i am indisposed

Budding UNR columnist suffers career setback from Ann Coulter…

Wolfy — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:38:47 +0000

I’m writing to inform you that your application to the Young Ann Coulter Society of America has been declined.

While we appreciate your omnidirectional potential for hate and vitriol, and frankly impressed at its early manifestation, your inability to coalesce your rants into a focused tirade directed at “liberal conspiracies of Bill Clinton” disqualifies you for membership.

Your head is in the right place though, as is evidenced by this article. We applaud you for focusing on your feelings, irrelevant personal history and vague impressions of social groups from sipping lattes in the student union.

If you can remember that the sole purpose of editorials like this is to turn your frustrations over your fathers lack of attention into a focused attack on left wing politics then we would happily reconsider your application.

Keep up the good work! Heil Coulter!

-M

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Wired

Wolfy — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:44:20 +0000

The pace at which we are traveling across the central Nevadan Great Basin countryside, rolling down the tracks through the Humboldt sink, in a land described by it’s lowness, it’s disconnectedness with the surrounding physiographic provinces, it’s quality and state of being a dead end, could hardly be considered flying.

Sure, we’re moving faster than the semi trucks out on Interstate 80 as they slowly drop away, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right. But what good it is to be moving faster than a load of DVD players I can’t say. What it means to be covering more ground than a giant spool of cable chained to a large flat-bed trailer I am unaware.

The lounge car is quiet as the sun comes and goes behind the scattered scraggy mountains between Winnemucca and Reno. People sit and sip weak coffee, kids play cards, a few of us type or read or scroll on laptops. The mix of old and new is interesting here. We are moving unbearably slow. Yet some of us are still connected through wireless modems, cell phones, and messages from the ether that can find you anywhere as long as technology connects us.

Scattered about me are a copy of Wired Magazine, a smartphone, an iPod, a wireless modem, a paper coffee cup, the laptop I’m writing on and a bag containing a few more gadgets, a new copy of an old book, a digital camera, a gift for someone special.

-M

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a plain omelet

Wolfy — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:17:13 +0000

“You put vegetables on my omelet.” Lavon says holding out her plate into the aisle. Lester comes back.

“What did you want; you said you wanted an omelet?” They had teased each other, playing off it, flirting. Perhaps they knew each other from the trip out, perhaps this was just their natural and automatic rapport.

“Nothing, I just want a plain omelet,” she said. “I don’t want vegetables”

“What nothing? You don’t want no cheese?” Lester said.

“No,” she said. “just an omelet.”

“And no vegetables?”

“No. just plain. I’m monna tell that cook he better get it right.”

“Honey that’s called scrambled eggs,” Lester said. “You just want scrambled eggs.”

“I want an omelet,” she insisted. “Just like this, but with no vegetables.”

“And no cheese.”

“No cheese,” she insisted with distaste.

“Honey’ that’s scrambled eggs.” He spoke slow and calm like he’d had the same conversation over and over with her or some other passenger just like her a hundred times before. He was 60 something, black and had the kind of accent that was half cultural, half regional, and half a result of the circumstance between the two.

“We gonna fall outta love,” she said as he moved away. “We falling outta love!”

“Honey,” lester said, back at the table without a sound. “You was riding a scooter, I was doing this.”

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GaryVee talks about online media strategy

Wolfy — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:36:18 +0000

I have to say that at first i thought Gary Vaynerchuk was loud and annoying. I still think that, but unlike his right-wing-douchetard brother-from-another-mother rush limbaugh, the motherfucker actually is right.

Not only that, what he says, as far as I can tell, he does. I emailed him today about speaking for the local Ad Club and he responded already. Thanks Gary! You’re an inspiration to us loud annoying people everywhere!

Key points about online marketing stratey for media:

Media marketing onine is about sticking with it and being committed, it’s not a one-off deal.
The english language is extremely important, but commas, spelling, grammar, useage add up to your own voice in online media. People who can’t see past that are probably not your target anyway.
Drop some Eff Bombs
If you can’t speak on a street corner in NYC without half the audience Qiking your every word and movement, you’re an amateur.

That’s it. If you love Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV, then you’ll looooove TallCanTV.

-Mike

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Casual day

Wolfy — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:57:05 +0000

We interviewed some of the winners of the Reno-Tahoe Young Professional’s Network last night at ‘Voila in Downtown Reno, NV. It was a quaint event hosted by Beryl Love of the Reno Gazette-Journal. I’m not a member of YPN and don’t anticipate becoming one. The shocker of the night was hearing someone who otherwise appeared young and hip describe him/herself as more professional than young, and say that casual just means sloppy.

I was wearing my $150 dollar Camper shoes, hipster glasses, cowboy shirt and Carhardt work pants accented with my grandfather’s Dobb’s 5th Avenue hat complete with cheasy yellow feather. That’s style bitches. Not slop. What that tells me is: Creative is not Professional. Can i be creative and still try to be professional? Do I want to?

Congrats to Leilani Schweitzer who won this year. She’s more young than professional for sure. And more creative that Professional as well. And that’s the way to be.

Vival Las Creative!

-M

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Giving up on Drupal

Wolfy — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:33:35 +0000

I had high and mighty illusions that I had the time and energy to develop this sight in Drupal. I thought that I would create a more varied range of content types and maybe that would have been the case eventually, but not now. I’ll keep the Blog2 site open so I can dick around with drupal if I want to, but I’m going to devote more time to writing and posting here and bringing back the Snake in the Road story thread and initiating others.

I’ll also be focusing on video more. I’m experimenting with TallcanTV, and will be starting a backcountry skiing podcast as soon as the snow starts to fall and I get a video camera.

There are also a lot of compelling reasons to stick with Wordpress as I found out in my interview with Matt Mullenweg and the talks @ Wordcamp Utah.

So I’m back with what I know and love. Vivi Las Wordpress!!

-Mike

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Anti Social Media

Wolfy — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:54:14 +0000

Or when to say Good night and Gofuckyourself,

photo by Stephen Mcleod

I recently found a web app called Qwitter that alerts you when twitter followers drop you and what was the most recent tweet that presumably promoted them to click the expunge button over your face.

Here are my first two:
“misterperry (misterperry) stopped following you on Twitter after you posted this tweet:

Interesting to get reports of when and who is dropping you on twitter: http://useqwitter.com/ i guess @zekesaysso doesn’t like fart jokes?

Check out misterperry’s profile here:

http://twitter.com/misterperry”

I’m pretty sure I was never following MisterPerry anyway.

“Zeke (ZekeSaysSo) stopped following you on Twitter after you posted this tweet:

list of things to do while waiting for outlook to deliver search results #1 walk to @robgaedtke’s office to fart Whats on your’s #outlooksux

Check out ZekeSaysSo’s profile here:

http://twitter.com/ZekeSaysSo”

Question: Is this a way to find out who your true friends are or a tool that helps you find and cull your Twitter Love Connections?

I think it’s great. Not everyone is meant to be followed by everyone. I definitely want to be careful about being negative and douchey on Twitter, but if I need to drop an Eff-Bomb for a laugh, then I’m sure my friends will understand.

I know there are a bunch of people who I follow that I don’t necessarily want to offend, but I’ll refrain from religious, racial and socioeconomic burns, and I assume they’ll forgive my occasional (hourly) gaffs of good taste in deference to transparency and personality.

Either way, not everyone likes you. Not everyone who likes you wants to follow you on twitter. Not everyone who likes you wants to see you naked. Some do, for everything else, there’s Twitter.

Peace out,

-M

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Strange Blog Comment Spam

Wolfy — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:55:39 +0000

Blog Comment Spam can be a nightmare, but sometimes it’s just a joke…

Photo by Big Fat Rat

Just got an interesting spam comment on another of the blogs I write for. It’s a bit of a head scratcher, cause there isn’t a link in it or an add for anything. But it was vaguely funny, though completely inappropriate for the post it appeared on, so I’ll post it here and see what people think it means.

“There was this guy see.
He wasn’t very bright and he reached his adult life without ever having learned “the facts”.
Somehow, it gets to be his wedding day.
While he is walking down the isle, his father tugs his sleeve and says,

“Son, when you get to the hotel room…Call me”

Hours later he gets to the hotel room with his beautiful blushing bride and he calls his father,

“Dad, we are the hotel, what do I do?”

“O.K. Son, listen up, take off your clothes and get in the bed, then she should take off her clothes and get in the bed, if not help her. Then either way, ah, call me”

A few moments later…

“Dad we took off our clothes and we are in the bed, what do I do?”

O.K. Son, listen up. Move real close to her and she should move real close to you, and then… Ah, call me.”

A few moments later…

“DAD! WE TOOK OFF OUR CLOTHES, GOT IN THE BED AND MOVED REAL CLOSE, WHAT DO I DO???”

“O.K. Son, Listen up, this is the most important part. Stick the long part of your body into the place where she goes to the bathroom.”

A few moments later…

“Dad, I’ve got my foot in the toilet, what do I do?”

-M

ps I’m finding these images by doing a Flickr search for Creative Commons photos…

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The Public Domain

Wolfy — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:56:42 +0000

This image comes from the Flickr profile of the Library of Congress. I’m doing some research on the use and potential use of social media for governmental organizations and found this.

The Commons on Flickr seems like a great way to harness the categorizing power of the social web. I imagine that you get some outliers, but just like with Wikis the self regulating power should even things out.

“The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world’s public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer.”

I’m going to try not to spend the next 10 hours glued to the Commons…

-Mike

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Follow ME!

Wolfy — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:58:19 +0000

I have over 200 followers on Twitter. Some of that is useless chatter, some is people I don’t know and probably have nothing in common with, but we follow each other because of mutual friends, some of it is spam, some is business contacts, and some are real friends whose comments, observations, witicisms, links, rants and happenings I am interested in.

Yesterday I found a tool that helps you visualize yout Twitter useage. http://tweetstats.com/graphs/mehwolfy TweetStats.com is a cool tool that shows your tweet frequency by month, by day / time of day, hourly, daily, and who you most reply to. It also shows a cool tag cloud of frequently tweet terms.

A few facts about my Twitter usage: I tweet 350 times per month, my usage ramps up from Monday to top out on Friday, I tweet mostly by text, followed by Digsby, followed by web, I love @edadkins.

I’m not sure what that says about me, BUT I was just lamenting the fact that I don’t have remotely that many followers on Google Reader. Pretty much just Jerz, Jim, David, my sister, James Ball, Moser. And the only ones who ever recommend anything are Bobzien and Jerz. I use Feedly a lot too and have a gob of other friends there, I think because I have it hooked up with friend feed. But most of them I don’t know and most of them only recommend tech, social media, business, financial crap. There’s an article there about how to make good powerpoints. I tagged that #whothefuckcares.

So What blog reader are people reading? What are you reading? I use Google Reader and Feedly. FRIEND ME!

I’m frankly tired of reading the Alisters. I don’t care what Scoble has to say about how he gets the first alert on new Google products and how lame I am for not jumping on the bandwagon as soon as he did. I’m tired of Godin’s not helpful, semi-motivational generalities. There’s so much crap about SEO on the blogosphere that it isn’t worth looking.

I didn’t get into this for that. I love creativity. Interest. Creativity doesn’t flow from info. Technology isn’t a means to it’s own end. SEO means nothing with out good content. None of that matters if you have nothing to say about the world that isn’t self referential. I want to read about the hike you went on. I want to read tweets from the NKOTB concert. I want to see pics of your beat up face. I want to read about your troubles and your positive outlook on life. I want to see the web videos that keep you sane. Tell me about your day, your life, how awesome lunch was, your favorite beer, your search for love (or your flight from it)…

WHEN DID BLOGGING GET SO FUCKING BORING!?!?!?!?!

-M

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Ed Adkins [Flickr]

i am indisposed — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:05:00 -0500

i am indisposed posted a photo:

Working remote w @edadkins in his office...

Dr. Taylor donovan [Flickr]

i am indisposed — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:41:10 -0500

i am indisposed posted a photo:

My friend taylor donovan, chiropractor @ tahoe yoga and wellness is helping me rehab my knee.

-m

Aftermath... [Flickr]

i am indisposed — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:57:47 -0500

i am indisposed posted a video:

Report from the grislybikegeek...

Bacon sandwich... [Flickr]

i am indisposed — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:11:32 -0500

i am indisposed posted a video:

Tbs rolling hard. Everyone says they feel strong. Though "the bag" is definitely getting full...

-m

@ergofuckingone this is what i look like now... [Flickr]

i am indisposed — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:33:06 -0500

i am indisposed posted a photo: