Archive for the ‘personal’ Category

A message for the MCDM

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Fellow MCDMers way up there in Seattle, I have a thought to share with you from my new digs in Los Angeles.  Consider it my sermon from the bottom of the social media hill.

So, I’m sitting here talking to a fellow MCDMer via IM, and they are lamenting their job prospects to me.  Of course, I am also freelancing, it’s a tough economy, etc, etc.  Nothing we haven’t heard before.

As we are talking I begin to think that there seems to be this idea floating around out there that since we are the supposed digital media experts, that we can just show up on company doorsteps and pitch to them what we do as new positions, expecting them to completely understand, see the need for our knowledge, and then allocate resources.  I’ve had a tiny bit of success with this, but I certainly don’t subscribe to this approach on the whole (plus I kinda got burned by it – though I’ve purged the evidence, so you’ll never catch me doing it again! wink wink nudge nudge).

Truthfully, real connections and genuine relationships need to be established first. You know, you intern a while, or you hob-knob at Social Media Club events, you take a position maybe only tangentially related to what you want, you wash the dishes, etc. You can’t just call on someone randomly and expect results.

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Resetting social connections

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

The following is… well, it’s something… written specifically for ex-girlfriends and former women I’ve dated, some of which specifically want nothing to do with me any more… however, I think this also applies to any kind of dropped connection, too:

You don’t need to have anything to do with me, I understand that.  You don’t even need to be my friend, I also understand that.  I screwed up and handled the break-up and/or how I treated you when we dated incredibly poorly, I definitely understand that.  I am really crazy, like probably chemically crazy, we can probably both agree on that, too.  And, of course, people often just don’t want to associate with exes (or crazy people), I understand and respect that clearly as well.

Nevertheless, I happen to still think you’re pretty cool, so…

What I also understand is that there is often an unhealthy, if minor and mildly annoying, tension – an almost NEED that we artificially create in our minds to protect ourselves – a subconscious (or very concious) game of thinking about how to avoid a person that we previously had some kind of fallout with whenever they happen upon us.  At least, that’s what happens on my end.  Of course, I know I am not the most popular guy in the world, so your side and your thoughts when seeing me in a room could be quite different, but generally, I think that’s what happens.  Negative energy ensues.

But, I also think we all have kind of a common bond, and that’s our mutual associations, friends, and, potentially, future social exchanges of some kind, all of which remains worthwhile.  As for the latter, I’m talking “exchanges” of information, business, or maybe even service, in the least.  I think we just can’t close the “mutually beneficial” doors that life may present to us from time to time.  I know that in my chosen industry, a networker’s paradise, we pretty much never ignore a soul because someday we might be working for them, and vice versa.  Even if not financially.  You might show up for that community volunteer gig and find out the guy you loath is the one with the clipboard! (more…)

“It’s a book for nerds.”

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

So, I’m at this house party last night. Nothing fancy. Bunch of singles playing games and goofing off. I felt too old to be there.

Anyway, as I’m leaving there’s this really attractive girl sitting on the couch looking at “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. Immediately, I’m thinking to myself, “win win win win win”. So, I lean over and say to her, “You like Douglas Adams?”

And she says, “Oh, it was just sitting here. I was looking at the first little bit.”

I’m like, “That’s cool. It’s really funny. Smart funny.” She hits me back with a bit of a blank stare. I explain, “It’s kinda comedy for the Doctor Who set.”

“The what?”

You know that moment when you realize you’re talking to maybe the wrong person? I mean, she was totally good-looking, totally friendly, and… completely unaware of what on Earth I was talking about. We’ve all been there – that ferocious little moment where your hormones and your brain cells cordially shake hands, turn their backs one to another, walk ten paces, immediately turn about face, aim aaaaaaand Fire! This time, my hormones took the bullet.

Anyway, she’s still looking at me, puzzled and waiting for the “what”.

So I simply say, “It’s a book for nerds.”

And I leave it at that.

Post-class Reflection: Economics 101, courtesy of Monday Night Football, Chris Anderson, and Mickey Mouse

Friday, October 30th, 2009

Epic MickeyI’ll explain what this image is about momentarily, but first, let me begin with a prologue.  Tuesday night in my Net Economics course at the UW MCDM a lively debate, to say the least, was had over Chris Anderson’s new book “Free”; whether free as a concept was good or bad.  I took the free side, but it made me feel a little lonely.  I almost felt like I was the only student in the room who believed that it’s a good thing that we’re moving towards a digital economy based on giving bits away, harnessing business models that find alternative sources of revenue.  For instance, a fellow student mentioned that Microsoft has a 90% market share of netbook operating systems, a testament to the strength of their software, no doubt.  However, I posited that if MSFT went the Anderson route and gave their OS away for free they could have a 100% market share.  I’m not going to say what the reaction to that was, but considering our proximity to Redmond and the makeup of the class, which includes Microsoft employees, you can take a wild guess…

Anderson’s “Free” starts out by giving us a quick economics briefing, using that as backdrop to defend the notion of ‘free’.  He explains that, for instance, traditional, or old media has used a third-party advertising model to earn revenue while still providing a “free” product.  I may not pay for 30 Rock, but when I buy products advertised during commercial breaks on TV or in interstitials on Hulu, I am still giving my money to NBC.  It’s pretty basic and has worked for Google, a benevolent empire that has largely amassed their wealth through selling advertising and diversifying revenue streams.  Of course, the model isn’t absolutely identical – the web magnifies things by presenting opportunities to apply wisdom gleaned from specific metrics and target users with relevant advertising, as well as ways of satisfying niches with long tail services – but the principle is the same: subsidize one product (free content) with money made from another (paid ad space).  Multiply and diversify.

With the notion of one product funding the other in mind, I further illustrate the point by explaining how I helped inadvertently save ABC, Monday Night Football, and the Disney company in 2004.  Maybe.  Or not.  But keep reading!  I think you’ll enjoy the reasoning anyways!

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A most vivid, lucid dream about Battlestar Galactica confirms my nerddom forever

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

I woke up this morning in the midst of the most vivid, nearly lucid dream about the new Battlestar Galactica (and I have to say “new” because, sadly, lots of people still don’t realize there is an entirely new series vastly different from the one in the early ’80s, completely revamped and restyled, and without a doubt the best thing on TV over the past 6 years).  In it, I dreamt that an end-game had begun between a long-haired Admiral Adama (played by Edward James Olmos in the new show) and the regular Admiral Adama we see every week.  Oddly enough, the long-haired version had access to TIE-fighters from the Star Wars universe, and the bridge of his Battlestar ship was littered with Star Wars posters and references.  This must mean that I’ve replaced my love of Star Wars, once glorious but lately ruined by the awful Star Wars prequels, with this amazing new Battlestar Galactica.  Way to go, George Lucas, once my hero! :(   Anyway, The two Adamas were locked in philosophical debate over whether or not killing one another amounted to a kind of suicide, sort of like if you killed your evil identical twin.  Then I woke up.

Yeah, I really need a life! haha  On the other hand, my nerd card just got fully punched, and I’d like to redeem it for my free cookie!

This is my story

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

ACTION-IDEA

after a reversal of fortune, a hero undergoes a transformation that turns him into something greater

ACTION-IDEA comes from the mind of Michael Tierno.  But this video came from mine.

California’s Prop 8, Mormons, Twitter, and the wisdom of crowds

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Last week or so I was fortunate enough to get a quick email interview together with Internet personality Drew Curtis of FARK.com, which I posted to both my blog and Flip The Media. One thing Drew touched upon was, as he put it, the “bogus media creation of the ‘wisdom of crowds’.” This was also brought up again during Hanson Hosein’s latest lecture in our COM529 Research 2.0 course. The question is, essentially, is the sharing, collaboration, and collective action facilitated by social media always focused upon achieving a wise purpose? As Drew put it, crowds are “stupid, horny, and hungry”. There is an echo of this sentiment in Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody; he asks the question: who decides which cause is right? As old media gives way to new, this becomes an increasingly important question. Like your mother always told you, just because everyone else is doing it, or in this case saying it, doesn’t mean it’s right.

Photo used from the Stranger Blog

So, I come to a matter of personal importance, which I have been following closely since last week’s historic election. In California, bellwether state of the nation, the electorate voted roughly 52% to 48% to remove the rights of gays to marry in their state. Some proponents of Prop 8, a constitutional amendment, argued that they were protecting the traditional definition of marriage. Many of the “Yes on 8″ supporters were of religious persuasion, and may have felt to ban gay marriage perhaps largely for religious reasons. Detractors of Prop 8, on the other hand, may have felt that the amendment was discriminatory towards gays and represented an affront to civil rights. It appears many of these detractors have pointed to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, typically called “Mormons”, as a primary factor in the measure’s passing. I know that many individual members of the LDS church, acting as citizens, campaigned for and contributed, individually, sometimes large sums of cash to the “Yes on 8″ cause. But, the legal entity that is “the church” did not. Notwithstanding, leaders of the church state that they exercised their rights in encouraging these activities from the pulpit. These efforts and the money raised, it’s alleged, directly led to the 53% win. I don’t wish to necessarily debate the rights or wrongs of such broad-based assumptions, of the ballot measure itself, the outcome, or the issues of religion or homosexuality in general here, but I do wish to highlight some of the interesting, and perhaps disconcerting things I have seen in the “crowd’s” response to the measure’s passing. Twitter, in particular, seems to be a social media tool contributing to the fervor and organization of the response from some of those individuals and groups that are opposed to the amendment, but there is no guarantee that what is found on Twitter is ever certifiable fact.

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A brand new Nerd Acumen!

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

Here’s a koala.  According to signage at the San Diego Zoo, where I took this picture using my Blackberry back in August, the creature sleeps on average 22 hours a day.  Two hours to eat, mate, and find another good spot to sleep.  That sound like a pretty great life, all things considered!

But, in all seriousness, that lazy lifestyle is what Nerd Acumen has in parallel suffered from.  Like the Koalas’ waking hours, posts here have been few and far between.  That is all changing.  I am now expected to blog very frequently as part of my masters program at UW.

And this time, my bloggings will have focus.  I am studying communications in digital media, so that is lending greater focus to this blog – well, and to my scattered thus far life.  I will write about all things digital and new media, as well as topics covering convergence technology and convergence culture, including observations taken directly from class and from being out in the new media “working world” (aka, stuff I can talk about from on-the-job experience without violating any NDA).

So, whether it’s the Wii or the XBOX, the Web Cinema or the real cinema, the telephone or the telegraph, I will try to cover it with at least some assemblage of intelligent observation and discourse here.  These are the things Nerds are really made of.  Toys, tech, and… turtles (not really, but I want to show you another picture, this time of a turtle from the same Zoo on the same trip).  Look at him, he’s trying to escape from teh Zoo!

Oh, and I guess I should mention that I finally upgraded Nerd Acumen from the out-of-date Nucleus CMS to the state-of-the-new hotness WordPress 2.6.2!  Yeahs.


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