Posts tagged ‘Social Media’

I have been pondering (obsessing is more like it) the definitions of the word “compromise” and the power that they yield. In one respect we come to an agreed status such as a battle where the opponents come to a cease fire. Another aspect is when self values and beliefs are held back between parties to ensure one another’s happiness such as a pair of lovers who do not share similar feelings about certain habits or tastes. Upon hearing the word, it is easy for some folks to feel angst.

For myself, personal situations arose in which I would staunchly compromise even though doing so would go against my internal gut feelings. The first is my battle with type 2 diabetes. I am constantly having to compromise what I cannot eat with what I want to eat. The deciding blow was the realization to perform more cardio exercise in order to burn up more of the sugar in my bloodstream. I love food and have accepted what I need to do in order to have more of it in my life.

The second was when I discovered Rufus the Rough had been beating up my Mischievous Julius so badly that Jules was terrified of leaving his sleeping spot outside my bedroom. I was blind to when I placed food in front of both of them in the kitchen — Jules would take his dinner and run back to his spot while Rufus stayed put on his side of the pen. My deciding blow was when I saw Rufus actually lunge and bite Jules in the same shoulder that was previously torn open. Needless to say, Rufus is back home with his warren.

The last personal situation I will mention was realizing what I was doing in order to have friendships. The past few months have shown me that I do not have to force myself in staying with an unhappy relationship just to look good for others’ eyes. I want to be friends with the folks who appreciate me and I do not need to compromise every single personal belief in order to do so. Constant compromise in that respect will lead to resentment, fighting, and overall a bad atmosphere.

As for being compromised in social media, so far the only issue is when I discovered I was being stalked recently. It scared me because I took it for granted that I do not publicize where I live or even the addresses of my friends whenever I visited them. The shock is slowly wearing off, but I am more cautious now of what I share on Twitter and Facebook. So please forgive me for not updating as I normally have, but I am a bit shy at the moment. Sometimes compromise can lead to wake up calls. In my case a few of them were screaming nightmares. =:8

As I sat in my car to leave KFC’s parking lot, I looked at the oncoming flood of traffic. Needing to make a left-hand turn to go home, it dawned on me. “Why not make a right-hand turn and take an alternate way? It might be a little longer in distance, or even longer in time, but I would not have to sit here and dawdle, which then makes me seethe, and then stresses me out. I mean, just why not?” So I did.

Seeing this approach, I immediately matched the similarity to my own life. I am so dependent and focused on finding a job in order to get my life on track, that I have failed to question why not do something else. Why not go ahead and start turning the wheels elsewhere? Why not piece the puzzle in the central section instead of starting with all the edges? Why should I wait for that left-hand turn when traffic is obviously heavy and will not ebb anytime soon?

With renewed purpose, I am going ahead and doing what I need to do in order to move on with my life by continuing without that left-hand turn. If it turns out that I do land a job which does not allow any kind of commute from my house, I will address the left-hand turn when it happens. Meanwhile I have given myself an initial 10 days to address the following:

• Re-writing my “About Me” page to include my job interests and career passions
• Ramping up my knowledge of the CISA examination questions
• Contacting and networking more with folks with the same career goals
• Revamping my exercise routine to include weight lifting
• Jotting down the recipes which I have created since my Type 2 diagnosis
• Diabetes check up at the Hallett Center
• Getting my personal home projects in order

One close friend stated to me after I told him of my epiphany, “Right now you have time to get so many things done that you will not have when you do find that job. You should do as much as you can as if you are going to start working next week.” By gosh, my friend Jason is right! =:8

Ironically, this entry almost became a podcast. I used my iPhone’s Voice Memos application to create the draft. After hearing myself speak on the recording, I toyed with the idea of uploading whatever audio notes I used for future written posts. Would it be good to include the audio, or would having the final blog entry be enough? Of course that would mean I need to figure out how to export the audio…

This past weekend, I was supposed to be at the first ever Sock Summit in Portland, OR. Sadly, due to poor timing and limited funds on my part, I missed my chance of buying the plane tickets to Seattle. While wallowing in the misery of not going to the biggest sock-knitting bash ever (IMHO) and not seeing my cousin’s family in Sunriver, my friend Guido Stein of the “It’s a Purl, Man” fame contacted me on Thursday. He suggested that I attend the Podcamp Boston conference which was the same weekend at the University of Massachusett’s Boston campus. I blew off his words at first, and checked my calendar for the weekend. Hmm… Looks like there is the Spa-like event WOOL… But then driving up north was not appealing to my tired knitting mojo and brain-dead blog.

“Podcamp? I am not a podcaster. Why on earth should I go?” Those thoughts rang in my head until I scanned the notes of what Podcamp entailed. It was not only podcasts which were discussed, but also the various types of social networking and how all can be used in marketing, distributing, and sharing information. Reflecting on the fact that I would have to be up early to commute to Boston, which meant Rich would be have to be up early to take me, I decided to embed myself into the conference by staying over both Friday and Saturday nights at the recommended Doubletree Hotel. Using cousin Tess’ trick of Priceline, I scored a room for both nights. In my suitcase, I packed up my “Little Parade” shawl project and favorite notepad in case my crestfallen heart stumbled across my lost knitting and blogging mojo.

Taking the commuter rail into Boston’s South Station, I reviewed what was in store for me, and decided to treat the experience as one of discovery. The topics covered in the conference schedule ranged from Guido’s “How Do you Start This Podcasting Thing?” to Renee Hopkins’ “What’s the Value of Social Media for B2B Companies?” Impromptu sessions were also encouraged, and the “Law of Two Feet” was firmly implanted. To explain in a nutshell, the “Law of Two Feet” allows a person who is not getting the most of a session to walk out of it. So if the session one popped into turned out the opposite of what was expected, it is more than okay to leave for answers elsewhere.

Saturday brought some awesome insight to why I was here. Though when I arrived, Guido asked if I could help by downloading an application on my iPhone. Wanting to help, I downloaded Moby, and notified him when it was done. Guido’s response? “Great!! We need you to walk up to folks and take their photograph. The pictures will be posted up on the #PCB4 wall.” I replied, “Sure thing Guido!” but in my head I was thinking, “Am I going MAD? I have no idea who these people are!!” Of course I did as asked and managed to grab some folks as guinea pigs. Later, the sessions kind of distracted me from my assigned task… Oops!

During my years of blogging in the knitting and house rabbit genres, I had thought about doing the same in my fields of datacenter and software QA knowledge, but was unsure of my approach. By applying the suggestions from “How Do you Craft a Compelling Story through Podcasting?” by Jeremy Meyers, I saw that my own blog-writing could be tweaked and primed to reach audiences besides my fellow knitters and house rabbit lovers. Guido’s session of “How Do you Start this Podcasting Thing?” brought up ideas that I had not thought of in my writing style. I do not want to drone about further details on Podcamp, but will sum it up as this:

Podcamp (#pcb4) made me realize that social media is a communication tool in which wielded correctly, is a very powerful sword that cuts through old-fashioned minds with “out of the box” thinking. Podcamp also showed me how intertwined I was in the Ravelry social network, that there are many other networks with just as dedicated followers, and how our experiences should be shared so that other groups could learn from the community of online knitters/crafters.

I spoke with a ton of folks over the weekend, and I hope to learn more by following them in their respective mediums of communication:
@GuidoS, @shersteve @johnblue, @gradontripp, @DougH, @WayneNH, @jeffhinz, @chelpixie, @cspenn, @LDpodcast, @TheMarketingGuy, @SarahPrevette, @erin_bury, @MichaelCantone, @johnhaydon, @lexiconsystems, @chrisabraham, @mickdarling, @JimPeake, @AnnKingman, @GenniK, @saranicole, @stacyreck, @LisaJohnson, @janbabson, and @HPak to start…

Many thanks to all that I met. The time and money spent during this weekend was worth every second and minute. My mojo is back in full swing, and I have become inspired once again to knit and write. The warmed chocolate chip cookies did not hurt either. I hope to be discussing in a future Podcamp the topic of niche social networks and how their hierarchy functions – maybe in October at Philadelphia or New Hampshire? Time will tell! Until then, feel free to check out the names I listed above, and the photos that I posted on Flickr with the “pcb4” and “podcamp” tags. =:8

Thanks Ashley for tagging me. Hope everybunny enjoys my answers! =:8

If you’ve been tagged or you are reading this, you have the honor of copying all these goofy questions, writing your own response, and tagging 25 other victims. You have to tag me so really you just need 24 more people. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your title as “Getting to know each other!”, tag 25 people including me (tagging is done in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.

1. What time did you get up this morning?
About 6

2. How do you like your steak?
Bloody

3. What was the last movie you saw at the theater?
Up

4. What is your favorite TV show?
Besides sports-related, “Star Trek” and history-related shows? I guess “Murder, She Wrote” would be it.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
Tough one. Toss up between the Java Sea region and Western Europe.

6. What did you have for breakfast?
I am making egg-white blintzes filled with blue cheese and pear.

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
Internationally influenced bistro fare.

8. What foods do you dislike?
Anything that repulses my taste buds (ie, not much).

9. Favorite Place to Eat?
As long as I am with my favorite guy, I am hoppy

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive?
I have two: Honda Civic and an antique Ford Mustang

12. What are your favorite clothes?
Plain tee/blouse and skirt

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
Every single MLB baseball park and football stadium

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
Depends on my mood

15. Where would you want to retire?
Somewhere warm or temperate year round

16. Favorite time of day?
Early morning

17. Where were you born?
US Naval Hospital on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Depends on the season and time of day

19. Who do you think will NOT tag you back?
I do not want to be tagged back.

20. Person you expect to tag you back first?
No idea at this time

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?
Everyone

22. Bird watcher?
Only if one comes into view — lately the cardinal family in my shrubs.

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Morning — and I am one of those hoppy cheery ones too, so watch out!

24. Do you have any pets?
4 houserabbits (and do husbands count?)

25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share?
Not yet, but hopefully soon!

27. What is your best childhood memory?
Too many to list

28. Are you a cat or dog person?
I adore big dogs

29. Are you married?
Yes

30. Always wear your seat belt?
Always!

31. Been in a car accident?
Oh yes.

32. Any pet peeves?
Many, but I generally hold stuff back to give somebunny a chance

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings?
Cheese, especially feta

34. Favorite Flower?
Lavender “sterling silver” roses

35. Favorite ice cream?
Chocolate with toffee

36. Favorite fast food restaurant?
Hardees (sigh, I miss it!!)

37. How many times did you fail your driver’s test?
Once — when my VA driver’s license expired and I forgot to renew it, I had to take the new test being issued and did not realize they REALLY changed it!!

38. From whom did you get your last email?
MLB.com

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
Max? The idea makes me shudder.

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?
Went to the Red Sox game at Fenway last Wednesday

41. Happy with your job?
I am patiently waiting for a full-time paying job.

42. Broccoli?
Sauteed with olive oil, garlic, lemon, salt, and coarsely ground pepper

43. What was your favorite vacation?
Where I do not have to feel rushed

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?
M. Tess, my cousin visiting from CT

45. What are you listening to right now?
Birds chirping

46. What is your favorite color?
Anything but neon ones, though lately burnt orange

47. How many tattoos do you have?
None — yet!

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz?
None

49. What time did you finish this quiz? 07:15

50. Coffee Drinker?
Occasionally