You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April, 2006.
a BIG thanx to The PropellerHeads…
Looney Tunes, originally uploaded by The Jamoker.
BetterHalf is away today, so The Jamoker and LilOnes get to play!
They're up to 3 pancakes each. They LOVE pancakes with butter and syrup. They especially enjoy watching the butter melt. Months ago I introduced them to the Wicked Witch of the West. Today, in unison, I got the "I'm Melting…". Couple of jokesters.
I could only take 10 minutes of the absolutely HORRIBLE stuff on TV that currently passes for cartoons before I said enuff. I put in a Looney Tunes DVD instead. The LilOnes loved 'em.
With a nod to Dr. Pepper for the post title…ya know ya can't live in Texas and not luv Dr. Pepper…
Admittedly, I'm spending way too much time at Flickr. But, the time spent is worthwhile, I think. It is even a little fun actually. I have found many many interesting pictures and made a connection with some talented fotoartists. I have found my own (albeit meager) talent. And, it has caused me to learn how to better use the camera. All in, time well spent. My talent has even gotten some attention and notoriety. (Getting 25 faves on a pic is big for me…)
The use of Flickr started because I needed a new site for friends and long distance family to be able to see our pics. The old family foto hosting site was bandwith constricted…and I wasn't about to spend money on increasing my account storage when there were perfectly good free services out there…like Flickr. My Sis had been using the Yahoo foto hosting site, but had made the switch to Flickr. So, as with all healthy sibling rivalries, I copied her. Initially, I saw Flickr for just that – a free foto hosting site. And, for the first couple of months I merely uploaded the pics I thought were good enough for family/friend consumption. Then, back about two months ago, something changed. My pics started getting noticed by people. I got invited to join a couple of groups. And, a similar phenomenon was occurring with WriterMother's PumpkinShell pics. The Flickr Community was accepting us and pulling us in. And, long story short, we've both accepted that "invitation"…
There's a great site I read daily called "HorsePigCow". It's written by the Marketing Director of another (new) foto site, Riya, who goes by the name Miss Rogue. (At some point I intend to try out the Riya service.) HorsePigCow is a great read and I have learned a lot from Miss Rogue. Her thoughts on Marketing and the future are very insightful. Expect to see more references here to things said over there at that site (like Pinko Marketing) in the near future.
But, back to Flickr and fotos, Miss Rogue recently posted a Top Ten Flavors of Foto Search list. It's a very interesting list. It could prolly be used to identify the various users of most of the web 2.0/social software services. Here are the names…go over to HorsePigCow to read the full descriptions…
Flavor #1 – The Explorer
Flavor #2 – The Aficionado
Flavor #3 – The Social Butterfly
Flavor #4 – The Researcher
Flavor #5 – The Cultural Anthropologist
Flavor #6 – The Personal
Flavor #7 – The Designer
Flavor #8 – Newshound
Flavor #9 – The Lurker
Flavor #10 – The Perv
Since reading Miss Rogue's post, I have tried to figure out which category best describes me. Admittedly, I'm prolly a combination of two or three…maybe The Aficionado is the closest or best. (Despite the Jamoker wit and style, The Perv is not it…although I know it's what you assumed!) But, also, I have been thinking that there are a couple of more categories that could be added. Back to my original reason for using Flickr, there could certainly be a category for people wanting to simply show off their kids to their family. It's more defined/specific than Personal. For lack of a better name, call it The Family.
Also, as with any group of people, I think there are those that want to be large and in charge. Call this type The Leader. I think they want to have lots of pics viewed and faved. They want to be the biggest poster to the various groups. They want to be famous. The Leader knows that to get the attention in the new social software/service universe, they have to dole out the attention and link love too. But, he/she does only the bare minimum of that to get by. The Leader may be a good fotographer and prolly appreciate the art of others, but his/her desire is more narcissistic.
Last, speaking of narcissists, I think there are those that merely like to post/search pics of themselves. Call this type The Showoff. They are less in it for the art or to make friends and more in it just to be the Class Clown or Troublemaker.
All in, the educational/anthropological/sociological/psychological experience gained from joining the Flickr community is great. And, since a picture is better than a thousand words of me trying to explain it or promote it, go join Flickr yourself and see.
P.S. – For my friends using Blogger who experience lots of foto upload/hosting problems, I strongly suggest getting a Flickr account. You can instead host all of your blog site posting fotos there and never have upload problems. (WriterMom, Zilla, AlphaRat & CameraDawktor are just a few already doing this, I know.) Just a suggestion…
In a stunning and riveting conclusion (cough cough) to the three month roller coaster ride, the announcement was finally made. (Yes, that is sarcasm you hear.) Today we were told, "You all have jobs…and there will be no salary cuts…". So, it's officially over.
It helps that 6 people quit during this three month "stand in place and twiddle thumbs" period. So, in the end no one needed to be let go because enough people had already left. But, for those that stayed (or were unable to find different/better employment), the relief has come and the waiting is over.
There is laughing and joking going on nearby, even as I type this. I'm glad for them. They have been through a tough time. Some of them had no other options.
For me, I'm the point person. I'm the person entrusted to handle the difficult situations. Which means nothing changed for me. I was the last person called into the room for the 1 to 1 face to face. I was the last person given the news. And, I was told exactly what I expected to hear. Three months and nothing (really) changed. Such is the way with clients and big companies…
I learned a lot about how these things are handled. And, I have learned a lot about the current state of the job-seeker/hiring process. Look for a post on my thoughts there to come soon.
And, yesterday a recruiter called me about a position…I told him "giddy-up!"
The Kia King, originally uploaded by The Jamoker.
These things just write themselves…seriously, what more could I say?
The "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" soundtrack is playing on the car stereo. "You Are My Sunshine" is the current song. Both LilOnes are singing along.
They know every word.
At the end of the song, LilOne#2 says, "Mummy, I really love that song."
LilOne#1 says, "I love it too, Mummy. Can we listen to it again, Mummy?"
And, this is how it begins…they've started to express their opinions.
Since it appears the Iraq Morass will escalate into a Cold War type of scenario with Iran and all the peoples of the entire Middle East, it is getting harder and harder to stay positive about the future of our world. Surely…surely…SURELY the collective intelligence of the humans of the world wouldn't allow us to get so close to the edge again? Stop calling me shirley…
Anybody remember thet Genesis video with the animated Reagan/Gorbachev figures starting nuclear war? Wasn't that a great video?
Didn't Nostradamus predict a WW3 between Muslims and Christians? In the year of Mars in the third house and the rivers of gobbledlygook flowing in reverse…
Maybe cooler heads will prevail. Maybe there's no reason to fret.
One can only hope that if things do continue to escalate, there would be someone like Stanislav Petrov at the controls. He is a true Hero to Humanity.
I have days like these too…
Moonlighting, originally uploaded by The Jamoker.
Would this convince you to exit the freeway and buy a Kia?
Seriously. The Easter Bunny???
You should read this post by Richard MacManus at Read/WriteWeb…because it is funny in an irreverent, dry humor kind of way. The post includes a list of ten reasons why people quit blogging…
8. You never get any links from A-listers, despite constantly linking to them. Well there was that one time when Mike Arrington linked to you in his diary blog Crunchnotes, but he used the 'nofollow' tag.
4. You once tried to be a Snarky blogger, but all the other snarky bloggers then turned snarky on you and you ended up converting to a new religion to recover.
2. Your Technorati rank has 8 figures in it.
What's not on the list? "Boredom" and "Work".
Yes, I think some people get bored with it. I think it becomes too much like work. To be done right, it has to be done daily. And, doing something every day becomes boring…it becomes too much like work. The appeal is lost. The "good times shared with others" is a fiction that only exists in the brochures and advertisements.
Without the good times, the interest wanes…
(For the record, there are 6 digits in my Technorati rank.)
Or, maybe people quit blogging because they start doing tantric sex.
