videos.  And it wouldn't be as strong of a website if nobody commented on, linked to, or shared its videos either.

Social Media is about taking traditional content & publication models and flipping them on their head.  Instead of a few powerhouse publishers creating content and distributing it out to the masses, Social Media is about the average Joe or Kjersten writing a blog post, Digging an article, Twittering about Super Bowl commercials, writing a product review, or...you get the idea

This can be both extremely exciting and/or incredibly scary, depending on who you are.  Are you a CEO of a company whose products are being bashed by thousands?  Scary.  Are you a marketer who just happened to put together a web video that was forwarded to friends by the thousands?  Amazing.

And thus, the reason why this "new" form of media is so amazing.  It's 99.9% democratic, there are no boundaries, and nobody knows what the heck to do with it.

Thanks for reading and doing your part.  I'm trying to keep up with my end of the deal.

Tip of the Week

Do you struggle with pulling aluminum foil or plastic wrap out of the container?  Did you know that just about all major & store brand containers feature tabs at the end that you can push in -- so the roll spins around them, and stays in place when you try to rip off your portion?

Such a simple design, and so helpful.  Why doesn't more of the world know about these?  Or was I the only one left in the dark for all these years?  (Apparently not)

All Your Plastic Bottle Caps Are Belong To Us

I can now recycle plastic bottle caps at work.  Unknown to many, most recycling locations accept plastic bottles, but not the caps.  So start saving your caps and give them to me next time you think of it.  Together, we can make a difference. ;)

Lightroom is a Digital Photographer's Best Friend

There's a hidden cost in digital photography, and it's tied to one of the medium's greatest strengths -- the ability to take as many photos as you like for "free".  The cost is time, and it's the reason why I am so back-logged on my photos.

But as you may have noticed, I'm on a Flickr-uploading spree as of late, and it's all due to my favorite new digital photo tool, Adobe Lightroom.  It combines photo management, workflow, and editing seamlessly into one brilliant tool (that happens to integrate perfectly with Photoshop, mind you).  It's been saving me time, and allowing me to catch up on loads of photos.

Now my only problem is deciding when enough is enough...

iTunes Tip

I just discovered my favorite new iTunes "trick".

Want to filter your music by Album, Artist, or Genre?

Simply option-click (sorry, I don't know the PC version, probably Ctrl-Click?) on the little arrows that show up next to the item you'd like to filter, and voila.  Filter complete.

Happy New Year

If you haven't noticed already, I've been pretty slack on my blog for the last few months.  Now that I have my own personal laptop (yay!) I'm hoping to change that...

Many thanks to all my family and friends for making 2008 such a great year.  Looking forward to a great 2009.

Snow Emergencies in Minnesota

If you live in Minneapolis, and have to park on the street, you're probably well aware of snow emergencies. However, you might not know which side of the street you can and can't park on. Good ol Minneapolis has finally thought up a solution, and gone straight to the source -- to Facebook and MySpace. Now my only question -- when do they roll out the iPhone app?

Google - What I like, What I don't (sort of)

I like:

• Google Search for the iPhone. Tired of typing? Just say your search query, and it does the "typing" and the search for you. Brilliant.

I'm not sure if I like:

• Google SearchWiki. I'm apparently one of the lucky "few" to have first dibs at trying it out. Essentially, you can edit the ranking of your search results, and Google will remember them for your next search. Additionally, you can add comments to your search results, or view comments from the entire web -- only problem is people are stupid, and already I'm seeing a lot of comments like "lol, this site is the best". My next question -- so what does this mean for sites that add new relevant content that a consumer may want to see that wasn't aware of before? Are they out of luck?
  

I Want My MTV

I am super excited that MTV has finally taken a step in the right direction and put "Music" back into their acronym.

Watch all of your favorite videos from your favorite artists on their new site, MTVMusic.com, or watch them embedded in your favorite (albeit infrequently-updated) blog, I'm on the dot com.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five? Got it.
Digital Underground? You betcha.

Dire Straits - Money for Nothing? Bingo:

Dire Straits |MTV Music

Woah

A picture of history

2 Degrees of Separation

My coworker forwarded me a link to his friend's PalinAsPresident.com site a week ago, and said: "let me know...if you have any ideas or builds, I think he’ll be launching in a few days."

Naturally, in my too-busy fashion, I never looked at it. Today, my coworker asked if I had checked it out, and mentioned it had incredibly received over 9,000 Diggs. Not only that, but today's VSL Web even highlighted PalinAsPresident.com.

Talk about two degrees of separation...

(By the way, spend your time clicking around -- it's pretty good)

I'm on the dot com (no, really, I am)

I'm not going to quit my day job, but check out the talent:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/entertaining/

Urban Assault & Dangerous Kittens

Team Dangerous Kittens (Kate and I), as well as Robbie & friends participated in the New Belgium Brewing Urban Assault Ride, or as they call it: Beer, Bikes, and Big Wheels.  It was the first time Minneapolis hosted the event, and I'm proud to say it was the largest showing yet for a new city.

The Urban Assault is essentially a bike race throughout the city (26 miles), with no boundaries and no roped-off predetermined course.  There were 5 Checkpoints, each with its own challenge, and 3 Mystery Checkpoints.

The primary checkpoints included some sort of mini competition or rediculous feat, including:

• Bike limbo
• Minibike riding
• Hurling newspapers 50 feet to your partner while riding a beach cruiser
• Navigating a track on a modified big wheel
• Picking up crushed bottle caps with mittens while getting soaked with water

Before the race, we were given a riddle-like quiz to help place us in the starting blocks, as well as a crossword puzzle to complete which would give us a clue of where to find the first mystery checkpoint.  Once found (it was a dude dressed like an angel with an afro at Lake Harriett), we had to read a riddle taped to his chest that gave us clues to the next mystery checkpoint.

The finish line was even creative -- you had to park your bike, take off your shoes and helmet, and bound through an inflatible obstacle course before you could record your time.  The Chipotle burrito and Fat Tire beer at the end had never tasted so good.  Mmmm, mmmm.

I'm attaching a google map of the ride for reference....

View Larger Map

Photo Contest

Although I don't stand a chance, I decided to enter a photography contest put on by NWA. I figured what the heck, right? I've entered these two so far, simply because I think they're somewhat unique:










Any suggestions of other favs from my Flickr site that you'd think would be semi-worthy?

Hi, I'm from 1984

So I finally decided to join Twitter. Thought it would be an easy way to update my Facebook status & blog all in one simple 140-characters-or-less sentence.

I'm so cutting edge with technology it hurts.

Never Again

This past weekend my best high school guy friends and I headed up to Bjork's cabin for our semi-annual guys getaway trip. It was an awesome time full of food, beer, more food, lots of laughs, video games, and paintball. But the unexpected highlight from the weekend happened in a flash. We were out in the boat and I brought a tennis ball thinking we might play catch and dive off the boat or something. It was my turn to water ski and I jokingly told James that he should throw me the ball while I was skiing. After getting up and stabilized on the skis, James motioned to me with the ball. Figuring what the heck, I gave him a signal to throw it. And he did. And I reacted. And I made a shoestring catch, next to my left foot. I couldn't believe it. They couldn't believe it. It was amazing, and will never happen again.

Got Sisu?

I went up north this past weekend with Kate to run in the 26th annual Brimson Sisu run. This community race to help raise money for the local fire department was supposed to be a respectable 4.4 miles. The course changes each year, and therefore the mileage waivers slightly in order to include or exclude certain points of interest. Just my luck, this year's run netted out much closer to 5.5 miles. I managed, but have been paying the price the past couple of days with sore legs. Guess my goal of running a 10k this year just became that much more attainable.

Too much work = no posts

wow, I'm just getting progressively worse at posting, aren't I? I'm hoping my shiny new iPhone will remedy that... Yes, you guessed it. I finally took the plunge. Now all I need to do is setup a twitter feed and you'll have the pleasure of knowing my wherebouts and latest ramblings at any given moment. Speaking of, there is actually an iPhone app you can download that uploads your exact location to a website every 5 seconds. How creepy is that?