In Jodie's Brain

In my previous post about Twitter, I explained what it means to me. Imagine that water cooler all of a sudden having several hundred – even thousands of – people around it – how on earth would you be able to pick out the salient conversations in the resulting din?
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The people I have thus far chosen to follow are people that fall into one or more of the following “categories”:

a) I have met in person
b) I have had business dealings with
c) I read or have read their blogs and wish to continue to do so (sometimes after I check them out after I get the “So and so is now following you on Twitter” email) because they entertain me or they talk about something that might be of interest to any of my 7 (probably soon to be 8 ) sites.
d) one of the people *I* am following, follows them and after checking them out, decided it would behoove me to do the same; and/or
e) one of the people in an @ reply from someone I’m following and was curious, took a peek and they looked interesting.

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My time is precious to me; please don’t read this to mean that I feel that what you have to say doesn’t have worth. I would just prefer my Twitter network to grow organically and thoughtfully.
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Whoa. That sounded, like, really serious. Here… go look at some upside-down dogs to lighten things up.

When installing cable outlets in someone’s home, it might be a Very Good Idea To Go The Extra Mile to have the service guys bring little hand vacs to vacuum up the mess made when drilling into the walls.
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Just a thought. Would be a nice touch.
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*Off to get the vacuum, muttering*

(Update, Jun 24, 2009: if you are in Victoria, BC, you may be interested in the list of Victoria, BC Twitterers.)

OK. So we have heard the words “Twitter” and “tweeting” and “tweets” etc bantered about. What is this Twitter thing anyway? Some call it micro-blogging. A really smart friend of mine has called it “one to many Instant Messaging”.

I see Twitter as more of an office water cooler.

It sits over in the corner down the row from your cubicle (which, of course, is outfitted with cool gadgets from ThinkGeek.com and troll dolls). People gather there as they need a drink of water and start up random conversations, or join in existing ones. You see that Sally is there; you don’t necessarily agree with or see value in what Sally has to say, so you mentally filter her out. However, Brad is over there, and he has some good insights, so you perk up your ears and take note of what he is saying. Mary strides on over and starts talking; you like her too, she always finds cool stuff to do. You get to eavesdrop in on their thoughts and conversations, but they know this; this is the rule of the Watercooler. They want you to hear it.

Sometimes Scott gets too loud and starts bragging about his weekend exploits. Sometimes Sally does nothing but whine. But, sometimes you overhear a great nugget of information that sparks an A-HA! moment, then wander over there yourself to join in and get feedback.

Some people hang around all day, but somehow things still get done. You can’t see how Theresa does it because… wow…. 10 tweets an hour AND 3 blog posts??? Others just breeze by on their way to the copy machine, take stock of what’s being said, then toodle on off again. Curtis really is in tune with the project you’re working on, so you invite him back to your cubicle to brainstorm.

This is twitter for me. Nothing formal, one central place to go get a refreshing drink and it’s never the same group so the dynamics are fascinating to watch.

As long as they don’t start putting booze in what we’re drinking, it’s all gonna be just fine ;)

A sentient, talking naked mole rat that does everything Ron’s does.

Oh, and actually looks like Rufus, not like a real naked mole rat.

Just read this article about “why skinny sells“. Um… well duh. Pretty much the purpose of advertising is to make you feel like you’re missing or lacking something, so you need to buy (whatever product/service here) to make yourself and your life peachy-keen.
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So yes, when we see the skinny girl hawking the beauty product, all at once our minds go “OMG, I suck. But Look! I can be better, just like her! I want it. Now.” We are instantaneously shown how we don’t measure up, yet given hope that we can – almost empowered with the “tool” we can purchase – so we’re left feeling almost OK.
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Sneaky, n’est ce pas?

So I’m seeing these signs hammered onto telephone poles in various places around town. They look like plywood. Painted bright yellow. On them, painted in black spraypaint using stencils is:

CEO INCOME
Part-time from home.
CALL
1-800-XXX-XXXX

I don’t mean to be cynical, but… Mr./Ms. sign maker; if YOU were making a CEO Income part time from home, don’t you think you could spring for some professionally made signs? It’s like advertising a car detailing business on your old, dirty, rusty, dented, sputtering ‘89 Olds Delta 88.

Seriously – didn’t they teach you *any* marketing in that MLM scheme you got into? Bad, bad, BAD upline. No biscuit.