Life with Me in the middle
Life
Where technology meets responsibility
Aug 24th
Driving down the road your phone buzzes alerting you that you have received a text message. You reach into your pocket to pull out your phone, it doesn’t budge. The phone buzzes again leaving you anxious to see who or what is wanting you. Reaching deeper into your pocket you glance down to see why it won’t come out, suddenly the car in front of you slams on its brakes. One second too late the brakes on your car screech down the road, not having enough friction between you and the pavement to slow you down in time. Two cars collide with such force that the car in front ejects two passengers into the street killing them instantly.
Was this the carriers fault? Did the cell phone cause the accident?
Amplify’d from www.intomobile.com
We have no quarrel with Isa Saharkhiz and his son; indeed Nokia Siemens Networks condemns human rights violations around the world. But the Saharkhiz lawsuit is brought in the wrong place, against the wrong party, and on the wrong premise.
It’s an open and shut case really. I’ll repeat what I said in my previous article, that as much as I sympathize with Mehdi and the hell his father is going through right now, it feels like the lawsuit they brought against NSN was nothing more than a media stunt to garner attention towards their terrible situation.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/bqg8GL
Do you post to boost your own self esteem?
Aug 23rd
Each morning we wake up, post about what we eat for breakfast, define the morning in our favorite phrases. As the day passes we express the moments of our lives to complete strangers under the assumption that people actually care what we have to say. After reading Leo Laporte’s rather childish post, I realized how much people truly believe they are what their follower count is.
Social media is a but a slice of the human pie. If you like how it makes you feel look inside to to learn about the true ingredients. People are more than a number.
Amplify’d from leoville.com
Then last night I noticed that my Buzzes were no longer showing up on Twitter (I use a service called Buzz Can Tweet that has been pretty reliably rebroadcasting my Buzz posts to Twitter.) I looked more closely at my Buzz feed and noticed that there had been considerably less engagement over the past few weeks. Then I noticed that I wasn’t seeing my posts in my Buzz timeline at all. A little deeper investigation showed that nothing I had posted on Buzz had gone public since August 6. Nothing. Fifteen posts buried, including show notes from a week’s worth of TWiT podcasts.
Maybe I did something wrong to my Google settings. Maybe I flipped some obscure switch. I am completely willing to take the blame here. But I am also taking away a hugely important lesson.
No one noticed.
Not even me.
It makes me feel like everything I’ve posted over the past four years on Twitter, Jaiku, Friendfeed, Plurk, Pownce, and, yes, Google Buzz, has been an immense waste of time. I was shouting into a vast echo chamber where no one could hear me because they were too busy shouting themselves. All this time I’ve been pumping content into the void like some chatterbox Onan. How humiliating. How demoralizing.
Social media, I gave you the best years of my life, but never again. I know where I am wanted. Screw you Google Buzz. You broke my heart.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/cCXd9e
My first Coffee Press
Aug 19th
Looking for an affordable way to make great coffee I was suggested to try a coffee press. Based on my recommendations this is what I went with.
Have a drink on me
May 4th
As most of you have probably heard the city I spend my life in, Nashville,TN, was recently blindsided with a horrible situation. It started with just a average thunderstorm and ended with the Cumberland River pushing upward to 51 feet turning our beautiful city into a massive body or water and destruction. We were and in a lot of cases still are in a desperate situation with a loss as to what we are going to do to rebuild what has been lost.
I was blessed with many kind words from several of the wonderful people that I call my friends, my followers, people that I admire. If you are reading this you know who you are and I sincerely wanted to say thank you, this drink is on me.
The Oversubscribed
Feb 7th
Oversubscribed: Having insufficient capacity to meet the demand of those who are interested
You wake up in the morning, fix your coffee and head to work. First glance at the calendar and you see your day is full, having no wiggle room for adjustments. Glancing down at your keyboard you begin to type, letter by letter, pushing for productive keystrokes to make a difference. The air is thick with dust from all of the co-workers typing on their filthy keyboards. Pushing to achieve the unachievable with no end in sight. “Clip clop” in the distance, growing louder and louder as if it’s coming your direction until it stops directly in front of your cube. There ahead of you stands Gabe with his helpless smile and frustrated brow. He murmurs four words, “Will you help me?”
We have all been in this situation and we have all made a choice to either help or turn away our friends and co-workers. In my younger years I was afraid to say no and was compelled to always be the helping hand, even when I knew it would prevent me from completing things that I needed to get done for myself. As I have grown older I’ve come to realize that being nice is not always the answer to solving all problems. I am not saying that you should live your life for you and for only you.There is a safe balance to achieving your goals along with helping others achieve theirs. With practice you will actually find that others share the same goals as you and by combining resources you can achieve more at a quicker pace than if you attempted to tackle everything yourself.
Far too many people, including myself, take on entirely too many task at one time. In both business and life everybody feels that their task is the most important. When asking a co-worker to work on something for you the feeling that your your task should be their main priority is natural because it involves your bottom line. What would you do if that co-worker stated they cannot take on your task because they would not be able to achieve the quality results you are looking for?
The world makes us feel like we have to always be working on something, pushing the limits and putting out sub-par products just to meet the deadlines. What if you took a step back and and focused on the quality and forgot about the quantity? We have built a society of the oversubscribed. Imagine what innovations we could create with focus and the ability to say no.
How much are you influenced by brand?
Dec 30th
This morning I woke up to several conversations on Twitter going back and forth regarding the best of this and that. Clearly the word best is almost always associated with opinion and with that comes the understanding that opinions are that of the author which doesn’t mean that best will be best for you. With that said I have to express “my” opinion on brand influence and what role it plays on making purchasing decisions.
Each of us tends to stick with brands we know and trust for the important things in our lives. For instance if you are a audio/video enthusiast the chances of you buying a non name brand item is slim to none. Being an enthusiast almost guarantees that you will have a brand you think is better than all of the others. The chances are that when that brand releases a new product you will upgrade to it before looking at the competition because you trust them and you feel they are superior to all other like products, even in some cases if this is the farthest from the truth. What is it about brands that keep us going back for more? For me it’s the consistency of quality and service provided by the brand.
I have brands I trust in each category of my entirely too many hobbies. While I openly admit to always keeping my eye out for those brands latest toys I feel that I am open to new and innovative products from anybody. As the saying goes “if you build it, they will come”. How influenced are you by your brands?
Addicted to Applications? Or Does the Mobile Lifestyle Just Control You
Oct 8th
As I read through the post at ReadWriteWeb I began to realize how big of a problem this really could be for some, including me. I mean how often do I say wow I wish I had an application that allowed me to do “this/that”. I for one know that I am constantly looking for ways to do things on my mobile phones. Why would I need to boot up a computer when I can get everything taken care of with the device that is in my pocket.
Am I addicted to applications? Not yet, however I will say I am addicted to the fast pace world that mobile has created right in front of us. We no longer wait to do anything anymore. I pull out my smartphone and take care of whatever it is right then and there. Most of the time these things aren’t even a requirement but I feel I need to do them because I can.
While writing this it made me think. Just how much more productive am I because of my smartphone? If I were to put it down and go back to pencil and paper would I really be losing that much?
Are you rich? I am
May 14th
When you think of being rich or wealthy what is the first thing you think of? If you are like most the answer to that very question is your monetary value in our world. So with that in mind ask yourself, are you rich?
Now its my turn to answer the question. Am I rich? Absolutely, I consider myself to be extremely rich. I have been blessed with a beautiful wife and two perfect boys. If I were to lose every penny I would still have the love of my family which is enough to make me happy for a lifetime.
The problem with the world today is that we base our success or failure on our salary scale. Just because you make more money than me doesn’t mean your more important. That also applies to me, if I happen to make more money than you it doesn’t mean I’m better than you. To put it bluntly I know several people that make more money than me but I would be lying if I told you I thought they were smarter or had better ideas. Money has nothing to do with being rich.
Imagine life for a minute without money. No bills to pay, no need to worry being able to feed your family. In this situation you should realize that all you have that is important is your family. This is exactly how you should feel every single day of your life. While unfortunately we need money to survive its a shame when you let that get in the way of things that really matter, your family. If there is one thing I would like to instill in people it’s that your net worth has nothing to do with who you are or what you have achieved in life. You need to focus on sharing your wealth with your family. When your gone this wealth will be passed on to the next generation and they will pass it on to theirs. So I ask again, are you rich?