So this weekend was Gay Pride 2010 weekend and here in Salt Lake City we celebrated despite the looming presence of the conservatives.
On a whim, since they had an AIDS testing tent at the Festival, I decided to have myself checked out.
It had been awhile since I had done it and it's always good practice I think to make sure one is OK in that department (one never knows right?) no matter how safe you are.
I did the prescribed mouth swabbing, got my card with my time to come back in an hour and went off to enjoy the rest of the festival with my friend Angel and her son and my goddaughter.
An hour later I return to the tent happily content in my inherent safety of not having AIDS.
Smiling, I give the lady there my card and she pulls my file. Glancing inside, the woman tells me to wait a moment because she needs to get a counselor.
My heart dropped.
All sorts of things raced through my mind, who was I not safe with, I thought I knew my partners well enough to not have contracted anything, etc.
Immediately, a gentleman introduces himself as a counselor and asks me to follow him to where we can stand under a tree and discuss things privately.
This isn't getting any better for me, and I'm totally in pre-shock mode.
We round the corner behind the tent and I see about 10-13 people all talking with counselors, I begin to feel slightly better (I mean they can't all have AIDS right?) and mentally try to calm myself down.
The counselor precedes to explain to me methods of transmission, (by the way visit here if you want to know more about AIDS or just have questions: http://www.aidsinfo.nih.gov/) asks me if I've been safe, etc. My responses are filled with wide eyed, no's and yes' with an overall feeling of "Hey I've been as safe as I can possibly be, what could have gone wrong?"
Eventually, the counselor tells me that I am fine and have nothing to worry about, the test came back negative.
What a relief.
I thank the gentleman for the information, and walk back to my friends secure in my own safety.
But that wasn't the case 10 minutes ago, and honestly would I have stayed the ten minutes if I had know I was fine, to hear the counselor's spiel of being safe in this day and age with AIDS. Maybe...maybe not.
While the means was perhaps over the top and shocking, it is effective in the end. Because for that brief moment, I got a taste of what it must feel like to know you may have a life threatening disease...of any type. Not just AIDS, but cancer and such.
I was transfixed, because in the end I just wanted to know.
I'm not saying this is an effective way that works all the time, but it's always effective to put yourself in the other person's shoes and can create empathy. Empathy, makes it easier to LISTEN. To be more inclined to not put up your blinders, and even if you get mad or are shocked by what just happened (I was kind of in shock right after that, post I'm OK shock). Eventually you're going to think about what happened, and consider making changes to your life, consider making changes to your business, consider making changes overall, depending on the message delivered.
It changed my view on things, I'm safe...but I can always improve that.
Showing posts with label salt lake city. Show all posts
Showing posts with label salt lake city. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
My Observations of "Personal Branding" In the Past Weeks
There have been a number of local events here in Salt Lake and out of it that have emphasized what @365daygirl, @decanblue and myself have been nailing down in terms of the Social Media realm "personal branding".
It is always interesting to watch how people feel they should used tools like Facebook without realizing that it can be used as a tool, a very powerful tool, one that can harm as well as hurt.
The local scene of Gothic/industrial has seemingly been split between two venues, that is not the subject of this blog, but it is how things have been handled that make up some of the subject for this blog.
One of the things that people don't realize when running a business and playing it's life out in a social forum is that that it is public and it is visible.
Things that can be done right? Quickly announce staff changes and accept the consequences of your decision, no matter what flak may come from it, but understand that once you go down that road you're prepared for how your brand will respond to it. Personally, I think it's always best to be upfront. If questions arise or defamation occurs, you and your company has fired off the first volley, you have first control of the information as you perceive it. You must also own up to the information given out and choose to ignore or respond, but choose and stand by your choice, make it a part of your PR on Facebook or Myspace or Twitter but choose your brands stand on the matter.
Remember that the person let go has their own following of people (it's why you hired them right?) and they have their own brand to protect and that their brand could carry a loss versus yours if the time for separation should ever happen. Prepare for it.
Secondly, develop a plan for how staff will use Social Media to work for you and definitely determine how it could work against you. Understand who those hotheads and mavericks might be and decide if their independence should be allowed (which is always a tough choice because it's about free speech, but there is such a thing as self governing oneself when one represents a brand). Be prepared when staff members may embarrass your brand simply on the basis of being representatives of your brand. What do you have in place to deal with such events? Do you ignore it and hope it goes away (could possibly work but you're hoping against something that once out in the social channels becomes permanent and my never go away). Do you delete said information so that the offensive material is no longer visible (this is "transparency" and while people may disagree, deleting is one of the worst mistakes you could make as far as I am concerned). If you delete, you make a she said he said scenario, but only their word is out there for people to judge your brand on, you just deleted anything that could allow people to decide on their own. In addition, any positive comments made to counter inflammatory statements supporting your brand and distancing the comments from your brand have just been flushed down the drain.
It is my belief that deleting comments and statements goes against your company in so much that you come across as hiding the truth, hiding the events, and dare I say, can stink of a "cover-up", perhaps too harsh a term but really if people don't have access to the information they will create their own speculations (those speculations could be worse than what was actually written). Instead, why not leave the remark there and let people make up their own minds, own up to the material as a responsible business and respond with a statement of your own stating why and wherefore your brand does not agree with it. Decide on what your going to do publicly to the person damaging your brand or not, but decide first and state next. Know what your going to say and how your going to respond to any flak coming your way. Plan it, execute it and wait for it. This is accountability, and in the realm of Social Media it your life blood, because everybody and I mean everybody will see you and judge you by your online actions. Do nothing and you will be judged, do something and likewise your will be judged, but best to do something and let the chips fall than allow the vagaries of chance to cut your brand out from under you at the knees or as @decanblue called it "brand death".
@Innovapor was almost un-followed by me due to what I considered spamming tactics by the company, I did not discount them automatically because two of my good friends are involved with the company and in the spirit of that friendship I felt it best to talk to them about it first. Innovapor was very appreciative for my input, they had not considered that their approach could have been looked upon in that way and immediately ceased their current tactics to a new more personal approach, moreover, Innovapor apologized to their followers on Twitter, accepting that perhaps their approach could have been alienating followers and taking responsibility for it, publicly they seem on the road to re-ignite their brand and get it back on track.
Another topic that came up was that of fledgling branding, trying to strike out on your own and make a name for yourself in the vast landscape of the Social Media playground. I'm still in that boat and I am working hard at starting relationships, offering value, offering dialogue, offering interest and consistency (a point made very difficult for me with this new job, it is requiring a period of adjustment). To wit, I have tried to learn from those with more experience and been fortunate to catch their attention and not annoy them (I thank you all for your patience), this isn't to take advantage of or for political reasons, but to gain a network of valuable and fun people to interact with and learn something from. The worse thing a fledgling like myself could do is publicly "dis" on someone who may or may not have more connections than myself, now I'm not saying you cannot but I am saying should you? Obviously, if it is a direct attack your choice is to defend or ignore, but remember that people are watching you, people who are your friends or followers (For Facebook or Twitter respectively) and they might have more friends/followers and they MIGHT NOT WANT TO FOLLOW based on your behavior. Imagine if Conan O'Brien had decided to follow Sarah Killen, on Twitter and she had decided to not only NOT believe it was actually Conan O'Brien but to insult him publicly for it (believing it was really not him) what would that have done for her? The women currently has a following of over 28000 people as @LovelyButton on Twitter and because of Conan deciding to follow her she has been able to push awareness for the important causes she supports, would that or could that have happened if she had dismissed Mr. O'Brien? In your quest to get your "brand" off the ground don't be so quick to dismiss who follows you and be generous to those that do and offer friendship to them, remember this isn't some void your putting yourself out on, people are watching all the time, and if you offer nothing then they will just move on to those who will give them something, whether that be valuable info, fun anecdotes, clever observations or industry tidbits they will find it, but not from you especially if you ignore people. In addition please be gracious to your followers (something I learned from @bkmacdaddy).
Finally, we come to my testing of the US Census' Twitter page, it offers plenty of information, a lot of it very interesting and very helpful, but very little interaction with their followers that I can see, which given the current consternation over question #8 and #9 in the Census form is a mistake. I personally have posted two questions to @censuscount on twitter with no response, now it is the US Census and they are busy, but if they can find the time to post valuable information, shouldn't they have the time to respond to their 879 followers (Twitter)? Especially, when it comes to how question #8 was worded? I personally believe my question to be valid, and I would like to give the Census a chance to respond to me, I mean other company Twitter pages do it, in fact it's become a new way of handling customer questions for many a company (Dell for example). Here is an opportunity for the Census to handle customer questions (let's face it, my filling out the questionnaire makes me a customer), yes they have their own help line (Hell, I work on that help line) but why ignore this avenue? One could argue or assume that the Census started their Twitter and Facebook page to add a friendly face to their endeavors but one also has to wonder if they had a strategy in place on how to handle questions from their "fans" or "followers" in their respective pages. I see questions on there, but I see no responses from an official Census representative. In the end I think this will hurt them, it ends up making their "brand" a cold entity that silently disgorges information with no real mettle to respond to their detractors, those that give them praise and those who simply have a question. Here is a "branding" strategy to put a possible "human" face to an otherwise faceless entity and I see it failing. Like many other companies the are doing it without understanding what they are supposed to be doing or should be doing. It seems there isn't a plan set in place. I personally have to assume there isn't a plan set in place because the Census remains silent to the people asking questions, silent except for the information that occasionally comes out of it.
In the end we are each and everybody responsible to our own brand if we create one, whether it be personal or business, we are perceived by the actions of our ourselves or our peers that associate with us or our business. WE represent our company or our self. Our friends or employees say a lot about who are company is or who we are as a person. In this age of Social Media awareness, nobody escapes the microscope once you put yourself on the grid, you can try but you are out there in one way or another even if you don't touch a computer, because someone will mention your name, someone will take a picture of you, someone will write about you and your digital footprint will then be there for all to see, and if you're worried about your personal brand you better take the reigns and develop a strategy on how your going to control the information about your brand.
It is always interesting to watch how people feel they should used tools like Facebook without realizing that it can be used as a tool, a very powerful tool, one that can harm as well as hurt.
The local scene of Gothic/industrial has seemingly been split between two venues, that is not the subject of this blog, but it is how things have been handled that make up some of the subject for this blog.
One of the things that people don't realize when running a business and playing it's life out in a social forum is that that it is public and it is visible.
Things that can be done right? Quickly announce staff changes and accept the consequences of your decision, no matter what flak may come from it, but understand that once you go down that road you're prepared for how your brand will respond to it. Personally, I think it's always best to be upfront. If questions arise or defamation occurs, you and your company has fired off the first volley, you have first control of the information as you perceive it. You must also own up to the information given out and choose to ignore or respond, but choose and stand by your choice, make it a part of your PR on Facebook or Myspace or Twitter but choose your brands stand on the matter.
Remember that the person let go has their own following of people (it's why you hired them right?) and they have their own brand to protect and that their brand could carry a loss versus yours if the time for separation should ever happen. Prepare for it.
Secondly, develop a plan for how staff will use Social Media to work for you and definitely determine how it could work against you. Understand who those hotheads and mavericks might be and decide if their independence should be allowed (which is always a tough choice because it's about free speech, but there is such a thing as self governing oneself when one represents a brand). Be prepared when staff members may embarrass your brand simply on the basis of being representatives of your brand. What do you have in place to deal with such events? Do you ignore it and hope it goes away (could possibly work but you're hoping against something that once out in the social channels becomes permanent and my never go away). Do you delete said information so that the offensive material is no longer visible (this is "transparency" and while people may disagree, deleting is one of the worst mistakes you could make as far as I am concerned). If you delete, you make a she said he said scenario, but only their word is out there for people to judge your brand on, you just deleted anything that could allow people to decide on their own. In addition, any positive comments made to counter inflammatory statements supporting your brand and distancing the comments from your brand have just been flushed down the drain.
It is my belief that deleting comments and statements goes against your company in so much that you come across as hiding the truth, hiding the events, and dare I say, can stink of a "cover-up", perhaps too harsh a term but really if people don't have access to the information they will create their own speculations (those speculations could be worse than what was actually written). Instead, why not leave the remark there and let people make up their own minds, own up to the material as a responsible business and respond with a statement of your own stating why and wherefore your brand does not agree with it. Decide on what your going to do publicly to the person damaging your brand or not, but decide first and state next. Know what your going to say and how your going to respond to any flak coming your way. Plan it, execute it and wait for it. This is accountability, and in the realm of Social Media it your life blood, because everybody and I mean everybody will see you and judge you by your online actions. Do nothing and you will be judged, do something and likewise your will be judged, but best to do something and let the chips fall than allow the vagaries of chance to cut your brand out from under you at the knees or as @decanblue called it "brand death".
@Innovapor was almost un-followed by me due to what I considered spamming tactics by the company, I did not discount them automatically because two of my good friends are involved with the company and in the spirit of that friendship I felt it best to talk to them about it first. Innovapor was very appreciative for my input, they had not considered that their approach could have been looked upon in that way and immediately ceased their current tactics to a new more personal approach, moreover, Innovapor apologized to their followers on Twitter, accepting that perhaps their approach could have been alienating followers and taking responsibility for it, publicly they seem on the road to re-ignite their brand and get it back on track.
Another topic that came up was that of fledgling branding, trying to strike out on your own and make a name for yourself in the vast landscape of the Social Media playground. I'm still in that boat and I am working hard at starting relationships, offering value, offering dialogue, offering interest and consistency (a point made very difficult for me with this new job, it is requiring a period of adjustment). To wit, I have tried to learn from those with more experience and been fortunate to catch their attention and not annoy them (I thank you all for your patience), this isn't to take advantage of or for political reasons, but to gain a network of valuable and fun people to interact with and learn something from. The worse thing a fledgling like myself could do is publicly "dis" on someone who may or may not have more connections than myself, now I'm not saying you cannot but I am saying should you? Obviously, if it is a direct attack your choice is to defend or ignore, but remember that people are watching you, people who are your friends or followers (For Facebook or Twitter respectively) and they might have more friends/followers and they MIGHT NOT WANT TO FOLLOW based on your behavior. Imagine if Conan O'Brien had decided to follow Sarah Killen, on Twitter and she had decided to not only NOT believe it was actually Conan O'Brien but to insult him publicly for it (believing it was really not him) what would that have done for her? The women currently has a following of over 28000 people as @LovelyButton on Twitter and because of Conan deciding to follow her she has been able to push awareness for the important causes she supports, would that or could that have happened if she had dismissed Mr. O'Brien? In your quest to get your "brand" off the ground don't be so quick to dismiss who follows you and be generous to those that do and offer friendship to them, remember this isn't some void your putting yourself out on, people are watching all the time, and if you offer nothing then they will just move on to those who will give them something, whether that be valuable info, fun anecdotes, clever observations or industry tidbits they will find it, but not from you especially if you ignore people. In addition please be gracious to your followers (something I learned from @bkmacdaddy).
Finally, we come to my testing of the US Census' Twitter page, it offers plenty of information, a lot of it very interesting and very helpful, but very little interaction with their followers that I can see, which given the current consternation over question #8 and #9 in the Census form is a mistake. I personally have posted two questions to @censuscount on twitter with no response, now it is the US Census and they are busy, but if they can find the time to post valuable information, shouldn't they have the time to respond to their 879 followers (Twitter)? Especially, when it comes to how question #8 was worded? I personally believe my question to be valid, and I would like to give the Census a chance to respond to me, I mean other company Twitter pages do it, in fact it's become a new way of handling customer questions for many a company (Dell for example). Here is an opportunity for the Census to handle customer questions (let's face it, my filling out the questionnaire makes me a customer), yes they have their own help line (Hell, I work on that help line) but why ignore this avenue? One could argue or assume that the Census started their Twitter and Facebook page to add a friendly face to their endeavors but one also has to wonder if they had a strategy in place on how to handle questions from their "fans" or "followers" in their respective pages. I see questions on there, but I see no responses from an official Census representative. In the end I think this will hurt them, it ends up making their "brand" a cold entity that silently disgorges information with no real mettle to respond to their detractors, those that give them praise and those who simply have a question. Here is a "branding" strategy to put a possible "human" face to an otherwise faceless entity and I see it failing. Like many other companies the are doing it without understanding what they are supposed to be doing or should be doing. It seems there isn't a plan set in place. I personally have to assume there isn't a plan set in place because the Census remains silent to the people asking questions, silent except for the information that occasionally comes out of it.
In the end we are each and everybody responsible to our own brand if we create one, whether it be personal or business, we are perceived by the actions of our ourselves or our peers that associate with us or our business. WE represent our company or our self. Our friends or employees say a lot about who are company is or who we are as a person. In this age of Social Media awareness, nobody escapes the microscope once you put yourself on the grid, you can try but you are out there in one way or another even if you don't touch a computer, because someone will mention your name, someone will take a picture of you, someone will write about you and your digital footprint will then be there for all to see, and if you're worried about your personal brand you better take the reigns and develop a strategy on how your going to control the information about your brand.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
You Mean It Existed Before I Did?
What is it about the human beings that makes us ignorant. We have this wonderful tool called the Internet, and even without it we have BOOKS, so how is it that some snot nose kid can think a movie called The Wolfman (2009) based on the original 1941 production starring Lon Chaney Jr is a ripoff of Twilight!!!
http://www.latinoreview.com/news/http://www.latinoreview.com/news/taylor-lautner-fan-letter-to-universal-your-wolfman-ripped-off-twilight-9247
Holy Monkey's! Is this for real? Mind you that this is not the first time I've hard something like this before, a while back a friend of mine (sorry) commented on how I Am Legend (2007) was a poorly executed derivative of movies like Underworld, not that it was actually a remake of Omega Man (1971) and itself a remake of Last Man on Earth (1964) all of which were adaptions of 1954 Novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, wherein a man is seemingly the last person remaining after a disease has killed the worlds population and turned some of them into lunatic vampire creatures (it's more complex than that but you get the picture plus it's an incentive to read the novel)
Another case in point, 80's music and the trend right now in SLC (especially at Area 51, a nightclub downtown) for these kids to think they discovered something nobody else has. I go there to hear my "oldies but goodies" but get ridiculed for dancing how I danced in the 80's (when were you born kid, oh 1992? Shut up!) and meanwhile they hop around like spastic jelly beans on fire no matter what is being played, whilst dressed like Aerobic freakazoid dropouts from a Jane Fonda video! Mind you, I don't mind people having fun, but to mock ME for having my fun they way I remember it?
Look kid, you didn't invent the wheel, computer have been around longer than some of your parents, and the internet is older than you, you didn't find, it discover it, or fashion it. You just think it's cool, but you didn't bother to read the instructions or look in your history books.
For the record Bram Stoker did not invent Vampires, he invented Dracula (what? NO! Say it ain't so!) and even that guy was based on Vlad Tepes (I won't tell you who that is because you have Google or Wikipedia to tell you that, or egad open a book), and Vampires have been mentioned since 1047 AD in a Russian book of Psalms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampires). Hey you know what look up werewolf's while your at it (I can't hold your hand son)!
Now then, we have all this information floating around us on the internet, in the books, in the minds of your elders, why then do you insist on insulting yourself and making us do palm slaps to the head by saying things like the person above said? Why not try something novel, like read up on the subject if you disagree with it, that way you have something to argue with...or you might discover THAT YOUR WRONG! While your at it please learn to write, I suck at writing but I'm way better at it than some of these kids (where's your head at?).
Look man, use the tools you have around you is all I am saying, God (or whatever) didn't give us the Internet but we did receive a brain right? That brain made the Internet, that brain let's you type on a keyboard, that brain can do research and form thoughts and ideas until it finally comes to a conclusion.
“Those who know how to think need no teachers.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Why do I expound on this? Because there is that "Oh sh*t" moment when you realize you said something ignorant and can't take it back, there is that moment when you publicly (in this great big Social Media age) state your stupidity onto the world like the person did above (and then let it get spread out on Twitter, Facebook and blogs to be enjoyed both others) and make the rest of glad it wasn't ourselves doing that.
Remember the World existed before you did, and the world will continue long after your food for the little bitty bacteria in the air, so why not speak what you know, learn what you don't know, and learn, learn, learn!
Peace out!
PS: By shirts!!! http://silran666.spreadshirt.com/
PPS: Disregard that shameless plug!
http://www.latinoreview.com/news/http://www.latinoreview.com/news/taylor-lautner-fan-letter-to-universal-your-wolfman-ripped-off-twilight-9247
Holy Monkey's! Is this for real? Mind you that this is not the first time I've hard something like this before, a while back a friend of mine (sorry) commented on how I Am Legend (2007) was a poorly executed derivative of movies like Underworld, not that it was actually a remake of Omega Man (1971) and itself a remake of Last Man on Earth (1964) all of which were adaptions of 1954 Novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, wherein a man is seemingly the last person remaining after a disease has killed the worlds population and turned some of them into lunatic vampire creatures (it's more complex than that but you get the picture plus it's an incentive to read the novel)
Another case in point, 80's music and the trend right now in SLC (especially at Area 51, a nightclub downtown) for these kids to think they discovered something nobody else has. I go there to hear my "oldies but goodies" but get ridiculed for dancing how I danced in the 80's (when were you born kid, oh 1992? Shut up!) and meanwhile they hop around like spastic jelly beans on fire no matter what is being played, whilst dressed like Aerobic freakazoid dropouts from a Jane Fonda video! Mind you, I don't mind people having fun, but to mock ME for having my fun they way I remember it?
Look kid, you didn't invent the wheel, computer have been around longer than some of your parents, and the internet is older than you, you didn't find, it discover it, or fashion it. You just think it's cool, but you didn't bother to read the instructions or look in your history books.
For the record Bram Stoker did not invent Vampires, he invented Dracula (what? NO! Say it ain't so!) and even that guy was based on Vlad Tepes (I won't tell you who that is because you have Google or Wikipedia to tell you that, or egad open a book), and Vampires have been mentioned since 1047 AD in a Russian book of Psalms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampires). Hey you know what look up werewolf's while your at it (I can't hold your hand son)!
Now then, we have all this information floating around us on the internet, in the books, in the minds of your elders, why then do you insist on insulting yourself and making us do palm slaps to the head by saying things like the person above said? Why not try something novel, like read up on the subject if you disagree with it, that way you have something to argue with...or you might discover THAT YOUR WRONG! While your at it please learn to write, I suck at writing but I'm way better at it than some of these kids (where's your head at?).
Look man, use the tools you have around you is all I am saying, God (or whatever) didn't give us the Internet but we did receive a brain right? That brain made the Internet, that brain let's you type on a keyboard, that brain can do research and form thoughts and ideas until it finally comes to a conclusion.
“Those who know how to think need no teachers.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Why do I expound on this? Because there is that "Oh sh*t" moment when you realize you said something ignorant and can't take it back, there is that moment when you publicly (in this great big Social Media age) state your stupidity onto the world like the person did above (and then let it get spread out on Twitter, Facebook and blogs to be enjoyed both others) and make the rest of glad it wasn't ourselves doing that.
Remember the World existed before you did, and the world will continue long after your food for the little bitty bacteria in the air, so why not speak what you know, learn what you don't know, and learn, learn, learn!
Peace out!
PS: By shirts!!! http://silran666.spreadshirt.com/
PPS: Disregard that shameless plug!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
A visit to Timm and an announcement
So today I went to see Brother Timm...I had avoided it, I admit that.
I didn't want to come there feeling false about it, he doesn't deserve that. The time needed to be right, and thanks to Lori, the right time was today.
It was great to see him :-)
He is in good spirit's if very bored, and hopefully Lori and I broke up the monotony if for a brief moment.
He's a good man, very talented, and he's a fighter, I would hope to have the amount of strength he has to keep pushing forward a little bit everyday.
Part of my hesitation was not feeling like my reasons were false for going, not wanting to bring negativity and honesty feeling inadequate to the task of being there visiting him.
I enjoyed it (the guy in the other bed made it a bit awkward), and I hope to see him again before I move.
At the end of the month I'll be moving into Punkhouse, a titular place in Salt Lake named because of it's illustrious residents through the years.
I love my privacy and I love living alone.
But times are tough and money is tight, and saving $200 a month is quite the attractor for me right now.
It should be fun, it should be different (Been awhile since I've had that many roommates) and hopefully I won't drive anybody crazy.
I'm soon to turn 44, and I can get a bit set in my ways :-S
In the end it should be fine and things will work out some way or another as they always do.
Let the good times roll :-D!
I didn't want to come there feeling false about it, he doesn't deserve that. The time needed to be right, and thanks to Lori, the right time was today.
It was great to see him :-)
He is in good spirit's if very bored, and hopefully Lori and I broke up the monotony if for a brief moment.
He's a good man, very talented, and he's a fighter, I would hope to have the amount of strength he has to keep pushing forward a little bit everyday.
Part of my hesitation was not feeling like my reasons were false for going, not wanting to bring negativity and honesty feeling inadequate to the task of being there visiting him.
I enjoyed it (the guy in the other bed made it a bit awkward), and I hope to see him again before I move.
At the end of the month I'll be moving into Punkhouse, a titular place in Salt Lake named because of it's illustrious residents through the years.
I love my privacy and I love living alone.
But times are tough and money is tight, and saving $200 a month is quite the attractor for me right now.
It should be fun, it should be different (Been awhile since I've had that many roommates) and hopefully I won't drive anybody crazy.
I'm soon to turn 44, and I can get a bit set in my ways :-S
In the end it should be fine and things will work out some way or another as they always do.
Let the good times roll :-D!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
5 Minute Movie Follow -Up and Twitter Ramblings
So last night was fun, a bit unorganized but fun nonetheless.
None of the original people for the movie showed up though, so that was a bummer, but we pushed through and got some women that came in were good sports and participated.
I got into a discussion about Social Media with the bartender Donald at the Woodshed (bar where the filming was going on-cool place check it out) and how it could possibly impact business there.
One thing that stood out, was his immediate dislike of Twitter and his belief as a wast of time.
What is this dislike of tweeting? What do people don't get? A medium that puts you in touch with the world, that if done correctly is as exciting as watching grass grow or as impacting as watching your business grow!
I use it as a means to connect to people, to connect to Facebook and to connect to MySpace by this means. My followers, friends and family are subjected to my rants, my data mining, my weirdness, but for those places I might be hanging out with, I'm free advertising!
Everytime I go into Area 51 or Edge, I'm advertising, everytime I go into Coffee Connection I'm advertising, people respond to me and we keep the advertising going.
Imagine that under controlled circumstances? Imagine doing that for your employer?
Sure free advertising is great, but you cannot control it's execution or it's outcome? What if it's negative? Great free advertising right?
This then was how I tried to explain it to Donald, I think it made sense to him, especially when I told him I had been tweeting about coming to his bar and had continued to tweet since being at his bar.
Can it or did it make a difference, maybe, maybe not, but is it worth it not to try? Especially if your a business owner?
Sorry got away from the movie production, just had to say that.
So yes, I was the star (why me?) and Celia was the director, 4 short scenes but it was a lot of fun, Celia bought me all my drinks, Donald made me two nice vodka martinis, we watched Toxic Avenger and Species 2 on the Telly, got to meet some nice people, helped out a good friend and had an eventful night on a Monday night here in Salt Lake City, where not much goes on Monday nights.
Wednesday, Celia and I meet up again to do the last part of the movie involving a vehicle.
Can't wait!
None of the original people for the movie showed up though, so that was a bummer, but we pushed through and got some women that came in were good sports and participated.
I got into a discussion about Social Media with the bartender Donald at the Woodshed (bar where the filming was going on-cool place check it out) and how it could possibly impact business there.
One thing that stood out, was his immediate dislike of Twitter and his belief as a wast of time.
What is this dislike of tweeting? What do people don't get? A medium that puts you in touch with the world, that if done correctly is as exciting as watching grass grow or as impacting as watching your business grow!
I use it as a means to connect to people, to connect to Facebook and to connect to MySpace by this means. My followers, friends and family are subjected to my rants, my data mining, my weirdness, but for those places I might be hanging out with, I'm free advertising!
Everytime I go into Area 51 or Edge, I'm advertising, everytime I go into Coffee Connection I'm advertising, people respond to me and we keep the advertising going.
Imagine that under controlled circumstances? Imagine doing that for your employer?
Sure free advertising is great, but you cannot control it's execution or it's outcome? What if it's negative? Great free advertising right?
This then was how I tried to explain it to Donald, I think it made sense to him, especially when I told him I had been tweeting about coming to his bar and had continued to tweet since being at his bar.
Can it or did it make a difference, maybe, maybe not, but is it worth it not to try? Especially if your a business owner?
Sorry got away from the movie production, just had to say that.
So yes, I was the star (why me?) and Celia was the director, 4 short scenes but it was a lot of fun, Celia bought me all my drinks, Donald made me two nice vodka martinis, we watched Toxic Avenger and Species 2 on the Telly, got to meet some nice people, helped out a good friend and had an eventful night on a Monday night here in Salt Lake City, where not much goes on Monday nights.
Wednesday, Celia and I meet up again to do the last part of the movie involving a vehicle.
Can't wait!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Social Media Pondering Yo
People get on my case for doing this social media stuff and wonder why I spend so much time on it, well I don't have a full time job, so that answers one question, but the rest isn't so easy.
Silran666 is myself and as such I want that self pushed to the reaches of the internet to my friends here in SLC and hopefully beyond.
It's my digital self to correlate and correspond to my "real" self, it hopefully has the same personality as me, so that people who know me, "know" it's me.
Given that I'm trying to put out a comic book at Impossible Box Studios, it stands to reason that I as the "artist" should market myself out there and make myself known. Establishing an online presence, makes it easier (one would hope) to develop and have a ready made audience.
Does that sound under handed? It could, if the effort wasn't sincere, if it wasn't fun, and I'm not lying to anybody, anybody who follows me on Facebook or Twitter or Myspace "gets" me and at the very least are amused by my efforts and/or really enjoy my efforts.
But it ends up becoming a job in and of itself I am discovering. So where do I draw the line? That is the big question, for instance, I tried using the social oomph twitter plugin, but have decided to put that on hold after 1 day of use. It became evident that while it did provide some great information, and I am responsible for what kind of information it gives out, it came across to me as spamming and for me that simply did not do. I noticed a drop off in people looking at what I posted.
How did that differ from some of my days when I send out 20 tweets of info in on hour? I control the content, the content does not control me. While one could accuse my firing off as "spammish" it is done with my voice in mind, especially when I add little comments behind my posts.
It's me, and it feels like me, these posts while having my interest immediately did not feel like "me" and I ended it.
Producing, keeping track, responding, being responsible and feeling how the content you develop is being perceived is a lot of work and someday perhaps doing "all" of this will be done from one platform, one app, one location at the push of a button and the whisper of your voice, but in the end it's about doing "manual" labor and right now that is OK with me.
At least it is mine.
Hopefully all of this will pay off you know? Hopefully silran666 is a "known" product and name that links to who I really am, whether that be Manny, Manuel or Manster, but it as a name and as a brand becomes just as much a part of me as my real names.
Silran666 is myself and as such I want that self pushed to the reaches of the internet to my friends here in SLC and hopefully beyond.
It's my digital self to correlate and correspond to my "real" self, it hopefully has the same personality as me, so that people who know me, "know" it's me.
Given that I'm trying to put out a comic book at Impossible Box Studios, it stands to reason that I as the "artist" should market myself out there and make myself known. Establishing an online presence, makes it easier (one would hope) to develop and have a ready made audience.
Does that sound under handed? It could, if the effort wasn't sincere, if it wasn't fun, and I'm not lying to anybody, anybody who follows me on Facebook or Twitter or Myspace "gets" me and at the very least are amused by my efforts and/or really enjoy my efforts.
But it ends up becoming a job in and of itself I am discovering. So where do I draw the line? That is the big question, for instance, I tried using the social oomph twitter plugin, but have decided to put that on hold after 1 day of use. It became evident that while it did provide some great information, and I am responsible for what kind of information it gives out, it came across to me as spamming and for me that simply did not do. I noticed a drop off in people looking at what I posted.
How did that differ from some of my days when I send out 20 tweets of info in on hour? I control the content, the content does not control me. While one could accuse my firing off as "spammish" it is done with my voice in mind, especially when I add little comments behind my posts.
It's me, and it feels like me, these posts while having my interest immediately did not feel like "me" and I ended it.
Producing, keeping track, responding, being responsible and feeling how the content you develop is being perceived is a lot of work and someday perhaps doing "all" of this will be done from one platform, one app, one location at the push of a button and the whisper of your voice, but in the end it's about doing "manual" labor and right now that is OK with me.
At least it is mine.
Hopefully all of this will pay off you know? Hopefully silran666 is a "known" product and name that links to who I really am, whether that be Manny, Manuel or Manster, but it as a name and as a brand becomes just as much a part of me as my real names.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sleep...Perchance to Dream: Part 2
So early this morning I had a very quick dream (a quickie?) about being at my parent's home in Norwalk, Ca. I'm with other people but it's extremely vague as to who they are. All I know is that someone is trying to break in and they have guns (the last dream with guns involving a break-in, I got shot in the chest), we're unarmed so we are hiding to ambush them. Then a loud noise from the living room signals their breaking in, and I wake up. Coincidentally, I did hear a loud noise from the living room which did actually wake me up and had gotten incorporated into my dream.
When I woke up this morning for work, lo and behold that noise is still happening, because they are doing construction again on 39th down the street, and some big digger is probably trying to break up the asphalt they just laid down. LAST WEEK!
Who sets up these schedules? How is it in most jobs we cannot be inefficient, but when it comes to government at any level, inefficiency is the name of game.
When I woke up this morning for work, lo and behold that noise is still happening, because they are doing construction again on 39th down the street, and some big digger is probably trying to break up the asphalt they just laid down. LAST WEEK!
Who sets up these schedules? How is it in most jobs we cannot be inefficient, but when it comes to government at any level, inefficiency is the name of game.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sunday-NOT just a day for rest
Great Day! I got lots of stuff to do and it all involves sitting in front of my Mac, documents to write, responses to request to write, research, t-shirt artwork, freelance work hustling, and some personal writing to do.
Again I must make note, that it is the desire of humans beings to find a need to NOT have idle time, or perhaps it is a sign of age, a means for the mind to combat the fuzzies that come with age.
Certainly, as I've gotten older, I have found more time and desire to be personally productive than to have leisure time.
That being said, I'm Hispanic, Mexican-American, it's in my blood to be social and have fun, as my cousin's husband in Mexico put it to me once, "You Americans live to work, we Mexicans work to live."
I have to include myself in the former, and I am pretty sure he agreed as well. It doesn't mean Mexicans are lazy, it means that they recognize that "fun" is important and without it, you have burnout.
So...I must continue to dance if at all possible, even if that means in my kitchen to music on my headset (April you know what I mean) and I must go out occasionally to be social. It's very easy I see now to become like my father or mother, or even my grandmother. A recluse, a being with the simple desire to be left alone to his/her own devices. It's there, I can feel it, and a part of me wants it.
Enough rambling, get back to work!
Again I must make note, that it is the desire of humans beings to find a need to NOT have idle time, or perhaps it is a sign of age, a means for the mind to combat the fuzzies that come with age.
Certainly, as I've gotten older, I have found more time and desire to be personally productive than to have leisure time.
That being said, I'm Hispanic, Mexican-American, it's in my blood to be social and have fun, as my cousin's husband in Mexico put it to me once, "You Americans live to work, we Mexicans work to live."
I have to include myself in the former, and I am pretty sure he agreed as well. It doesn't mean Mexicans are lazy, it means that they recognize that "fun" is important and without it, you have burnout.
So...I must continue to dance if at all possible, even if that means in my kitchen to music on my headset (April you know what I mean) and I must go out occasionally to be social. It's very easy I see now to become like my father or mother, or even my grandmother. A recluse, a being with the simple desire to be left alone to his/her own devices. It's there, I can feel it, and a part of me wants it.
Enough rambling, get back to work!
Friday, August 28, 2009
April, Jen and I at the Depeche Mode Concert "E" Center SLC
Had a great time at the Depeche Mode, the band was amazing as always, don't really understand or get the people behind us, who barely knew any of the songs or wanted to just text and talk with each other instead of enjoying the music. Jen wanted to kick their asses, lol and then April got told by security to put her camera away! The video during "Strangelove" was way way erotic and quite risque I thought for SLC, but ....who cares! The final duet of "Waiting for the Night to Fall" with Martin Gore and David Gahan was amazing! Never have I had the opportunity to see them sing a song like that together! All in all an amazing concert.
April and I
Jen and I
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
First Time Blogger, not first time Blogging
Well this is my first blog here on Blogger, greetings to you all, if you think you know me come find me on Myspace under the Bingo the God Clown.
Currently, I'm placing light points on a satellite map so that the software at work can place trees for the simulation we're working on.
Oh, did I mention I'm an artist? Yeah, I'm an artist, both traditionally and in 3D.
I've worked in the video game industry for almost 9 years at SingleTrac, Beyond Games and Sensory Sweep.
I've also bartended for about 8 years at Club Area 51 in Salt Lake City.
The purpose of this blog is to share my viewpoints, show my artwork, share oddities I find on the internet, have some fun.
That is all.
Currently, I'm placing light points on a satellite map so that the software at work can place trees for the simulation we're working on.
Oh, did I mention I'm an artist? Yeah, I'm an artist, both traditionally and in 3D.
I've worked in the video game industry for almost 9 years at SingleTrac, Beyond Games and Sensory Sweep.
I've also bartended for about 8 years at Club Area 51 in Salt Lake City.
The purpose of this blog is to share my viewpoints, show my artwork, share oddities I find on the internet, have some fun.
That is all.
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