Crazy in the corner has a part in the show...

Oh my faithful, I am so sorry I have been away. If you feel as if I have deserted you, please do not despair, I am always thinking of you – even if I am not posting. So, I was in NYC last week (I’m kind of a big deal – video link coming soon) and then I have spent the majority of this weekend outfitting Darrell K. with Bluetooth, so I am a little swamped. I should have my head above water early next week and I will be able to start posting regularly again.

Just a little story to tide you over: In NYC this past weekend my sister, her boyfriend and I went to the Village Vanguard to watch the Barry Harris trio play. Very enjoyable and a pretty eclectic audience, so interesting people watching as well. Andrew later pointed out there appeared to be a large Scandinavian representation in the audience. I didn’t notice this because I was too delighted by, what appeared to be, an incredibly eccentric groupie sitting right up front. Decked out in her Sunday best and I believe wearing every necklace she had ever owned in her life, she sat next to the stage, eyes closed, nodding in appreciation and smiling quite blissfully. When Barry opted to take the mike and sing rather than play the piano, her face quite literally became flush with excitement and sure enough, her lead group status was confirmed when Barry paused in the song for her to tweet like a bird (a nice accent to his rendition of Embraceable You). Anyway, the trio was great, the young 10 year old they brought on to play the drums was amazing (if a bit heavy handed) and the Village Vanguard was fabulously old and authentic – but the highlight of the show was definitely the bejeweled, crazy-hair (did I mention the crazy hair part?) groupie.

Hello, kitty...

Engadget has a post up about a new Hello Kitty branded emergency gadget, and I love it. I have a lot of silly gadgets, and my favorite is still my Hello Kitty Bluetooth headset. It came with its own ridiculous carrying case with a mirror inside - it looks like an adorable little jewelry box. It is fabulous. There is no real point to this post, aside from the fact that Hello Kitty makes me smile.

Jenny told me to do it...

So, I had my first experience with 'bullying' in the blogosphere. Without getting into the details, I am a bit ashamed to say that I am the mean kid on the playground and I took some kid’s lunch money. The anonymity of the blogs and the internet, in general, lends itself to creating bullies. But it also allows people who would not normally be bullies to stand up for themselves (I know I don’t fall into this category, but whatever). In the case of my little ‘mean kids’ moment, I was definitely picking at someone who had started it – with other people, not me, but again, work with me. Seriously, how often can you poke someone with a stick with complete safety? And for businesses, publications, retail sites, does the anonymity of the internet allow for more honest feedback? It is like the blogosphere is a giant comments box where you don’t have to be worried about being outed by your handwriting. I am not saying I am going for anonymity – I am on the full disclosure bandwagon – but that isn’t to say it doesn’t serve its purpose. Look at Fake Steve Jobs. I don’t know who he is. He could be a 26-year old college drop out living in his mother’s basement, but I still like his commentary - I think he is relevant and funny. Would I think he was relevant if I knew he was a college drop out living in his mother’s basement? Probably not. And people can post all over about the horrible experience they had with X (enter whatever here - retail store, hotel chain, ex-boyfriend, etc.) without fear of retribution – thus the beauty of anonymity on the web. Well, that and I can harass crazy people.

Also, as a little aside, as more and more journalists jump ship from their mother publications (alright, some of them are being asked, nicely, to walk the plank) and starting, or dedicating more time to, their own personal blogs, the average blog reader is getting quite a treat. I know he doesn’t need (or probably even want my recommendation) but everyone in my office should be reading Brian Fuller’s blog, Greeley’s Ghost. It is incredibly interesting.

oh sweet jesus...

reason number 5,982 social media is NOT over-rated...



Also, I know I am woefully behind - but pretty sweet embedded youtube link, huh? I am a regular blogging maven, aren't I?

uh-oh...

So, this fascinating article discusses the importance of 'a well thought out article' vs. a 'shallow blog posting' and why the first is a better option.

Just so we are all on the same page, I am pretty sure my content will always fall into the later category.

My blood is on your hands, Hernandez...

For a brief, shining moment this weekend I thought I had a reader. A real, live, non-friend-who-has-to-read-this-lest-I-scream-at-them reader. I spent a few glorious days convinced I was suddenly a REAL and TRUE blogger. I was certain any second my rank would improve on technorati, someone would trackback to one of my 8 witty posts and the Fake Steve Jobs would call me up and we would have a chuckle at all the other fake bloggers.

Turns out it was just one of my clever friends pretending to be a real reader.

If you will excuse me, I will be in my office trying to figure out a way to hang myself with my shoelaces.

Rush

I have a tendency to get a little OCD – I find one thing and I focus on it and beat it into submission in my head and then I lose interest in it (this is also known as stages 1 and 2 of blogging). Of course I am not abandoning my blog just yet – that would literally make me the saddest and most pathetic of all bloggers. Nope, I am sticking it out for the long haul – or at least the end of the summer.

Anyway, my focused nature tends to make me forget there are other things out there. Like with the techie blogs. I just assume the majority of bloggers are talking about technology. I mean, I know there are VCs that blog, C-level execs at CE and Silicon companies that blog, pundits, journalists, want-to-be journalists and then just straight up fanatics that blog. But for some reason, I really do think the majority of what is out there is humor, politics or technology. Turns out there are blogs for everything – quilting, infertility, new-moms, old-moms, preacher’s wives, etc., etc., etc. The internet has become the biggest Pan-Hellenic system in the world. I have already pledged – or at least made my top pick, cause I really want to go Kappa Delta Nerd, but I haven’t been invited yet, so we will see how it goes. I am a legacy with the nurses (my mom was a nurse) and my dad is all over health care, so I could probably pull a legacy acceptance there as well, but I am holding out for an invitation to the ΚΔÈ - I think the first couple of weeks of blogging are like initiation – and if you stick it out, gain a few readers, maybe a trackback from one of the senior members, then you are accepted.

In honor of the 4th and the bizarre hazing process of the blogosphere, I think I will blindfold myself, sit in a dark room, take shots of 151 and recite the Greek alphabet. Then I will post drunken comments on some of those senior members’ blogs – it is gonna be a hell of a week.

Seven posts does not a blogger make

So I have spent a week and a half playing ‘blogger’ – there are things I definitely like and then there are the things that make me a little crazy. The positive ones first…I am delighted that I am suddenly involved in the blogosphere (that’s right, I even know how to spell it now), sharing my opinion (even if it is only with a couple of you) and, most of all, really taking an interest in all the other blogs on my ‘must read list’. If I hadn’t started this mildly insane endeavor, I wouldn’t have been able to watch Robert Scoble stand in line for his iPhone (which is mostly just endearing because the next day he went to Target to buy a new pair of jeans – who, I ask you, has a $600 dollar phone and a $15 pair of jeans?), I wouldn’t have read Jeremy Toeman’s post about amount of productivity the iPhone sucked out of the American market and been jealous that I didn’t think to calculate that first, and I wouldn’t been exposed to the hundreds of first hand pictures of the iPhone launch, allowing me to live the dream – even though I never really had the dream.

The things that makes me crazy?
A) iPhone coverage
B) how obsessed I am with posting
C) iPhone coverage
D) how obsessed I am with comments (the answer to this is, apparently, offer to give an iPhone away)
E) Freaking iPhone coverage

Although, I am excited to see the 'why would you do that to Bluetooth' posts starting to crop up.